Portugal declares enslaved people entering the metropole free

Enslaved people began a major armed uprising near the Stono River and moved south, seeking freedom in Spanish Florida. Colonial forces violently suppressed the revolt and lawmakers tightened...

The assembly enacted a sweeping code that restricted movement, assembly, education, and independent economic activity among enslaved people. It followed the 1739 Stono uprising, which is covered in...

After fires and rumors, officials arrested and prosecuted Black residents and poor white people in what became known as the 1741 conspiracy. Many were executed or transported. The episode reveals...

In 1750 the trustees’ restriction on slavery gave way as settlers and planters pressed for plantation labor. Enslaved Africans were brought into the colony in growing numbers. This reversal shows...

An uprising associated with the Akan leader Tacky began at St Mary, Jamaica, and expanded into a broad anti-slavery war. Insurgents attacked plantation infrastructure and sought to overthrow the...

An uprising began on plantations along the Canje River and rapidly spread through Dutch Berbice. Cuffy and other leaders organized a large insurgent force and negotiated with colonial authorities...

Crispus Attucks, a sailor of African and Indigenous ancestry, was among five people killed by British soldiers. Later patriot memory made the event a symbol of liberty while often obscuring...

In Somerset’s Case, Lord Mansfield ruled that James Somerset could not be forcibly removed from England and sold abroad under the claim advanced by his enslaver. The judgment did not abolish slavery...

A petition submitted in Felix’s name demanded freedom and challenged enslavement as incompatible with natural rights. It was one of several petitions by Black people in Massachusetts that used the...

The colony restricted the importation of enslaved people and imposed penalties on traders, while existing slavery and Rhode Island’s participation in the Atlantic economy continued. The act came after...