-
Boston Massacre
Crispus Attacks, 1st American and African Amrican killed in Revolutionary War, The Crisis, -
Revolutionary War
Blacks fought for both the British and the American side during the Revolutionary War, depending on who was offering freedom for doing so -
U.S. Constitution Adopted,
Slaves counted as three-fifths of a person for means of representation -
First Fugitive Slave Act,
Congress passes the first Fugitive Slave Act, which makes it a crime to harbor an escaped slave. -
The Missouri Compromise
This legislation admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a non-slave state at the same time, so as not to upset the balance between slave and free states in the nation. It also outlawed slavery above the 36º 30´ latitude line in the remainder of the Louisiana Territory. -
The Vesey Conspiracy
In response to the closing of their church in Charleston, which boasted a membership of over three thousand in 1820, Denmark Vesey used his position as a respected free man and Methodist leader to organize other free and enslaved blacks to battle for freedom. -
Freedom's Journal
Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm publish Freedom's Journal, the first African American newspaper in America, -
Amistad Case
Slaves being transported aboard the Spanish ship Amistad take it over and sail it to Long Island. They eventually win their freedom in a Supreme Court case. -
The Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was actually a series of bills passed mainly to address issues related to slavery. The bills provided for slavery to be decided by popular sovereignty in the admission of new states, prohibited the slave trade in the District of Columbia, settled a Texas boundary dispute, and established a stricter fugitive slave act. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin Published
Angered by the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes the first of 41 installments of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in an abolitionist weekly, June 5, 1851. She intends her novel about slaves Uncle Tom, who is sold and resold, and Eliza, who flees to save her child, to “awaken sympathy” for those suffering under a “cruel and unjust” system. -
Wade-Davis Bill
Near the end of the Civil War, this bill created a framework for Reconstruction and the readmittance of the Confederate states to the Union. Although Lincoln used a pocket veto to kill it, after his assassination the Republican Congress passed the measure requiring among other things, that southern states give the Negro the right to vote. -
13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery
Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States. -
1866 Civil Rights Act
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 granted citizenship and the same rights enjoyed by white citizens to all male persons in the United States "without distinction of race or color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude." -
14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights
Passed by Congress June 13, 1866, and ratified July 9, 1868, the 14th amendment extended liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to former slaves. -
Frederick Douglass
In 1845 publishes Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, one of the enduring classics of American literature.
Douglass advocates enlisting in the Union Army to lay the groundwork for citizenship during the Civil War.
