Federal force returns Anthony Burns to slavery

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...

Ramón Castilla decreed the abolition of slavery. Afro-Peruvians’ struggles for freedom belonged to a broader conflict over a colonial institution surviving after independence. Ending legal enslavement...

The Supreme Court rejected Dred Scott’s freedom claim and declared that people of African descent could not be US citizens under its interpretation of the Constitution. His struggle exposed racism...

Sarah Parker Remond spoke in Warrington about enslavement and its consequences, including the treatment of women. A Black woman addressed international audiences in her own voice. Her campaigning...

British forces attacked Te Kohia pā after resistance to the disputed Waitara purchase. Wiremu Kīngi opposed the sale of land over which others also held rights. Colonial insistence on taking...

Māori defenders defeated British troops near Waitara during the First Taranaki War. Their use of terrain and prepared defenses supported resistance to colonial land acquisition. The victory...