*Please note that slavery itself goes back thousands of years; since the beginning of civilization; not all slaves throughout history are African Americans.
1495: Columbus transports some five hundred enslaved Native Americans eastward across the Atlantic to Spain
1501: Enslaved black Africans brought to New World; some historians believe they could have been brought earlier
1619: Twenty blacks brought by Dutch ship to Virginia
1627: British begin settling Barbados (island in Caribbean); by 1643 they are producing sugar. The Dutch soon follow with sugar cultivation which increases the need for slaves
1688: Four Quakers sign anti slavery petition in Germantown, Pennsylvania
1739: Stono Slave Rebellion; led by a literate slave, Cato, attempted to get to Spanish Florida. Largest slave rebellion in the British mainland colonies. Put down by the South Carolina militia.
1773-1779: New England slaves petition legislatures for freedom. Increasing numbers of anti slavery tracts are published in America.
1775: Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia, promises freedom to any slaves who desert rebellious masters and serve in the king’s forces, 800 slaves take him up on the offer
1777: Vermont’s state constitution outlaws slavery
1780: Pennsylvania adopts a gradual emancipation law (that usually means children of slaves will be free)
1784: Connecticut and Rhode Island enact gradual emancipation laws. Congress narrowly rejects Jefferson’s proposal to exclude slavery from all Western territories after 1800.
1787: US Constitution is written with the 3/5th Compromise, Congress forbidden to end the slave trade until 1808, fugitive slaves must be returned.
1787: The Northwest Ordinance is enacted; prohibits slavery in the territories north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi Rivers (present day states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio)
1788: British abolitionists organize large petitions against the slave trade...abolition societies were formed and argued for the end of slavery since the early 1770s.
1791-1804: Haitian Revolution. Slaves and free people of color finally defeat British, Spanish, and French armies and declare independence in Haiti. Toussaint L'Overture leads the rebellion. Haiti has been free of colonial rule ever since.
1799: New York adopts a law for gradual emancipation
1800: Slave uprising in Virginia
1803: The Louisiana Purchase doubles the territory of the US...leads to a debate about whether slavery will be allowed in the new territory (debate continues right up to the Civil War in 1860).
1803: South Carolina imports 38,000 slaves right before the 1808 ban on importation.
1804: New Jersey adopts a law for gradual emancipation. By this time, all states north of the Ohio River had abolished slavery.
1808: Britain and the United States outlaw participation in the African slave trade. Please note that this does not end the buying and selling of slaves within the United States itself. Just no more imports of slaves.
1811: Slave uprising in Louisiana
1816: Major slave uprising in British Barbados.
1816: In the US, American Colonization Society formed to promote the return of free blacks to Africa (Liberia will be founded as a colony for former slaves)
1817: New York adopts a law that frees all remaining slaves in 1827
1820: The Missouri Compromise is reached
1831: Huge slave revolt in Jamaica
1833: Britain frees 800,000 slaves; pays 20 million pounds of sterling to their owners
1835: Muslim lead slave revolt in Brazil
1845-1848: Texas annexed to the United States and the Mexican American war; further ignites the controversy over whether to allow slaves in newly acquired US territory
1848: Revolutions across Europe to overthrow the monarchies (most fail and kings keep their crowns and their heads), but France and Denmark abolish slavery post revolutions
1850: Compromise of 1850 reached in the US. Includes the Fugitive Slave Law
1851: Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is published; sells 300,000 copies in the first year
1854: Kansas Nebraska Act is passed; leads to Bleeding Kansas (and Mrs. Appleby would argue, the beginning of the Civil War)
1857: Dred Scott decision
1858: Lincoln-Douglas debates
1859: John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry to encourage a slave uprising (fails)
1860: Lincoln elected and South Carolina is the first state to secede.
1861: Confederate States of America is formed; the CSA Constitution recognized and protected “the institution of negro slavery.”
1863: Emancipation Proclamation passed. Frees slaves in territory occupied by the Union army. Blacks are allowed to enlist in the Union army/navy.
1865: End of the Civil War. Lincoln assassinated. 13th Amendment is ratified.
1866-76: Reconstruction Era. 14th and 15th Amendments ratified. Also the rise of Jim Crow and racial segregation in the South