-
The significant starting point of slavery
The privateer The White Lion brought 20 African slaves ashore in the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia. -
Northen states abolishing slavery
All of the northern states abolished slavery, but the institution of slavery remained absolutely vital to the South. -
Helping other enslaved people
Free Black people and other antislavery northerners had begun helping enslaved people escape from southern plantations to the North via a loose network of safe houses as early as the 1780s. -
Slaves led by Gabriel Prosser
Rebellions among enslaved people did occur—notably ones led by Gabriel Prosser in Richmond in 1800 -
The U.S. Congress outlawed the African slave trade
-
Freeing slaves and sending them back to Africa
In an early effort to stop slavery, the American Colonization Society, founded in 1816, proposed the idea of freeing slaves and sending them back to Africa. -
The Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise of 1820, which allowed Missouri to become a slave state, further provoked anti-slave sentiment in the North. -
Slaves led by
Denmark Vesey in Charleston in 1822—but few were successful. -
Movement to abolish slavery
From the 1830s to the 1860s, the movement to abolish slavery in America gained strength, led by free Black people such as Frederick Douglass and white supporters such as William Lloyd Garrison and Harriet Beecher Stowe, -
Slaves led by Nat Turner
The revolt that most terrified enslavers was that led by Nat Turner in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831. -
Lane Theological Seminary named Amos Dresser
In 1833, a white student at Lane Theological Seminary named Amos Dresser was publicly whipped in Nashville, Tennessee, for possessing abolitionist literature while traveling through the city. -
Controversial Fugitive Slave Act
In 1850, Congress passed the controversial Fugitive Slave Act, which required all escaped enslaved people to be returned to their owners and American citizens to cooperate with the captures. -
Kansas-Nebraska
After the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was passed, both pro- and anti-slavery groups inhabited the Kansas Territory. In 1856, a pro-slavery group attacked the town of Lawrence, which was founded by abolitionists from Massachusetts. -
Lawrence attack
In 1856, a pro-slavery group attacked the town of Lawrence, which was founded by abolitionists from Massachusetts. In retaliation, abolitionist John Brown organized a raid that killed five pro-slavery settlers. -
Capturing the U.S arsenal
Then, in 1859, Brown led 21 men to capture the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He and his followers were seized by a group of Marines and convicted of treason. Brown was hanged for the crime. -
U.S population tripled
The enslaved population in the U.S. nearly tripled over the next 50 years. By 1860 it had reached nearly 4 million, with more than half living in the cotton-producing states of the South. -
American Civil War
Union states (North) vs Confederate States (South) -
The end of slavery
The Emancipation Proclamation Alborham Lincoln (USA president) declares all salves in the Confedetary (Southern States) shall be free. -
The Thirteenth Amendment
in 1865, the Constitution was ratified to include the Thirteenth Amendment, which officially abolished all forms of slavery in the United States.