Interactive Timeline of Significant Events related to the Education of African Americans
By Anthropocene
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Aug 3, 1492
Pedro Alonso Niño
Pedro Alonso Niño was the navigator for Christopher Columbus' ship the Santa Maria. He's considered to be the first Black man to reach the Americas. -
Jan 1, 1501
Spain and Portugal Authorize use of African Slaves
in The year 1501, African slaves were introduced into Hispaniola at Santo Domingo by Spanish settlers. This was the first importation of African slaves into the Americas -
Jan 1, 1562
The Brittish Slave Trade is established
In 1562, British admiral John Hawkins inaugurated the British slave trade by profitably transporting African captives during a three-year period (through 1565) to Caribbean colonies claimed and ruled by the Spanish. -
1st Slave Revolt
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Dutch Ship arrives in Jamestown with 20+ African Indentured Servants
Arrival of "20 and Odd" Blacks in late August of 1619 aboard a Dutch man of war. These blacks were sold/traded into servitude for supplies. Like indentured servants, they were probably freed after a fixed period of service. -
First established School for Blacks and Indians
The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 5, No. 1, Jan., 1920 The first public school specifically intended for blacks and Native Americans was established in Virginia.The rudimentary education of Negroes was one of the first claims on pioneer Christian teachers. -
1640 John Punch
SLAVERY AND THE MAKING OF AMERICA
John Punch, an African indentured servant, ran away from his master and a Virginia court ordered that Punch’s punishment be a lifetime of service to his master. He was the first documented slave for life. -
1642 Virginia enacts fugitive Slave regulations
1642 Virginia enacts fugitive Slave regulations fining anyone who harbors a run-away slave 20 pounds of Tobbaco. -
First Black Petition to be freed.
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1652 Rhode Island passes first law limiting slavery to 10 years.
Rhode Island passes laws restricting slavery and forbidding enslavement for more than 10 years or by age 24. The law is never enforced. -
1662 Ruling that The Slavery Status of the Mother will determine the status of the child
Virginia enacts a law of hereditary slavery meaning that a child born to an enslaved mother inherits her slave status. -
1663 All Blacks brought into colony regardless of status will be slaves
Maryland legalizes slavery. A Maryland statute attempts to enforce a law that all blacks, even those who are free, would be slaves and all blacks born would be slaves regardless of the status of their mother. -
1664 Maryland bans interracial Marriage
In 1664 Maryland banned interracial marriage due to questions over whether the offspring of a black slave and a white person would be considered a free person or property. -
1669 Killing a slave is deemed not a crime
A watershed year came in 1669, when Virginia became the first English colony to declare that it was not a crime to kill an unruly slave in the ordinary course of administering punishment. -
First formal protest against slavery
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1691 Virginia bans interracial Marriage
In 1691 Virginia outlawed interracial couples and labeled their children as “that abominable mixture and spurious issue.” -
1692 Salem Witch Trials, Tituba was one of the first three people accused of practicing witchcraft
Despite the fact that she confessed to a capital offense and was a slave, Tituba was never tried or executed for her role in the witchcraft trials. -
1693 Quakers publish first protest for Slavery
In 1693 George Keith, a radical Quaker apostate, wrote An Exortation & Caution to Friends Concerning buying or keeping of Negroes, one of the earliest antislavery protests to be printed and widely circulated in the colonies. -
1696 Quakers "Society of Friends" Ban/Expel Membership when Quakers in Pennsylvania import slaves
1696: The Society of Friends (the Quakers) threatened any of their members who imported slaves with expulsion from the denomination. -
1700 Samuel Sewall of Massachetusets Wrote "the Selling of Joseph"
In The Selling of Joseph (1700), Samuel Sewall came out strongly against slavery, making him one of the earliest colonial abolitionists -
1704 Catechism school for enslaved Africans opened in New York City.
Mapping the African American Past1704 Catechism school for enslaved Africans opened in New York City. Elias Neau, A Frenchman opens a school for Blacks. -
1711 Pennsylvania outlaws slavery but it's vetoed by the Brittish
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First legislation to prevent import of slaves.
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1717 Cotton Mather (of Salem Witch Trials) opens school
1717: In Massachusetts, the Puritan clergyman Cotton Mather hold evening classes to instruct African Americans and Indians in Christianity. -
The Associates of Doctor Bray
The associates of Doctor Bray</p>
The associates of Doctor Bray was founded for the operation of Schools for Slaves -
1735 Prince Hall is Born
Prince Hall
Prince Hall (c.1735 – December 7, 1807) was an African American noted as a tireless abolitionist, for his leadership in the free black community in Boston, and as the founder of Prince Hall Masonry. -
The first school for Blacks opens in South Carolina
The First school for Blacks under the instruction of Negro Schoolmasters opens in Charlston, S.C. -
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Benjamin Banneker Designs and Builds first Clock made witout imported parts.
Benjamin Banneker Designs and Builds the first Clock made in the U.S. witout imported parts. He had never been taught how to make it. Keeps perfect time for 40 years. -
1758 Quakers end slavery within membership
over the next 16 years the Quakers abolish slavery completely within their ranks. -
Thomas Jefferson intorduces first bill for emancipation of all slaves, but it's defeated
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A School for Blacks was opened by Philadelphia Quakers
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1773 Phillis Wheatley the Female Poet writes " Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral"
Phillis Wheatley
The publication of Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) brought her fame, both in England, and the Thirteen Colonies -
First Negro Baptist church in Gorgia
The First Negro Baptist Church was Organized in Savannah GA, by George Leile and Andrew Bryan. -
Thomas Paine (Quaker) publishes "Slavery in America"
Thomas PaineAlthough Paine was not the first to advocate the aboliton of slavery in Amerca, he was certainly one of the earliest and most influential. The essay was written in 1774 and published March 8, 1775 when it appeared in the Pennsylvania Journal and the Weekly Advertiser. Just a few weeks later on April 14, 1775 the first anti-slavery society in America was formed in Philadelphia. Paine was a founding member. -
First Abolition society was organized by Quakers
"The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage," the first American society dedicated to the cause of abolition, is founded in Philadelphia on this day in 1775 -
Slaves Freed who served in the Military
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Lemuel Hayes becomes first Black Minister.
Revoultionary war Veteran Lemuel Hayes becomes the first Black Minister licensed to Preach in the U.S.A. -
Massachusetts abolishes Slavery
1783: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules slavery illegal based on 1780 state constitution. All slaves are immediately freed. -
Free African Society
The Free African Society was founded in Philadelphia in April 1787, the first black mutual aid society in the city. The leaders were Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, free blacks whose goal was to create a non-denominational religious organization to serve the spiritual, economic and social needs of Philadelphia's African-American community -
Prince Hall petitions for the Legislature for equal school facilities.
Prince Hall</p>
Long before the 1954 ruling Brown V. Board of education Prince Hall petitions the Legislature for equal school facilities for Blacks, along with other Boston Negroes.
The Politics of Black Education, 1780-1980 by Tony Hill</p> -
Olaudah Equiano Publishes Gustavuss Vass
Entitled The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, it was first published in 1789 and rapidly went through several editions. -
Richard Allen opened first Epispocal Church for Blacks
Some had been members of the Episcopal Church in the South; he founded the African Church. It was accepted as a parish congregation in the Episcopal Church and opened its doors on July 17, 1794 as the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas. Many blacks had been familiar with the Episcopal denomination, which shared common roots with Methodism in the Church of England. -
Eli Whitney received a patent for his cotton gin on March 14, 1794
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Boston Masons
Boston Masons, led by Prince Hall, created first Black interstate organization, creating lodges in Philadelphia and Providence, Rhode Island. -
Lemuel Haynes becomes the first black man to receive an honorary degree from an American College.
Lemuel Haynes
Lemuel Haynes becomes the first black man to receive an honorary degree from an American College when he recieves an honary M.A. degree from middlebury College -
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Virginia's Slave code ammended
Freed Slaves that don't leave the state within a year may be apprehended or sold. -
Slave Trade Act 1807
Slave Trade Act 1807The original act is in the Parliamentary Archives. The act abolished the slave trade in the British Empire, but not slavery itself; slavery on English soil was unsupported in English law and that position was confirmed in Somersett's Case in 1772, but it remained legal in most of the British Empire until the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 -
Newport Gardner becomes the First Headmaster of a school for black children in 1808
Newport Gardner, one of the first black music teachers in the United States, opened a music school in Newport, Massachusetts in 1791 -
Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves
Only starting January 1, 1808 could laws become effective to end the slave trade. -
1808 Congressional act abolishing the slave trade (but not slavery) in effect 1 January.
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Richard Allen founder of the African Methodist Episcopal becomes First Black Bishop
The African Methodist Episcopal the first fully independent black denomination in the United States elects it's first Black Bishop, Richard Allen. -
American Colonization Society
The American Colonization Society founded in 1816, was the primary vehicle to support the "return" of free African Americans to what was considered greater freedom in Africa. It helped to found the colony of Liberia in 1821–22 as a place for freedmen. -
In Philadelphia a group of Free Blacks organized "the Pennsylvania Augustine Society"
Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, And Historical..., Volume 2 By Junius P. Rodriguez
"The Pennsylvania Augustine Society" organized by free blacks to promote education -
"Sisters of Loretto" first to admit Black Women as Nuns
The Jim Crow Encyclopedia: Greenwood Milestones in African American History By Nikki L. M. Brown, Barry M. Stentiford
This quickly failed due to the racism of the time. -
Edward A Jones
Becomes the first to graduate from an American College, Massachusetts. 11 Days later John Russworm recieves a degree from Bowdoin College Maine. -
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Richard Allen elected President of the first National Black Convention.
Part of an organizational effort known as the Negro Convention Movement, Richard Allen is elected President of the first Black National Convention. -
Nat Turner
Nathaniel "Nat" Turner (October 2, 1800 – November 11, 1831)an American slave who led a slave rebellion in Virginia on August 21, 1831 that resulted in 60 white deaths and at least 100 black deaths, -
Oberlin College is Opened
Becoming both the first ec=ducational college and the first college to admit Blacks at it's onset. -
Lucretia Mott and her husband helped found the American Anti-Slavery Society.
Lucretia Coffin Mott By then an experienced minister and abolitionist, Lucretia Mott was the only woman to speak at the organizational meeting in Philadelphia. She tested the language of the society's Constitution and bolstered support when many delegates were precarious. Days after the conclusion of the convention, at the urging of other delegates, Mott and other white and black women founded the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. -
Blacks open and Finance the First Negro School in Cincinnati
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William Whipper created the American Moral Reform Society.
African American abolitionistWhipper demonstrated his dedication to the notion of moral reform via the creation of the American Moral Reform Society. In 1835 he attended the annual convention of the Improvement of Free People of Color. He urged delegates to adopt a resolution, which ended the usage of the word "colored." -
Alexander Lucius Twilight
1st State elected official: Alexander Lucius Twilight, 1836, to the Vermont legislature.
21 years before another first, the first Locally elected official: John Mercer Langston. -
1837: William Whipper Publishes "On Non-Resistance to Offensive Aggression"
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Southern Youth Negro Congress was founded
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Creation of the Liberty Party, the First Anti-Slavery Party.
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Sojourner Truth
On June 1, 1843, Truth changed her name to Sojourner Truth. Began her work as a an Abolitionist. -
Macon B Allen
Macon B Allen The first African American licensed to practice law in the United States after passing the Bar at Worcester Massachusetts. -
Norbert Rillieux Patent Model for "Multiple Effect Vacuum Evaporator"
Norbert Rillieux
Revolutionizes the Sugar production industry. -
Benjamin Roberts files the first school intergration suit in Boston on behalf of his daughter.
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Frederick Douglass deliveres speech to the American Anti-Slavery Society, New York, 9 May 1848
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass is elected President of the Black National Convention -
Charles L. Reason
In October 1849, this man became the first black professor in a predominantly white university. He was named professor of mathematics, "belles-lettres," and French at Central College in McGrawville, New York. -
Jeremiah B. Sanderson
Founder of Schools throughout California for African American Children he also included Asian/Oriental students who were blocked from going to public schools. -
Lucy Ann Stanton became the first Black woman to graduate from college
Graduating from Oberlyn College in Ohio -
First YMCA for Blacks
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First Black College.
Lincoln University in Pennsylvania was founded in 1854 by John Historical Black Colleges
Lincoln was originally founded under the name Ashmun Institute, after the religious leader and social reformer, Jehudi Ashmun, to educate young men of African descent. It claims the title of the first degree-awarding school of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in the United States. -
School Segregation was Abolished in Boston
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John Mercer Langston becomes the first Black man elected to to Office of the U.S. by winning town council
John Mercer LangstonBrownheim Ohio, -
Wilberforce University, the nation's oldest private, historically black university
Wilberforce University was founded by the Methodist Epispocal Church -
Mary S Peake
Mary S. Peake an American teacher and humanitarian, best known for starting a school for the children of former slaves starting in the fall of 1861 under what became known as the Emancipation Oak tree in present-day Hampton near Fort Monroe. -
Frederick Douglass Appointed by Lincoln for emancipation of Slaves
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Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley
Keckley founded the Contraband Relief Association in August 1862. The organization changed its name in July 1864 to the Ladies' Freedmen and Soldier's Relief Association to "reflect its expanded mission." The CRA provided food, shelter, clothing, and emotional support to recently freed slaves and/or sick and wounded soldiers. The organization was based in Washington D.C., but the funds distributed and the services provided surpassed county lines. -
Daniel Payne becomes the first Negro College President in America at Wilberforce University.
Daniel Payne In 1863 he becomes its first president, and the first African-American president of a college in the United States. -
The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President
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