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Twenty slaves in Virginia are brought to Jamestown are the first slaves imported into Britain’s North American colonies.
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Slavery in North America
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In Gloucester County, Virginia the first documented slave rebellion in the colonies takes place.
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Virginia declares that all imported black servants are slaves for life.
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Pennsylvania legalizes slavery.
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The slave population in the colonies is nearly 500,000. In Virginia, the ratio of free colonists to slaves is nearly 1:1. In South Carolina it is approximately 1:2.
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In April, the first battles of the Revolutionary war are waged between the British and Colonial armies at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts. Black Minutemen participate in the fighting.
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In November, Virginia Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore, issues a proclamation announcing that any slave fighting on the side of the British will be liberated. But Sadly few slaves were issued Freedom.
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In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, members of the Continental Congress sign the Declaration of Independence.
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American Revolution Ends Britain and the infant United States sign the Peace of Paris treaty.
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Abolition Effort Congress narrowly defeats Thomas Jefferson’s proposal to ban slavery in new territories after 1800.
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First United States Census Nearly 700,000 slaves live and toil in a nation of 3.9 million people.
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Fugitive Slave Act The United States outlaws any efforts to impede the capture of runaway slaves.
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Cotton Gin Eli Whitney patents his device for pulling seeds from cotton. The invention turns cotton into the cash crop of the American South and creates a huge demand for slave labor
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Slave Revolt: Virginia Slave preacher Nat Turner leads a two-day uprising against whites, killing about 60. Militiamen crush the revolt then spend two months searching for Turner, who is eventually caught and hanged. Enraged Southerners impose harsher restrictions on their slaves.
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Harriet Tubman Escapes After fleeing slavery, Tubman returns south at least 15 times to help rescue several hundred others.
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Uncle Tom’s Cabin Published Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel about the horrors of slavery sells 300,000 copies within a year of publication.
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Abraham Lincoln of Illinois becomes the first Republican to win the United States Presidency.
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Southern Secession South Carolina secedes in December. More states follow the next year.
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In the spring of 1861, decades of simmering tensions between the northern and southern United States over issues including states' rights versus federal authority, westward expansion and slavery exploded into the American Civil War (1861-65). The election of the anti-slavery Republican Abraham Lincoln as president in 1860 caused seven southern states to secede from the Union to form the Confederate States of America; four more joined them after the first shots of the Civil War were fired
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Emancipation Proclamation President Abraham Lincoln decrees that all slaves in Rebel territory are free on January 1, 1863.
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United States Civil War ends after Four years of brutal conflict that claims 623,000 lives of 2.4 million soldiers, millions more injured and the population and territory of the South devastated
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Slavery Abolished The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution outlaws slavery.
