One of the most exhuastive timelines documenting American slavery and the rise of abolition was compiled by Chapman Smith titled “American Anti-Slavery and Civil Rights Timeline.” The timeline goes from 1472 all the way until 2008 with the election of Barack Obama. For purposes here I selected the years 1642 until 1865 (end of civil war) as the most prominent years for reviewing antebellum abolition. The years 1472-1642 on this timeline document mostly Dutch, Spanish and Porteguese slave trade into the Western Hemisphere and were decidedly left out but can be acccessed in its entirity by accessing the URL below.
“American Anti-Slavery and Civil Rights Timeline”
Chapman Smith
1641
- Massachusetts becomes the first colony to recognize slavery as a legal institution in 1641 Body of Liberties.
1651
- Rhode Island declares an enslaved person must be freed after 10 years of service.
1663
- A Virginia court decides a child born to an enslaved mother is also a slave.
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1671
- George Fox, generally called the founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), influences agitation among Quakers against slaveholding by Society members when he speaks against slavery on his visit to North America.
1672
- The King of England charters the Royal African Company, thereby encouraging the expansion of the British slave trade.
1676
- Nathaniel Bacon (Bacon’s Rebellion) appeals to enslaved blacks to join in his cause.
- Slavery is prohibited in West New Jersey, a Quaker settlement in current day South New Jersey.
1688
- In Germantown (now Philadelphia, PA.), Quakers and Mennonites protest against slavery. During this period, these groups worshiped together.
1693
- An Exhortation & Caution to Friends Concerning the Buying or Keeping of Negroes by the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting is published in Philadelphia.
1730
- From this time onward, England trades aggressively in North American slaves, with New York, Boston and Charleston thriving as homeports for slave vessels.
1750
- Georgia is the last of the British North American colonies to legalize slavery.
1754
- John Woolman (b. New Jersey 1720; d. York, England 1772) addresses his fellow Quakers in Some Consideration of the Keeping of Negroes and exerts great influence in leading the Society of Friends to recognize the evil of slavery. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting appoints a committee in 1758 to visit those Friends still holding slaves. At the Yearly Meeting in London in 1772, Woolman presents an anti-slavery certificate from Philadelphia. The London Yearly Meeting also issues a statement condemning slavery in its Epistle for the first time in 1754.
1759
- Publication in Germantown (PA) of Anthony Benezet’s pamphlet, Observations on the Inslaving [sic], Importing and Purchasing of Negroes, the first of many anti-slavery works by the most influential antislavery writer of 18th century America.
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1775
- Founding of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery (PAS), the world’s first antislavery society and the first Quaker anti-slavery society. Benjamin Franklin becomes Honorary President of the Society in 1787.
- Thomas Paine speaks out against slavery and joins the PAS with Benjamin Rush.
1780
- Gradual Emancipation Act passed in Pennsylvania.
1785
- Publication in London of John Marrant’s book, A Narrative of the Lord’s Wonderful Dealings with John Marrant, a Black Man, the first autobiography of a free black.
1786
- Publication in London of An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly the African, by Thomas Clarkson. Quickly reprinted in the United States, it is the single most influential antislavery work of the late 18th century.
1787
- Northwest Ordinance bans slavery in the newly organized territory ceded by Virginia.
- Founding in London of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
- Philadelphia free blacks establish the Free African Society in Philadelphia, the first independent black organization and a mutual aid society.
- The ratified U.S. Constitution allows a male slave to count as three-fifths of a man in determining representation in the House of Representatives. The Constitution sets 1808 as the earliest date for the national government to ban the slave trade.
- Rhode Island outlaws the slave trade.
- William Wilberforce becomes the Parliamentary leader and begins a ten-year campaign to abolish Britain’s slave trade.
1788
- Pennsylvania amends law to forbid removal of blacks from the state.
1791
- First American edition of Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative, an eye-witness account of the Middle Passage and the first autobiography by an enslaved African, is published in London in 1789.
- Slave insurrection in the French colony of St. Domingue begins the bloody process of founding the nation of Haiti, the first independent black country in the Americas. Refugees flee to America, many coming to Philadelphia, the largest and most cosmopolitan city in America with the largest northern free black community. Philadelphia has many supporters for Toussaint L’Overture.
- Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin, making it possible for the expansion of slavery in the South.
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1793
- U.S. Congress enacts first fugitive slave law requiring the return of fugitives.
- Hoping to build sympathy for their citizenship rights, Philadelphia free blacks rally to minister to the sick and maintain order during the yellow fever epidemic. Many blacks fall victim to the disease.
1794
- Founding of the American Convention for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, a joining several state and regional antislavery societies into a national organization to promote abolition. Conference held in Philadelphia.
- The first independent black churches in America (St. Thomas African Episcopal Church and Bethel Church) established in Philadelphia by Absalom Jones and Richard Allen, respectively, as an act of self-determination and a protest against segregation.
- Congress enacts the federal Slave Trade Act of 1794 prohibiting American vessels to transport slaves to any foreign country from outfitting in American ports.
1797
- In the first black initiated petition to Congress, Philadelphia free blacks protest North Carolina laws re-enslaving blacks freed during the Revolution.
1799
- A Frenchman residing in Philadelphia is brought before the Mayor, Chief Justice of Federal Court and the Secretary of State for acquiring 130 French uniforms to send to Toussaint L’Overture.
1800
- Absalom Jones and other Philadelphia blacks petition Congress against the slave trade and against the fugitive slave act of 1793.
- Gabriel, an enslaved Virginia black, attempts to organize a massive slave insurrection.
- Off the coast of Cuba, the U.S. naval vessel Ganges captures two American vessels, carrying 134 enslaved Africans, for violating the 1794 Slave Trade Act and brings them to Philadelphia for adjudication in federal court by Judge Richard Peters. Peters turns the custody of the Africans over to the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, which attempts to assimilate the Africans into Pennsylvania using the indenture system with many local Quakers serving as sponsors.
1803
- Benjamin Rush elected president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society
1804
- Final defeat of the French in St. Domingue results in the founding of Haiti as an independent black nation, and an inspiration to blacks in America. Haitian Independence Day is celebrated throughout northern free black communities.
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1807
- Parliament outlaws British participation in the African Slave Trade.
1808
- United States outlaws American participation in the African Slave Trade. January 1st becomes an instant black American holiday, commemorated with sermons and celebrations. These sermons are the first distinctive and sizable genre of black writing in America.
1813
- Philadelphia black businessman and community leader James Forten publishes his pamphlet, A Series of Letters by a Man of Color, to protest a proposed law requiring the registration of blacks coming into the state.
1816
- American Colonization Society is formed to encourage free blacks to settle in Liberia, West Africa.
- Several new independent black denominations are established within the African Methodist Episcopal Church under first bishop Richard Allen.
1819
- Federal law passed requiring the inspection of passenger conditions on ships is used by Quakers to monitor conditions in the slave trade at the Baltimore (Maryland) Port. Society of Friends members accompany federal Customs inspectors.
1820
- Missouri Compromise allows Missouri to become a slave state, establishes Maine as a free state, and bans slavery in the territory west of Missouri.
- The first organized emigration of U.S. blacks back to Africa from New York to Sierra Leone.
1821
- New Jersey Quaker born Benjamin Lundy establishes the first American anti-slavery newspaper, The Genius of Universal Emancipation, in Mt. Pleasant, Ohio. From September 1829 until March 1830, William Lloyd Garrison assists the paper. In 1836-1838 Lundy establishes and another anti-slavery weekly in Philadelphia, The National Enquirer. This paper becomes The Pennsylvania Freeman with John Greenleaf Whittier as one of its later editors.
1822
- Denmark Vesey, a free black, organizes an unsuccessful slave uprising in Charleston, SC.
- Segregated public schools for blacks open in Philadelphia.
1824
- Liberia, on the west coast of Africa, is established by freed American slaves.
1827
- John Russwurm and Samuel Cornish establish the first African American newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, in New York. The paper circulates in 11 states, the District of Columbia, Haiti, Europe, and Canada.
- Sarah Mapps Douglass, a black educator and contributor to The Anglo African, an early black paper, establishes a school for black children in Philadelphia. Mapps becomes an important leader in the Female Anti-Slavery Society and is a life-long friend of Angelina and Sarah Grimke. After the Civil War, she becomes a leader in the Pennsylvania Branch of the American Freedman’s Aid Commission, which worked to protect and provide services to the former enslaved in the South.
1829
- David Walker of Boston publishes his fiery denunciation of slavery and racism, Walker’s Appeal in Four Articles. Walker’s Appeal, arguably the most radical of all anti-slavery documents, causes a great stir with its call for slaves to revolt against their masters and its protest against colonization.
1830
- Virginia legislature launches an intense debate on abolishing slavery.
- In response to Ohio’s “Black Laws” restricting African American freedom, blacks migrate north to establish free black colonies in Canada, which becomes an important refuge for fugitive slaves.
- The first National Negro Convention convenes in Philadelphia.
1831
- William Lloyd Garrison of Boston begins publishing The Liberator, the most famous anti-slavery newspaper.
- Nat Turner launches a bloody uprising among enslaved Virginians in Southampton County.
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1832
- Maria Stewart of Boston launches a public career as a speaker and pamphleteer. Stewart is one of the first black American female political activists to establish the tradition of political activism and freedom struggle among black women. She calls upon black women to take up what would become pioneering work as teachers, school founders, and education innovators.
1833
- American Antislavery Society, led by William Lloyd Garrison, is organized in Philadelphia. For the next three decades, the Society campaigns that slavery is illegal under natural law, and sees the Constitution “a covenant with hell.” Within five years, the organization has more than 1,350 chapters and over 250,000 members.
1834
- August 1 becomes another black American and abolitionist holiday when Britain abolishes slavery in its colonies.
1835
- Female antislavery societies are organized in Boston and Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society was an integrated group of white and black middle class women, led by Lucretia Mott, Harriett Forten Purvis, and Grace Bustill Douglass. The women met in each other’s homes. Bustill, Mapps, and Douglass are prominent black Quaker families in the Philadelphia in the 19th Century.
- Abolitionists launch a campaign flooding Congress with antislavery petitions.
1836
- The public careers of Angelina and Sarah Grimke, Quaker abolitionists from a prominent South Carolina family, begin.
1837
- Philadelphia blacks, under the leadership of well-to-do Robert Purvis, organize the Vigilance Committee to aid and assist fugitive slaves. Purvis’ wife, Harriett Forten Purvis, the daughter of successful black businessman James Forten, leads the Female Vigilant Society. By his contemporaries, Robert Purvis is referred to as the “President of the Underground Railroad.”
- First gathering of the Antislavery Convention of American Women, an inter-racial association of various female antislavery groups, becomes the first independent women’s political organization.
- Founding of the Institute for Colored Youth, which later became Cheyney University, one of the earliest historically black colleges in the United States.
Society Portrait Collection, Gratz Collection, HSP
Portrait of Robert Purvis by Gutekunst Studio, n.d.
1838
- Philadelphia is plagued with anti-black and anti-abolitionist violence, particularly from Philadelphia white workers who feared that they have to compete with freed slaves for jobs. Second meeting of the Antislavery Convention of American Women, gathered in Philadelphia at the newly built Pennsylvania Hall, is attacked by a mob. The mob burns down the hall, as well as sets a shelter for black orphans on fire and damages a black church. Pennsylvania Hall was open only three days when it fell. More than 2,000 people bought “shares” and raised $40,000 to build the Hall. An official report blames abolitionists for the riots, claiming that they incited violence by upsetting the citizens of Philadelphia with their views and for encouraging “race mixing.”
- Pennsylvania blacks are disfranchised in the revised state Constitution.
- A Maryland slave named Fred runs away and later becomes Frederick Douglass.
1839
- Abolitionists form the Liberty Party to promote political action against slavery.
- Pope Gregory XVI condemned slavery and the slave trade.
1840
- American Anti-Slavery Society splits over the issue of the public involvement of women. Dissidents opposed to women having a formal role form the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.
- Aged and venerable abolitionist Thomas Clarkson chairs the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. American attendees include William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. American women are not allowed to sit among the men or serve as delegates. On their return to America the women hold a women’s rights convention, which met in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848.
- Martin Delany publishes The Mystery, the first Black-owned newspaper west of the Alleghenies and he later serves as co-editor of the Rochester North Star with Frederick Douglass.
1842
- An angry mob of whites in Philadelphia attacks a black temperance parade celebrating West Indian Emancipation Day. A riot ensues with mayhem lasting three days and resulting in numerous injuries to blacks, who are dragged from their homes and beaten and several homes, an abolitionist meeting place, and a church are set afire.
1845
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is published in Boston, launching the public career of the most notable black American spokesman of the 19th Century.
1846
- War with Mexico adds significant western territory to the United States and opens a new arena in the fight to check the spread of slavery.
1848
- Free Soil Party is organized to stop the spread of slavery into the Western territories.
- Slavery is abolished in all French territories.
- Women’s Rights Convention is held at Seneca Falls.
1849
- Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery. She becomes a major conductor on the Underground Railroad, as well as an advocate for Women’s Rights.
1850
- The Compromise of 1850 includes a controversial Fugitive Slave Law that compels all citizens to help in the recovery of fugitive slaves. Free blacks form more Vigilance Committees throughout the North to watch for slave hunters and alert the black community.
1851
- Federal marshals and Maryland slave hunters seek out suspected fugitive slaves in Christiana (Lancaster County), PA. In the ensuing struggle with black and white abolitionists, one of the attackers is killed, another is seriously wounded, and the fugitives all successfully escape. Thirty-six black men and five white men are charged with treason and conspiracy under the federal 1850 Fugitive Slave Law and brought to trial in federal court at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. This trial becomes a cause celebre for American abolitionists. Attorney Thaddeus Stevens defends the accused by pleading self-defense. All the defendants are found innocent in a jury trial.
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1852
- Congress repeals the Missouri Compromise, opening western territories to slavery and setting the stage for a bloody struggle between pro and anti slavery forces in Kansas Territory (Bleeding Kansas).
1854
- Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) is chartered in April 1854 as Ashmun Institute. It becomes a higher education institution providing an education in the arts and sciences for male youth of African descent. During the first one hundred years of its existence, Lincoln graduates approximately 20 percent of the black physicians and more than 10 percent of the black attorneys in the United States. Thurgood Marshall and Langston Hughes are among its esteemed alumni.
- Martin Delany leads 145 participants in the 4-day National Emigration Convention in Cleveland, OH. His arguments appeal to some educated and successful northern freed blacks and are defiantly opposite the position held by Frederick Douglass and others. His views represent increasing frustrations in the black community. Six years later, Delany signs a treaty with Nigeria to allow black American settlement and the development of cotton production using free West African workers. However this project never develops. During the Civil War, Delany works with others to recruit blacks for the 54th Massachusetts and other units. In 1865 Major Delany becomes the first black commissioned as a line field officer in the U.S. Army.
1855
- With the assistance of others, William Still, a leader in the Philadelphia Underground Railroad, and his white colleague Passmore Williamson, intercept slave owner John Weaver, his slave Jane Johnson and her two sons as they are leaving town. The two help Jane and her children leave their master for freedom. Williamson is incarcerated for several months for not bringing Jane Johnson to court. The case becomes a national news story, continuing from August through November.
1856
- The Republican Party, newly formed from various groups opposing the extension of slavery, holds its first convention in Philadelphia.
- Wilberforce University, named English statesman and abolitionist William Wilberforce, opens in Ohio as a private, coeducational institution affiliated with The African Methodist Episcopal Church. This is the first institution of higher education owned and operated by African Americans.
1857
- The Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision declares blacks, free or slave, have no citizenship rights.
1859
- John Brown conducts a raid at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia to free and arm slaves. His effort fails and he is executed.
1861
- Lincoln’s election in 1860 leads to Southern states seceding and starts Civil War between the free and the slave states. The Secretary of the Navy authorizes enlistment of contrabands (slaves) taken in Confederate territories.
1862
- First black Union Army forces are organized in South Carolina.
- Charlotte Forten, daughter of Robert Forten and Robert Purvis’ niece, heads to Port Royal, South Carolina as teacher for the Philadelphia Port Royal Commission for the “freed” slaves now in Union controlled territory. The Atlantic Monthly publishes her essays on her experiences, “Life on the Sea Islands,” in 1864.
1863
- Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation abolishing slavery in territory controlled by the Confederate States of America. The Presidential Order also authorizes the mustering of black men as federal regiments.
- The 54th Massachusetts is organized at Camp Meigs, Readville, Massachusetts. Free blacks from throughout the North enlist in the 54th. Other training stations, like Camp William Penn, outside of Philadelphia in Cheltenham are established for training black troops. Between 178,000 and 200,000 black enlisted men and white officers serve under the Bureau of Colored Troops.
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1864
- Congress rules that black soldiers must receive equal pay.
- The National Equal Rights League convenes in Syracuse, New York. Delegates are all prominent northern blacks, led by John Mercer Langston who later organized Howard University’s Law Department, and included Frederick Douglass and Octavius V. Catto. Working through state chapters, the League promotes an aggressive advocacy agenda to obtain civil rights for blacks. Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan are charged to take the lead. Philadelphia blacks, led by Catto, boycott to desegregate public transportation.
1865
- The Civil War ends with a northern victory.
- With their freedom, Southern blacks seek to reunite their families torn apart by slavery, as well as acquire education (particularly reading and writing). Many leave the South for the West and North.
- President Lincoln speaks publicly about extending the franchise to black men, particularly “on the very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers.”
- Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.
- Andrew Johnson becomes President and begins to implement his own Reconstruction Plan that does not require the franchise for black men in the former Confederate states.
- Many northern states reject referendums to grant black men in their states the franchise.
- Mississippi becomes the first of the former Confederate states to enact laws (Black Codes) severely limiting the rights and liberties of blacks. Other Southern states follow with similar legislation.
- Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery is ratified.
- The Freedmen’s Bureau is established in the War Department. The Bureau supervises all relief and educational activities relating to refugees and freedmen, including issuing rations, clothing and medicine. The Bureau also assumes custody of confiscated lands or property in the former Confederate States, border states, District of Columbia, and Indian Territory.
- The Ku Klux Klan is formed by ex-Confederates in Pulaski, Tennessee.
Author: Gerald Espinosa
Smith, Chapman. “American Anti-Slavery and Civil Rights Timeline.” US.History.org Created and Hosted by the Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Accessed December 5, 2011. http://www.ushistory.org/more/timeline.htm.
Stewart, Charles J., Craig Allen Smith and Robert E. Denton. Persuasion and Social Movements: Fourth Edition. Prospects Heights: Waveland Press, Inc. 2001.
Class Notes.
Antebellum Social Movements 