Slavery and abolition
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At Beacon Hill Scholars, we shine a light on the history of the extraordinary free Black community that existed on Boston’s Beacon Hill in the 19th century. But what was the broader context for that history? How did the community’s fight against slavery and for freedom and civil rights relate to similar efforts elsewhere in the country? How did the abolitionist movement defy the odds and win?
We’ve put together some expansive resources that address these and other big-picture questions. And we’ve chosen to focus on the experiences and perspectives of those who are often marginalized or undervalued in the traditional telling of this episode of U.S. history: African Americans, Indigenous people, and women.
The abolition movement: An overview
In this essay, we sketch the history of abolitionism over a period of more than 200 years. From the courageous and continuous resistance of enslaved Africans and Indigenous people to the pioneering anti-slavery advocacy of a few Puritans and Quakers in the early years of colonial occupation and settlement. From hard-won “gradual emancipation” in the Northern states to the flowering of abolitionism as a multi-racial, cross-class social movement in the 1830s and beyond. From the legislative and physical battles over slavery that culminated in the Civil War to the official declaration of freedom for all those held in bondage.
Click here to read the essay.
Slavery and abolition: A timeline
We've created a timeline, Making Freedom: Resisting and Abolishing Slavery in New England and Beyond, that contains over 250 entries and a wealth of information. You’ll likely find a lot that’s new to you here – as we did in our research for the project. For example, did you know that colonial authorities in New England transported thousands of Native American war captives to the Caribbean to work as slaves on sugar plantations? Or that two major independent Black churches whose leaders escaped from slavery helped build the Black abolitionist movement? Or that women were the backbone of the movement, with over 200 female anti-slavery societies active in the free states?
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Slavery bans by country
In 1804, after a victorious 13-year struggle against French colonial rule, independent Haiti became the first country in the world to legally ban slavery. The last to do so was Mauritania in 1981. When did other countries outlaw slavery and participation in the transatlantic slave trade? Check out our chronology of emancipation.
Slavery today
Experts calculate that roughly 13 million people were captured and sold as slaves between the 15th and 19th centuries during the transatlantic slave trade; today, more than three times that number – an estimated 40.3 million people – live in some form of modern slavery. Click here for details.
Banner image: Emancipation leaflet printed in 1865. Source: Library of Congress.
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