Union forces announce emancipation in Texas

The Emancipation Proclamation declared enslaved people in designated areas in rebellion to be free and authorized Black men to enlist in the Union Army. It did not immediately free everyone, and its...

General Orders No. 143 established a bureau to organize Black regiments in the Union Army. Black men had already pressed to fight, and their military service became a direct struggle for freedom and...

The Dutch emancipation law took effect in Suriname and the Caribbean colonies. Many formerly enslaved people in Suriname were compelled to work under state supervision for another ten years, a measure...

The Senate approved a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery, sending it to the House for consideration. Passage reflected the Civil War, decades of antislavery struggle, and Black military...

The House passed the amendment abolishing slavery, which was later ratified by the states. Black activists had long demanded abolition and continued to press for equal rights and protection after...

Black Jamaicans protested land dispossession, unequal justice, and poverty after emancipation. The rebellion and violent colonial response exposed the coercive conditions that survived formal freedom....

The Thirteenth Amendment was ratified, abolishing slavery except as punishment for crime. Emancipation resulted from generations of resistance, the Civil War, Black military service, and political...

The act recognized national citizenship and declared equal civil rights for people born in the United States, including formerly enslaved people. It answered Black Codes and racial violence that...

The amendment made people born or naturalized in the United States citizens and required states to provide due process and equal protection. It overturned the citizenship logic of Dred Scott, though...

Abolitionists in the Spanish parliament pressed for emancipation in Puerto Rico. Debate and organizing helped set the stage for the Moret Law and 1873 abolition, while slavery continued and the island...