Abolition and Anti-Slavery Timeline
Including Reconstruction and the Jim Crow Era
Part 1 (1619-1859) - See Below
Part 2 (1860-Present) - Click Here
Part 1 - 1619-1859
Purpose
The purpose of this document is to provide a concise historic timeline of slavery in the British North American colonies and in the United States. It is for use in the proposal for slave redress and reparations. The chronology will also provide a selected list of historic events and milestones in American history, including major milestones in the history of slavery in North America.
This document also has post-Civil War civil rights movement in the United States. It also contains significant milestones of the redress and reparations movements for slavery and for other events in history.
August 20, 1619
Twenty Africans are sold to the Jamestown colonists by a Dutch ship that had taken them from a Spanish vessel. James Rolf writes, “about the last of August came in a Dutch man of warre that sold us twenty negars.”[i]
1621
The Dutch West India Company is founded. It is founded to establish colonies for the Netherlands in the New World. It is heavily active in the Transatlantic slave trade. It establishes a colony at New Netherlands, part of present-day Delaware, New Jersey and New York in 1824.
1624
Slavery is begun in New Netherlands, in the colonies.
1626
Eleven Africans are brought to the colony of New Netherlands. They are indentured servants.
1629
Africans are brought to the area that would be Connecticut.
1634
African slaves are first brought to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Slavery is introduced into the Maryland Colony.
1636
First slaves are brought into the Delaware Colony.
1638
First shipment of slaves is brought into Boston. They are from Barbados.
1641
Massachusetts Colony formally legalizes slavery for both Blacks and Indians. It is the first English colony to do so. This law is later used in the Articles of the New England Confederation. The statute is eventually adopted by all of the colonies.
1642
The Virginia House of Burgesses enacts a Fugitive Slave Law. It punishes those who harbor fugitive slaves. The state sets a precedent for future laws.
1643
New England Confederation Agreement strengthens fugitive slave acts in the colonies. This would serve as a legal precedent for fugitive slave laws.
1645
First slave ship, the “Rainbowe,” is built in the colonies. It is active in the Transatlantic slave trade.
1649
There are 300 African indentured servants in the Virginia Colony.
1650
Connecticut Colony formally legalizes slavery.
1652
The Pennsylvania Colony prohibits enslavement for more than 10 years or after the age of 24. The Rhode Island Colonial Assembly declares slavery illegal. This legislation is reversed in 1700 and slavery survives in Rhode Island for more than 150 years.
1657
Virginia passes fugitive slave law.
1661
Virginia Colony formally legalizes slavery. A law declares some Blacks must serve their masters forever.
1662
Virginia Colony enacts law stating that a child born of a slave mother will legally be considered a slave. Maryland Colony passes similar law in 1664. Colonies of New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and South Carolina also enact this law.
1663
Maryland Colony passes law declaring that all Black servants will remain so for life. It also stipulates that White women who marry slaves will be declared slaves and their children will also be deemed to be slaves.
1664
The New York and New Jersey Colonies formally legalize the institution of slavery.
1671
There are an estimated 2,000 slaves in the Virginia Colony, approximately five percent of the total population.
1672
The Royal African Company is given sole monopoly to import African slaves to the Americans. Monopoly rights remain so until 1698.
1682
The South Carolina and Pennsylvania Colonies legalize slavery.
1691
The Virginia House of Burgesses passes laws to limit and restrict practice of manumission of slaves as well as miscegenation (intermarriage) between races. It requires freed slaves to be removed from the colony.
1692
Virginia Colony passes law that legalizes the killing of fugitive slaves.
1693-1714
New England Slave Codes are written and adopted. Massachusetts Colony is the first to do so.[ii]
March 1, 1696
Carolina Colony passes first all-encompassing slave law. It defines slaves as “all Negroes, Mollatoes and Indians which at any time heretofore have been bought and Sold or now are and taken to be or hereafter Shall be Bought and Sold… and their Children.”[iii]
1698-1707
English port of Bristol ships approximately 18,000 slaves a year from Africa.
1698
Twenty percent of the New York Colony is of African descent.
English Parliament ends African Company’s monopoly on slave trading. All English citizens, including the American colonists, are allowed by law to engage in the slave trade. The British Parliament declares the importation of slaves “highly beneficial and advantageous to this kingdom and the plantations and colonies.”
1700
British North American Colonies have an estimated slave population of 27,817, among whom 22,611 live in the southern colonies, and 5,206 live in the north. This is ten percent of the total.
1702
New Jersey Colony passes laws legalizing slavery.
1703
Rhode Island and Connecticut Colonies pass slave codes legalizing slavery.[iv]
1705
The New York Colony passes new punitive fugitive slave laws. It authorizes the death penalty for slaves suspected of trying to reach Canada.
Virginia assembly declares in law, “All servants brought into this Country... who were not Christians in their native Country… shall be accounted and be slaves. All Negro, mulatto and Indian slaves within this dominion… shall be held to be real estate. If any slave resist his master… correcting such slave, and shall happen to be killed in such correction… the master shall be free of all punishment… as if such accident never happened.” This legalizes killing of slaves.[v]
1707
The Massachusetts Colony enacts new fugitive slave laws.
1708
Twelve thousand Blacks are in the Virginia Colony.
1710
Total slave population in British North America is 44,866, including 36,563 in the south and 8,303 in the north.
1712
South Carolina colonial legislature passes “an act for the better ordering and governing of Negroes and slaves.”
1714
New Hampshire Colony enacts laws legalizing slavery.
1715
Total population in the British North American colonies is estimated at 434,600. Slaves are 58,850, or 13.5% of the total. Twenty-five percent of Virginia’s population is made up of slaves. Approximately 2,500 slaves are brought into the colonies every year. New Hampshire has only 150 slaves; Massachusetts, 2,000; Connecticut, 1,500; and Rhode Island, 500.[vi]
North Carolina and Rhode Island colonies legalize slavery.
1716
First slaves are brought into the French colony of Louisiana.
1720
Total population of the British North American colonies is approximately 474,000. There are 68,839 slaves, constituting 14.5% of the population of the colonies.
Two thousand slaves are in the Pennsylvania colony.
1721
South Carolina becomes a Crown Colony. The total population is 180,000, with nearly 12,000 slaves, 6.7% of the population.
1723
Virginia Colony disenfranchises free Blacks and Native Americans. It also prohibits manumission of slaves.
1725
There are an estimated 75,000 slaves in the British North American colonies.
1730
A total of 91,021 slaves are in the British North American colonies, including 73,698 in the southern colonies and 17,323 in the northern colonies.
1740
150,024 slaves are now in the British North American colonies, including 126,066 in the southern colonies, 23,598 in the northern colonies.
Slave code prevents slaves from movement, restricting gatherings as well as learning to write.
October 23, 1749
Georgia Colony repeals law prohibiting the bringing of slaves into the colony. This is approved by the British Parliament.
1750s
On average, 7,500 Africans are imported and sold into slavery every year in the colonies. The total slave population in the colonies is 236,420, including 206,198 in the southern colonies and 30,222 in the northern colonies. Slaves comprise 20% of the colonial population.
1750
English Parliament enacts modification to slave trading laws. They now allow private individuals to import slaves to the colonies. This increases the Transatlantic slave trade.
1751
Jesuit priests begin the planting of sugarcane in the French colony of Louisiana. This results in the large-scale importation of slaves to cultivate this labor-intensive crop.
1755
The British North American colonies have a total population of 1,500,000; 300,000 are enslaved; one in five are slaves.
1756
There are an estimated 250,000 slaves in the Virginia Colony, which is 40% of the total population.
1765
The total population of the British North American colonies is 1,750,000. Approximately 350,000 are slaves, or 20% of the population.
1770
Population of the British North American colonies is 2,312,000, among whom 462,000 are slaves, comprising 20% of the total population.
1776
There are an estimated 500,000 Blacks in the colonies when the Revolution begins.[vii]
July 4, 1776
The Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, is signed. It declares, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator, with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” In an earlier draft, Thomas Jefferson criticized the British slave trade, stating that it violated “most sacred rights of life and liberty.” It was omitted in the final draft. Jefferson owns more than 200 slaves.[viii]
1777
North Carolina adopts a stringent law making it difficult to manumit slaves.
1780
There are 575,420 slaves in the United States, including 518,624 in the southern states and 56,796 in the northern states.
1782
There are an estimated 260,000 slaves in the state of Virginia.
1783
At the close of the war with England, 100,000 slaves have escaped slavery. Approximately 20,000 have left with the English forces. Some have gone to Canada and the Caribbean. During the Revolution, slaves were not brought into the colonies. This created a severe shortage of slaves.
More than half of all slaves in the United States are in Virginia.[ix]
1785
The State of New York fails to enact a bill for the gradual emancipation of slaves.[x]
1786
Cotton is introduced to America. It is not commercially viable until the invention of the cotton gin in 1793.[xi]
July 13, 1787
The United States Congress passes the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. It outlaws slavery in the Northwest Territories, north of the Ohio River.[xii]
September 17, 1787
The United States Constitution is created. It institutionalizes slavery by declaring that a slave will be counted only as three-fifths of a person in determining representation in Congress. The blessings of liberty were not for slaves. Dr. Benjamin Rush declared, “No mention was made of negroes or slaves in this constitution, only because it was thought the very words would contaminate the glorious fabric of American liberty and government. Thus you see the cloud, which a few years ago was no larger than a man’s hand, had descended in plentiful dews and at last covered every part of our land.”[xiii]
1788
The U.S. constitution is ratified. Under its provisions, importation of slaves will continue for 20 more years. Fugitive slaves are to be returned to their owners. There are 13 states, seven free and six slave.
1790-1830
Numerous proposals for ending slavery by gradual, compensated emancipation are introduced into the United States Congress.[xiv]
1790
The first United States Census shows a total population of 3,929,000; 1,961,174 live in slaveholding states. There are 757,181 Blacks, among whom 697,624 are slaves and 59,557 are free. Blacks are now 19.3% of the population.[xv]
The beginning of the Second Middle Passage. Between1790 and the beginning of the Civil War in 1860, more than one million enslaved individuals are sold and moved to the deep south to work in the cotton fields. This is the largest forced migration in American history. Countless generations of enslaved families are separated forever. The breeding of enslaved individuals for labor and for sale becomes ever more widespread. More than three and a half million individuals are born into slavery.
February 3-11, 1790
U.S. Congress receives its first petition, a formal request for emancipating slaves. It is submitted by the Society of Friends and the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. It is signed by Benjamin Franklin. They call slavery, “licentious wickedness.” They declare “From a pursuation that equal…”[xvi]
1791
Architect of the U.S. Capital and District of Columbia, Pierre L’Enfant, engages slaves to build new federal buildings. They will include the Capitol and the White House.
December 15, 1791
Bill of Rights is ratified.
June 1792
Kentucky is admitted to the Union as a slave state. Congress seats their senators and representatives in November 1792.[xvii]
February 12, 1793
U.S. Congress passes Federal Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. It is based on Article IV, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution. The law is in effect until the more powerful Fugitive Slave Law is passed in 1850.[xviii]
October 28, 1793
Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin in Georgia. He receives the patent on March 14, 1794. It makes cotton production highly profitable. It is the catalyst for exponential growth of the cotton industry in the deep south and west.[xix]
March 22, 1794
United States Congress passes law forbidding the slave trade from foreign ports. It does not regulate the African slave trade to U.S. ports.[xx]
June 1, 1796
Tennessee is admitted to the Union as the sixteenth state. It is a slave state.
1798
Congress defeats a resolution to prohibit slavery in the new Mississippi Territory.
1800
The second census shows 1,001,436 Blacks in the U.S. This is 18.9% of the total population. There are 893,041 slaves and 108,395 free Blacks.[xxi]
Thomas Jefferson defeats John Adams in the Presidential election by electoral vote of 73 to 65. Jefferson is supported almost entirely by the slave states.[xxii]
January 2, 1800
U.S. Congress rejects petition by free Blacks to end slavery through gradual emancipation. It is defeated, 85 to 1 against.
May 1800
U.S. Congress enacts new laws, restricting the foreign slave trade. It prohibits U.S. citizens from having financial interests in ships carrying slaves to foreign ports.[xxiii]
1802
The U.S. Congress rejects a bill that would have strengthened the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793.
The Mississippi Territorial legislature defeats a bill that would have banned the importation of slaves into the territory.
1803
South Carolina state legislature votes to reopen slave trade in the state. This eventually opens up debate over slavery in the Congress.[xxiv]
December 2, 1806
President Thomas Jefferson, in a message to the Congress, calls for a law criminalizing the international slave trade. He asked Congress “to withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further participation in those violations of human rights…which the morality, the reputation, and the best of our country have long been eager to proscribe.”
1807
Indiana Territory allows slave owners to bring slaves in.
March 2, 1807
President Jefferson signs the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves into law. It takes effect on January 1, 1808.
January 1, 1808
The U.S. Congressional Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves takes effect. More than 400,000 slaves have been brought into the country from Africa. There are now one million slaves residing in the United States. The US is the only country where there is a natural increase in the enslaved population.[xxv]
1810
Third Census of the United States determines that there are 1,191,364 slaves and 186,446 free Blacks. They are 19% of the total population.[xxvi]
April 30, 1812
Louisiana is admitted to the Union as the eighteenth state. It is a slave state. There are now eight free and eight slave states.
1814
2,500 African American men volunteer to aid in the protection of Boston against a possible British attack.[xxvii]
January 8, 1815
Battle of New Orleans. Free Blacks participate in the defense of the city.
December 28, 1816
American Colonization Society (ACS) is founded in U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC. It seeks to settle free Blacks outside of the United States. A number of its founding members are southern political leaders and slave holders. They include Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Bushnell Washington, and Francis Scott Key. It is restricted to White members. The ACS never opposes slavery, either legally or morally.
1817
New York State sets the date of July 4, 1827, to free all of its slaves born before the Emancipation Act of 1799. This frees more than 10,000 slaves residing in the state.[xxviii]
The American Conventions of Abolition Societies rejects the idea of colonizing Africa with American free Blacks. They state that their goals are “the gradual and total emancipation of all persons of color, and their literary and moral education should precede their colonization.”[xxix]
December 10, 1817
Mississippi is admitted to the Union as the twentieth state. It is the tenth slave state.
1818
Mississippi court case, Harvey and others v. Decker, rules that the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 dictates that slaves brought into the free state of Indiana are to be set free.
The state of Connecticut disenfranchises all Black persons in the state.
1819-1821
U.S. Congress debates the issue of extending slavery into the new territories and whether or not to permit new slave states to be admitted into the Union.[xxx] The new areas are Arkansas Territory and the admission of Missouri as a state.
1819
Former President James Madison calls for the gradual abolition of slavery in the United States. He advocates that freed slaves be given homesteads in the western territories.
New York congressman James Talmadge, Jr., proposes Congress prohibit slavery into the Territory of Missouri.[xxxi]
March 3, 1819
United States Congress passes stringent laws to impede illegal smuggling of slaves into the country. The President can order the return to Africa of slaves brought in illegally. The President can now send armed U.S. naval vessels to Africa to interdict slave ships. The British Navy cooperates in this effort.[xxxii]
December 14, 1819
Alabama is admitted to the Union as a slave state. It is the twenty-second state. There are eleven free and eleven slave states.
1820
The fourth census, in 1820, reports that there are 1,538,038 slaves and 233,524 free Blacks in the United States. This is 18.4% of the country’s population.[xxxiii]
February 8-17, 1820
The U.S. Senate debates the admission of Maine and Missouri as states.
March 2, 1820
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 is passed by Congress. The vote is very close, at 90 to 87. It prohibits all slavery north of a line 36°30’. It allows Missouri to be admitted as a slave state and Maine as a free state.[xxxiv]
March 15, 1820
Maine is admitted to the Union as the 23rd state. Under the provisions of the Missouri Compromise, slavery is prohibited in the new state.
May 15, 1820
The U.S. Congress passes a law declaring that participating in the African slave trade will be considered an act of piracy. Individuals who are convicted are subject to capital punishment.[xxxv]
1821
Congress enacts the Missouri Compromise. It prohibits slavery in the territories of the Louisiana Purchase. The act includes provision stating that fugitive slaves must be returned.[xxxvi] Of this legislation, former President Thomas Jefferson writes that the Missouri question, “like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union.”
February 10, 1821
Admission of Missouri into the Union as a slave state.
1822
Pro-slavery individuals in Illinois try to create a state constitution to legalize slavery.
1823
Mississippi state passes a law prohibiting the teaching of slaves to read or write.
United States Congress cuts back on funding for suppressing the slave trade.
1824
Louisiana enacts new slave codes.
Mexico abolishes slavery. It declares that “commerce and traffic in slaves proceeding from any country and under any flag whatsoever, is forever prohibited in the territory of the United Mexican States.”
1825
State legislatures in eight northern states request that the federal government end slavery through compensated emancipation.
July 4, 1827
New York State officially abolishes slavery with the New York State Emancipation Act. Ten thousand slaves are set free.
September 15, 1829
The government of Mexico decrees that all slaves are forever free. In December, however, it exempts Texas from the ban on slavery.
1830
The Fifth Census of the United States indicates there are 2,009,043 slaves and 319,599 free Blacks in the United Sates. This is a 30% increase from 1820. Blacks constitute 18.1% of the national population.[xxxvii]
Louisiana State legislature petitions U.S. Congress with complaint that its slaves are fleeing to Mexico. It also passes law making it illegal to educate slaves.
1831
The term “Underground Railroad” is first used to describe the processes by which whites and free Blacks help fugitive slaves escape.
In the Virginia State Convention, plans for gradual emancipation of slaves and colonization are debated and defeated by pro-slavery factions.
August 21-22, 1831
Nat Turner, a slave, leads a large slave revolt in Southampton, Virginia. He has 70 followers. Fifty-seven Whites, many of whom are slave owners, are killed. Turner is caught on October 30. He is tried and convicted, and is executed on November 11.[xxxviii]
December 12, 1831
U.S. Congressman and former U.S. President John Quincy Adams, of Massachusetts, begin anti-slavery campaign in the House of Representatives. He submits numerous petitions to abolish slavery. He remains an important abolitionist in Congress until his death in 1848.[xxxix]
1832
Approximately 8,500 slaves are sold and moved annually from Virginia to the lower South.[xl] Virginia Governor Randolph estimates that 260,000 enslaved individuals are sold and moved South between 1790 and 1832. After 1808, slaves are bred for the expanding slave market in the lower cotton growing states. This is extremely profitable.
January 1832
For two weeks, the Virginia House of Delegates debates the issue of slavery in the state. It is the largest slaveholding state in the U.S. This is the result of the Nat Turner revolt of August 1831.[xli]
1833
Slavery is abolished in Canada by Parliament. In practice, however, it ends between 1790 and 1800.[xlii]
August 28, 1833
An act calling for gradual, compensated abolition of slavery in the colonies is passed in the British Parliament. United States anti-slavery groups are encouraged and highly motivated by this action. American and English abolitionist groups will increasingly work together.
December 1833
The American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) is founded in New York City. Its founding officers are William Lloyd Garrison, Arthur and Lewis Tappan, and Theodore Dwight Weld. It is the first national anti-slavery organization founded in the U.S. It is disbanded 1870. It publishes The Emancipator and The Anti-Slavery Standard. The organization has 1,350 affiliated societies and 250,000 members in 1838. By 1840, there are 2,000 affiliated societies.[xliii]
July 4-12, 1834
Major riot in New York City by pro-slavery mobs breaks out. Several homes and churches are burned.
1835
There are 225 anti-slavery societies in the United States.[xliv]
The North Carolina State legislature passes legislation to deny the vote to freed Blacks.
December 7, 1835
President Andrew Jackson asks Congress to pass laws prohibiting mailing of abolitionist literature through the U.S. mails.
1836
Massachusetts state law rules that a slave brought into the state by an owner will be emancipated.
By the end of 1836, as many as five hundred abolitionist groups have been organized in the United States.[xlv]
January 11, 1836
Petitions are submitted to the United States Congress calling for the ending of slavery in Washington, DC. They are strongly opposed by southern lawmakers.
March 17, 1836
Republic of Texas is established. Its new constitution makes slavery legal again in Texas.
May 26, 1836
The United States Congress issues the “Gag Rule.” This prevents the reading and circulation of anti-slavery petitions. This rule remains in effect until 1844.[xlvi]
June 15, 1836
Arkansas is admitted to the Union as a slave state. It is the 25th state. There are now 13 slave states.
1837
There are an estimated 1,006 abolitionist groups in the United States.[xlvii]
Ten thousand former U.S. slaves are living in upper Canada.[xlviii]
January 20, 1837
Abraham Lincoln votes against pro-slavery legislation in the Illinois House of Representatives.[xlix]
February 6, 1837
The United States House of Representatives rules that slaves did not have the right to petition Congress.
March 3, 1837
Illinois State Representative Abraham Lincoln and colleague Dan Stone protest anti-abolitionist resolution adopted by State legislature on January 20. They state that, “promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to increase than abate.”[l]
December 1837
Congressman William Slade introduces first bill in Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia.[li]
December 19, 1837
U.S. Congress passes stronger “Gag Rule” against submissions of anti-slavery petitions.
1838
There are an estimated 1,406 abolitionist and anti-slavery organizations in the United States, with approximately 115,000 members.[lii]
January 3-12, 1838
South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun presents laws to the Senate to provide protection of the institution of slavery. The Senate approves his measure, which specifies that the Federal government should “resist all attempts by one portion of the Union to use it as an instrument to attack the domestic institutions of another.
February 15, 1838
Former President and Massachusetts Congressman John Quincy Adams introduces 350 anti-slavery petitions in the U.S. House of Representatives. These petitions are submitted in defiance of the Gag Rule.[liii]
December 1838-March 1839
Third session of the Twenty-Fifth Congress is held. Eight different anti-slavery petitions are submitted. They have an estimated 500,000 signatures in support.[liv]
December 3, 1838
Prominent abolitionist Joshua Giddings, an Ohio Whig, takes his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is considered the first abolitionist to be elected to the U.S. Congress. He will work to end the Gag Rule.[lv]
December 11, 1838
The U.S. House of Representatives renews the Gag Rule, which was first adopted in 1836, preventing the submission of anti-slavery petitions.[lvi]
July 1839
Slave ship L’Amistad is captured near Cuba after 54 slaves take the ship and kill the captain. The slaves aboard petition for their freedom in U.S. courts. Congressman John Quincy Adams wins the court case, which is heard before the U.S. Supreme Court.
1840
There are 2,487,455 slaves living in the United States. There are also 386,303 free Blacks, for a total of 2,873,758. This is an increase of 26.62% from 1830.[lvii]
William Henry Harrison is elected president of the United States as a Whig candidate. Lincoln is re-elected to the Illinois state legislature. It is his last term.[lviii]
The anti-slavery Liberty Party is founded by abolitionists. It will play an influential role in American anti-slavery politics.
The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (A&FASS) is founded after a split from the American Anti-Slavery Society. It is founded by Arthur and Lewis Tappan. James G. Birney and Henry B. Stanton are elected secretaries. They begin publication of the National Anti-Slavery Standard.[lix]
Between 200,000 and 300,000 Northerners have become members of abolitionist societies.[lx]
May 14, 1840
The New York legislature passes “An Act More Effectively to Protect the Free Citizens of This State from being Kidnapped, or Reduced to Slavery.”
June 12-23, 1840
The World Anti-Slavery Convention is held in London.
1841
Ohio State legislature re-passes anti-kidnapping law of 1831, which protects fugitive slaves from being captured by their former masters.
March 9, 1841
The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Africans from the ship L’Amistad were kidnapped and issues order for them to be set free.
1842
Rhode Island gives right of suffrage to free Blacks.
Georgia State legislature rules unanimously that free Blacks are not citizens of the United States.
January 24, 1842
Congressman John Quincy Adams introduces a petition to Congress that calls for the dissolution of the Union.[lxi]
March 1, 1842
The U.S. Supreme Court rules in the case of Prigg v. Pennsylvania. It supports the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 by ruling that a Pennsylvania law that counters the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law is unconstitutional.[lxii]
March 21-22, 1842
Congressman Joshua Giddings introduces a series of proposals that attack the government’s sanction of slavery. For this, he is censured by Congress on March 23. In protest, he resigns, but is reelected the following month.[lxiii]
1843
Great Britain and the United States enter into agreement to send Naval patrol to the west coast of Africa to prevent shipment of slaves. The result is the Webster-Ashburton Treaty.
Massachusetts, Ohio and Vermont state legislatures pass personal liberty laws (anti-kidnapping laws) forbidding state officials from aiding in the return of fugitive slaves residing in their states.
1844
Democratic candidate James K. Polk is elected President, over Whig candidate Henry Clay and Liberty Party candidate James G. Birney.
The Connecticut State legislature enacts a personal liberty law (anti-kidnapping law).
Oregon Territorial legislature prohibits slavery.
June 8, 1844
The US Senate rejects the treaty proposing the annexation of the Republic of Texas into the Union. The issue of admission of Texas as a slave state is opposed by anti-slavery lawmakers.
December 3, 1844
The US House of Representatives lifts the enforcement of the “Gag Rule,” which prevented submissions of anti-slavery petitions to Congress. It has been in effect since 1836. Congressmen John Quincy Adams and Joshua Giddings led the opposition to the “Gag Rule.”[lxiv]
March 3, 1845
Florida is admitted as the new 27th state of the Union. It is a slave state.
December 29, 1845
Texas enters the Union as a slave state. It is the 28th state.
1846
The New York State legislature passes an act abolishing slavery.[lxv]
August 8, 1846
Congressman David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, introduces a Proviso into Congress to prohibit slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico. The Proviso fails to pass in the Senate.[lxvi]
1847
Personal liberty laws (anti-kidnapping laws) are enacted in the state of Pennsylvania.
January 16, 1847
U.S. House of Representatives passes the Oregon Bill. It prohibits the extension of slavery from the Oregon Territory. The Senate tables the measure.
June 30, 1847
Slave Dred Scott files a lawsuit in Circuit Court in St. Louis, petitioning for his freedom.
1848
Rhode Island legislature enacts personal liberty laws (anti-kidnapping laws).
August 9-10, 1848
The Free Soil Party is founded in Buffalo, New York. It includes members of the “Conscience Whigs” Party, Democrats and members of the Liberty Party. The motto is, “Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor and Free Men.” It is co-founded by Salmon P. Chace and Gamaliel Bailey. The Party opposes slavery in territories acquired in the Mexican War. It nominates Martin Van Buren for U.S. President. The Party is active from 1848 to 1852. The Party’s support comes largely from upstate New York. The Party membership is absorbed by the Republican Party at its founding in 1854.[lxvii]
August 14, 1848
Oregon Territory is established as a free territory. Slavery is prohibited.
January 10, 1849
U.S. Congressman Abraham Lincoln reads resolution to report bill to U.S. House of Representatives for abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia. It calls for voluntary compensated emancipation of slaves in the District.[lxviii] There are 3,700 enslaved persons residing in the nation’s capital. The total population is 52,000, including 10,000 free African Americans. Abolitionist Congressman Joshua Giddings fully supports Lincoln’s bill, state that it is “as good a bill as we could get at this time.” Ardent abolitionists do not, however, support the plan.
September 1 – October 13, 1849
The California Statehood Convention meets in Monterey, California. The new state constitution prohibits slavery. State voters approve the measure on November 13.
November 1849
Case of Sarah C. Roberts v. City of Boston introduces legal concept of equal protection under the law.
1850
The total population in the U.S. is 23,191,876. There are 3,204,313 slaves in the United States. This is an increase of 28.82% since 1840. There are 434,449 free Blacks, for a total of 3,638,762. Blacks comprise 15.7% of the total U.S. population. There are 15 slave states.[lxix]
Congress enacts the Compromise of 1850. California is admitted to the Union as a free state. The territories of New Mexico and Utah can decide by vote whether they will be free or slave territory.[lxx] The slave trade, but not slavery, is abolished in Washington, DC.
Congress passes new Federal Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Slaves must be returned to their owners. This strengthens the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. As a result, many former slaves living in New England will settle in Canada.[lxxi]
An estimated 20,000-25,000 former slaves and free Blacks live in upper Canada.[lxxii]
1852
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is published. More than a million copies are sold.
March 20, 1852
Vermont passes Personal Liberty Law to help fugitive slaves avoid new Fugitive Slave Law.
1853
The Oregon Supreme Court rules that all African Americans brought into the territory will be free.
1854
Connecticut and Rhode Island pass anti-kidnapping laws, called personal liberty laws, in response to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.
January 1854
Congressional debates on the proposed Kansas-Nebraska Act are conducted. The Act would repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and would allow extension of slavery into new territories. It is strongly opposed by abolitionist congressmen and senators.[lxxiii]
May 30, 1854
The Kansas-Nebraska Act creates the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska and allows for a vote by the population to determine if they will be free or slave. This act repeals the anti-slavery clause of the Missouri Compromise. The three-fifths rule allows pro-slavery advocates to be elected President. It also prevents further suppression of the African slave trade.[lxxiv]
July 19, 1854
Wisconsin State Supreme Court rules, in case of “In Re Booth and Rycraft,” that the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 is unconstitutional. It is overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1859.
1855
Maine, Massachusetts and Michigan pass personal liberty laws in response to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.
March 30, 1855
Kansas holds first territorial election. A pro-slavery legislature is put into office, despite accusation of fraud.
May 19, 1856
Anti-slavery U.S. Senator Charles Sumner is severely beaten by pro-slavery Congressman Preston Brooks in the Senate chamber.
May 21, 1856
Town of Lawrence, Kansas, is destroyed by pro-slavery mob.
June 17-19, 1856
Republican Party holds national nomination convention. John C. Frémont is nominated as candidate for president. The delegates call for the non-extension of slavery into the new territories.
November 1856
James Buchanan is elected President, defeating Republican candidate John. C. Frémont.
March 6, 1857
The U.S. Supreme Court decides the Dred Scott case. It states that Congress has no power to limit slavery in the territories. Three justices conclude that African Americans descended from slaves have no rights as American citizens.[lxxv] Supreme Court Chief Justice Tanney rules that Blacks, both free and slave, are “beings of an inferior order and altogether unfit to associate with the white race… and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”
1858
Vermont passes an anti-kidnapping law.
Kansas and Wisconsin state legislatures pass personal liberty laws designed to shield fugitive slaves from capture.
June 16, 1858
Abraham Lincoln is nominated as Republican Senatorial candidate for Illinois. He delivers speech: “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will case to be divided.”[lxxvi]
August 2, 1858
Voters in Kansas vote for the territory to become a free territory. It becomes a free state in 1861.
August 21-October 15, 1858
Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas have seven debates while campaigning for U.S. Senator from Illinois. Lincoln opposes slavery in the debates.[lxxvii]
February 1859
State legislature in Arkansas enacts laws that will enslave free Blacks residing in the state.
March 7, 1859
The United States Supreme Court rules in Ableman v. Booth case. It upholds the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.
October 4, 1859
Kansas Territorial voters ratify a new anti-slavery constitution.
October 16-17, 1859
John Brown leads an attack on the U.S. Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. The attack is quickly put down. Brown and several of his followers are captured.
December 2, 1859
John Brown is hanged along with four of his Black soldiers in Charleston, Virginia.
December 17, 1859
Georgia passes law permitting free Blacks convicted of vagrancy to be sold into slavery.
Continue to Part 2 (1860-Present)
Footnotes
[i] Tyler, Narratives of Early Virginia, p. 337.
[ii] Dumond, p. 12.
[iii] Johnson, Charles, and Patricia Smith. Africans in America: America’s Journey through Slavery. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1998, p. 85.
[iv] Dumond, p. 12.
[v] Johnson and Smith, p. 48.
[vi] Dumond, pp. 12, 66.
[vii] Dumond, p. 66.
[viii] Dumond, pp. 27-28, 29.
[ix] Dumond, p. 66.
[x] Dumond, p. 33.
[xi] Dumond, pp. 64-65.
[xii] Dumond.
[xiii] Johnson and Smith, p.201.
[xiv] Foner, p. 17.
[xv] Bureau of the Census. Population of the United States in 1860; Compiled from the Original Returns of the Eighth Census. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1864, p. ix.
[xvi] Dumond, p. 53.
[xvii] Dumond, p. 61.
[xviii] Dumond, pp. 58-59.
[xix] Dumond, pp. 64-65.
[xx] Dumond, pp. 58, 77.
[xxi] Bureau of the Census. Population of the United States in 1860, p. ix.
[xxii] Dumond, p. 73.
[xxiii] Dumond, pp. 81, 381FN23.
[xxiv] Dumond, pp. 81-82.
[xxv] Dumond, pp. 66, 73.
[xxvi] Bureau of the Census. Population of the United States in 1860, p. ix.
[xxvii] Dumond, p. 328.
[xxviii] Dumond, pp. 50, 379FN40.
[xxix] Dumond, p. 129.
[xxx] Dumond, p. 73.
[xxxi] Dumond, pp. 102-103.
[xxxii] Dumond, p. 129.
[xxxiii] Bureau of the Census. Population of the United States in 1860, p. ix.
[xxxiv] Dumond, pp. 75, 380FN13.
[xxxv] Dumond.
[xxxvi] Dumond, pp. 75, 380FN13.
[xxxvii] Bureau of the Census. Population of the United States in 1860, p. ix.
[xxxviii] Dumond, p. 116.
[xxxix] Dumond, pp. 238, 243-244.
[xl] Dumond, p. 68.
[xli] Miller, pp. 787-788.
[xlii] Dumond, pp. 333, 409FN1.
[xliii] Dumond, pp. 175-180.
[xliv] Dumond.
[xlv] Dumond.
[xlvi] Dumond, pp. 238, 243-244.
[xlvii] Dumond.
[xlviii] Dumond, p. 336.
[xlix] Miers, p. 65.
[l] Miers, p. 69.
[li] Dumond, p. 245.
[lii] Dumond, p. 189.
[liii] Dumond, pp. 244-245.
[liv] Dumond, p. 245.
[lv] Dumond, pp. 243-245.
[lvi] Dumond, pp. 242-245.
[lvii] Bureau of the Census. Population of the United States in 1860, p. ix.
[lviii] Miers.
[lix] Dumond, pp. 286-289.
[lx] Foner, p. 21.
[lxi] Dumond.
[lxii] Dumond.
[lxiii] Dumond, pp. 245-246.
[lxiv] Dumond, pp. 238, 243-244.
[lxv] Dumond, p. 51.
[lxvi] Dumond, pp. 359-360.
[lxvii] Dumond, pp. 303-304.
[lxviii] Bassler, Vol. II, pp. 20-22.
[lxix] Bureau of the Census. Population of the United States in 1860, p. ix.
[lxx] Dumond, pp. 360-363.
[lxxi] Dumond, pp. 308, 362.
[lxxii] Dumond, p. 336.
[lxxiii] Dumond, pp. 75, 362, 380FN13; Foner.
[lxxiv] Dumond, pp. 75, 362, 380FN13; Foner.
[lxxv] Foner.
[lxxvi] Foner, pp. 99-103; Miers, p. 218.
[lxxvii] Foner.