Click here for Abolitionist Map of
the USA, 1888� - Soirce, New Scientist,
1//8/2020, p.14 � Note the Christian symbolism here, too.
See below for
specific named States� and their history
of slavery.
Brazil
Jamaica
UK
USA
Abolition/prohibition of slavery.
Slave rebellions.
Authorisation
/ practice of slavery.
Prices
of slaves
2017, The International Labour Organisation estimated
that 40 million people worldwide were currently subjected to modern slavery. Of
these, 25 million were subject to forced labour and 15 million were trapped in
forced marriages.
2007, Mauritania banned slavery (for the third time). At this time there
were an estimated 600,000 slaves in the country. However the first prosecution
for slavery in Mauritania was not brought until April 2011; all five defendants
were acquitted. In 2018 an estimated 4% of the country�s population
remained enslaved.
1981, Mauritania banned slavery. However see 2007.
6/11/1962, In his first
meeting with his cabinet, Saudi Arabia's Prime Minister Faisal (later the
King) announced his plans to abolish slavery within the Kingdom and to have the
government pay owners for the manumission of their slaves.
1/1/1928, Nearly 250,000
domestic slaves in the British Protectorate of Sierra Leone were freed by
decree of 1927.
22/9/1927. Sierra Leone abolished domestic slavery.
1910, A slave in Nepal cost Indian Rupees
100-200, of UK� 7 � 14 (UK� 630-1,260 in 2020 prices).
31/1/1910. China abolished slavery. In 1906 Chou Fu, Viceroy
at Nanking, called on the Emperor of China to abolish slavery. At that time all
Chinese citizens had tio belong to one of four clsasses. These were 1) the
Bannermen (ruling class, 2) Free Chinese subjects, 3) Outcasts, 4) Slaves;
there were severe penalties for not fulfilling the duties of their class. Fu�s
recommendations were finally accepted in 1910, despite opposition from Manchu
nobles. However the former slaves were still compelled to live in their
,master�s households for the rtest of their lives, although as �free
labourers�.
1907, The Sultan of Zanzibar
abolished slavery altogether (see 5/6/1873), under pressure from the British.
2/7/1890. In Brussels, an International Convention for
Suppression of the African Slave Trade was signed.
1888,
Charles Martial Allemand Lavigerie (1825-92), Archbishop of Algiers from 1884, founded the
Anti Slavery Society.
7/10/1886, Spain abolished
slavery in Cuba.
1874, Slavery was abolished
in Ghana
5/6/1873, The slave markets
in Zanzibar were closed by Sultan Bargash Sayyid, under pressure from the
British. See 1907.
22/3/1873, Slavery was abolished in Puerto
Rico.
3/6/1870, The USA and Britain signed a Convention agreeing
to suppress the African slave trade.
1/7/1863, Slavery ceased
in the Dutch West Indies.
1860,
Slavery was abolished on Martinique.
1/1852, Colombia abolished slavery.
1842, Portugal outlawed the
slave trade in Mozambique.
1839, The last slaves were freed
on Mauritius;
landowners received over �2 million compensation for this. Indians were
imported as a replacement labour force.
1836, Slave trade abolished in Angola.
1834, In South Africa, some 35,000 slaves were freed as slavery ended across
the British |Empire. Former slaveowners complained
about inadequate compensation.
15/9/1829, Slavery was
abolished in Mexico.
24/4/1824, The United
Provinces of Central America abolished slavery.
18/8/1823, A slave
rebellion in Guyana. European militia put down the rebellion by 20/8/1763.
1813, Sweden abolished the slave trade.
20/5/1802. The French restored slavery to their colonies.
4/2/1794. France
issued a decree abolishing slavery in its colonies. However Mauritius ignored this decree.
1792, Denmark abolished the slave trade.
12/8/1791, African slaves in
Santo Domingo, in the east of the island of Hispaniola, rebelled against
plantation owners.
8/3/1790, The Revolutionary French Government, despite its motto of Liberte,
Egalite, Fraternite, voted to keep slavery in its colonies.
1/7/1775, The price of a male slave on the Caribbean sugar plantations
was 40 shillings, up from 30 shillings in 1740.
1770, The King of Dahomey (now Benin) was earning
�250,000 a year from selling other Africans as alaves to European traders.
23/2/1763, Start of
the Berbice Slave uprising in Guyana. At this time there were 3,833
Black slaves in the Berbice River area and only 346 White people, many of them
women and children. The rebellion spread and it took the arrival of European
gunboats on 13/5/1763 to quell the revolt. The Europeans suffered from
dysentery but the Africans were disunited.
1761, Slavery was abolished in the European territory of
Portugal.
1739, The Stono rebellion, slave revolt, in
South Carolina.
29/5/1733, Canadians given the right to have Indians as slaves, and buy and sell
them.
1713, Britain began supplying slaves to Spanish
colonies after Spain signed the Asiento Agreement.
1684, Barbados had 46,000 slaves, up from 6,000 in
1645. Black people now outnumbered Europeans in Barbados by 2 to 1.
1661, Barbados drew up a code formally legalising the
practise of slavery. Slaves were guaranteed one set of new clothes per year,
but were not protected from bring killed or mutilated by their masters.
1658, Slave imports to South
Africa began, as the White settlers needed more labour than could be
supplied by the indigenous inhabitants.
1608, Spain legalised the
slavery of Chilean Indians.
1600, A slave cost 40 Guilders, which is about US$ 4,000 in 2000 prices.
1592, Britain began a regular trade in slaves.
1588, English merchants founded the Guinea Company,
to buy slaves from the Guinea Coast, Africa.
2/6/1537, A Papal Bull issued by Pope Paul III prohibited enslavement of American
Indians, contrary to King Charles V�s policies. Paul
excommunicated Catholic slave traders.
1526, The ruler of the Congo, Mbemba Nzinga,
a convert to Christianity,
complained to the monarch of Portugal that the Portuguese were effectively kidnapping
large numbers of his subjects, to become slaves on the Brazilian sugar
plantations. However the economic of sugar won out, and the number
of sugar
plantations manned by African slaves rose from 5 in 1550 to 350 in
1623.
1517, Spain began a
regular trade in slaves.
27/12/1512. Spain
enacted the Laws of Burgos, giving New World natives legal protection against
abuse but authorising the
slavery of Black people.
4/12/1511, Antonio de Montesinos, a� Spanish
Dominican friar, denounced the cruelty of settlers enslaving indigenous peoples.
1508,The Spanish began enslaving the indigenous
people of Hispaniola.
1502, The first slaves from Africa were taken to South America, to work the plantations.
457 BCE, Athens possessed some 75,000 to 150,000 slaves (25%
to 35% of the total population). 20,000 of these slaves worked the silver mines
at Laureion.
Brazil slavery
13/5/1888. Slavery was abolished in Brazil
despite heavy opposition from the landowners. Brazil
had agreed to abolish the slave trade, under pressure from Britain, in 1831,
but this trade did not cease completely in Brazil until 1853. In the 1860s
there was pressure to abolish all slavery in Brazil, and in 1871 the Brazilian
parliament passed a law that all children of slave mothers were free. In 1884
Cearas and Amazonas freed their slaves, and in 1885 all Brazilian slaves aged
over 65 were freed. Complete emancipation without compensation to landowners
was decreed on 13/5/1888 and about 700,000 slaves valued at �40 million (i.e ca.�57
each, or �about �3,800 in 2000
prices) were freed.
1826, The UK persuaded Brazil to
promise to abolish alvery within 3 years. However this promise was not kept,
instead imports of s;aves to Brazil rose, from 28,150 in 1827, to 47,450 in
1828, 57,100 in 1829, and then 32,000 in 18430
20/11/1695, Zumbi dos Palmares, Brazilian of Congolese origin died. He was a
leader of African resistance against Brazilian slavery.
1612, Portuguese
imports of slaves from Angola to Brazil were
running at around 10,000 a year.
1630, The Repiublic of Palmares was founded
in N E Brazil by escaped slaves. It was about the size of modern-day Portugal. See
Brazil, 1988.
1573, Slavery was legalised in Brazil.
7/6/1494, The Treaty of Tordesillas was signed. In 1493, Pope Alexander
VI had set a line at 100 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands from
north to south Pole; Spain had the rights to colonise west of this line,
Portugal to the east. The 1494 Treaty moved this line a further 270 leagues to
the west. This resulted in Portugal having possession of both Brazil and
Africa; in turn this greatly facilitated the expansion of the slave trade,
providing cheap labour for the sugar plantations.
Jamaica slavery
9/4/1839, The liberation
of slaves in Jamaica was posing severe problems for the landowners, many of
whom had treated their slaves brutally.
1838, In Jamaica, Jamaican Governor Sir Lionel Smith read out the proclamation
ending slavery on the island.
1/1/1832, Order was
restored in Jamaica after the �Baptist War� (�Black Family War�). Trouble broke
out on 27/12/1831 after Black slaves there believed their order for freedom had
arrived from Britain but was being withheld by the landowners on Jamaica.
50,000 slaves rebelled, doing extensive damage to property and killing 15 White
people. Harsh punishment was inflicted with some 1,000 Black slaves flogged and
100 shot or hung.
1789, Jamaica had 211,000 slaves, up from 40,000 in 1689,
1739,
Slave
revolt in Jamaica.
1690, There were now 40,000 slaves in Jamaica.
UK slavery
26/9/1846, Thomas Clarkson, British anti-slavery
campaigner, died (born 28/3/1760).
1/8/1834, Slavery was abolished in all British colonies.
�20 million was paid as compensation to former slave owners.� This was a victory for the Anti-Slavery League, formed in 1823,
and their Parliamentary leader, Thomas Fowell Buxton. It also completed the
work of William
Wilberforce; his anti-slavery Bill, to abolish the slave trade,
incepted in 1789, was passed in 1807. This move gave impetus to the
anti-slavery campaign in the USA.
In South Africa,
35,000 slaves were freed as slavery ended throughout the British Empire. In Barbados
the slaves continued to work for their former masters but now as hired
servants.
In Jamaica, slave owners were compensated at �19 per slave.
However the market rate for a slave then was �35
(�2,000 at 2000 prices). Most of this money in fact went to
the plantation creditors, as the plantations were in debt, heavily mortgaged,
and in places declining in fertility through overwork. Additionally the UK Government now moved
from a Protectionist to a Free Trade stance, eliminiating heavy duties
against non-UK-colonial sugar,and sugar prices fell by half.
23/8/1833. London
abolished slavery throughout the British Empire. The trade in slaves in Britain had been illegal
since 1807. Other European countries
slowly followed suit; France continued with the trade till 1819. Spain abolished it in 1820,
getting �400,000 compensation from Britain. Portugal abolished the slave trade
in 1830, and was paid �300,000 by
Britain. Boer farmers in South Africa, facing a loss of this free labour, moved
northwards to land outside British control. The Boers were aggrieved that
whilst British slave owners in the West Indies received full compensation for
the loss of their slaves, Dutch Boer
farmers received only one fifth compensation.� Every slave in the British Empire was now
nominally free, although
to offset the sudden shortage of labour, field slaves were �apprenticed� to
their masters till 1840, and domestic slaves till 1838.
3/8/1833, State funeral of William
Wilberforce in Westminster Abbey.
29/7/1833, William Wilberforce, who had played a large role in abolishing the
slave trade in 1807 and of abolishing slavery in the British Empire in 1833,
died.
11/6/1825, William Wilberforce made his last speech in the House of Commons.
25/3/1807. The UK Parliament
passed the Bill for the abolition of the Slave Trade. This was the
culmination of a 20-year campaign by William
Wilberforce, the 47 year old MP for Yorkshire who took up the anti-slavery
cause in 1787. Wilberforce
moved the first anti-slavery Bill in May 1789, but was then defeated by the
interests of landed gentry and the sugar cane industry.
13/9/1806, English statesman
Charles
James Fox was taken ill and died at his London home, just as he was
about to introduce a Bill to abolish slavery.
25/10/1800, Lord Macaulay, English Liberal MP, member of the Supreme Council
of India 1834-38 and campaigner for the abolition of slavery, was born.
12/5/1789, William Wilberforce made his first speech with the House of Commons.
22/8/1788, The British
settlement of Sierra Leone was
founded, for the purpose of providing a home for freed slaves and homeless
Africans from England.
30/10/1787, William Wilberforce first met with the London Committee for the
Abolition of the Slave Trade.
22/5/1787, The London Committee for the Abolition of the Slave
Trade was founded by Thomas Clarkson.
29/11/1781, The slave
ship Zong sighted land in the West
Indies (see 6/9/1781). Collingwood, the ship�s Master, told his
officers there was insufficient water for them and all the slaves on board.
Dysentery had also plagued the ship on its voyage from Liverpool, killing 60
slaves and 7 crew. Collingwood said if the slaves died of thirst
the ship�s owners would bear the loss but if they were thrown overboard the
loss would be covered� under insurance as
a legal jettison. The weakest 132 slaves were picked out; 54 were thrown
overboard that day, 42 the next day, and a further 26 were handcuffed and
thrown overboard a few days later. A further ten jumped overboard before they
were thrown. On 22/12/1781 the Zong docked at Kingston, Jamaica; the remaining
slaves were sold and Collingwood returned to England, and claimed �30
each (�2,200 in 2000 prices)
for the 132 �jettisoned� slaves. The insurers refused to pay, and the first
trial ruled in favour of Collingwood, saying �it was the same as if
horses had been thrown overboard�. The insurers appealed to the Court of
Exchequer and Lord
Mansfield, judge, ruled otherwise. He said that although the law
supported Collingwood, a higher principle applied; distinguishing between �law�
and justice� he ruled in this �shocking case� against Collingwood. Mansfield�s
ruling was the first in an English Court
that a slave was not simply merchandise.
6/9/1781, The slave
ship Zong left Liverpool, with Luke
Collingwood as its Master, with 400 slaves and 17 crew, see
29/11/1781.
28/3/1760, Thomas Clarkson,
British anti-slavery campaigner, was born (died 26/9/1846).
24/8/1759. William Wilberforce, anti-slavery
campaigner, was born in Hull, the son of a merchant. He was the third of four
children.
1727, In England, the Quakers demanded the abolition of slavery.
1676, Dutch traders bought slaves in Angola for
30 Florins (�15?) and sold them in the Americas for Florins 300 � 500 each. The
Dutch traded some 15,000 slaves per year this way.
27/9/1672, In Britain, The Royal African
Company was granted a monopoly of the African slave trade. A healthy slave
could be bought in America for under �20 (approximately �2,000
in 2000 prices), but the trade was still very
profitable.
From Dictionary
of the Bible, Dr William Smith, 1863, John Murray, London,
300 BCE, Nicanor, Greece, a surplus of
slaves on sale, price �2 15 shillings, or �161 (2000 prices)
400 BCE, Price of slave in
Palestine, 30 shekels (same price at time of Exodus bein written), or �3 8
shillings (1863), or �193 |(2000 prices).
400 BCE, Price of slave in Greece,
1.25 Minas, or �5 1 shillings and 6 d (1863), or �297 |(2000 prices).
�Occasionally, slaves would be sold at as high a
price as a talent (�243 15 shillings)� (ibid p.1332), or �14,260 (2000 prices)
���������
USA slavery
10/3/1913, Harriet Tubman, who
led many US slaves to freedom in the 1850s, died in Auburn, New York.
22/2/1901, Laura Matilda Towne, US educator and
abolitionist who founded the first freedmen's schools for the education of
newly freed slaves, died aged 75.
24/5/1879, William Lloyd Harrison, American campaigner for abolition of slavery and for women�s
suffrage, died in New York.
18/12/1865. Slavery was officially abolished in the USA with the ratification of the 13th Amendment, signed on
1/2/1865. See 16/6/1858. The slave trade to the United States had been prohibited in 1807
but slavery continued in the southern States as the cotton trade grew. The
publication of Harriet
Beecher�s Uncle Tom�s Cabin in 1852 convinced many of the
evils of slavery but Northerners were still reluctant to back a full
abolitionist policy. But they did not wish to se slavery spread from the South
either and this led to the American
Civil War of 1861-65 after the election of Abraham Lincoln as President.
Slaves were freed in areas joining the Northern side and in all areas after the
13th Amendment was passed.
3/3/1865. The USA
established the Bureau of Freed Slaves,
offering them education, medical care, and financial assistance.
27/5/1864, Joshua Giddings, prominent US anti-slavery
campaigner, died (born 6/10/1795).
19/6/1862, Slavery was abolished in the US
Territories.
16/4/1862, The District of Columbia, USA,
abolished slavery by Act of Congress.
See USA for American Civil War 1861-65
11/2/1861, The USA unanimously passed a resolution
guaranteeing non-interference with slavery in any State
2/12/1859, John Brown, American
anti-slavery campaigner, was hanged for treason at Charlestown, West
Virginia. In 1856 Brown and his sons murdered five pro-slavery
settlers in a raid on Kansas. He wanted to found a republic in the Appalachians
for runaway slaves and abolitionists. On 16/10/1859 Brown and 21 armed men attacked
Harpers Ferry, seized the federal arsenal and occupied the town. Federal troops
under General
Lee recaptured the town; wounding Brown and killing 10 of his men.
In the north of the USA Brown was hailed as a martyr but the south saw
him as a traitor.
16/10/1859, John Brown, American
slavery abolitionist, with 21 followers, seized the US armoury at
Harper�s Ferry.� He was later hanged for
this, see 2/12/1859.
7/3/1859, The USA�s Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was upheld by the
Supreme Court in the case of Ableman v. Booth, which reversed the Wisconsin
Court ruling of 1854.
1857, North Carolina farmer Hinton Rowan Helper, aged 28, published The
Impending Crisis of the South, and How to Meet it. He demonstrated that slavery
was uneconomical, and in fact damasged the livelihood of small farmers who did
not own slaves. He was pariased in the North, but vilified in the
South.
25/11/1857, Anti-slavery campaigner James Birney died in Perth
Amboy, New Jersey (born in Danville, Kentucky 4/2/1792).
6/3/1857, The United States Supreme Court, in the Dredd Scott Decision,
decreed seven to two that 1) it was unconstitutional for Congress to outlaw
slavery in the United States, and 2) that no slave could claim US citizenship.
Dredd Scott,
now aged 62, was a slave �owned� by Elizabeth Blow of Missouri (a slave State),
who was subsequently sold to John Emerson, an army surgeon who took Scott
to the free State of Illinois, and later to Wisconsin Territory, where slavery
was outlawed by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. In 1838 Emerson took Scott
back to Missouri. Scott was in fact set free by his Abolitionist
�owners�. The Dredd Scott Decision
only served to inflame the slave/Abolitionist dispute further and probably
hastened on the US
Civil War.
24/5/1856, Slavery
Abolitionist John
Brown led a raid on pro-slavery men at Pottawaomie Creek,Kansas.
21/5/1856, The town of Lawrence, Kansas, was sacked by a pro-slavery mob
who wanted to pack the Kansas Legislature with pro-slavers, inspired by
Stephen A
Douglas.
1854, Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that the
1850 Federal Act of 18/9/1850 was unconstitutional, and freed a man convicted
of assisting a runaway slave.
26/5/1854, A Boston mob attacked a Federal courthouse in a vain
attempt to prevent the return of fugitive slave Anthony
Burns. Federal troops were called in to escort him to Boston Docks in
order to return him to his Southern owner; outraged citizens staged a silent
protest along the street.
1850, Indigenous New Mexican peoples were being sold
as slaves; a
boy sold for US$ 100 (about the proice of a horse), but a girl fetched twice as
much. Adult men were considered potentially more rebellious.
18/9/1850, US Congress passed a new Fugitive Slave Act reinforcing the
provisions of the 1793 Act, by substituting Federal for State jurisdiction.
New York freedman James Hamlet was arrested in New York as a
fugitive from Baltimore, the first arrest under the new Act, but public
indignation secured his release. Chicago City Council, 21/10/1850, stated it
would not uphold the new Act; however New York, 30/10/1850, said it would
enforce it.
1849, Maryland slave Maurice Tubman escaped, aged 29, to the North and began a
career as �conductor� on the Underground Railway, which had begun in 1838.
Tubman made 19 trips, freeing over 100 slaves, including her elderly parents
which she brought to the North in 1857.
22/3/1842, US Congressman Joshua R Giddings from Ohio
resigned his seat after being censured for
introducing anti-slavery legislation. He was back in
post by 8/5/1842.
1/3/1842, The US Supreme Court ruled, in Prigg v.Pennsylvania, that
under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, the owner of a fugitive slave was
entitled to forcibly capture and recover them.
9/3/1841. The rebel slaves who seized their Spanish ship, the Amistad,
on route between 2 Cuban ports in 1840, killed the captain and most of the
52-strong crew, and sailed it to Connecticut were freed by the US Supreme Court
this day. The Spanish authorities had demanded the slaves be extradited to
Spain. The slaves then planned to raise money to return to Africa.
1840, The World Anti-Slavery Conference
opened in London, UK. However Boston Abolitionist William
Garrison refused to attend in protest at the exclusion of women, an
issue which had split the movement.
1839, Ohio evangelist Theodore Wright, 35, issued an Abolitionist tract.
22/8/1839, Benjamin Lundy, US anti-slavery campaigner,
died (born 4/1/1789).
1838, The Underground Railway, organised by
US Abolitionists, began to take southern slaves to freedom in Canada.
However slaving interests in Phialdelphia played on the
frars of Irish immigfants and other workers that freed slaves might take their
jobs
17/5/1838, A mob burnt down
Pennsylvania Hall in an effort th thwart anti-sl;avery meetings.
1837, US Congress enacted a gag law tro suppress
debate on the slavery issue.
8/12/1837, Boston abolitionist Wendel
Philips, 26, attended a meeting where the incident of 7/11/1837 was
compared to the patriots pf the Boston Tea Party.
7/11/1837, Prominent anti-slavery campaigner and newspaper owner of The
Observer, EP Lovejoy, was killed by� a
mob in Alton, Illinois, USA. Anti-Abolitionists attacked the press premises of Elijah Paris Lovejoy,
newspaper editor, who was seting up a newspaper to replace the Abolitionist
Alton Obesrver. In a hoot-out, Lovejoy was killed.
1834, Unskilled White US unskilled workers protested
against Abolition because
they feared their jobs would be lost to Black freed men.
10/1834, In Philadelphia, Anti-Abolitionists destroyed
the homes of 40 Black people.
1833, The Female Anti-Slavery Society was founded in Philadelphia, led by Lucretia Coffin
Mott, aged 40, wife of James Mott.
4/12/1833, The American Anti-Slavery Society was founded at
Philadelphia by Abolitinists including James Mott.
1832, The New England Anti-Slavery
Society was founded in Boston, USA.
25/1/1832, The State of Virginia rejected the abolition of slavery.
11/11/1831, Nat Turner, rebel slave, was hanged in Jerusalem, Virginia.
Turner, 31-year-old and a convincing orator, became convinced that God had
chosen him to lead slaves out of bondage. With 5 others he rose up, killed his
master Joseph
Turner and family on 21/8/1831, and led a growing band of rebel
slaves who marched on Jerusalem, and by 23/8/1931 had slaughtered 57 White
people. A local militia then hunted down Nat Turner,�
crushing the revolt in the next 24 hours. Nat Turner was captured in
October 1831, and 16 others were hanged with him.
21/8/1831. The radical Black
preacher Nat
Turner led a band of slaves from some large plantations, killing 57
Whites. Nat
Turner was caught, and hanged on 11/11/1831.Extra security was
imposed, with some slaves manacled at night.
1/1/1831, The first issue
of the anti-slavery newspaper The
Liberator was published. It had been started by William Lloyd Garrison, from
Massachusetts.
1820, The USA declared the slave trade to be piracy, punishable
by death. Slavery still existed in the Southern States, but its continuation
depended on the �breeding� of existing slaves.
6/2/1820. The ship Mayflower
of Liberia left New York for Liberia
with 86 free Black people aboard.
1818, The USA forbade the import
of slaves.
7/4/1817. Some 200 slaves
in Maryland rioted, attacking Whites.
28/12/1816. The Presbyterian
clergyman Robert
Finley established the American Colonisation Society, whose aim was to recolonise American Black
slaves in Africa.
10/1/1811. A Black uprising
in New Orleans was brutally put down. 66 Black people were either killed in the
fighting or executed afterwards, and their heads strung up along the road to
the plantation where the uprising began.
2/3/1807, US Congress banned the import of slaves to America but this was widely ignored.
10/12/1805, William Garrison, US anti-slavery campaigner,
was born (died 24/5/1879).
1804, Slavery was now abolished in the US States of
Connecticut, Massachuisetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode
Island and Vermont.
1800, The US forbade slave
trading by any foreigner in its territory.
6/10/1795, Joshua Giddings, prominent US anti-slavery
campaigner, was born (died 27/5/1864).
1793, The US enacted the
first of the Fugitive Slave Laws, authorising judges, without a jury trial, to
decide the status of a fugitive slave and return him to his �owner�.
These laws were in fact so harsh they helped the Abolitionist�s cause.
3/1/1793, Lucretia Mott, US campaigner
against slavery, was born (died 11/11/1880).
4/2/1792, Anti-slavery campaigner James Birney was born in
Danville, Kentucky (died in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, 25/11/1857).
4/1/1789, Benjamin Lundy, US anti-slavery
campaigner, was born (died 22/8/1839).
8/7/1777, Vermont became the first US State to adopt a constitution banning slavery.
1775, The Pennsylvania Society for promoting
the Abolition of Slavery was formed. Benjamin Franklin was one of the founding
members.
14/4/1775. Benjamin Franklin and Dr Benjamin Rush formed the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes
Unlawfully Held In Bondage � the first colonial anti-slavery group.
13/6/1774, Rhode Island became the first US State to ban the importation of
slaves, and to free those already
in the State.
1712, Pennsylvania prohibited the import of slaves.
1688, The first recorded slavery abolitionist meeting took place in
Germantown, Pennsylvania, where the
Quakers declared that enslavement was a sin.
