The Liberator calls for immediate abolition

Chile’s government issued an abolition decree, ending legal slavery after earlier gradual measures. The legal outcome must be read alongside enslaved people’s efforts to gain freedom. A subsequent...

Thousands of enslaved people in Demerara-Essequibo rose against slavery. Many sought to force negotiations rather than kill plantation owners. Colonial repression crushed the uprising, but the...

Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm began publishing Freedom’s Journal in New York. The newspaper countered hostile representations and enabled Black writers to speak for themselves. Independent...

President Vicente Guerrero abolished slavery in the republic. The decree helped dismantle an institution inherited from colonial rule. Guerrero’s African ancestry also challenges histories that...

President Andrew Jackson signed legislation authorizing negotiated removal of Indigenous nations to lands west of the Mississippi. In practice, pressure and coercion made removal devastating. The...

Nat Turner and companions began an armed uprising in Southampton County. They killed white residents, and white reprisals killed many Black people. Authorities then imposed further restrictions. The...

Resistance organized around Samuel Sharpe’s demand for freedom and paid labor developed into armed rebellion in western Jamaica. Colonial repression was severe. The struggle shows enslaved people...

The Supreme Court held that Georgia’s laws had no force within Cherokee territory. The case supported Cherokee arguments against state intrusion. Judicial recognition did not prevent forced removal,...

The House of Commons completed the third reading of the Slavery Abolition Bill. The parliamentary outcome followed antislavery mobilization and resistance in the colonies. Provisions for...

The abolition act took effect in most British colonies, while many formerly enslaved people were required to work as apprentices. Enslavers received compensation; emancipated people did not receive...