Shipping and transport of people and goods

• 1492: Columbus leads the way: Enslavement, slaughter, and land theft

• 1526: First Africans likely brought as slaves to North America revolt

• 1579: Africans win freedom in first mass uprising

• 1619: First enslaved Africans brought to Virginia

• 1638: Enslaved Africans traded for Native prisoners

• 1638: Enslaver orders rape to "breed slave stock"

• 1644-1645: First slaving venture helps legitimize bondage in Massachusetts

• 1652: Rhode Island slavery ban is not enforced

• 1676: Executions portend broad assault on Indigenous peoples

• 1676: Colonists trade Native captives for enslaved Africans

• 1688: Anti-slavery petition divides Quakers

• 1698: Colonial merchants gain right to trade Africans

• 1700: Isaac Royall: A dynasty built on slavery

• 1717: Shipwreck sheds light on piracy-slavery links

• 1737: Benjamin Lay: Radical Quaker voice for abolition

• 1740-1742: Slave trader's hall hosts abolitionist rallies

• 1743: Mutiny, chocolate, and racial capitalism

• 1761: Phillis Wheatley Peters: Genius poet arrives on slave ship

• 1761: Jupiter Hammon: First published Black male poet

• 1764: Tax law protest tied to growing rum industry

• 1771: Quaker abolitionist educates, inspires others

• 1771: Governor rebuffs proposed ban on slave imports

• 1779: In New Hampshire, 20 enslaved Africans petition for freedom

• 1790: Opium king bankrolls hospitals, museums

• 1793: Cotton gin boosts, prolongs plantation slavery system

• 1803: Igbo Landing: Mass suicide is act of resistance

• 1807: Slave trade banned after campaign by activists

• 1820: Maine becomes a free state in deal over slavery

• 1820: Maine slave trader first to be executed

• 1833: Domestic slave trade: over one million sent south

• 1835: Planter pays to send freed workers to new colony

• 1835: Enslaved workers lay foundation for modern rail network

• 1835: 600 sold in largest single sale of enslaved people

• 1839-1841: Revolts cast spotlight on illegal slave trade

• 1855: U.S. traders transport enslaved Chinese to Brazil

• 1857: "The Weeping Time": Enslaver sells 429 people in two days

• 1858: Illegal slave ship brings 400 African captives

• 1860: New schooner linked to illegal slave trade circle