SlaveryTimeline

=**Historic Timeline of Slavery and the Underground Railroad**= > Spanish settlers bring slaves from Africa to Santo Domingo (now the capital of the Dominican Republic). > Africans brought to Jamestown are the first slaves imported into Britain's North American colonies. Like indentured servants, they were probably freed after a fixed period of service. > Massachusetts jurist and printer, Samuel Seawell, publishes the first North American antislavery tract, The Selling of Joseph. > Describing slaves as real estate, Virginia lawmakers allow owners to bequeath their slaves. The same law allows masters to "kill and destroy" runaways. > Anthony Benezet of Philadelphia founds the world's first abolitionist society. Benjamin Franklin becomes its president in 1787. > The Continental Congress asserts "that these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States." > The United States outlaws any efforts to impede the capture of runaway slaves. (Also see 1850) > Importing African slaves is outlawed, but smuggling continues. > Missouri is admitted to the Union as a slave state, Maine as a free state. Slavery is forbidden in any subsequent territories north of latitude 36°30'. > England abolishes slavery in its colonies including Jamaica, Barbados, and other West Indian territories. > In exchange for California's entering the Union as a free state, northern congressmen accept a harsher Fugitive Slave Act different from the previous one of 1793. > Setting aside the Missouri Compromise of 1820, Congress permits these two new territories to choose whether to allow slavery. Violent clashes erupt. > The United States Supreme Court decides, seven to two, that Blacks can never be citizens and that Congress has no authority to outlaw slavery in any territory. > Abraham Lincoln of Illinois becomes the first Republican to win the United States Presidency. > Four years of brutal conflict claim 623,000 lives. > On September 22, Lincoln drafts the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. The final is issued on January 1, 1863. > President Abraham Lincoln decrees that all slaves in Rebel territory are free on January 1, 1863. The Proclamation only freed those slaves in states that were in rebellion against the United States. The proclamation did not free slaves in the states that never left the Union. > The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution outlaws slavery.
 * **1501-African Slaves in the New World**
 * **1619-Slaves in Virginia**
 * **1700-First Antislavery Publication**
 * **1705-Slaves as Property**
 * **1775-Abolitionist Society**
 * **1776-Declaration of Independence**
 * **1793-Fugitive Slave Act**
 * **1808-United States Bans Slave Trade**
 * **1820-Missouri Compromise**
 * **1834-1838-Slavery in England**
 * **1850-Compromise of 1850**
 * **1854-Kansas-Nebraska Act**
 * **1857-Dred Scott Decision**
 * **1860-Abraham Lincoln Elected**
 * **1861-65-United States Civil War**
 * **1862**
 * **1863-Emancipation Proclamation**
 * **1865-Slavery Abolished**

=**More Thorough Timeline of Slavery in America**= http://www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/tl.html