France recognizes citizenship for free men of color

Elizabeth Freeman and Brom won a Massachusetts freedom suit against John Ashley. They used the state constitution’s equality principle to challenge enslavement. The decision demonstrates how...

Richard Allen and Absalom Jones founded the Free African Society in Philadelphia. Members supported people during illness and assisted widows and children. Such independent institutions strengthened...

Campaigners formed the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Petitioning, evidence gathering, and public mobilization targeted British participation in trafficking. Its institutional...

Benjamin Banneker sent Thomas Jefferson his almanac and a letter challenging slavery and racial prejudice. A Black mathematician and astronomer used his own work to confront claims of intellectual...

A mass uprising began in northern Saint-Domingue during the night of 22–23 August. Enslaved Africans and their descendants attacked the plantation order. Their collective struggle transformed an...

Civil commissioner Léger-Félicité Sonthonax proclaimed emancipation in the northern province amid warfare and enslaved people’s resistance. Freedom came with labor obligations. The measure was a major...

France’s National Convention abolished slavery in its colonies after revolution in Saint-Domingue had already forced emancipation onto the agenda. Black political representatives and insurgents were...

An uprising began at the Knip plantation and spread as enslaved people demanded freedom. Tula argued against their continued enslavement in light of changes elsewhere in the Caribbean. The rebels...

Tula and other leaders were executed after the uprising was suppressed. Extreme punishment aimed to deter further collective resistance. Remembering their demands centers enslaved people’s struggle...

Ona Judge left the Philadelphia household of George and Martha Washington to seek freedom. Her escape challenged the power of even the republic’s most prominent family to own people. Self-emancipation...