Anti-Slavery Timeline

1609 The first African laborer was imported into Virginia.
1754 John Woolman addressed his fellow Quakers in Some Considerations of the Keeping of Negroes.
1775 The first Quaker antislavery society, the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, was organized in Philadelphia.
1777-1804 Gradual abolition laws were passed in northern states: Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey.
1785 John Jay and Alexander Hamilton organized the New York Manumission Society.
1787 U.S. Constitution signed, including compromise to count slaves as 3/5 of a person.
1787 The Northwest Ordinance banned slavery in the Northwest Territory.
1789 Benjamin Franklin organized the Pennsylvania Abolition Society
1793 The first Federal fugitive slave act provided for the return of slaves escaped across state boundaries.
1794 The first national antislavery society, the American Convention for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, was founded
1807 Congress passed the law prohibiting the importation of slaves into the United States after January 1, 1808.
1817 The American Colonization Society was founded to settle free Negroes in Africa.
1820 The Missouri Compromise admitted Missouri as a slave state but prohibited slavery in the Louisiana Territory thereafter about 36°30’ north latitude.
1821 The Quaker, Benjamin Lundy, started publishing his antislavery paper, The Genius of Universal Emancipation.
1822 A slave revolt occurred in Charleston, South Carolina, led by the freed man, Denmark Vesey.
1831 William Lloyd Garrison founded the Liberator.
1831 The Nat Turner Rebellion occurred in Virginia.
1831 The New England Anti?Slavery Society was founded in Boston.
1831-1832Emancipation was narrowly defeated in the Virginia constitutional convention.
1832 William Lloyd Garrison’s Thoughts on African Colonization was published. It marked a turning point of anti?slavery against colonization.
1833 Slavery ended in the British Empire.
1833 The American Anti?Slavery Society was founded in Philadelphia.
1834 Prudence Crandall’s school for Negro girls in Canterbury, Connecticut was closed by vandalism and mob destruction.
1835 The near lynching of Garrison occurred in Boston.
1836 The office of James G. Birney’s Philanthropist was sacked in Cincinnati.
1836-1844John Quincy Adams carried on the campaign against the Gag Rule, restricting the reception of antislavery petitions, in the House of Representatives.
1837 Elijah Lovejoy’s press was destroyed, and Lovejoy was killed in Alton, Illinois.
1838 Pennsylvania Hall, built for meetings of reform groups, was burned during the Anti?Slavery Convention of American Women in Philadelphia.
1839 The Amistad Revolt.
1840 The Liberty Party was organized and nominated James Birney for president.
1840 The World Anti?Slavery Convention was held in London. Women from the American Delegation were denied seats on the floor.
1841 The Amistad case, involving the importation of illegal slave into the Americas, was tried in Federal Courts.
1846-1848 United States victory in the Mexican War.
1850 The Fugitive Slave Law was passed as part of the Compromise of 1850.
1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
1854 Kansas?Nebraska Bill passed.
1854 The Republican Party forms.
1854 The fugitive slave, Anthony Burns was returned from Boston to Virginia.
1857 Dred Scott Decision.
1858 Abraham Lincoln condemned slavery in his “House Divided” speech.
1859 John Brown raided Harper’s Ferry to form and support a slave revolt.
1861 The Civil War began.
1863 The Emancipation Proclamation was issued.
1865 The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified.

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