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1777
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Vermont becomes the first U.S. territory to abolish
slavery
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| |
Black slaves in Massachusetts petition the legislature for freedom
based on the stated principles of the Declaration of Independence and
military service in the Revolutionary War
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1778
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Virginia abolishes the slave trade
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1779
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|
Black Canadian fur trader and pioneer Jean-Baptist-Point du
Sable establishes a trading post that eventually becomes the
city of Chicago
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1780
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Pennsylvania enacts a gradual-emancipation law
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1781
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Forty-four settlers, including twenty-six African Americans, found
the city of Los Angeles
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1783
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Massachusetts abolishes slavery in the Quok Walker case
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| |
Blacks are disenfranchised in Maryland; by 1789, all Southern states
except Tennessee enact similar legislation
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1784
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Rhode Island and Connecticut pass gradual-emancipation
laws
|
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1787
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U.S. Constitution is adopted, prohibiting the importation of slaves
after 1808; declaring each slave to be three-fifths of one white, or free,
person (“Three-Fifths Clause”); and demanding the
return of fugitive slaves to their masters
|
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| |
Richard Allen and Absalom Jones form the Free African
Society, the first civil rights organization in the United
States
|
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1789
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|
Freed slave Olaudah Equiano publishes his autobiography, The
Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the
African
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1790
|
|
First U.S. census marks the African American population at 757,208
(19.3 percent of the total population), of whom 59,557 are free
|
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1791
|
|
Haitian
revolutionary Toussaint-L’Ouverture leads a
successful slave revolt in St. Dominique (present-day Haiti)
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1792
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A colony of 1,200 black ex-slaves, formerly of Nova Scotia, resettle
in Freetown, Sierra Leone
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1793
|
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Eli Whitney’s cotton gin greatly improves cotton production,
stimulates Southern economies, and increases demand for slave
labor
|
|
| |
U.S. Congress passes the first Fugitive Slave
Law, which sanctions slave extradition and makes harboring a
runaway slave a criminal offense
|
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1794
|
|
U.S. Congress bans the exportation of slaves to foreign
countries
|
|
| |
In Philadelphia, Rev. Richard Allen establishes the Bethel
African Methodist Episcopal Church and a day school for
black children
|
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1796
|
|
African Americans in Boston establish a mutual aid organization, the
Boston African Society
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|
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1800
|
|
Total population of African Americans reaches 1 million
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1804
|
|
New Jersey becomes the last Northern state to pass a manumission
(emancipation) law
|
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1801
|
|
Central Assembly of St. Dominique drafts a new constitution and
appoints Toussaint L’Ouverture governor
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1803
|
|
South Carolina reopens ports to African slave trade, using Latin
America and the West Indies to satisfy labor demands in expanding cotton and
rice markets
|
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1804
|
|
Haiti becomes an independent country under Jean-Jacques Dessa
lines
|
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1808
|
|
Federal law bans importation of African slaves; approximately 250,000
slaves are imported illegally until 1860
|
|
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1810
|
|
Tom Molineaux, a former slave turned boxer, achieves international
prominence
|
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1812
|
|
African Americans serve in the War of 1812 as
sailors and militia men
|
|
| |
Louisiana disenfranchises blacks; followed by Indiana (1816); Florida
and Mississippi (1817); Illinois, Connecticut, and New England (1818);
Alabama (1819); and Missouri (1821)
|
|
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1815
|
|
Wealthy African American shipping merchant Paul Cuffe starts campaign
to resettle free blacks in West Africa; successfully transports 38 free
blacks from the United States to Sierra Leone
|
|
|
1816
|
|
Richard Allen convenes a conference of black Methodists in
Philadelphia to establish the African Methodist Episcopal
(A.M.E.) Church, the first independent black denomination,
and presides as bishop
|
|
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1820
|
|
American Colonization Society charters the ship Elizabeth for an
expedition to resettle 86 blacks and build Liberia as a black republic in
West Africa
|
|
|
1821
|
|
Missouri Compromise allows Maine to enter the
Union as a free state and Missouri as a slave state; also prohibits slavery
in the territory of the Louisiana Purchase
|
|
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1822
|
|
Denmark Vessey, a free African American
carpenter, organizes a slave revolt against an arsenal in Charleston, South
Carolina; a house servant betrays the plot, resulting in the capture and
hanging of Vessey and his followers
|
|
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1823
|
|
Alexander Twilight becomes the first African American college
graduate, at Middlebury College in Vermont; Twilight later holds public
office (see below)
|
|
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1824
|
|
African American actor Ira Aldridge begins a career in Europe; later
debuts as Othello on the London stage (1833)
|
|
|
1827
|
|
State of New York abolishes slavery
|
|
| |
John B. Russwurm and Rev. Samuel E. Cornish publish the Freedom Journal, the first African American newspaper in New York City
|
|
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1829
|
|
White mobs attack African Americans in Cincinnati, Ohio, during a
three-day race riot; approximately 1,000 blacks flee and resettle in
Canada
|
Slavery in Early America 1777–1829
