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First Slave Ship Arrival in North American English Colonies
Africans arrived in Jamestown, Virginia with about 20 men on board. First Africans on American continent -
Invention of the Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin on March 14, 1794. Machine separated cotton fibers from seeds. -
Slave Trade Ban of 1808
Prohibited importation of slaves. Earliest date permitted by the constitution because Constitution previously protected the slave trade -
Missouri Compromise
Admittance of Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. Established the 36'30 line. Also known as the Compromise of 1820 -
Abolition Movement
Movement to end slavery and slave trade in America, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Grimke Sisters, 1830s -
Nat Turner Rebellion
slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831, led by Nat Turner. Rebel slaves killed from 55 to 65 people, at least 51 being white -
Founding of Liberia
The country of Liberia was founded in 1821 by former slaves from the United States of America as a result of the end of the transatlantic slave trade and the efforts of the American Colonization Society -
Underground Railroad
network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States used by African-American slaves to escape into free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. Height of railroad was between 1850-1860 -
Compromise of 1850
Henry Clay proposed an idea to solve pro/anti slavery debates. California=Free, popular sovereignty in Utah and New Mexico, abolished slave trade in D.C. -
Fugitive Slave Act
passed by Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests and Northern Free-Soilers -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe that depicted the horrors of slavery -
Bleeding Kansas
Between 1854- 1861a series of fights broke out over whether slavery should be legal in Kansas -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
passed on May 30, 1854 that declared Kansas and Nebraska could choose whether to be a slave or free state. -
Brooks Attacks Sumner
May 22, 1856, in the United States Senate when Representative Preston Brooks used a walking cane to attack Senator Charles Sumner -
Dred Scott Case
legal case in which the U.S. Supreme Court on March 6, 1857, ruled that a slave who had resided in a free state and territory (where slavery was prohibited) was not thereby entitled to his freedom -
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
Series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas from August 21, 1858 to October 15, 1858 -
Raid on Harper's Ferry
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was an effort by abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. -
Election of 1860
Republican Abraham Lincoln beat Breckinridge, Douglas and Bell. Eventually led to South secession. -
Emancipation Proclamation
It changed the federal legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the designated areas of the South from slave to free. Didn't have any immediate effect as the South separated from the North. -
Thirteenth Amendment
Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. -
Fourteenth Amendment
One of the Reconstruction Amendments that addresses citizenship rights, equal protection of the laws and was in response to issues related to former slaves. -
Fifteenth Amendment
Prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." -
Compromise of 1877
Informal deal that settled the 1876 presidential election. Federal government pulled the last troops out of the South and ended the Reconstruction era. -
Jackie Robinson
First African American to play major league baseball. He broke the color barrier in baseball as the Dodgers started him at first base -
Civil Rights Movement
movement with the goal of enforcing constitutional and legal rights for African Americans that other Americans already enjoyed.
1954-1968. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Ella Baker -
"I Have A Dream"
speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. Called for civil and economic rights as well as racial equality
