BLACK HISTORY

DEFINING MOVEMENTS AND EVENTS: 1700-1799

1700
• 1,000 Blacks in New England colonies
  
• Boston becomes slave trade center for New England
  
• First anti-slavery pamphlet published in New England
  
  1705
• The Virginia General Assembly declares: 'All Negro, mulatto and Indian slaves shall be held to be real estate. If any slave resist his master, and shall happen to be killed, the master shall be free of all punishment
  
  1710
• Slaves informants who turn in other slaves planning insurrections or revolts are to be set free by law
  
  1711
• Runaway Slaves find refuge among the Senecas, the Onondagas, or the tribes in eastern Long Island
  
• Mennonite Quakers and the Pennsylvania Yearly Meeting persuaded the legislature to ban the slave trade, but Queen Anne vetoed the law
  
• Municipal slave market opened on Wall Street in New York City in and the next year a major slave rebellion broke out (New York Conspiracy)
  
  1712
• Pennsylvania Assembly put a duty of 20 pounds on every African or Indian slave imported by land or sea, but Queen Anne and her Council repealed it two years later
  
• New York Conspiracy: a group of armed slaves set fires and killed several whites. Seventy were arrested; twenty were hanged; and others were cruelly burned or tortured to death. The Assembly passed an even harsher slave code that made manumission very expensive and prohibited freed slaves from owning a house or land
  
  1713
• Anthony Benezet, a pioneering Quaker abolitionist, is born
  
  1721
• South Carolina limits the vote to free white Christian men
  
  1723
• Boston, MA, slaves accused of setting a dozen fires in one week. The next year, Boston imposes curfews on non-whites
  
  1727
• Benjamin Franklin organizes the Junto, an anti-slavery group, in Philadelphia, PA
  
• Blacks and Native Americans revolt in Middlesex and Gloucester Counties in Virginia
  
  1729
• Carolina, split over slavery issue, divides into separate colonies, North and South
  
  1730-39
• First Maroon War in Jamaica. British agree to a treaty with the Maroon leader Cudjoe in 1739
  
  1732
• The duty on slaves imported from Africa was forty shillings, but it was four shillings for all others. By 1746 Africans were about a fifth of the population. Unlike the large plantations in the West Indies, most New York masters owned only two or three slaves. In 1734 maidservants joined together to object to being beaten
  
• The colony of Georgia is founded with a prohibition on slavery
  
  1733
• Spain promises freedom in Spanish Florida to slaves escaped from English colonies
  
  1734
• Marie-Joseph Angelique, a Black slave in New France, set fire to her owner's house to cover her attempt to escape slavery. The fire spread and destroyed 4 homes. She was caught, tortured and hanged
  
  1735
• South Carolina passes laws requiring slaves to wear clothing identifying them as slaves; newly freed slaves must leave the state within six months or risk re-enslavement
  
  1739
• The Stono Rebellion/Cato's Conspiracy, the first of dozens of recorded slave revolts in U.S. history: In South Carolina A band of slaves, lead by "Jemmy" and Angolan, march down the road, carrying banners that proclaim "Liberty!". The slaves went to a shop that sold firearms and ammunition, armed themselves. By that night they had marched over ten miles and killed between twenty and twenty-five whites. Somewhere between twenty and 100 whites had set out in armed pursuit. By dusk, about thirty slaves were dead and at least thirty had escaped. Most were captured over the next month, then executed
  
  1741
• New York Conspiracy: A fire spread from the governor's house and occasional fires broke out in the homes and businesses of the rich. Adolph Philipse's slave Cuffee, was arrested. Several Africans were charged with arson, and the tavern-keeper John Hughson was investigated. His 16-year-old indentured servant Mary Burton was promised freedom and became the leading witness. While chained to a stake before they were burned, Cuffee and a slave named Quack, confessed to burning the fort and named fifty accomplices. Hughson and a slave named Caesar were tried and hanged in all, 17 Africans hanged; 13 Africans were burned at the stake, and 72 were deported. None of those accused had a lawyer to defend them.
  
• South Carolina law prohibits teaching slaves to write
  
  1749
• The colony of Georgia ends its pohibition of slavery
  
  1750
• Crispus Attucks escapes from slavery in Framingham, Mass. aboard a whaling ship
  
  1751
• South Carolina law prohibits slaves from learning about medicines or becoming doctors
  
  1752
• Future President George Washington acquires the Mount Vernon, VA, estate and its 18 slaves. Eventually he owns 200 slaves
  
  1753
• The National Council of Colored People is founded in Rochester, NY
  
  1758
• The First Black Church (African Baptist) is founded Mecklenburg, VA
  
  1760
• Black population reaches 325,806 in American colonies
  major slave uprising in Jamaica
  
  1761
• Portugal abolishes slavery on the mainland
  
  1762
• Virginia law restricts vote to white men
  
  1767
• John Quincy Adams, the 6th President and an anti-slavery congressman, is born
  
  1768
• The English slave trade had a figure of 53,000 slaves a year being shipped to the North American continent. Other slave traders included the French at 23,000, the Dutch at 11,000, and the Portuguese at 8,700 slaves being transported yearly from Africa. Estimates of up to 10 million slaves took the Middle Passage Voyage to reach the Americas
  
  1769
• Thomas Jefferson introduces a bill in the Virginia House of Burgesses to grant freedom to slaves
  
  1770
• Crispus Attucks, becomes the first to die in the revolutionary war. He is killed in the Boston Massacre
  
  1772
• Black Patriots join in the burning of the British Ship, Gaspee, in Providence, RI
  
• James Derham, a former slave becomes the first practicing Black Doctor in the United States. Derham was a slave owned by doctors. Although he was not allowed to go to medical school, he worked as an, first in New Orleans, and then in Philadelphia. When he's purchased his freedom and started his own practice. Both blacks and whites came to him as patients
  
• John Stedman joins a military expedition to suppress a slave rebellioin in Surinam, South America and is appalled by the inhumanity shown to Africans. In 1796 he publishes a full account of his experiences that becomes a classic of abolitionist literature
  
• Anthony Benezet became a firm opponent of slavery and publishes Some Historical Account of Guinea. The pamphlet was read and, to a certain extent, imitated by abolitionist Granville Sharp and John Wesley. Benezet's advocacy took two forms. Firstly, he worked to convince his Quaker brethren in Philadelphia that slave-owning was not consistent with Christian doctrine. Secondly, he wrote and published at his own expense a number of anti-slavery tracts and pamphlets
  
  1773
• Phillis Wheatley "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral published in England. First Black to be Published
  
• 4 Massachusetts slaves: Peter Bestes, Sambo Freeman, Felix Holbrook and Chester Joie petition the provincial legislature for their freedom: "... since the wise and righteous governor of the universe, has permitted our fellow men to make us slaves, we bow in submission to him, and determine to behave in such a manner, as that we may have reason to expect the divine approbation of, and assistance in, our peaceable and lawful attempts to gain our freedom..."
  
  1774
• Connecticut and Rhode Island prohibit further importation of slvaes (although Rhode Island merchants remain in slave trade to other colonies)
  
• Continental Congress bars importation of slaves; import continues in defiance of law
  
• Thomas Jefferson declares abolition of slavery as one of the goals of the colonists and accuses Britain of blocking efforts to end slave trade
  
  1775
• George Washington changes policy to allow Blacks to enlist in the Continental Army after being persuaded by General John Thomas. Lord Dunmore, the Royal governor of Virginia, romises freedom to slaves who join loylist forces in the Revolution
  
• Philadelphia Quakers organize the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery. Included among its members were Thomas Paine and Benjamin Rush. They worked effectively for an abolition law in their state, along with other laws to protect free blacks from kidnapping by slave traders.
  
• Blacks fight in various ways for Colonial freedoms, participate as Minutemen, join Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys, fight at the Battle of Bunker Hill
  
• George Washington, the new commander of American troops, forbids officers to recruit blacks for the military. He soon reverses his position
  
• At least 100,000 slaves run away from their masters
  
• John Adams believes that if the British were to land in Georgia with "arms and cloth, and proclaim freedom to all the Negroes who would join his camp, twenty thousand Negroes would join it from the two Provinces in a fortnight. The Negroes have a wonderful art of communicating intelligence among themselves; it will run several hundred miles in a week or fortnight
  
• After a clear victory at Kemp's Landing near Norfolk, Dunmore issued his Emancipation Proclamation, which declared martial law and freed "all indented Servants, Negroes, or others . . . that are able and willing to bear Arms, they joining His Majesty's forces." Eventually, several hundred African-Americans joined his ranks
  
  1776
• The Revolutionary War was variously known as "The Tobacco War." Growers had found themselves perpetually in debt to British merchants; by 1776, growers owed the mercantile houses millions of pounds. British tobacco taxes are a further grievance. Tobacco helps finance the Revolution by serving as collateral for loans from France
  
• Britains House of Commons hears the first motion to outlaw slavery in Britain and her colonies brought by David Hartley. but his motion fails
  
• The Declaration of Independence from Britain. Fifty five signers, Fifty two of whom were known to be Master Masons
  
• Representatives of the thirteen rebellious colonies meeting in the Continental Congress voted to halt the slave trade. Their resolve to shut down British trade, not revolutionary idealism, prompted their action. Three months later, Thomas Jefferson included in his first version of the Declaration of Independence, a scathing indictment of King George for promoting slavery in the New World. The other delegates eventually removed this language. The Declaration of Independence immediately became the world's foremost manifesto celebrating human rights and personal freedom, yet when he wrote it, Thomas Jefferson owned over 200 slaves.
  
• The First of 14 Presidential Slave Owners: Grant, Johnson, Buchanan, Taylor, Polk, Tyler, Harrison, Van Buren, Jackson, Monroe, Madison, Jefferson, Washington, Franklin
  
• Second Continental Congress forbids importation of slaves into 13 colonies. Import continues illegally
  
  1777
• Massachusetts slaves petition the legislature for their freedom, "... to Be sold like Beast of burthen & Like them Condemned to Slavery for Life Among A People Professing the mild Religion of Jesus A people Not Insensible of the Secrets of Rational Being Nor without spirit to Resent the unjust endeavors of others to Reduce them to a state of Bondage and Subjugation your hononuer Need not to be informed that A Live of Slavery Like that of your petitioners Deprived of Every social privilege of Every thing Requisite and render Life Tolable is far worse that Nonexistance
  
• Rhode Island - A black battalion consisting of 300 former slaves in formed. They are compensated on a par with their white comrades-in-arms and promised freedom after the war. In August, the battalion kills 1000 Hessians
  
  1778
• The Knight vs Wedderburn legal case in Edinburgh rules that enslavement is incompatible with Scots law: Case History: The commander of a vessel, in the African trade, having imported a cargo of negroes into Jamaica, sold Joseph Knight, one of them, as a slave, to Mr. Wedderburn. Mr. Wedderburn came over to Scotland, and brought this negro along with him, as a personal servant. The negro continued to serve him for several years, without murmuring, and married in the country. But, afterwards, prompted to assert his freedom. Knight then applied to the sheriff of the county, by petition. The sheriff found, 'That the state of slavery is not 'recognized by the laws of this kingdom, and is 'inconsistent with the principles thereof; that 'the regulations of Jamaica, concerning slaves, 'do not extend to this kingdom; and repelled 'the defender's claim to a perpetual service.' Mr. Wedderburn having reclaimed, the sheriff found, 'That perpetual service, without wages, is slavery; and therefore adhered.'
  
• Vermont becomes the first jurisdiction to abolish slavery
  
  1780
• Massachusetts constitution abolishes slavery: By the Constitution of 1780 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts declared that persons of color, descended from African slaves, were by that Constitution made citizens of the State; and such of them as have had the necessary qualifications, have held and exercised the elective franchise, as citizens, from that time to the present
  
• Black Massachusetts taxpayers demand the right to vote, lead by Paul Cuffe, arguing "taxation without representation" and refuse to pay taxes
  
• Pennsylvania adopts a gradual emancipation law, freeing slaves born after 1780 upon their 28th birthday
  
  1781
• Elizabeth Freeman was born into slavery in Claverack, New York in 1742. Colonel Ashley purchased Freeman when she was six months of age. Upon suffering physical abuse from Ashley's wife, Freeman escaped her home and refused to return. She found a sympathetic ear with attorney Theodore Sedgwick. When asked how she learned that she was entitled to her freedom, Elizabeth responded, the "Bill o' Rights." Apparently, as she served dinner to her masters, she had heard them speaking of freedom. With the assistance of Sedgwick, she initiated the case Brom and Bett v. Ashley that set a precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts
  
  1782
• George Washington is the major slave owner in Fairfax County Virginia that year with 188 slaves
  
• The Virginia legislature authorizes manumission of slaves as the "peculiar institution" begins to die out in some parts of the South. Some 10,000 Virginia slaves will be freed in the next 8 years largely because they are too old, ill, or costly for their masters to maintain
  
  1783
• The Zong case: 131 Africans were thrown overboard from teh slave ship Zong, but th ecse is heard as an insurance dispute not a murder rial. The case causes outrage and strengthens the abolition movement. Revolutionary War ends; 10,000 blacks have served
  
• The Massachusetts Supreme Court declares slavery unconstitutional in Commonwealth v. Jennison: In a series of lawsuits, Quock Walker sues his former owner, charging assault with damages. The case is cited as being the impetus for the elimination of slavery in Massachusetts. Chief Justice Cushing read to the jury,"our Constitution of Government, by which the people of this Commonwealth have solemnly bound themselves, sets out with declaring that all men are born free and equal--and that every subject is entitled to liberty, and to have it guarded by the laws, as well as life and property--and in short is totally repugnant to the idea of being born slaves. This being the case, I think the idea of slavery is inconsistent with our own conduct and Constitution; and there can be no such thing as perpetual servitude of a rational creature..."
  
• The Revolutionary War ends. Some 10,000 blacks had served in the continental armies, 5000 as regular soldiers. The famed "Black Regiment" is deactivated
  
  1784
• U.S. Congress rejects Thomas Jefferson proposal to exclude slavery from all western territories after 1800
  
• Connecticut passes gradual emancipation law; Rhode Island passes similar law and abolishes slavery
  
• The Continental Congress prohibits slavery in the Northwest Territory
  
• Black Methodist form their own church in Philadelphia
  
• Virginia emancipates slaves who fought in the Revolutionary War
  
  1785
• New York slaves who served in Revolutionary Army are freed
  
• The New York Anti-Slavery Society is founded
  
  1786
• Thomas Clarson's 'An essay on the slavery and commerce of the human species' is published and makes an immediate impact
  
  1787
• The Constitutional Convention adopts a "three-fifths rule" as a compromise to settle differences between Northern and Southern states over the counting of slaves for purposes of representation and taxation. Also added to appease slaveowners is a clause extending slavery for an additional 20 years
  
• Northwest Ordinance prohibits slavery north of the Ohio River (Northwest Territories)
  
• The Free African Society is formed in Philadelphia
  
• The Confederation Congress adopts the Northwest Ordinance, which states that Congress would create three to five states in the Northwest Territory , which wold be equals with the older states. The measure also bars slavery in those territories
  
• Boston Blacks petition for equal schools
  
• Dollar currency first introduced in the United States
  
  1788
• Gustavus Vassa (Olaudah Equiano) moves from the U.S. to England and becomes a prominent abolistionist
  
• The African Free School opens in New York City
  
• In response to growing concern about conditions in the middle pasage the Dolben Act limits the number of enslaved people a ship is permitted to carry. Conditions remain dreadful
  
  1789
• U.S. Constitution ratified with clause equating slaves to 3/5th of a white citizen (but on for the purposes of determining congressional representation) so not only were Blacks not fully counted as Humans, but then slave states had greater representation for the pro-slavery agenda
  
• Delaware outlaws the slave trade
  
• The Maryland Abolition Society is founded
  
• The French Revolution begins, and it's ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity spark discontent in the slave colonies
  
  1790
• U.S. Census says 757,208 blacks in U.S.; 59,557 are free
  
  1791
• U.S. Bill of Rights and Blacks: The Bill of Rights are the first 10 amendments to the Constitution of the United States. The U.S. Constitution included a clause that counted Blacks as 3/5ths of a person, in determining congressional representation. At the time of the Bill of Rights, it was a foregone conclusion that Blacks, at least slaves were implicitly not covered under the Bill of Rights. It was not until the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments (soon after the civil war) that Blacks were given constitutional protections
  
• Benjamin Banneker publishes his Almanac
  
• Slave Revolt in Haiti lead by Toussant L'Ouverture
  
• France, abolishes slavery for the first of several times
  
• Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest independent black institution was founded in Philadelphia by Richard Allen
  
  1792
• The House of Commons votes in favor of the abolition of the slave trade but the bill is rejected by the House of Lords
  
  1793
• The Fugitive Slave Act allowed slave hunters to capture an escapee in any territory or state with only an obligation to confirm orally before a state or federal judge that the person was a runaway. The captive was not entitled to a trial by jury, nor could they testify or have representation. A person hiding an escaped slave could be fined $500. Several northern states reacted by enacting legislation to protect free black Americans and fugitive slaves
  
• Georgia prohibits the importation of slaves
  
• Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin exponentially increase the efficiency and productivity of cotton sorting, thus leading to new demand for slaves
  
  1794
• Congress prohibits Americans from taking part it the international slave trade
  
  1795
• Fedon's Rebellion in Grenada causes enormous damage to plantations. Enslaved people seize control of large parts of ht eisland bfore being defeated by British troops in 1796
  
  1796
• Napoleon seizes power in France and soon restores slavery in the French colonies
  
  1798-1808
• In this decade the greatest importation of slaves into the U.S. occured, totaling approximately 200,000 individuals
  
  1799
• George Washington frees his slaves in his will. Washington's list of 317 slaves, includes 124 who belonged to him outright, 153 who were Martha Washington's dower slaves and at her death would go to her grandson George Washington Parke Custis, and forty others leased by Washington from his neighbor Penelope Manley French. Of the 277 slaves belonging to Washington in his own right or by marriage, 179 were 12 years old or older, eighteen of whom were "Passed labor." The remaining ninety-eight were children under the age of 12. In any case, all the slaves that Washington owned outright were freed after Martha's death, and the accounts of the executors of Washington's will show an expenditure by 1833 of more than $10,000 to the pensioned former slaves who remained at Mount Vernon
  
  
  

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