Timeline 1441 The European slave trade begins in Africa. 73–71 b.c. Portuguese captains capture twelve Africans The slave and peasant revolt led by the gladiator in Cabo Branco (modern-day Mauritania) and Spartacus engulfs all of southern Italy and leads take them to Portugal as slaves. to the defeat of five Roman armies and the sacrifice of over five thousand slaves/gladiators. 1452 African slaves are put to work on the sugar a.d. 1–25 plantations in Portuguese colonial territories, Grave Relief of Publius Curtilius Agatus, starting the “sugar-slave complex.” Silversmith is carved by a Roman artist in Italy. 1476 About 39 Carlos de Valera of Castile in Spain enslaves Seneca the Elder (also known as Seneca the four hundred people from Africa. Rhetorician), who argued that slaves should at least be treated fairly, dies. 1482 Portugal sets up trading settlements in Ghana. 80 The Colosseum is completed. The opening is 1519 marked with one hundred days of games that Ferdinand Magellan leaves on his journey to sail feature hundreds of gladiator fights (usually around the world from Spain. between slaves) and the slaughter of over nine thousand animals. 1522 The first slave revolt occurs on the Caribbean About 250 Island of Hispaniola. The Kingdom of Axum (Ethiopia) gains controls of Red Sea trade. 1564–69 Sir John Hawkins travels from England to 641 the Sierra Leone River. He transports twelve Muslims conquer Egypt. hundred Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to sell to Spanish settlers on Hispaniola. 1215 In England, the Magna Carta is written, a 1607 document that continues to influence common England establishes its first permanent colony laws today. in Jamestown, Virginia.

1240 1619 The Kingdom of Ghana declines, and dozens of Virginia becomes a destination for the arrival slave trading posts are established on the Gold of enslaved Africans. Coast of Ghana. 1624 1347–50 The Dutch invade and establish a North The Black Death occurs in Europe, killing American community in New Amsterdam. about one million people. 1636 1758 America’s first slave carrier, Desire, is built and Bust of a Man is produced by Francis Harwood launched in Massachusetts. in Florence, Italy.

1641 1762 Massachusetts becomes the first of many The Social Contract is published by Jean-Jacques colonies to legalize slavery. Rousseau, the French philosopher, natural rights theorist, and literary figure. 1652 The Dutch establish a colony at the Cape of 1775 Good Hope, South Africa. The American Revolution begins.

1655 1776 England seizes Jamaica from Spain. The Declaration of Independence declares that “all men are created equal.” 1660 Virginia legalizes slavery. 1783 The American Revolution ends; the British About 1680–1820 recognize the United States as an independent The Enlightenment, a rational approach to country. economic, religious, social, and political issues, promotes a nonreligious worldview. 1787 “Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery“ 1705 by Quobna Ottobah Cugoano is published. The Virginia General Assembly declares: “All Negro, mulatto and Indian slaves...shall be held 1789 to be real estate. If any slave resist his master... The French Revolution begins with the storming correcting such slave, and shall happen to be of the Bastille. Church property is nationalized. killed in such correction...the master shall be The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah free of all punishment.” Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African is pub- lished in England and distributed in America. 1720–30 Equiano becomes a central figure in the aboli- Almost two hundred thousand enslaved Africans tionist movement in England. are transported across the Atlantic Ocean in British ships. 1790s British Caribbean colonies are populated by 1740 almost half a million enslaved people. South Carolina passes the Negro Act, prohibiting slaves from assembling in groups, wearing clothes 1791 made from certain high-quality fabrics, and learn- A slave uprising in Haiti (Saint-Domingue) is led ing to read or write. Owners are permitted to by Toussaint L’Ouverture. execute slaves who attempt to run away.

breaking the chains, rising out of circumstances 1807 1852 Slavery is abolished in the British Empire, due, Harriett Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s in part, because of the antislavery activism of Cabin, an antislavery novel. the abolitionist William Wilberforce. 1860 1808 Abraham Lincoln is elected as the sixteenth The U.S. Congress bans the importation of slaves. president of the United States. The U.S. slave population is close to four million. 1814 The ratio of free to enslaved Americans is about The Dutch outlaw the slave trade. seven to one. 1829 1861 Mexico abolishes slavery and becomes a haven The American Civil War begins. for fugitive slaves from the United States. Tsar Alexander II issues a proclamation 1830 emancipating Russia’s serfs. Congress passes the Removal Act, forcing Native Americans to settle in territory west of 1862 the Mississippi River. Slavery is prohibited in Washington, D.C., and the territories. 1831 Slaves of General Thomas F. Drayton is produced by William Lloyd Garrison founds The Liberator, an Henry P. Moore in Hilton Head, South Carolina. abolitionist newspaper, in New England. 1863 1833 Under the Emancipation Proclamation, President A new British law declares the ownership of Lincoln declares free only those slaves living in slaves illegal. states not under Union control. 1839 1865 Africans aboard the Cuban slave ship Amistad The American Civil War ends. revolt while being transported to a Caribbean plantation. The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolishes slavery in the United States. 1845 Frederick Douglass publishes his Narrative of the 1866 Life of Frederick Douglass. Race riots erupt in Memphis, Tennessee, and New Orleans, Louisiana. 1848 The Ku Klux Klan is founded in Tennessee by France abolishes slavery. Confederate Civil War veterans. 1850 1886 Harriet Tubman is made an official “conductor” Slavery is abolished in Cuba. of the Underground Railroad, a network of routes to lead former slaves to free territory.

TIMELINE 1888 1964 Slavery is abolished in Brazil. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed, banning discrimination in public places and enforcing 1896 equal opportunity in the workplace. The Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson allows Louisiana’s “separate but equal“ facilities 2008 for whites and blacks on and near railroads. The U.S. prison population is 2.3 million, making the ratio of free to incarcerated Americans ten 1936 to one. One in fifteen black adults and one in Slavery is made illegal in Northern Nigeria. nine black men between the ages of twenty and thirty-four are incarcerated.

breaking the chains, rising out of circumstances