Abolition/Slavery Timeline

Year Created: 2013

Historical Theme:

Collection this Document is Affiliated with:

Description: Created by former Director of Educational Services for Fourscore, Kimberly Hase Galek, this timeline presents the history of the abolitionist movement and slavery in the United States from 1775-1865.

Categories of Documents:

Text of Document:

 

  • 1775: Pennsylvania Abolition Society formed in Philadelphia, the first abolition society in America.
  • 1777: Constitution of the Vermont Republic bans slavery.
  • 1780: Pennsylvania passes An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, freeing future children of slaves. Those born prior to the Act remain enslaved for life. The Act becomes a model for other Northern states. Last slaves freed 1847.
  • 1783: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules slavery illegal based on 1780 state constitution. All slaves are immediately freed.
  • 1783: New Hampshire begins a gradual abolition of slavery.
  • 1784: Connecticut begins a gradual abolition of slavery, freeing future children of slaves, and later all slaves.
  • 1784: Rhode Island begins a gradual abolition of slavery.
  • 1787: The United States in Congress Assembled passed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 outlawing any new slavery in the Northwest Territories.
  • 1804: New Jersey begins a gradual abolition of slavery, freeing future children of slaves. Those born prior to the Act remain enslaved for life
  • 1808: In United States, Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves takes effect 1 Jan.
  • 1817: New York State sets a date of July 4, 1827 to free all its slaves.
  • 1820: Missouri Compromise 1820 in U.S. prohibits slavery north of a line (36°30') except in Missouri
  • 1828: New York State abolishes slavery. Children born between 1799 and 1827 are indentured until age 25 (females) or age 28 (males).
  • 1831: The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper, begins publication
  • 1831: Nat Turner’s Rebellion
  • 1833: William Lloyd Garrison establishes the American Antislavery Society in Philadelphia. Within five years, the organization has more than 1300 chapters and an estimated 250,000 members
  • 1850: Compromise of 1850 admits California as a free state and allows New Mexico Territory to vote on slavery.
  • 1850: In the United States, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 requires return of escaped slaves
  • 1854: The Kansas-Nebraska Act opened the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, allowing residents to vote on slavery
  • 1857: Dred Scott Case: US Supreme Court Rules that Scott is able to sue for freedom because as a slave he is not a citizen or a person
  • 1863: In the United States, Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation which declared slaves in Confederate-controlled areas to be freed. Most slaves in "border states" are freed by state action; separate law freed the slaves in Washington, D.C.
  • 1865: December: U.S. abolishes slavery with the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; about 40,000 remaining slaves are affected.