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Enslaved Africans Arrive in Virginia
Virginia's first Africans arrived at Point Comfort, Virginia, in August 1619. A Chain of Slaves travelling from the Interior. Around 20 Africans from the English ship White Lion were sold in exchange for food. Some were taken to Jamestown where they were sold again. -
Virginia Slave Codes
Defining enslaved people as property, and established legal frameworks for their control and punishment, including prohibiting slaves from owning property, moving freely, or bearing arms. -
U.S. Bans the Importation of Enslaved People
The 1808 Act imposed heavy penalties on international traders, but did not end slavery itself nor the domestic sale of slaves. Not only did it drive trade underground, but ships caught illegally trading were often brought into the United States and its passengers sold into slavery. -
Nat Turner’s Rebellion
at Turner, an enslaved preacher, led a revolt in Southampton County, Virginia, killing approximately 55 white people before being captured and executed, sparking fear and stricter slave codes in the South. Click Here -
Harriet Tubman
Most well-known of all the Underground Railroad's "conductors." During a ten-year span she made 19 trips into the South and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom. And, as she once proudly pointed out to Frederick Douglass, in all of her journeys she "never lost a single passenger." -
Fugitive Slave Act
Required citizens to help capture and return runaway slaves, even in free states, and penalized those who aided fugitives, fueling abolitionist opposition and intensifying sectional tensions. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Abraham Lincoln declared slaves in Confederate states "forever free" and allowed formerly enslaved people to join the Union army, effectively making the war about slavery and aiding the Union cause. -
The 13th Amendent
Amendment Thirteen to the Constitution forbids chattel slavery across the United States and in every territory under its control, except as a criminal punishment. -
15th Amendment Grants Black Men the Right to Vote
The United States' 15th Amendment made voting legal for African-American men. However, voting for them was almost nonexistent in some places, especially in the South, because of threats, violence, and unethical practices, like poll taxes Click Here -
Frederick Douglass
Frederick dedicated his life to fighting slavery through powerful oratory, writing, and activism, becoming a leading voice in the abolitionist movement and advocating for civil rights for African Americans.