TIMELINE OF ANTEBELLUM SLAVERY

Source: http://www.africanaonline.com/slavery_timeline.htm

1776 Declaration of Independence The Continental Congress asserts “that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States”.

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.

1790—First United States Census Nearly 700,000 slaves live and toil in a nation of 3.9 million people.

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 labor.

1808 United States Bans Slave Trade Importing African slaves is outlawed, but smuggling continues.

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´.

1822 Slave Revolt: South Carolina Freed slave Denmark Vesey attempts a rebellion in Charleston. Thirty-five participants in the ill-fated uprising are hanged.

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.

1835 Censorship Southern states expel abolitionists and forbid the mailing of antislavery propaganda.

1846-48 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.

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.

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, Congress allows these two new territories to choose whether to allow slavery. Violent clashes erupt.

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.

1860—Southern Secession South Carolina secedes in December. More states follow the next year. United States Civil War Four years of brutal conflict claim 623,000 lives.