1619 First African slaves brought to English colonies (Jamestown, Virginia)

1638 New England slave trade begins in Boston

1775-83 American War of Independence (Revolution)
-- slavery abolished in Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania
-- Virginia prohibits external slave trade

1787 Northwest Ordinance: prohibits slavery in Northwest Territory (American westward expansion)
-- NW in 1787 meant territory now known as Ohio, Illinois, Indiana

1789 US Constitution ratified

1793 Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin (separates seed from boll)
-- accelerates textile industry in South, requiring more slave labor
First Fugitive Slave Law

1803 Louisiana Purchase
-- further westward expansion / United States territory doubles in size

1807 England & US pass laws against slave trade: US ignores

1812-14 War of 1812

1820 Missouri Compromise
-- issue of equitable Congressional representation in North & South
-- Missouri admitted to Union as slave state, Maine admitted as free state
-- slavery prohibited in Louisiana Purchase above 36’30"

1830s Abolitionist movement in North (William Lloyd Garrison)
-- slave revolts in South (Denmark Vessey in SC 1822, Nat Turner in Virginia 1831)

1840s westward expansion / question of slavery territories
-- race riots in North: New York City, Philadelphia, Cincinnati
-- Frederick Douglass, escaped slave, in Rochester, NY / North Star / Narrative of the Life
-- "Underground Railroad" / Harriet Tubman / "Vigilance Committees"

1843 National (Black) Convention Movement in Buffalo, NY

1846 Wilmot Proviso: prohibits slavery in territories acquired during Mexican War (law not enacted)

1850 Compromise of 1850: popular sovereignty
-- Fugitive Slave Act (US Congress)
-- President Millard Fillmore signs & enforces

1851 Indiana & Illinois prohibit black settlers

1852 Franklin Pierce elected US President (Democrat)
-- Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin

1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act: repeals Missouri Compromise
-- establishes popular sovereignty in Louisiana Purchase territories
-- ( to obtain Congressional support for trans-continental railroad)

1856 "Bleeding Kansas" / John Brown
-- James Buchanan elected US President (Democrat)

1857 Dred Scott Decision (US Supreme Court)
-- overturned prohibition of slavery in territories + popular sovereignty
-- Congress should protect property of citizens (e.g. slaves)
-- Scott = freed slave, not US citizen, not entitled to sue in federal court

1859 John Brown captures federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia
-- incites slave revolt / is captured, tried, and hanged

1860 Abraham Lincoln elected US President (Republican) / Democrats split into North/South wings
-- South Carolina secedes from Union, followed by 7 other states

1861 Lincoln assumes office
Jefferson Davis elected President of Confederate States of America
Lincoln enforces Fugitive Slave Act & security of existing slavery
-- proclaims unconstitutionality of secession
Attack on Fort Sumter

1862 Emancipation Proclamation: freed slaves in rebel states (behind lines)
-- compensation to slaveowners + colonization (to Africa) of blacks
-- slavery abolished in District of Columbia

1863 Union Conscription Act / NYC draft riots

1864 National Convention of Colored Men, Syracuse NY (F. Douglas)

1865 13^th Amendment: abolishing slavery in all states
-- Lincoln assassinated
-- Andrew Johnson becomes President
-- Lee surrenders to Grant at Appomattox
-- Freedmen’s Bureaus established by Congress: food, shelter, education
-- "40 acres and a mule" / Howard University in Washington, DC

1865 & after Black Codes in South ("Jim Crow" laws)

1866 Civil Rights Act (over President Johnson’s veto)
-- 14^th Amendment to Constitution: all persons born in US are citizens
-- states cannot abridge privileges
-- prevention of voting will lead to reduced representation in Congress

1867 First Reconstruction Act:
-- abolishes state governments in South
-- divides southern states into 5 military districts governed by US Army generals
-- new state constitutions
-- ratification of 14^th Amendment required for readmission to Union

1868 President Johnson impeached

1869 Ulysses S. Grant becomes President

1870 all Confederate states readmitted to US (Georgia = last)
-- funding for Freedmen’s Bureau discontinued
-- 15^th Amendment: suffrage for freed slaves (but restrictions still legal)
-- Federal Enforcement Acts: protect political & civil rights of freed slaves

post-1870 Reconstruction dismantled / freed slaves in "no man’s land"

1877 compromise with South => election of Rutherford B. Hayes as US President (Republican)

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Outline of American History: Sectional Conflict
United States Civil War Center
The Valley of the Shadow
Civil War & Reconstruction Timeline (Fieldston School)
Internet Public Library: Slavery and Religion in America