HI 312

  • The beginning

    Lorenzo Pignoria publishes De Servis et Eorum apud Veteres Ministeriis, a history of slavery in classical Rome.
  • A deeper look

    Bermuda colony becomes a Crown possession
  • The first of many

    First record of slaves in Bermuda
  • The first records of slaves in Virginia

  • King Charles II

    King Charles II of England charters the 'Royal Adventurers into Africa ' being the first English state-sponsored slave trading company
  • A long war

    France declares war on Great Britain, commencing the Revolutionary Wars that continues until 1815 adding more implications for the enslaved people.
  • 'La Convention Nationale déclare que l'Esclavage des Negres dans toutes les Colonies est aboli'

    In Paris, 'La Convention Nationale déclare que l'Esclavage des Negres dans toutes les Colonies est aboli' ('The National Convention declares that the slavery of the Negroes is abolished in all the colonies'). The Convention's Emancipation Declaration was short lived: Napoleon Bonaparte re-established slavery in France's colonies in 1802.
  • British Parliament votes to abolish the trade in slaves

  • U.S. Emancipation Proclamation

    Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation abolishes slavery.
  • Thirtennth Amendment

    The thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States proposed. The amendment stated that: 'Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction
  • General Assembly of the United States

    General Assembly of the United Nations adopts Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 4 states: 'No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.'