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1619 |
A Dutch frigate sells "twenty and odd negroes" to authorities at Jamestown, Virginia. According to surviving documents, they are the first Africans to arrive in North America, and are classified as indentured servants, not slaves. As with the many English and Europeans who come involuntarily, as indentured servants or redemptioners, it is the Africans' labor—not their person—that is sold.
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1624 |
Isabel, the wife of Anthony Johnson, gives birth to William in Jamestown. William is probably the first black child born in an English mainland North American colony. |
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1641 |
Massachusetts gives statutory recognition to slavery in its Body of Liberties. This is the first colony to formally recognize slavery.
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1642
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1643 |
Virginia law taxes black female servants at the same rate as black and white male servants. White female servants remain untaxed. |
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1655 |
Elizabeth Key, a slave, sues for her freedom in Virginia. Her case is based on the argument that the status of her father, a free white man, should determine her station in life rather than that of her mother, a slave. William Greensted, her attorney, wins the case and marries Elizabeth. |
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1661
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1662 |
Virginia rules that if indentured servants and slaves run away together, the indentured servants, if caught, will have to serve extra years to compensate the master for the loss of the slave's time, and to serve an extra four years if the slave dies or is never recovered.
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1662 |
Virginia law establishes that children born in the colony will be free or held bond according to the status of the mother.
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1663 |
The colony Maryland passes an "Act concerning negroes and other slaves,” which recognizes the existence of slavery in the colony.
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1664 |
Maryland bans mixed marriages.
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1664 |
The former Dutch colonies of New York and New Jersey pass laws officially recognizing slavery, which existed under the Dutch and continues to exist under the English.
Learn more
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1667 |
Virginia declares that baptism will not affect the status of slaves.
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1681 |
Maryland (which passed an anti-amalgamation law in 1664) rules that though a white woman who marries a black slave will remain free, the slave's master and whoever marries the couple are to be fined.
Learn more
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1682 |
South Carolina recognizes the legal existence of slavery.
Learn more
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1691 |
Virginia passes its first slave code, which among other things, bans mixed marriages.
Learn more
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1692 |
Tituba, a West Indian slave accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, is the catalyst for the infamous Salem witch hunt and trials.
Learn more
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1700 |
Colonial Rhode Island and Pennsylvania recognize the existence of slavery.
Learn more
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1708 |
Seven white people are killed during a slave revolt in Newton, Long Island, New York. As a result, a black woman is burned alive and one Indian man and two black men are hanged.
Learn more
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1712 |
Slaves in New York City initiate a revolt, during which nine white men die. As a result, restrictions on slaves are increased and the captured conspirators are hanged or burned alive. Among six who are pardoned is a pregnant woman.
Learn more
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1715 |
North Carolina laws allow slavery to exist in the colony.
Learn more
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1746 |
Lucy Terry composes “Bar's Fight,” the earliest known poem by a black person in North America.
Learn more
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1750 |
The Georgia colonial government finally accedes to the demands of white settlers to allow slavery in the colony.
Learn more
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1765 |
Jenny Slew files suit in Massachusetts colony and wins her freedom.
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1767 |
Phillis Wheatley, a slave in Boston who was probably born in Senegal, publishes her first poem, “On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin,” in the Newport Mercury.
Learn more
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1770 |
Phillis Wheatley gains recognition as a poet when the University of Cambridge in New England publishes the poem “On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield.”
Learn more
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1773 |
Phillis Wheatley becomes the second American woman (and the first black woman) to publish a book, with the appearance of her collection of poems, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral. Born in West Africa (probably in present-day Senegal), the twenty-year-old Wheatley is still a slave when the book appears.
Learn more
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1773 |
Under the leadership of Anthony Benezet, Philadelphia Quakers establish the first free school for black people.
Learn more
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1777 |
Blacks in Massachusetts and New Hampshire petition for their freedom. Their cases are based on the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence. Settlers in what will become Vermont (the fourteenth state), write a constitution abolishing slavery.
Learn more
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1780 |
Pennsylvania enacts a gradual emancipation law.
Learn more
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1780 |
Massachusetts adopts a constitution declaring that all people in the state are “born free and equal.” The constitution allows all adult males to vote. |
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1781 |
Elizabeth “Mum Bett” Freeman sues for her freedom in Massachusetts. Her petition is designed not only to secure freedom for herself but also to show that slavery is inconsistent with state law, thereby securing freedom for all Massachusetts slaves. Freeman wins her freedom and is awarded thirty shillings in damages for a beating she received from her mistress.
Learn more
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Print
Email
)
Tituba, a West Indian slave accused of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, is the catalyst for the infamous Salem witch hunt and trials.
Learn more
)
Phillis Wheatley, a slave in Boston who was probably born in Senegal, publishes her first poem, “On Messrs. Hussey and Coffin,” in the Newport Mercury.
Learn more
)
Under the leadership of Anthony Benezet, Philadelphia Quakers establish the first free school for black people.
Learn more
)
Pennsylvania enacts a gradual emancipation law.
Learn more
)
Elizabeth “Mum Bett” Freeman sues for her freedom in Massachusetts. Her petition is designed not only to secure freedom for herself but also to show that slavery is inconsistent with state law, thereby securing freedom for all Massachusetts slaves. Freeman wins her freedom and is awarded thirty shillings in damages for a beating she received from her mistress.
Learn more
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