Chronology of Slavery in the United States

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This chronology lists key dates of slavery in the United States or in the colonies from which this country emerged.

17th century

  • 1619: Arrival of the first Africans in Virginia .
  • 1669: In South Carolina , black slavery is first enshrined in law by the Grand Council .
  • 1686: In South Carolina, a law is passed for the first time that regulates the content of slavery.
  • 1690: A law comes into force in South Carolina that regulates the punishment of slaves in detail. The law allows slave owners, etc. a. to whip and mutilate insubordinate slaves, and under certain conditions to murder them.
  • 1699: The first permanent French settlement (Fort Maurepas) is built in what is now Louisiana . The Code Noir comes into force in the Louisiana colony . It applies here until France has to give up the colony in 1763.

18th century

  • 1712: A law is passed in South Carolina for the first time that regulates the release of slaves. The law is later supplemented with a requirement that released slaves must leave South Carolina within six months. If they do not obey this rule, they can be enslaved again or sold at auction.
  • 1712: In New York there is an uprising of 23 slaves, which is bloodily suppressed. The result is massive tightening of the law (including the ban on assemblies, expansion of the death penalty), which also affects freed persons (ban on land ownership) and slave owners who want to release a slave (penalty tax).
  • 1716: A law in South Carolina forces planters to import one white servant for every ten slaves. As an incentive, the planters are to receive a bonus of £ 25 for each imported white servant. The background to the law is the legislature's concern about possible slave revolts.
  • 1719: To reduce the growth of the black population and thus the risk of slave revolts, South Carolina imposes an import duty of £ 10 for slaves from Africa and £ 30 for slaves from the British West Indies .
  • 1739: slave revolt on the Stono River in South Carolina ( Stono revolt ); it is one of the first slave uprisings on the territory of the present-day USA, and at the same time the largest in the history of the North American colonies.
  • 1740: Under the influence of the Stono Rebellion , a new slave law is passed in South Carolina, the content of which is based on the slave law of Barbados and becomes known as the Negro Act . The rights of the slaves are further restricted. The killing of a slave by a white man is now only classified as an offense that is only punished with a fine. Slaves who prepare a rebellion or a community escape can be punished with death. The law regulates the everyday life of slaves down to the last detail. B. what clothes they are allowed to wear. The slaves are also completely deprived of their freedom of assembly and the right to learn to read and write. Until the abolition of slavery in 1865, the law remained largely unchanged.
  • 1741: Slave laws first come into effect in Tennessee . They are based on those from North Carolina.
  • 1755: Georgia enacts a slave law based largely on the South Carolina Negro Act .
  • 1757: Georgia first enacts law obliging whites to form slave patrols. The task of these patrols is to check whether slaves they find on the street at night are lawfully staying there. The background to these regulations, which remain in force until 1865, is the fear of possible slave revolts.
  • 1769: The Spaniards take control of what had been the French west of Louisiana. The Spanish law collection Las Siete Partidas and the Coartación also regulate slavery in Spanish Louisiana. The Spanish release law is far more liberal than the French one and also enables the slaves to apply for their release themselves or to request a self-purchase.
  • 1774: Connecticut and Rhode Island prohibit the continuation of the importation of slaves. However, merchants from these two colonies continue to sell slaves to other colonies.
  • 1776: The Quakers abolish slavery among their members.
  • 1777: In Vermont , slavery is abolished by a constitutional amendment on July 8, 1777. The 1770 census counted 25 slaves in Vermont; In 1790, despite the constitutional reform, there are still 16 slaves. It wasn't until the 1810 census that slaves no longer appear in Vermont.
  • 1780: Massachusetts writes a liberty clause in its constitution, which is interpreted as a prohibition of slavery. In the 1770 census, Massachusetts still counted 4,754 slaves; In 1790 there are no more.
  • 1780: Pennsylvania decides to gradually release all slaves. Slaves born after 1780 will henceforth be released at the age of 28. The 1770 census counted 5,561 slaves in Pennsylvania, 3,787 in 1790, 795 in 1810, 211 in 1820, 64 in 1840, and it wasn't until 1860 that the Pennsylvania population statistics numbered slaves.
  • 1783: New Hampshire's constitution states that " all men are born equal and free ". In the years that followed, the principle served as the basis for a number of court rulings that also abolished slavery in New Hampshire. The 1770 census counted 654 slaves in New Hampshire; In 1790 there were 158. In 1810 the New Hampshire population statistics no longer show slaves.
  • 1784: Connecticut and Rhode Island pass laws for the gradual release of slaves. In Connecticut, the 1770 census counted 5,698 slaves; There were 2,764 in 1790, 310 in 1810, 97 in 1820, 17 in 1840, and it wasn't until 1860 that the Connecticut population stopped slaves. In Rhode Island, the 1770 census counted 3,761 slaves; There were 948 in 1790, 108 in 1810, 48 in 1820, 5 in 1840, and it wasn't until 1860 that the Rhode Island population statistics no longer show slaves.
  • 1785: In New York a legislative proposal for the gradual abolition of slavery fails. In the same year, the quaker-dominated New York Manumission Society was established on Long Island , which will exert pressure in many areas of public life to improve the situation of slaves.
  • 1788: Connecticut prohibits its citizens from participating in the slave trade.
  • 1788: The slave trade is banned in New York. However, there are significant legal loopholes for exceptions. The special courts for slaves will also be abolished.
  • 1789: On March 4, 1789, the Constitution of the United States of America ( legal text of 1789 ) came into force. In this original text of the American constitution, states that so wished to keep and import slaves were expressly permitted.
  • 1790: the first US Naturalization Act determined that only “free white persons” could acquire American citizenship .
  • 1792: South Carolina bans the importation of African and other overseas slaves for two years. The background to this is the legislature's concern about a further increase in the black population and thus about possible slave revolts.
  • 1792: Kentucky first enacts slave laws. They are essentially based on those of Virginia.
  • 1793: With the invention of the egrenier machine , short-staple cotton becomes an economically viable product. With the emergence of cotton plantations in the American southern states, slavery continued to spread.
  • 1794: Adoption of the Act to Prohibit the Carrying on the Slave Trade from the United States to any Foreign Place or Country (also: Slave Trade Act of 1794 ), a federal law that restricts the import of slaves.
  • 1795: The second Naturalization Act confirms that only “free whites” can obtain American citizenship. The law, passed in January 1795, remains in force until the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified in 1868 .
  • 1795: In the spring of 1795, slaves prepare for a riot in Pointe Coupée , Louisiana, which would have become one of the largest slave riots in southern history, but is discovered on April 10th.
  • 1798: Beginning of the decade when more slaves are imported into the US than in any other decade in history (nearly 200,000).
  • 1799: New York enacts a law for the gradual release of slaves. The law provides that women born after July 4, 1799 as the child of a slave should be given freedom at the age of 25. Men who have the same conditions are granted freedom at the age of 28. Slaves born before July 4, 1799 are said to remain slaves for life, but are classified as debt servants. In the 1770 census, 19,062 slaves were counted in New York; the number continued to rise, reaching 21,324 in 1790; In 1810 there were 15,017, in 1820 10,088.
  • 1800 Federal law prohibits exporting slaves from the United States abroad.
  • 1800: South Carolina's release laws are tightened. Since slave owners had released objectionable, old or sick slaves who subsequently became a burden to the community, the law stipulated that a commission had to approve the release.
  • 1800: Gabriel Prosser leads a slave rebellion in Virginia , but fails.

19th century

  • 1802: Slaves (boatmen) along the Appomattox River and Roanoke River in Virginia prepare for a rebellion, but it is crushed.
  • 1803: The Act to Prevent the Importation of Certain Persons into Certain States , a federal law that restricts the import of slaves, is passed.
  • 1804: New Jersey passes law to gradually release slaves. It stipulates that women born after July 4, 1804 as the daughter of a slave should be given freedom at the age of 21; Men who apply should be released at the age of 25. The 1790 census counted 11,423 slaves in New Jersey; In 1810 there were still 10,851, in 1820 still 7,557, in 1840 still 674 and in 1860 still 18.
  • 1806: In Virginia, where the release of slaves had been liberal since 1782, a law comes into effect that makes release very difficult in practice by requiring released slaves to leave the state within a year. This significantly reduces the number of releases.
  • 1808: On January 1, 1808, the Act to Prohibit the Importation of Slaves , passed on March 2, 1807, comes into force, a federal law that bans the transatlantic slave trade.
  • 1811: On January 10, 1811, a slave revolt breaks out in St. John the Baptist Parish , Louisiana. 100 of the approximately 500 participating African Americans are killed.
  • 1817: A law is passed in New York that gives freedom to slaves born before July 4th, 1799. Residents of foreign states who travel to New York to stay there temporarily or to live there only a few months a year are allowed to bring their slaves with them to New York temporarily. The 1820 census counted 10,088 slaves in New York; In 1840 there were four. It was not until 1860 that slaves no longer appear in New York's population statistics.
  • 1817: Mississippi becomes part of the United States. The new state's slave laws are based on those of Georgia.
  • 1817: Founding of the American Colonization Society , whose goal is the repatriation of African Americans to Africa.
  • 1818: A law is passed in New Jersey prohibiting the sale of slaves from that state to other states.
  • 1819: A new US federal law equates slave trade with piracy and places it under the death penalty.
  • 1820: After a dispute between the Northern and Southern states over the admission of new slave states into the union, the two parties agreed to admit Missouri (with slavery) and Maine (without slavery).
  • 1822: A law comes into effect in South Carolina banning free blacks from entering the state.
  • 1822: A comprehensive slave law comes into effect in Mississippi, regulating practically every aspect of slave life in detail. Slaves become the personal property of their owners, who can treat them like an animal or a tool. Slaves are not allowed to trade, grow their own cotton, drink alcohol, or assemble without white supervision.
  • 1822: Denmark Vesey prepares a slave revolt in South Carolina , which is crushed.
  • 1822: Liberated American slaves found the colony of Liberia in Africa .
  • 1831: Nat Turner organizes a slave revolt ( Nat Turner's Rebellion , Southampton Insurrection ) in Southampton County , Virginia on August 21 and 22, 1831 , in the course of which approximately 60 whites are killed. The uprising is suppressed, and more than 100 black people are subsequently killed.
  • 1833: William Lloyd Garrison founds the American Anti-Slavery Society .
  • 1837: Assassination of the abolitionist Elijah Parish Lovejoy .
  • 1841: On board the Creole brig , which is on its way to New Orleans from Hampton Roads , Virginia with 135 slaves, a riot led by 19 slaves breaks out. The occupation is forced to take a course for Nassau, Bahamas , where part of the insurgents are freed. Since Nassau was a British colony at the time, there was political tension between England and the USA.
  • 1846: New Jersey law abolishes slavery entirely. The 1840 census counted 674 slaves in New Jersey, down from 18 in 1860.
  • 1848: Connecticut outlaws slavery.
  • 1850: The US Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 , on the basis of which slaves who have fled the southern states to the northern states must be extradited. The law is rarely applied in the north.
  • 1850: California joins the Union as a slavery-free state; Utah and New Mexico will be admitted without a ban on slavery. Abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia .
  • 1857: The Supreme Court pronounces Dred Scott v. Sandford that blacks, slaves or not, could never get citizenship of the United States. Furthermore, the abolition of slavery by Congress would be unconstitutional, as it would constitute expropriation without due process in the sense of the 5th Amendment to the Constitution.
  • 1860: South Carolina leaves the Union after Abraham Lincoln is elected President of the United States . Ten more southern states followed by May 1861.
  • 1861: The southern states that left the Union found the Confederate States of America . Their constitution confirms the right to keep slaves.
  • 1861: Start of the Civil War .
  • 1862: Lincoln government proclaims emancipation .
  • 1865: On January 31st, the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed by Congress. Abraham Lincoln was murdered on April 14, 1865 . The civil war ended on June 23, 1865. With the 13th Amendment, ratified on December 18, 1865, slavery was finally abolished throughout the United States.

21st century

  • 2013: Mississippi did not ratify the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution until 1995. Due to a procedural error, this does not come into force until 2013. Thus, slavery will formally be abolished 148 years later than in the rest of the United States. The late ratification had no legal significance, however, as an amendment to the constitution only has to be signed by three quarters of all states in order to come into force.

See also

swell

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o [1]
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j South Carolina Slave Laws Summary and Record ( Memento from March 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ South Carolina Slave Laws Summary and Record ( March 2, 2012 memento on the Internet Archive ); Ira Berlin: Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves , Cambridge, London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-674-01061-2 , p. 74
  4. ^ Tennessee Slave Law Summary and Record ( Memento of February 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Slave Patrols
  6. ↑ Ira Berlin: Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves , Cambridge, London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-674-01061-2 , p. 94
  7. ^ Abolition of Slavery in Vermont
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Ira Berlin: Generations of Captivity . attachment
  9. ^ Abolition of Slavery in Massachusetts
  10. ^ An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery
  11. ^ Slavery in New Hampshire
  12. ^ Slavery in Connecticut ; Slavery in Rhode Island
  13. ↑ a b c d Emancipation in New York
  14. ↑ United States Constitution , Article 1, Section 9 ( Legal Text )
  15. ↑ Kentucky Slave Law Summary and Record ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.slaveryinamerica.org
  16. ^ Slave Trade Act of 1794: legal text
  17. ↑ Legal text of the Naturalization Act
  18. ↑ The Pointe Coupée Conspiracy (1795)
  19. ↑ legal text: An Act in addition to the Act intituled "An Act to Prohibit the Carrying on the Slave Trade from the United States to any foreign Place or Country."
  20. ↑ Legal text: An Act to Prevent the Importation of Certain Persons into Certain States, Where, by the Laws Thereof, Their Admission is Prohibited
  21. ↑ a b c Slavery in New Jersey
  22. ^ Eva Sheppard Wolf: Race and Liberty in the New Nation
  23. ↑ Congress abolishes the African slave trade ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Legal text  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.history.com
  24. ↑ 1811 Louisiana Slavery Rebellion ; 1811 ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / enlou.com
  25. ↑ Ira Berlin: Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves , Cambridge, London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-674-01061-2 , p. 166
  26. ↑ Mississippi Slave Laws Summary and Record ( Memento of the original from June 26, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Ira Berlin: Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves , Cambridge, London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-674-01061-2 , p. 193 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.slaveryinamerica.org
  27. ^ Africans in America: Nat Turner's Rebellion
  28. ↑ Lias Vox: Nat Turner's Rebellion
  29. ^ Spartacus Educational: Elijah Lovejoy
  30. ^ Creole case
  31. ↑ Legal text of the Fugitive Slave Act 1850
  32. ↑ Last US state to ratify the Slavery Amendment

Web links

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