Colombia adopts a final abolition law

Forces associated with Hōne Heke and Te Ruki Kawiti attacked Kororāreka and cut down the British flagstaff again. The conflict challenged the extension of Crown authority. Māori were not a single...

British forces attacked Puketutu during the Northern War. Māori defensive works and military strategy complicated the colonial advance. The conflict belonged to a struggle over authority after the...

A British assault on the pā at Ōhaeawai suffered severe losses. Defenders’ fortifications were designed to withstand artillery and expose attackers. The outcome challenges colonial claims of...

British and allied Māori forces entered Ruapekapeka after a siege; fighting continued outside the pā. The war ended without a straightforward destruction of Ngāpuhi authority. Its sophisticated...

After federal officers arrested Shadrach Minkins in Boston under the Fugitive Slave Act, activists removed him from the courthouse and helped him escape. Collective action directly challenged a law...

Sojourner Truth addressed the women’s rights convention in Akron, challenging assumptions that separated womanhood from the experiences of Black women. Accounts of her speech differ; the famous...

Freedom seekers and allies resisted an enslaver’s attempt to capture men at William Parker’s home in Pennsylvania. The confrontation ended with the enslaver’s death. Community self-defense...

Black and white activists rescued William Henry from detention in Syracuse and helped him reach Canada. The rescue turned opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act into collective action. It showed how...

The law ending slavery in Colombia came into force. Freedom was a result of legal reform and long histories of resistance, flight, and negotiation by enslaved people. Equal access to land and secure...

Thousands attended a Faneuil Hall meeting after Anthony Burns was arrested as a fugitive from slavery. Activists also attempted a rescue. Their campaign exposed how federal institutions upheld...