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1644
		March 25, 1644 The first group manumission in North America: 11 blacks successful petition the government of New Amsterdam for their freedom.
1646
		November 4, 1646 Massachusetts Bay Colony declares two Africans free and orders their return to Africa at public expense.
1663
		September 13, 1663 The first recorded slave conspiracy in American colonies surfaces in Gloucester County, Va.
1688
		February 18, 1688 In the first known public protest against the institution of slavery in the American colonies, Quakers in Germantown Pennsylvania adopt resolutions against slavery. Related Web Site
1712
		April 6, 1712 A slave insurrection takes place in New York City; 21 slaves were executed. Related Web Site
1713
		January 31, 1713 Anthony Benezet, a pioneering Quaker abolitionist, is born.
1731
		November 9, 1731 Benjamin Banneker, the black scientist and inventor, is born.
1732
		June 20, 1732 The colony of Georgia is founded with a prohibition on slavery.
1748
		September 12, 1748 Price Hall, a black leader in Boston and founder of the first black Masonic lodge, is born.
1749
		January 10, 1749 The colony of Georgia ends its prohibition of slavery.
1750
		September 30, 1750 Crispus Attucks escapes from slavery in Framingham, Mass. aboard a whaling ship.
1753
		July 6, 1753 The National Council of Colored People is founded in Rochester, N.Y.
1755
		March 27, 1755 Rufus King, an anti-slavery senator, is born.
1758
		September 29, 1758 The Yearly Meeting of Philadelphia Quakers adopts a ban on members participating in the slave trade.
1759
		January 17, 1759 The black sea captain Paul Cuffe, a pioneer in colonization, is born.
1766
		September 2, 1766 James Forten, a Revolutionary War soldier and abolitionist, is born.
1767
		July 11, 1767 John Quincy Adams, the 6th president and an anti-slavery congressman, is born.
1770
		March 5, 1770 Crispus Attucks is killed in the Boston Massacre.
1772
		June 9, 1772 Black patriots join in the burning of the British ship, Gaspee, in Providence, R.I.
1775
		April 19, 1775 The opening engagements of the American Revolution take place at the battles of Lexington and Concord. Some 700 British soldiers sought to destroy a patriot cache of supplies at Concord. 70 Minutemen met the British at Lexington Common, where eight colonists were killed. The British lost 73 killed, 174 wounded and 26 missing; the colonists suffered 93 casualties. Related Web Site
1775
		October 24, 1775 General John Thomas asserts blacks' right to serve in the military.
1775
		November 7, 1775 Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of Virginia, promises freedom to slaves who join loyalist forces in the Revolution.
1775
		December 30, 1775 George Washington authorizes the enlistment of blacks in the Continental Army.
1776
		January 16, 1776 The Continental Congress approves the reenlistment of black soldiers.
1776
		April 6, 1776 The Continental Congress suspends the slave trade.
1776
		September 9, 1776 George Washington writes to friend John F. Mercer: "It is among my first wishes to see…slavery…abolished by slow, sure, and imperceptible degrees."
1777
		January 13, 1777 Massachusetts slaves petition the legislature for their freedom.
1777
		July 2, 1777 Vermont becomes the first jurisdiction to abolish slavery.
1778
		June 10, 1778 The Rhode Island General Assembly suspends military enlistment of enslaved blacks, but more press to join.
1779
		April 29, 1779 Myron Holley, an abolitionist and a founder of the Liberty Party, is born.
1780
		February 10, 1780 Blacks of Dartmouth, Mass., led by Paul Cuffe, petition against "taxation without representation" and refuse to pay taxes.
1780
		March 1, 1780 Pennsylvania passes Emancipation Act.
1781
		August 22, 1781 In Brown and Bett v. Ashley, a Massachusetts judge rules that the state constitution "free and equal clause applies to blacks.
1782
		May 20, 1782 The black patriot Deborah Sampson Garnett enlists in the Continental Army disguised as a man.
1783
		July 8, 1783 The Massachusetts Supreme Court declares slavery unconstitutional in Commonwealth v. Jennison.
1784
		January 8, 1784 The Connecticut Legislature approves a gradual emancipation plan.
1784
		April 23, 1784 The Continental Congress prohibits slavery in the Northwest Territory.
1784
		May 5, 1784 Black Methodists form their own church in Philadelphia.
1784
		October 23, 1784 Virginia emancipates slaves who fought in the Revolutionary War.
1784
		December 5, 1784 The African American poet, Phillis Wheatley, dies.
1785
		January 25, 1785 The New York State Anti-Slavery Society is founded
1785
		March 16, 1785 Rufus King proposes a ban on slavery in western U.S. territories.
1786
		November 14, 1786 The Virginia legislature emancipates Caesar Tarrant for his naval service during the Revolutionary War.
1787
		April 12, 1787 The Free African Society is formed in Philadelphia.
1787
		July 13, 1787 The Continental Congress bans slavery north of the Ohio River.
1787
		August 28, 1787 The Constitutional Convention debates the fugitive slave clause.
1787
		October 17, 1787 Boston blacks petition for equal schools.
1787
		November 1, 1787 The African Free School opens in New York City.
1788
		January 20, 1788 The first African Baptist church is founded in Savannah, Ga.
1788
		May 23, 1788 The abolitionist Lewis Tappan is born.
1789
		January 4, 1789 Benjamin Lundy, editor of the Genius of Universal Emancipation, is born.
1789
		February 3, 1789 Delaware outlaws the slave trade
1789
		September 8, 1789 The Maryland Abolition Society is founded.
1789
		October 28, 1789 Levi Coffin, the Quaker "president" of the Underground Railroad, is born.
1790
		March 8, 1790 The Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery petitions Congress to end slavery.
1792
		February 4, 1792 James G. Birney, Liberty Party presidential candidate, is born.
1792
		April 4, 1792 Thaddeus Stevens, anti-slavery politician, is born.
1792
		August 29, 1792 Revivalist Charles Grandison Finney is born.
1792
		November 26, 1792 Sarah Moore Grimke, abolitionist and women's rights advocate, is born.
1793
		January 3, 1793 Lucretia Coffin Mott, abolitionist and women's rights advocate, is born.
1793
		February 12, 1793 The Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 becomes law.
1793
		March 14, 1793 Eli Whitney obtains a patent for the cotton gin.
1793
		December 19, 1793 Georgia prohibits the importation of slaves.
1794
		March 22, 1794 Congress prohibits Americans from taking part in the international slave trade.
1796
		May 4, 1796 Educator Horace Mann is born.
1797
		March 6, 1797 Gerrit Smith, abolitionist and Liberty Party founder, is born.
1799
		July 4, 1799 New York implements gradual emancipation.
1800
		January 2, 1800 Free blacks in Philadelphia petition Congress to end slavery.
1800
		May 9, 1800 John Brown is born.
1800
		October 2, 1800 Nat Turner, the slave rebellion leader, is born.
1802
		January 18, 1802 Congress defeats an amendment to the 1793 Fugitive Slave Law requiring blacks seeking jobs to show certificates of freedom.
1802
		February 11, 1802 Lydia Maria Francis Child, abolitionist and women's rights advocate, is born.
1802
		November 9, 1802 The abolitionist and editor Elijah P. Lovejoy is born.
1805
		February 20, 1805 Angelina Emily Grimke, the abolitionist and women's rights advocate, is born.
1805
		August 8, 1805 The African Baptist Church is founded in Boston.
1805
		December 10, 1805 Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison is born.
1806
		July 25, 1806 Abolitionist Maria Weston Chapman is born.
1807
		March 2, 1807 Congress prohibits the importation of slaves effective January 1, 1808.
1807
		December 17, 1807 The poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier is born.
1808
		January 1, 1808 The importation of slaves into the United States is outlawed. Related Web Site
1809
		February 12, 1809 Abraham Lincoln is born.
1809
		November 17, 1809 Abolitionist Stephen S. Foster is born.
1810
		January 15, 1810 Abolitionist and women's rights activist Abigail Kelley Foster is born.
1810
		August 24, 1810 Abolitionist clergyman Theodore Parker is born.
1810
		October 19, 1810 Kentucky abolitionist Cassius Clay is born.
1811
		January 6, 1811 Charles Sumner, antislavery Senator from Massachusetts, is born.
1811
		February 3, 1811 Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, is born.
1811
		June 14, 1811 Author Harriet Beecher Stowe is born.
1811
		November 29, 1811 Abolitionist Wendell Phillips is born.
1813
		June 24, 1813 The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher is born.
1816
		April 9, 1816 The National African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church is founded
1816
		December 20, 1816 William C. Nell, black author and abolitionist, is born.
1817
		January 15, 1817 Black Philadelphians reject a colonization plan.
1817
		June 23, 1817 Abolitionist John Jay III is born.
1818
		August 13, 1818 Lucy Stone, the abolitionist and women's rights activist, is born.
1819
		February 5, 1819 Robert Carter, abolitionist writer, is born.
1820
		March 3, 1820 Under the provisions of the Compromise of 1820, Maine is admitted as a free state and Missouri as a slave state and slavery is excluded from the northern half of the Louisiana Purchase. Related Web Site
1820
		May 15, 1820 Congress declares the international slave trade piracy punishable by death.
1822
		July 26, 1822 Denmark Vesey and his followers are executed in South Carolina as insurrectionists.
1823
		October 9, 1823 Abolitionist and editor Mary Ann Shadd Cary is born.
1827
		March 10, 1827 Mexico prohibits the introduction of slaves into Texas.
1828
		January 22, 1828 On the floor of the U.S. Congress, Rep. Henry Martindale lauds black military service in the Revolutionary War.
1828
		March 28, 1828 The anti-slavery journal Rights of All is first published.
1828
		August 11, 1828 William Lloyd Garrison says the purpose of anti-slavery societies is to "unite the moral strength of the country."
1829
		September 28, 1829 David Walker's militant Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World is published and calls for the overthrow of the slave system.
1830
		November 30, 1830 The American Society of Free Persons of Color is founded.
1831
		January 1, 1831 William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing the militant antislavery newspaper The Liberator. On the first page of the first issue, Garrison defiantly declared: “I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—and I will not retreat a single inch—AND I WILL BE HEARD.” Related Web Site
1831
		March 26, 1831 The Reverend Richard Allen dies.
1831
		June 6, 1831 The first annual convention of Free Persons of Color meets in Philadelphia.
1831
		August 21, 1831 Nat Turner leads about 70 slaves in an insurrection in Southampton County, Virginia, in which about 57 whites were killed. Related Web Site
1831
		September 24, 1831 The Liberator publishes the first proposal for the use of "African-American" as a term for blacks.
1831
		October 30, 1831 Slave rebellion leader Nat Turner is captured in Virginia.
1831
		November 11, 1831 Nat Turner, leader of a slave insurrection, is executed.
1832
		January 6, 1832 The New England Anti-Slavery Society is founded.
1832
		February 22, 1832 The Salem, Mass. Female Anti-Slavery Society is founded, the first such organization founded by black women.
1832
		July 1, 1832 The Rhode Island Anti-Slavery Society is founded.
1832
		September 7, 1832 William Lloyd Garrison declares: "without the organization of abolitionists into society, the cause will be lost."
1833
		April 1, 1833 Prudence Crandall opens a school for African American girls in Connecticut.
1833
		October 2, 1833 The first meeting of the New York Anti-Slavery Society is held.
1833
		November 18, 1833 The first Maine Anti-Slavery Society is founded in Hallowell.
1833
		December 4, 1833 The American Anti-Slavery Society is founded and pledges "immediate emancipation without expatriation."
1834
		April 30, 1834 The Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society adopts its constitution.
1834
		July 7, 1834 New York blacks celebrate Emancipation Day.
1835
		March 18, 1835 The Kentucky Anti-Slavery Society is founded.
1835
		April 22, 1835 The Ohio State Anti-Slavery Society is founded.
1835
		July 14, 1835 Amos Dresser is whipped publicly for distributing abolitionist literature.
1835
		August 31, 1835 Prompted by rising abolitionist activity, defenders of slavery meet in Boston.
1835
		September 10, 1835 Anti-abolition mob erects gallows outside William Lloyd Garrison's home in Boston.
1835
		October 21, 1835 William Lloyd Garrison narrowly escapes lynching in Boston.
1835
		November 20, 1835 A committee of vigilance is founded in New York City to protect African Americans from slave catchers.
1835
		December 11, 1835 Beriah Green congratulates Gerrit Smith on his recent conversion to abolition.
1836
		April 11, 1836 William Lloyd Garrison protests Arkansas's admission to the Union as a slave state.
1836
		May 26, 1836 The House of Representatives passes the "Gag Rule," tabling petitions dealing with slavery.
1836
		June 8, 1836 Aaron W. Kitchell is tarred and feathered by a Georgia mob for inciting slaves.
1836
		August 1, 1836 A mob attacks abolitionist James Birney's newspaper office in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1836
		October 27, 1836 Henrietta Ray, a black abolitionist in New York City, dies.
1836
		November 28, 1836 The Vermont anti-slavery newspaper The State Journal ceases publication.
1837
		October 10, 1837 Robert Gould Shaw, commander of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, is born.
1837
		December 15, 1837 The Liberator proclaims its mission: "to redeem woman as well as man from a servile to an equal Condition."
1838
		May 17, 1838 Pennsylvania Hall, site of the second Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women, is burned by a pro-slavery mob.
1838
		August 12, 1838 Maryland slave Frederick Bailey (later Frederick Douglass) resolves to escape from bondage.
1838
		September 3, 1838 Frederick Bailey (later Frederick Douglass) reaches Philadelphia in his flight from slavery.
1838
		November 19, 1838 The Adelphic Library Association is founded to serve Boston's black community.
1839
		February 19, 1839 The Ohio House passes a fugitive slave law in support of Kentucky slave owners.
1839
		March 12, 1839 Frederick Douglass denounces colonization at a meeting in New Bedford, Mass.
1839
		May 2, 1839 James Birney, a former slave owner, publishes Letter on the Political Obligations of an Abolitionist.
1839
		July 31, 1839 John Quincy Adams predicts privately that slavery will lead to civil war.
1839
		August 26, 1839 The Amistad is seized by U.S. officials off Long Island, N.Y.
1839
		November 13, 1839 The Liberty Party holds its first national convention in Albany, N.Y.
1839
		December 12, 1839 Charles Stuard Weld, abolitionist and son of Theodore and Angelina Grimke Weld, is born.
1840
		April 24, 1840 William Lloyd Garrison urges the World's Anti-Slavery Convention to recognize women as "equal beings."
1840
		June 12, 1840 The World Anti-Slavery Convention opens in London.
1840
		July 21, 1840 Christian Abraham Fleetwood, a black Civil War hero and recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, is born.
1840
		October 12, 1840 Abolitionist James Birney asks the Archbishop of Canterbury to urge the American Episcopal churches to turn against slavery.
1840
		November 11, 1840 John Quincy Adams agrees to serve as co-counsel for the Amistad defendants.
1841
		January 21, 1841 The Portland (Maine) Anti-Slavery Society is founded.
1841
		March 9, 1841 U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Amistad captives should be freed.
1841
		August 9, 1841 Frederick Douglass hears William Lloyd Garrison speak for the first time in Bristol, Mass.
1841
		October 15, 1841 The Liberator reports racially-motivated eviction of Frederick Douglass from a train in Massachusetts.
1841
		November 27, 1841 Thirty-five survivors of L'Amistad, now free, embark for Africa.
1842
		January 28, 1842 5,000 attend an abolition rally in Boston.
1842
		February 17, 1842 The Liberty Party holds its third annual convention in Boston.
1842
		April 15, 1842 Former Amistad captives write to report their arrival in Sierra Leone.
1842
		May 1, 1842 A party of slaves led by William Wells Brown crosses Lake Erie and reaches freedom in Canada.
1842
		October 20, 1842 Fugitive slave George Latimer is recaptured in Boston. Abolitionists later purchased his freedom.
1842
		November 10, 1842 The U.S. and Britain sign a treaty suppressing the Atlantic slave trade.
1843
		March 24, 1843 Massachusetts bans official state involvement in the recapture of fugitive slaves.
1843
		June 1, 1843 Former slave Isabella Van Wagenen renames herself Sojourner Truth.
1843
		August 15, 1843 The National Convention of Colored Men meets in Buffalo, N.Y.
1843
		September 16, 1843 Frederick Douglass is beaten by a mob in Pendleton, Indiana.
1844
		January 5, 1844 The Liberator reports the first meeting of the Wester New York Anti-Slavery Society.
1844
		February 2, 1844 The Liberator prints Cassius Clay's speech denouncing the annexation of Texas.
1844
		April 27, 1844 William Lloyd Garrison writes a support: "immediate emancipation is the duty of the master and the right of the slave."
1844
		June 22, 1844 Jonathan Walker leaves Pesacola, Fl. for the Bahamas with seven fugitive slaves.
1844
		December 3, 1844 The Gag Rule is lifted in the U.S. Congress.
1845
		June 11, 1845 More than 2,000 delegates attend the Liberty Party convention in Cincinnati.
1845
		August 6, 1845 Frederick Douglass departs for a speaking tour in England.
1846
		January 7, 1846 Black activist Mary Eleanore McCoy is born on the Underground Railroad.
1846
		April 21, 1846 In Scotland, Frederick Douglass urges Christians to distance themselves from American slaveholders.
1846
		August 17, 1846 Frederick Douglass joins in the public launch of the English Anti-Slavery League.
1846
		December 22, 1846 In a letter to Henry C. Wright, Frederick Douglass describes the purchase of his freedom by English supporters.
1847
		June 30, 1847 Dred Scott files suit to claim his freedom.
1847
		August 2, 1847 William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass begin a speaking tour in Ohio.
1848
		March 31, 1848 Frederick Douglass lectures on abolition in Bath, N.Y.
1848
		April 18, 1848 70 slaves are captured aboard the Pearl while attempting to escape Washington, D.C.
1848
		May 14, 1848 Abolitionists Theodore Weld and Angelina Grimke marry in Philadelphia.
1848
		June 29, 1848 Frederick Douglass becomes the sole editor of The North Star.
1848
		July 19, 1848 Frederick Douglass attends the first Women's rights Convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y.
1848
		December 25, 1848 Fugitive slaves Ellen and William Craft arrive in Philadelphia, gaining freedom.
1849
		July 15, 1849 Frederick Douglass addresses the Ohio Senate.
1849
		October 22, 1849 Frederick Douglass addresses an anti-slavery meeting in New York City.
1849
		November 3, 1849 The Anti-Slavery Bugle editorializes: "fugitive slave literature is destined to be a powerful…means of abolitionizing the free states."
1850
		February 8, 1850 Frederick Douglass publishes an attack on the Compromise of 1850.
1850
		May 7, 1850 Frederick Douglass defies street gangs to address the American Anti-Slavery Society in New York City.
1850
		September 18, 1850 Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which requires the return of runaway slaves seeking sanctuary in the North. Related Web Site
1850
		October 4, 1850 Syracuse (N.Y.) Vigilance Committee is founded to obstruct the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law.
1850
		November 15, 1850 Frederick Douglass delivers a speech to the 15th annual meeting of the Rhode Island Anti-Slavery Society.
1851
		January 24, 1851 The Liberator's 20th anniversary is celebrated in Boston.
1851
		May 29, 1851 Sojourner Truth delivers her "Ain't I a Woman" speech at the Women's Rights Convention in Akron.
1851
		June 5, 1851 Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin begins appearing in serial form in an antislavery newspaper. Related Web Site
1851
		July 3, 1851 William Wells Brown, a fugitive slave living in London, publishes an article detailing American black flight to England.
1851
		September 11, 1851 Violent confrontation between local blacks and fugitive slave catchers takes place in Christiana, Pa.
1851
		October 1, 1851 Abolitionists storm the Syracuse, N.Y. jail to free fugitive slave Jerry McHenry.
1851
		November 22, 1851 Gerrit Smith writes to a colleague: "it is about as easy to get used to slavery as it is to get used to being fried alive."
1852
		March 20, 1852 After being serialized in an antislavery newspaper, Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is published a book and sells a record number of copies, a million over the next 18 months. Related Web Site
1852
		April 17, 1852 James Birney condemns the Fugitive Slave Act as unconstitutional.
1852
		July 5, 1852 Frederick Douglass delivers his speech, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" in Rochester, N.Y.
1852
		August 26, 1852 Charles Sumner delivers a speech against the Fugitive Slave Law in the U.S. Senate.
1852
		November 5, 1852 Abolitionist Gerrit Smith thanks New York voters for electing him to Congress.
1852
		December 14, 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe prophesizes victory: "Why has He given [Uncle Tom's Cabin] this success unless He means some mercy to the cause?"
1853
		March 15, 1853 The first theatrical performance of Uncle Tom's Cabin takes place in New York.
1853
		June 21, 1853 Harriet Brent Jacobs' Letter from a Fugitive Slave is printed in the New York Tribune.
1853
		September 4, 1853 Sojourner Truth addresses the New York City Anti-Slavery Society.
1854
		February 23, 1854 Harriet Beecher Stoew publishes an attack on the pending Nebraska bill.
1854
		March 10, 1854 The citizens of Racine, Wisc. Protest the arrest of Joshua Glover under the Fugitive Slave law.
1854
		April 26, 1854 The Emigrant Aid Company is founded to promote anti-slavery sentiment in Kansas Territory.
1854
		May 24, 1854 Fugitive slave Anthony Burns is arrested in Boston; despite massive protests he is returned to Virginia, but is bought out of slavery. Related Web Site
1854
		July 20, 1854 The Massachusetts Republican Party is founded.
1854
		August 3, 1854 The New York-Kansas League meets to promote anti-slavery emigration into Kansas Territory.
1854
		December 28, 1854 Harriet Tubman leads seven slaves from Maryland to freedom in Pennsylvania.
1855
		April 13, 1855 Frederick Douglass publicly declares "our elevation as a race is almost wholly dependent upon our own exertions."
1855
		November 21, 1855 California blacks hold a convention in Sacramento.
1856
		January 27, 1856 Margaret Garner and 16 other slaves escape from a Kentucky plantation.
1856
		May 18, 1856 Senator Charles Sumner delivers his "Crime Against Kansas" speech.
1856
		June 17, 1856 The Republican Party holds its first convention in Philadelphia, and nominates explorer John C. Fremont for the presidency. The party slogan is “Free Labor, Free Men, Free Speech, Fremont.” Related Web Site
1856
		July 23, 1856 Lincoln's speech in Galena, Ill., condemnds the spread of slavery to new territories.
1857
		March 6, 1857 The Dred Scott Decision denies freedom to slaves taken into free territory.
1857
		June 4, 1857 Harriet Tubman rescues her parents from slavery.
1857
		August 25, 1857 In a speech in Cleveland, Ohio, Gerrit Smith proposes compensated emancipation.
1858
		March 11, 1858 Frederick Douglass and John Brown confer on ways to assist fugitive slaves.
1858
		August 5, 1858 The Radical Abolition Party nominates Gerrit Smith for governor of New York.
1859
		January 12, 1859 Black abolitionist Sarah Parker Remond begins a speaking tour of England.
1859
		March 7, 1859 Ableman v. Booth deems the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law constitutional.
1859
		May 8, 1859 John Brown holds an anti-slavery convention in Chatham, Ontario.
1859
		June 3, 1859 William Lloyd Garrison endorses the Republican Party as representing the "political anti-slavery feeling of the North."
1859
		August 20, 1859 John Brown invites Frederick Douglass to join his raid on Harpers Ferry, Va. Douglass declines.
1859
		October 16, 1859 Abolitionist John Brown leads a group of about 20 men in a raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. Related Web Site
1859
		November 12, 1859 Frederick Douglass embarks from Canada for a speaking tour in England.
1859
		December 2, 1859 John Brown is executed for his raid on Harpers Ferry, Va.
1860
		May 16, 1860 The Republican National Convention in Chicago nominates Lincoln for president.
1860
		October 13, 1860 In Cincinnati, former slave Louisa Picquet publicly thanks donors who helped purchase her mother's freedom.
1860
		November 2, 1860 Wendell Phillips declares: "Liberty first, Union afterward."
1860
		December 24, 1860 South Carolina officially secedes from the Union.
1861
		January 29, 1861 Kansas is admitted to the Union as a free state.
1861
		March 4, 1861 Lincoln's first presidential inauguration.
1861
		April 23, 1861 Boston blacks demand the right to serve in the Union army.
1861
		June 16, 1861 Frederick Douglass calls for an emancipation proclamation.
1861
		July 24, 1861 John Jay III argues that the abolition of slavery is a "military necessity."
1861
		September 1, 1861 Mary Chase starts a school for escaped slaves in Alexandria, Va.
1861
		November 26, 1861 Delaware presents President Lincoln with a draft of a bill for gradual, compensated emancipation.
1862
		January 23, 1862 Citizens of Cayuga County, N.Y. petition Congress for abolition and black suffrage.
1862
		February 7, 1862 The New England Freedman's Aid Society is founded in Boston.
1862
		March 6, 1862 President Lincoln recommends that the federal government provide compensation to those states that adopt emancipation laws. Related Web Site
1862
		April 10, 1862 Congress offers to compensate owners who emancipate their slaves.
1862
		May 3, 1862 William A. Jackson, Jefferson Davis's personal servant, flees to Union lines with military information.
1862
		July 12, 1862 President Lincoln unsuccessfully appeals to the border states to accept compensated emancipation.
1862
		August 14, 1862 President Lincoln welcomes a black delegation at the White House, the first president to do so.
1862
		September 22, 1862 The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation is announced, to be effective January 1, 1863.
1862
		December 23, 1862 Jefferson Davis denies prisoner of war status to captured black soldiers.
1863
		January 1, 1863 The Emancipation Proclamation frees slaves in the Confederate states.
1863
		February 13, 1863 Frederick Douglass delivers his "Mission of War" speech at Cooper Institute in New York City.
1863
		April 2, 1863 The 54th Massachusetts Infantry conducts its first dress parade.
1863
		May 27, 1863 African American soldiers join the unsuccessful Union assault on Port Hudson, La.
1863
		June 2, 1863 Harriet Tubman helps Union troops free 700 slaves at Combahee River, S.C.
1863
		July 18, 1863 The 54th Massachusetts Infantry spearheads assault on Fort Wagner, S.C.
1863
		August 10, 1863 Frederick Douglass and President Lincoln meet privately for the first time.
1863
		October 3, 1863 The Yearly Meeting of American Quakers petitions Congress to end slavery.
1863
		December 7, 1863 Union Army success move Lincoln to call for a national day of prayer.
1864
		February 9, 1864 The Women's Loyal National League presents Congress with 100,000 signatures demanding the abolition of slavery.
1864
		March 21, 1864 The New York Workingmen's Democratic Republican Association visits President Lincoln to discuss the rebellion as "war upon the rights of all working people."
1864
		April 5, 1864 President Lincoln thanks the children of Concord, Mass., for their petition on behalf of slave children.
1864
		June 15, 1864 Congress makes black soldiers' wages equal to whites' in the Union army.
1864
		September 5, 1864 Louisiana voters approve a new state constitution abolishing slavery.
1864
		October 29, 1864 Sojourner Truth meets President Lincoln: "I was never treated by anyone with more kindness and cordiality than…by that great man."
1864
		November 8, 1864 President Lincoln is elected to a second term.
1865
		January 11, 1865 Missouri's constitutional convention abolishes slavery.
1865
		February 1, 1865 Illinois becomes the first state to ratify the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery.
1865
		March 3, 1865 Congress establishes the Freedmen's Bureau.
1865
		April 3, 1865 The Union Army captures the Confederate capital, Richmond, Va.
1865
		May 6, 1865 William T. Sherman writes: "I am not yet prepared to receive the Negro on terms of potential equality."
1865
		June 19, 1865 Juneteenth: News reaches Texas that slavery is ended.
1865
		October 7, 1865 Blacks in Jackson, Miss. meet to demand equal rights.
1865
		November 25, 1865 An African American convention in Charleston, S.C. demands equal rights and repeal of the black codes.
1865
		December 6, 1865 Georgia's vote completes ratification of the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery.
1866
		January 9, 1866 Fisk University opens in Nashville, Tenn.
1866
		April 9, 1866 The first of two Civil Rights Acts passed during Reconstruction declares that all persons born in the United States, except untaxed Indians, are citizens and have equal legal and property rights. Adopted over President Andrew Johnson’s veto, the act sought to counteract the Black Codes adopted in former Confederate states. Related Web Site
1866
		June 13, 1866 Congress passes the 14th Amendment and sends it to the states for ratification.
1866
		July 16, 1866 Congress authorizes the Freedmen's Bureau to establish schools.
1866
		October 11, 1866 Elizabeth Cady Stanton proclaims: "free speech, free press, free men, and free trade."
1867
		March 29, 1867 Congress gives the Freedmen's Bureau the power to compensate black veterans.
1868
		July 28, 1868 The 14th Amendment, which extends citizenship to all persons born in the United States and guarantees due process and equal protection of the law, takes effect. Related Web Site
1869
		February 26, 1869 Congress passes the 15th Amendment declaring that the right to vote shall not be restricted on the basis of race.
1869
		March 19, 1869 Harriet Tubman marries ex-slave and Civil War veteran Nelson Davis.
1869
		October 8, 1869 Virginia ratifies the 15th Amendment.
1869
		December 1, 1869 The first black labor union, the Colored National Labor Union, convenes in Washington, D.C.
1870
		March 30, 1870 The 15th Amendment, declaring that the right to vote shall not be abridged on account of race, takes effect. Related Web Site
1870
		May 31, 1870 Congress votes to enforce the 15th Amendment, protecting black suffrage.
1870
		December 12, 1870 Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the first black member of Congress when he is sworn into the US House of Representatives. Related Web Site
1873
		February 14, 1873 Gerrit Smith speaks out against Cuban slavery at an anti-slavery meeting in New York.
1882
		August 4, 1882 Anna Murray Douglass, Frederick Douglass's first wife, dies.
1890
		December 27, 1890 Oliver Johnson, abolitionist and journalists, is born.
1895
		February 20, 1895 Frederick Douglass, the fugitive slave and abolitionist leader, dies.
1964
		June 19, 1964 The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in employment, public facilities, the application of voting laws, and the use of federal funds, is approved despite an 83-day Senate filibuster. Related Web Site

This site was updated on 09-Feb-10.