You are here: Home Page > Introduction > Background > Timeline

 

Timeline

1441	Antam Goncalves, Portuguese sailor, seized ten Africans near Cape Bojador; usually taken as the start of the Atlantic Slave Trade.
1492	Christopher Columbus sights land in the Bahamas; October 2, lands in Cuba.
1501	African Slaves in the New World Spanish settlers bring slaves from Africa to Santo Domingo (now the capital of the Dominican Republic).
1515	First samples of Caribbean sugar sent to Spain
1522	Slave Revolt: the Caribbean Slaves rebel on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which now comprises Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
1562	Britain joins Slave Trade John Hawkins, the first Briton to take part in the slave trade, makes a huge profit hauling human cargo from Africa to Hispaniola.He captured 300 slaves in Sierra Leone.
1581	Slaves in Florida Spanish residents in St. Augustine, the first permanent settlement in Florida, import African slaves.
1619	Slaves in Virginia Africans brought to Jamestown are the first slaves imported into Britain’s North American colonies. Like indentured servants, they were probably freed after a fixed period of service.
1624	English colonise Barbados and St. Kitts.
1647	First Barbados sugar sent to England.
1650	Start of Scots bonded labour being sent to Virginia.
	Hereditary Slavery Virginia law decrees that children of black mothers “shall be bond or free according to the condition of the mother.”
1665	English capture Jamaica from the Spanish.
1672	Establishment of the Royal African Company to control the British slave trade.
1680-86	The Royal African Company transported an average of 5,000 slaves year.
1698	Private traders, on payment of 10 percent duty on English goods exported to Africa, were given parliamentary approval to participate in the slave trade.
1700	Liverpool's first slave ship, 'Liverpool Merchant' took 220 slaves to Barbados and sold them for 4,239
1705	Slaves as Property Describing slaves as real estate, Virginia lawmakers allow owners to bequeath their slaves. The same law allowed masters to “kill and destroy” runaways.
1712	Slave Revolt: New York Slaves in New York City kill whites during an uprising, later squelched by the militia. Nineteen rebels are executed.
1713	Treaty of Utrecht: Asiento: treaty between England and Spain granting England monopoly of Spanish slave trade for 30 years. England promised At lest 144,000 slaves, at the rate of 4,800 per year.
1739	Slave Revolt: South Carolina Crying “Liberty!” some 75 slaves in South Carolina steal weapons and flee toward freedom in Florida (then under Spanish rule). Crushed by the South Carolina militia, the revolt results in the deaths of 40 blacks and 20 whites.
1750	Parliament gave annual grants to British Royal Africa Company (totalling £90,000)
1752	Liverpool had 8 slavers trading from the city with ships of various sizes. Altogether the fleet could transport 25,820 slaves (50-550 per ship) packed "like books on a shelf"
1767	Phillis Wheatley's first published poems
1772	In Britain, Lord Chief Justice Mansfield rules that English law does not support slavery, thus laying the basis for freeing England’s 15,000 slaves.
1774	The English Society of Friends votes for the expulsion of any member engaged in the slave trade.
1775	American Revolution Begins Battles at the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord on April 19 spark the war for American independence from Britain.
	Abolitionist Society Anthony Benezet of Philadelphia founds the world’s first abolitionist society. Benjamin Franklin becomes its president in 1787.
	Slavery abolished in Madeira.
1776	Declaration of Independence The Continental Congress asserts “that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States”.
	The Societies of Friends in England and in Pennsylvania in the U.S. require their members to free their slaves or face expulsion.
1778	Lord Auchinleck found that Scottish law does not support slavery
1777-80	Richard Pennant was Liverpool's M.P. He owned 8,000 acres of sugar plantations and over 600 slaves in Jamaica. He was re-elected again in 1784-1790.
1777	The Constitution of the State of Vermont prohibits slavery.
1780	The Constitution of Massachusetts declares all men to be free and equal; a judicial decision in 1783 interprets this as meaning that slavery should be abolished.
	Pennsylvania adopts a policy of gradual emancipation, freeing the children of all slaves born after 1 November 1780 on their 28 th birthday.
1781	3 of the 41 councillors in Liverpool were slave ship owners or major investors in the slave trade.
	Zong Ship (from Liverpool) throws 131 slaves overboard to their deaths.
1783	American Revolution Ends Britain and the infant United States sign the Peace of Paris treaty.
1784	Abolition Effort Congress narrowly defeats Thomas Jefferson’s proposal to ban slavery in new territories after 1800.
	Rhode Island and Connecticut pass gradual emancipation laws.
1787-1807	All 20 of Liverpool's mayors holding office between these dates financed or owned slave ships .
1787	The “Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade” is set up in England.
1788	Hannah More's poem "Slavery" published
1790	First United States Census Nearly 700,000 slaves live and toil in a nation of 3.9 million people.
1791	The Haitian Revolution begins.
1793	Fugitive Slave Act The United States outlaws any efforts to impede the capture of runaway slaves.
1794	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 labour.
	The French National Convention abolishes slavery in all French territories. This is repealed by Napoleon in 1802.
1799	New York State passes a gradual emancipation law.
1800	U.S. citizens barred from exporting slaves.
1804	Haiti declares independence from France, and slavery there is abolished.
	New Jersey adopts a policy of gradual emancipation.
1805	The Constitution of Haiti provides that any slave arriving in Haiti is automatically both free and a citizen of the country.
1807	England and the United States prohibit their citizens from engaging in the international slave trade.
1808	Trans-Atlantic slave trade abolished in British Empire; and in the United States.
	United States Bans Slave Trade Importing African slaves is outlawed, but smuggling continues.
1813	Sweden abolishes slave trade.
	Gradual emancipation adopted in Argentina.
1814	Gradual emancipation begins in Colombia.
1820	Missouri Compromise Missouri is admitted to the Union as a slave state, Maine as a free state. Slavery is forbidden in any subsequent territories north of latitude 36°30´.
	Britain begins to use its naval power to suppress the slave trade.
1821	Spain declares slave trade illegal.
1822	Slave Revolt: South Carolina Freed slave Denmark Vesey attempts a rebellion in Charleston. Thirty-five participants in the ill-fated uprising are hanged.
1823	Anti-slavery Society set up to emancipate slaves in the West Indies
1823	Slavery abolished in Chile.
1824	"Immediate not gradual abolition" published
	Slavery abolished in Central America.
1827	Britain declares slave trading piracy, thus punishable by death.
1829	Slavery abolished in Mexico
1831	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.
	Linda Brent's experience of "White" christianity
	"A History of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave" published
	Slavery abolished in Bolivia
1832	Parliamentry Reform Act passed
1833	Emancipation Act in British Parliament, 5 year apprenticeship system.
1835	Censorship Southern states expel abolitionists and forbid the mailing of antislavery propaganda.
1838	Slavery finally abolished in British Empire.
1839	British and Foreign Anti-slavery society set up
1840	World anti-slavery convention 2nd June
1841	The Quintuple Treaty signed, under which England, France, Russia, Prussia and Austria agree to search vessels on the high seas in order to suppress the trade
1842	Slavery abolished in Uruguay.
1846	Sweden abolishes slavery.
1840s	Mary Ellen Pleasant works on Underground railroad
1846-8	Mexican-American War Defeated, Mexico yields an enormous amount of territory to the United States. Americans then wrestle with a controversial topic: Is slavery permitted in the new lands?
1847	Frederick Douglass’s Newspaper Escaped slave Frederick Douglass begins publishing the North Star in Rochester, New York.
1848	Ellen and William Craft escape slavery
	Slavery abolished in all French and Danish colonies.
1849	Harriet Tubman Escapes After fleeing slavery, Tubman returns south at least 15 times to help rescue several hundred others.
1850	Compromise of 1850 In exchange for California’s entering the Union as a free state, northern congressmen accept a harsher Fugitive Slave Act.
1851	Sojourner Truth's "A'n't I a Woman" speech at Women's rights convention, Akron, Ohio
	Slavery abolished in Ecuador.
	Slave trade ended in Brazil.
1852	Uncle Tom’s Cabin Published Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel about the horrors of slavery sells 300,000 copies within a year of publication.
1854	Kansas-Nebraska Act Setting aside the Missouri Compromise of 1820, allows these two new territories to choose whether to allow slavery. Violent clashes erupt.
	Slavery abolished in Peru and Venezuela.
1857	Dred Scott Decision The United States Supreme Court decides, seven to two, that blacks can never be citizens and that Congress has no authority to outlaw slavery in any territory.
1860	Abraham Lincoln Elected. Abraham Lincoln of Illinois becomes the first Republican to win the United States Presidency.
	Southern Secession South Carolina secedes in December. More states follow the next year.
1861-5	United States Civil War Four years of brutal conflict claim 623,000 lives.
1862	Slave trade ended in Cuba.
1863	Emancipation Proclamation President Abraham Lincoln decrees that all slaves in Rebel territory are free on January 1, 1863.
	Holland abolishes slavery.
1865	Slavery Abolished The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution outlaws slavery.
1871	Gradual emancipation initiated in Brazil.
1873	Puerto Rico abolishes slavery.
1886	Cuba abolishes slavery.
1888	Slavery abolished in Brazil.
1962	Slavery abolished in Saudi Arabia.

Sources: Cronology of Slavery
National Geographic
Emancipation Timeline