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Main work of enslaved Africans
In the 17th and 18th centuries, enslaved Africans worked mainly on the tobacco, rice and indigo plantations of the southern coast, from the Chesapeake Bay colonies of Maryland and Virginia south to Georgia. After the American Revolution, many colonists—particularly in the North, where slavery was relatively unimportant to the agricultural economy—began to link the oppression of enslaved Africans to their own oppression by the British, and to call for slavery’s abolition. -
Slavery
Hundreds of thousands of Africans, both free and enslaved, aided the establishment and survival of colonies in the Americas and the New World. However, many consider a significant starting point to slavery in America to be 1619, when the privateer The White Lion brought 20 African slaves ashore in the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia -
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Slavery and Civil Rights Movement
This timeline includes important events that happend between the starting times of Slavery, ending of Slavery and Civil Rights Movement Era. -
Cotton Gin
In 1793, a young Yankee schoolteacher named Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, a simple mechanized device that efficiently removed the seeds. His device was widely copied, and within a few years the South would transition from the large-scale production of tobacco to that of cotton, a switch that reinforced the region’s dependence on enslaved labor. -
Missouri Compromise
In 1820, a bitter debate over the federal government’s right to restrict slavery over Missouri’s application for statehood ended in a compromise: Missouri was admitted to the Union as a slave state, Maine as a free state and all western territories north of Missouri’s southern border were to be free soil. Although the Missouri Compromise was designed to maintain an even balance between slave and free states, it was able to help quell the forces of sectionalism only temporarily -
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Abolitionist Movement
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, Frederick Douglass, Secretary of State William H. Seward and Pennsylvania congressman Thaddeus Stevens. Although estimates vary widely, it may have helped anywhere from 40,000 to 100,000 enslaved people reach freedom. -
Slave Rebellions - Nat Turner
Rebellions among enslaved people did occur—notably ones led by Gabriel Prosser in Richmond in 1800 and by Denmark Vesey in Charleston in 1822—but few were successful. The revolt that most terrified enslavers was that led by Nat Turner in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831. Turner’s group, which eventually numbered around 75 Black men, murdered some 55 white people in two days before armed resistance from local white people and the arrival of state militia forces overwhelmed them. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
In 1850, another tenuous compromise was negotiated to resolve the question of slavery in territories won during the Mexican-American War. Four years later, however, the Kansas-Nebraska Act opened all new territories to slavery by asserting the rule of popular sovereignty over congressional edict, leading pro- and anti-slavery forces to battle it out—with considerable bloodshed—in the new state of Kansas.. -
Dred Scott Case
Dred Scott was born into slavery around 1799 in Southampton County, Virginia. He spent his late years filing lawsuits for freedom.He and his family (excluding his ex-wife) got sold to Taylor Blow, the son of Peter Blow, Scott’s original owner
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Taylor freed Scott and his family on May 26, 1857. Scott found work as a porter in a St. Louis hotel, but didn’t live long as a free man. At about 59 years of age, Scott died from tuberculosis on September 17, 1858. -
John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry
Two years after the Dred Scott decision, an event occurred that would ignite passions nationwide over the issue of slavery. John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, Virginia—in which the abolitionist and 22 men, including five Black men and three of Brown’s sons raided and occupied a federal arsenal—resulted in the deaths of 10 people and Brown’s hanging. Brown was hailed as a martyred hero by northern abolitionists, but was vilified as a mass murderer in the South. -
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Civil War
The South would reach the breaking point the following year, when Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected as president. Within three months, seven southern states had seceded to form the Confederate States of America; four more would follow after the Civil War began.The American Civil War remains the deadliest war in American history. From 1861 to 1865, it is estimated that 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers died, along with an undetermined number of civilians -
End of Slavery
On September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued a preliminary emancipation proclamation, and on January 1, 1863, he made it official that “slaves within any State, or designated part of a State…in rebellion,…shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Slavery officially ended on 18th December 1865 with the passage of the 13th Amendment after the Civil War’s end —some 186,000 Black soldiers would join the Union Army, and about 38,000 lost their lives. -
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Jim Crow Laws
Jim Crow Laws were about segregating black and white people in all public buildings. "Jim Crow" was a racist term for a black person. Black people were usually treated worse than white people. This segregation was also done in the armed forces, schools, restaurants, on buses and in what jobs blacks got.
Jim Crow laws were abolished by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 -
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Civil Rights Movement USA
The civil rights movement was a struggle for social justice that took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s for Black Americans to gain equal rights under the law in the United States. The Civil War had officially abolished slavery, but it didn’t end discrimination against Black people—they continued to endure the devastating effects of racism, especially in the South. Black Americans, along with many white Americans, began an unprecedented fight for equality that spanned two decades -
Civil Rights Act of 1957
Many southern states made it difficult for Black citizens to vote. They often required prospective voters of color to take literacy tests that were confusing, misleading and nearly impossible to pass. On September 9, 1957, President Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 into law. It allowed federal prosecution of anyone who tried to prevent someone from voting. It also created a commission to investigate voter fraud. -
Freedom Riders Bus Bomb
On May 4, 1961, 13 “Freedom Riders”—seven Black and six white activists–mounted a Greyhound bus in Washington, D.C., embarking on a bus tour of the American south to protest segregated bus terminals. They were testing the 1960 decision by the Supreme Court in Boynton v. Virginia.
On Mother’s Day 1961, the bus reached Anniston, Alabama, where a mob mounted the bus and threw a bomb into it. The Freedom Riders escaped the burning bus, but were badly beaten. -
March on Washington
One of the most famous events of the civil rights movement took place on August 28, 1963: the March on Washington. More than 200,000 people of all races congregated in Washington, D. C. for the peaceful march with the main purpose of forcing civil rights legislation and establishing job equality for everyone. The highlight of the march was Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech in which he continually stated, “I have a dream…” King’s “I Have a Dream” speech became a slogan for equality and freedom. -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964—legislation initiated by President John F. Kennedy before his assassination—into law on July 2 of that year. King and other civil rights activists witnessed the signing. The law guaranteed equal employment for all, limited the use of voter literacy tests and allowed federal authorities to ensure public facilities were integrated. -
Civil Rights Leader Malcolm X assassination
The civil rights movement had tragic consequences for two of its leaders in the late 1960s. On February 21, 1965, former Nation of Islam leader and Organization of Afro-American Unity founder Malcolm X was assassinated at a rally. Three Nation members were charged with the murder and given indeterminate life sentences. -
Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King Jr. assassination
On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on his hotel room’s balcony. by an American fugitive named James Earl Ray. Emotionally-charged looting and riots followed, putting even more pressure on the Johnson administration to push through additional civil rights laws. Ray was convicted in 1969 after entering a guilty plea and was sentenced to 99 years' imprisonment. -
Fair Housing Act of 1968 - End of Civil Right Movement
The Fair Housing Act became law on April 11, 1968, just days after King’s assassination. It prevented discrimination based on race, sex, national origin and religion. It was also the last legislation during the civil rights era. The civil rights movement was an empowering yet precarious time for Black Americans. The efforts of civil rights activists and protesters of all races brought about legislation to end segregation, Black voter suppression and discriminatory employment. -
First African American Elected President - Barack Obama
On November 4th, 2008, Barack Obama was elected President, making him the first African-American President of the United States. His victory in the 2008 election made a powerful statement about how far the country has come on the issue of race.
The presidency of Barack Obama began on 20.01.2009 and ended on 20.01.2017.
Did you know? Not only was Obama the first African-American president, he was also the first to be born outside the continental United States. Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961.
