Mende captives seize control of the Amistad

Three days after the national antislavery convention, a group of women met and organized a female antislavery society. Black women were members and leaders, although later narratives often...

The Slavery Abolition Act took effect across most British colonies. Many adults were placed in “apprenticeship,” a coercive labor system that required continued unpaid work for former enslavers....

Enslaved and free African Muslims organized an urban uprising against slavery and racial repression. Authorities crushed the revolt and increased surveillance and deportations. The surviving police...

The apprenticeship system ended, completing formal emancipation in most British Caribbean colonies. Formerly enslaved people celebrated freedom while confronting landlessness, wage coercion, and...

The society formed after the British abolition campaign turned toward global abolition and opposition to apprenticeship. Its transnational activism connected reformers, formerly enslaved speakers, and...

The Court ruled that the Mende captives had been illegally kidnapped and enslaved and could not be returned to Spanish claimants. The judgment recognized their right to resist unlawful captivity,...

A decree abolished slavery as the country faced civil conflict. Afro-Uruguayans had long resisted bondage and served in military forces; emancipation did not remove racial inequality or the economic...

The act barred colonial courts from recognizing claims to enslaved persons and penalized officials who enforced them. It did not instantly end all forms of bondage or coerced labor. The measure...

The proclamation of independence from Haiti established a new political order on the eastern side of Hispaniola. The preceding Haitian state had abolished slavery across the island; Dominican...

The Aberdeen Act authorized British courts to treat Brazilian slave ships as pirate vessels and increased Britain’s power to intercept them. It pressured Brazil while extending British imperial...