Slavery in Early America 1777–1829
African American History
Slavery in Early America 1777–1829
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1777 |
Vermont becomes the first U.S. territory to abolish slavery | |
| 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 |
Virginia abolishes the slave trade | |
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1779 |
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 |
Pennsylvania enacts a gradual-emancipation law | |
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1781 |
Forty-four settlers, including twenty-six African Americans, found the city of Los Angeles | |
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1783 |
Massachusetts abolishes slavery in the Quok Walker case | |
| Blacks are disenfranchised in Maryland; by 1789, all Southern states except Tennessee enact similar legislation | ||
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1784 |
Rhode Island and Connecticut pass gradual-emancipation laws | |
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1787 |
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 |
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 |
A colony of 1,200 black ex-slaves, formerly of Nova Scotia, resettle in Freetown, Sierra Leone | |
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1793 |
Eli Whitney’s cotton gin greatly improves cotton production, stimulates Southern economies, and increases demand for slave labor | |
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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 | |
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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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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 |
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| 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 | |
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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 | |
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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) | |
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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 |
