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The first slaves
The arrival of the first captives to the Jamestown colony, in 1619, was seen as the beginning of slavery in America. When the Africans were on the ship it started with approximately 350 Africans on board, but hunger and diseases took a swift toll along the way and about 150 captives died. -
Northwest Ordinance
The northwest ordinance is a system of government for the northwest territories. It specified various parts of the northwest territory could become states. This document outlawed slavery in any of states created from the Northwest territory. -
Republican group started
The republican group was made to not abolish slavery in the south right away, but to rather prevent its westward expansion, which they feared would lead to the domination of slaveholding interests in national politics. After the election of the Republican Abraham Lincoln, 7 states seceded from the union which led to the Civil War. Over the course of the Civil war, Lincoln and other republicans started to see the abolition of slavery as a strategy to help win the war. -
Civil War
The Civil war started in 1861 and ended in 1865. The war was between the northern states, the union, and the southern states, the confederates. The Union wanted to abolish slavery, but the Confederates wanted to keep slavery. 7 southern states seceded from the Union which was a reason for the war to start. After the Confederates attacked Fort Sumter Lincoln declared war on them. -
Emancipation Proclamation
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, as the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." Although this document freed slaves it did not give them citizenship or make slavery illegal. -
Senate passes 13th Amendment
The senate passes the 13th Amendment on April 8, 1864, but it did not pass the house at this time. They passed this Amendment with a vote of 38-6. It did not pass the House because more and more democrats refused to support it because it was during an election year. -
Black Codes
Black codes were put into place to restrict the freedoms that African Americans had after the Civil War. Under Black Codes, many states required Blacks to sign a contract and if they refused they would risk being arrested, fined, and forced into unpaid labor. Many of the Africans didn’t know how to read so most of them didn’t understand what they were signing. -
House passed the 13th Amendment
The 13th Amendment had finally passed the House of Representatives on January 31, 1865. The vote passed with 119-56 with the required two-thirds majority. The following day, Lincoln approved a joint resolution of Congress submitting it to the state legislatures for ratification. When Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, and the necessary number of states did not ratify the 13th Amendment until December 6, 1865. -
Ratification of the 13th Amendment
The 13th amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865. In order to ban slavery 27 states need to ratify the amendment. Georgia was the 27th state to ratify the amendment and which made slavery illegal. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The civil rights act of 1964 prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Provisions of this civil rights act forbade discrimination on the basis of sex, as well as, race in hiring, promoting, and firing.