Bahia manifestos demand freedom and challenge racial discrimination

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...

Colonial authorities publicly executed four men involved in the Bahia Conspiracy. The punishment targeted a movement remembered for popular participation and challenges to racial inequality. Their...

Absalom Jones and other free Black petitioners asked Congress to end the international slave trade, move toward emancipation, and protect free people from kidnapping. Their demands connected slavery...

Louis Delgrès confronted arriving French troops and issued a proclamation appealing against oppression. Resistance defended emancipation won during the revolutionary period. The conflict exposed the...

Surrounded by French forces, Louis Delgrès and companions died in an explosion at Matouba rather than surrender. Their last stand became a symbol of resistance to renewed enslavement. The event...

French forces arrested Toussaint Louverture and deported him to France. Removing a major Black leader was part of an effort to reassert imperial control. Resistance continued, demonstrating that the...