Demerara uprising begins against plantation slavery

The compromise admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, and barred slavery north of a specified latitude in part of the Louisiana Purchase. It managed sectional power rather...

Congress classified the international slave trade as piracy, punishable by death under federal law. The statute strengthened the legal ban on importation but was rarely enforced to match its stated...

A planned uprising involving free and enslaved Black organizers was scheduled for this date but was exposed before it began. White authorities relied on coerced testimony and secret proceedings,...

Independence from Portugal created a new state that maintained slavery and the Atlantic trade. Enslaved Africans and their descendants shaped Brazilian society and resisted bondage, while political...

The society formed to campaign against slavery across the British Empire. Its early focus on gradualism was challenged by activists such as Elizabeth Heyrick, who argued for immediate emancipation....

Charles X issued an ordinance recognizing Haiti’s independence on the condition that Haiti compensate former colonists, including for the loss of enslaved people claimed as property. The imposed...

The treaty set a date after which Brazilian participation in the African slave trade would be illegal under the agreement. Enforcement was weak and Brazilian trafficking continued at a massive scale...

The date set by the 1817 gradual emancipation law arrived, ending legal slavery for the remaining enslaved people in New York. The long delay meant that many people continued to live under slavery...

President Guerrero decreed abolition across the republic, with limited exceptions and uneven enforcement in frontier regions. The measure followed independence-era abolitionist policies and...

The first issue of The Liberator appeared in Boston, calling for immediate emancipation. Black writers, speakers, and organizers were central to the abolitionist movement, even when white editors...