Slavery and abolition: a timeline
Slavery and abolition: a timeline
Explore the history of the struggle against slavery in colonial and independent America in our timeline, Making Freedom: Resisting and Abolishing Slavery in New England and Beyond. It contains more than 250 entries about the people, politics, and key events that shaped a defining period of our nation's history.
Click on the buttons below to search the timeline by year or by topic. It contains a wealth of information, and we think you’ll find a lot that’s new to you – as we did in our research for this project. For example, you may not know that:
Colonial authorities in New England shipped thousands of Native American war captives to the Caribbean to work as slaves on sugar plantations.
Two major independent Black churches whose leaders escaped from slavery helped build the abolitionist movement.
Women were the backbone of the movement, with over 200 female anti-slavery societies active in the free states.
Many of the Black and Indigenous heroes of the struggle against slavery are largely unheralded. Have you heard of Maria Stewart, David Walker, William Apess, Sarah Parker Remond, William Still, Emiliano Mundrucu, Robert Morris, Abraham Galloway, Martin Delany, or Robert Smalls? You can learn all about them – and many more – in the timeline.
The timeline is a work in progress.
We welcome suggestions for corrections and additions.
Contact us at: beaconhillscholars@gmail.com