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A Dutch ship brings 20 African iservants to the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia.
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One of the earliest slave revolts takes place in Stono, South Carolina. A score of whites and more than twice as many blacks slaves are killed as the armed slaves try to run to Florida.
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Lucy Terry, a slave,"Bars Fight," the first known poem by an African American. A description of an Indian raid on Terry's hometown in Massachusetts, the poem will be passed down orally and published in 1855.
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Crispus Attucks, an escaped slave, becomes the first Colonial soldier to die for American independence when he is killed by the British in the Boston Massacre
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The first book by an African American is published (in England) when Phillis Wheatley, then a slave, publishes "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral."
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The first book by an African American is published (in England) when Phillis Wheatley, then a slave, publishes "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral."
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George Washington changes a previous policy and allows free blacks to enlist in the Continental Army. Approximately 5,000 do so. The British governor of Virginia promises freedom to slaves who enlist with the British.
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Benjamin Banneker publishes the first almanac by an black African-American African American and is appointed by President George Washington to help survey Washington, D.C.
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The first black theater company in the United States, the African Company, is founded in New York.
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Freedwoman Sojourner Truth, a compelling speaker for abolitionism, gives her famous "Ain't I a Woman" speech in Akron, Ohio.
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Union Gen. William T. Sherman issues a field order setting aside 40-acre plots of land --"40 acres and a mule" --in Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida for African Americans to settle.
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Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment, outlawing slavery, and establishes the Freedmen's Bureau to assist former slaves. This is the beginning of the Reconstruction era.
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