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Displaying 30 Moments from 1639 - 1800


									Year	Moment
									1639	Virginia requires the arming of all white servants, but does not require that black servants be armed. The law does not specifically prohibit blacks from being armed, but the implication of the law is that they are not welcome in the colonial militia.
									1652	Massachusetts requires that all blacks and Indians living in settled parts of the colony be enrolled in the militia. Learn more
									1655 to 1740	A series of slave rebellions against the English, known as the Maroon Wars, occur in Jamaica. Learn more
									1656	Massachusetts repeals its 1652 law and bans blacks and Indians from military service.
									1676	During Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia white settlers in the western part of the colony challenge the authority of the governor. Bacon asks black servants and slaves to join his rebellion, promising them freedom. In addition to fighting colonial officials, Bacon directs his attack against Indians. Virginia later enslaves captured Indians. The rebellion has the effect of pushing Virginia planters to abandon white labor in favor of African slaves.
									1689	Despite earlier bans on black military service, blacks serve in colonial militias in King William's War. Learn more
									1700	A slave revolt occurs on the island of Saint-Domingue (later Haiti); rebels flee into Spanish Santo Domingo. Learn more
									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
									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
									1715	In the Yamasee War slaves are enlisted in the South Carolina militia to fight the Yamasee Indians.
									1723	Virginia allows the enlistment of blacks in the militia as drummers, musicians, and laborers. Learn more
									1731	After a failed slave revolt in French Louisiana, African-born Samba Bambara is executed along with his co-conspirators. Learn more
									1739	Slaves kill their masters in South Carolina and flee toward Florida, growing in numbers as they move south. Called the Stono Rebellion, it is the largest slave revolt in the colonies prior to the American Revolution. The insurrection fails and South Carolina severely limits the mobility and personal liberty of slaves. Learn more
									1746	Lucy Terry composes “Bar's Fight,” the earliest known poem by a black person in North America. Learn more
									1770	Crispus Attucks, a free black, is killed when British troops fire on a group of demonstrators in what has come to be known as the Boston Massacre. Learn more
									1774	Massachusetts begins to enlist free blacks in its militia companies. Learn more
									1775	Black soldiers, including James Armistead Lafayette, Agrippa Hull, and Saul Matthews perform distinguished service during the American Revolution. Black men fight in early battles of the Revolution, at Lexington and Concord, Ticonderoga, and the Battle of Bunker Hill, where Peter Salem and Salem Poor both gain recognition for their service. Hundreds of New England slaves are manumitted by their masters in order to fight for the patriot cause. General George Washington initially demands that only whites be enlisted, but by October he asks Congress to allow free blacks to enlist in the Continental army. By the end of the war, an estimated 5,000 African Americans will fight on the side of the patriots. Learn more
									1775	NovemberLord Dunmore, the governor of Virginia, issues the first of a series of proclamations from English officials and generals offering freedom to slaves who join the British cause against the colonists. Three hundred runaway slaves form Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment. Learn more
									1776	The American Declaration of Independence proclaims that all men are created equal. Blacks continue to fight on both sides of the conflict. In September the patriot spy, Nathan Hale, is hanged in New York. The hangman is a black man named Bill Richmond. Learn more
									1777	Rhode Island organizes an almost entirely black regiment. Connecticut allows slaves to enlist without their master's permission, and grants the enlistees their freedom. Learn more
									1778	The black entrepreneur Paul Cuffe and his brother John refuse to pay taxes, claiming taxation without representation. Over seven hundred blacks fight at Battle of Monmouth. Town meetings in Massachusetts reject a proposed state constitution in part because it does not abolish slavery. Learn more
									1779	South Carolina protests the use of black soldiers.
									1781	At the Battle of Yorktown General Washington chooses the First Rhode Island, a regiment that is more than half black, for a crucial attack on a British position. Colonel Alexander Hamilton is placed in command of these troops. Washington, who once opposed black enlistment, now believes the blacks in the First Rhode Island are among the best soldiers in his army. The assault is a great success, and sets the stage for Lord Cornwallis to surrender his army, effectively ending the war. Learn more
									1782	Deborah Sampson (Gannett), disguised as a male, begins a seventeen-month stint in the Continental Army; sources disagree as to whether Sampson was African American.
									1783	British evacuate their former colonies. Some 3,000 blacks, mostly former slaves, leave with the British when they evacuate New York City. Another 5,000 or so former slaves leave from other ports. Learn more
									1783	December 4George Washington formally bids farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern. The owner, Samuel “Black Sam” Fraunces is a well-off man who supplied American revolutionary forces with food and money.
									1787	After being denied admission to the Boston Freemasons, Prince Hall, a businessman and Revolutionary War veteran, petitions the Grand Lodge of England and obtains a charter to create the first African American Masonic Lodge in the United States. Learn more
									1791	Led by Toussaint Louverture and Boukmann, a fugitive slave from Jamaica and a Vodou priest, the Haitian Revolution begins in Saint Domingue. The island nation declares its independence from France in 1804, changes its name to Haiti, and becomes the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere. Learn more
									1792	The Federal Militia Act prohibits blacks from serving in state militias.
									1800	August 30On the outskirts of Richmond, Virginia, Gabriel Prosser, his wife Nanny, and more than 1,000 slaves assemble with the purpose of seizing their freedom by force. The rebellion fails and Prosser, along with several others, are captured and hanged. Learn more

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