Selected Significant Dates of the Abolition Movement and Other Contemporary Events
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.
1619 – Africans brought to Jamestown, Virginia as slaves
February 18, 1688 - First formal antislavery resolution, Society of Friends, Germantown, PA – “Germantown Protest”
1775 - First American anti-slavery society… Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society
1793 – Fugitive Slave Act in Congress to provide for the capture and return of runaway slaves anywhere in the United States
1794 – Slave Trade Act, by Congress, was not enforced, and Atlantic slave trade continued in some states
January 1, 1804 – Slave revolution in Haiti gains independence
1807 – British slave trade abolished, U. S. Congress passed Act Prohibiting the Import of Slaves. The U.S. domestic slave trade was unaffected
1820 – Missouri Compromise, admitting Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state and prohibiting future slavery north of the 36 30 parallel
1821 – Antislavery newspaper The Genius of Universal Emancipation founded by Quaker Benjamin Lundy
1826 – American Colonization Society
1826 – French Slave Trade abolished
November, 1829 – Angelina Grimke of South Carolina joins her sister Sarah in Philadelphia, later to become leading abolitionist activists
1830 – Indian Removal Act – Initiated the forcible removal of Native Americans from millions of acres on Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Florida to lands west of the Mississippi River
January 1, 1831 – Publication of The Liberator, Boston, William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp, to run continuously until 1865
August 1831, Nat Turner’s rebellion represented growing black anger, jarred the southern slave owning establishment, and increased the visibility of the abolitionist cause
January 6, 1832, New England Anti-Slavery Society, Boston, William Lloyd Garrison
1933 - American Antislavery Society was formed joining the Massachusetts, New York, and Western anti-slavery movements
1833 – Slavery abolished in Great Britain, with some temporary exceptions until 1843
February, 1834 – Lane Seminary Debates held in Cincinnati – Led by student Theodore Weld, turning point for the influence of immediate abolition in the western antislavery movement
1834 – Slavery abolished in Canada
February 21, 1838 – Angelina Grimke speaks to the Massachusetts Legislature, said to be the first public speech by an American woman before a legislative body
1838 – Frederick Douglas escapes slavery in Maryland and travels to New York
August 11, 1841 – Frederick Douglas speaks to antislavery meeting in Nantucket, Massachusetts, invited to join the New England Abolitionist Society as speaker
1843 – Massachusetts passed the first Personal Liberty At, prohibiting the capture of fugitive slaves. Other states follow
1845 – Publication of first autobiography of Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, An American Slave
1845 – 1847 – Frederick Douglas tours England, Ireland, Scotland, speaking on slavery and abolition, becomes extremely popular lecturer and debater
1847 – Frederick Douglas begins publication of The North Star, abolitionist newspaper, Rochester, New York
1848 – Final emancipation of slaves in French colonies
July, 1848 – Seneca Falls Convention – Said to be the first women’s rights convention in the United States, Held in Seneca Falls, New York, launched the women’s suffrage movement
September, 1849 – Harriet Ross Tubman escaped slavery in Maryland and fled to Pennsylvania, and later led as many as 300 individuals to freedom on the “Underground Railroad”
1850 – Great Compromise (Congress) – Admitted California as a free state, and allowed the possibility of additional slave states
1850 – Fugitive Slave Act, reinstated the legal authority of slave hunters and regular citizens to hunt and capture suspected slaves anywhere, including the northern free states
May, 1851 – Sojurner Truth delivers speech, now know by the phrase “Ain’t I A Woman,” to the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, on themes of abolition and women’s rights
1852 – Publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or, Life Among the Lowly, Harriet Beecher Stowe, to become one of the best selling novels of the 19th century. Was later dramatized to large audiences, portraying the traumatic experiences of slaves
1854 – Kansas – Nebraska Act – Allowed these states to vote (white males) on the future status of slavery in each territory; no slave states were added after 1845
May, 1856 – Pro slavery southerners sack and burn much of Lawrence, Kansas, part of “Bloody Kansas,” in which factions crusaded to turn Kansas for or against slavery in the impending vote
March 6, 1857 - Dred Scott Decision, U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a slave (Dred Scott) who had resided in a free state and territory was not thereby entitled to his freedom; that African Americans were not citizens of the United States; and that the Missouri Compromise (1820) was unconstitutional
October 16, 1859 – John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry – Antislavery activist carried out armed raid on a fortified military armory with the goal of instigating a slave rebellion. All the men were killed or captured. Those captured were hanged after a trial a few months later. Accusers tried to tie Frederick Douglas to the raid, but he escaped to Canada.
April 12, 1861 - Beginning of American Civil War
January 1, 1863 – Emancipation Proclamation
January 31, 1865 – 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed, banning slavery, ratified by the requisite number of states in December , 1865.
April 9, 1865 – Surrender of General Robert E. Lee in Virginia, “beginning of the end” of U.S. Civil War
1866 – Civil Rights Act of 1866 granted citizenship to all persons born in the United States with full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, but excluding Native Americans.
Bibliography
Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia: https://www.wikipedia.org/
History: https://www.history.com
Biography: https://www.biography.com/
Douglass, F. (2012). The Complete Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass. Start Publishing LLC.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Donald Yacovone. (2013). The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. SmileyBooks.
Lerner, G. (1967). The Grimke Sisters from South Carolina: Pioneers for Woman's Rights and Abolition. New York: Schocken Books.
Mayer, H. (1998). All On Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
Rapley, R. (Writer), & Rapley, R. (Director). (2013). American Experience: The Abolitionists [Motion Picture]. PBS / Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The Civil Rights Bill of 1866. (n.d.). Retrieved from History, Art & Archives: The U.S. House of Representatives: https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1851-1900/The-Civil-Rights-Bill-of-1866/
National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.
1619 – Africans brought to Jamestown, Virginia as slaves
February 18, 1688 - First formal antislavery resolution, Society of Friends, Germantown, PA – “Germantown Protest”
1775 - First American anti-slavery society… Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society
1793 – Fugitive Slave Act in Congress to provide for the capture and return of runaway slaves anywhere in the United States
1794 – Slave Trade Act, by Congress, was not enforced, and Atlantic slave trade continued in some states
January 1, 1804 – Slave revolution in Haiti gains independence
1807 – British slave trade abolished, U. S. Congress passed Act Prohibiting the Import of Slaves. The U.S. domestic slave trade was unaffected
1820 – Missouri Compromise, admitting Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state and prohibiting future slavery north of the 36 30 parallel
1821 – Antislavery newspaper The Genius of Universal Emancipation founded by Quaker Benjamin Lundy
1826 – American Colonization Society
1826 – French Slave Trade abolished
November, 1829 – Angelina Grimke of South Carolina joins her sister Sarah in Philadelphia, later to become leading abolitionist activists
1830 – Indian Removal Act – Initiated the forcible removal of Native Americans from millions of acres on Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Florida to lands west of the Mississippi River
January 1, 1831 – Publication of The Liberator, Boston, William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp, to run continuously until 1865
August 1831, Nat Turner’s rebellion represented growing black anger, jarred the southern slave owning establishment, and increased the visibility of the abolitionist cause
January 6, 1832, New England Anti-Slavery Society, Boston, William Lloyd Garrison
1933 - American Antislavery Society was formed joining the Massachusetts, New York, and Western anti-slavery movements
1833 – Slavery abolished in Great Britain, with some temporary exceptions until 1843
February, 1834 – Lane Seminary Debates held in Cincinnati – Led by student Theodore Weld, turning point for the influence of immediate abolition in the western antislavery movement
1834 – Slavery abolished in Canada
February 21, 1838 – Angelina Grimke speaks to the Massachusetts Legislature, said to be the first public speech by an American woman before a legislative body
1838 – Frederick Douglas escapes slavery in Maryland and travels to New York
August 11, 1841 – Frederick Douglas speaks to antislavery meeting in Nantucket, Massachusetts, invited to join the New England Abolitionist Society as speaker
1843 – Massachusetts passed the first Personal Liberty At, prohibiting the capture of fugitive slaves. Other states follow
1845 – Publication of first autobiography of Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, An American Slave
1845 – 1847 – Frederick Douglas tours England, Ireland, Scotland, speaking on slavery and abolition, becomes extremely popular lecturer and debater
1847 – Frederick Douglas begins publication of The North Star, abolitionist newspaper, Rochester, New York
1848 – Final emancipation of slaves in French colonies
July, 1848 – Seneca Falls Convention – Said to be the first women’s rights convention in the United States, Held in Seneca Falls, New York, launched the women’s suffrage movement
September, 1849 – Harriet Ross Tubman escaped slavery in Maryland and fled to Pennsylvania, and later led as many as 300 individuals to freedom on the “Underground Railroad”
1850 – Great Compromise (Congress) – Admitted California as a free state, and allowed the possibility of additional slave states
1850 – Fugitive Slave Act, reinstated the legal authority of slave hunters and regular citizens to hunt and capture suspected slaves anywhere, including the northern free states
May, 1851 – Sojurner Truth delivers speech, now know by the phrase “Ain’t I A Woman,” to the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, on themes of abolition and women’s rights
1852 – Publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or, Life Among the Lowly, Harriet Beecher Stowe, to become one of the best selling novels of the 19th century. Was later dramatized to large audiences, portraying the traumatic experiences of slaves
1854 – Kansas – Nebraska Act – Allowed these states to vote (white males) on the future status of slavery in each territory; no slave states were added after 1845
May, 1856 – Pro slavery southerners sack and burn much of Lawrence, Kansas, part of “Bloody Kansas,” in which factions crusaded to turn Kansas for or against slavery in the impending vote
March 6, 1857 - Dred Scott Decision, U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a slave (Dred Scott) who had resided in a free state and territory was not thereby entitled to his freedom; that African Americans were not citizens of the United States; and that the Missouri Compromise (1820) was unconstitutional
October 16, 1859 – John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry – Antislavery activist carried out armed raid on a fortified military armory with the goal of instigating a slave rebellion. All the men were killed or captured. Those captured were hanged after a trial a few months later. Accusers tried to tie Frederick Douglas to the raid, but he escaped to Canada.
January 1, 1863 – Emancipation Proclamation
January 31, 1865 – 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed, banning slavery, ratified by the requisite number of states in December , 1865.
April 9, 1865 – Surrender of General Robert E. Lee in Virginia, “beginning of the end” of U.S. Civil War
1866 – Civil Rights Act of 1866 granted citizenship to all persons born in the United States with full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, but excluding Native Americans.
Bibliography
Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia: https://www.wikipedia.org/
History: https://www.history.com
Biography: https://www.biography.com/
Douglass, F. (2012). The Complete Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass. Start Publishing LLC.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Donald Yacovone. (2013). The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. SmileyBooks.
Lerner, G. (1967). The Grimke Sisters from South Carolina: Pioneers for Woman's Rights and Abolition. New York: Schocken Books.
Mayer, H. (1998). All On Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
Rapley, R. (Writer), & Rapley, R. (Director). (2013). American Experience: The Abolitionists [Motion Picture]. PBS / Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The Civil Rights Bill of 1866. (n.d.). Retrieved from History, Art & Archives: The U.S. House of Representatives: https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1851-1900/The-Civil-Rights-Bill-of-1866/