Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin

News of the French emancipation decree triggered revolt in Martinique. The uprising helped force local authorities to proclaim emancipation before the decree’s scheduled implementation. Enslaved...

After an uprising and mass mobilization on St. Croix, von Scholten proclaimed emancipation. The decree followed collective action by enslaved people and ended legal slavery in the islands, though...

The law prohibited the importation of enslaved Africans and strengthened enforcement against the Atlantic trade. It did not free people already enslaved, and the domestic slave trade expanded as...

Congress passed a law requiring federal authorities and residents to assist in the capture and return of people who escaped slavery. It denied alleged freedom seekers ordinary legal protections and...

Black residents of Christiana resisted an armed attempt to seize freedom seekers under the Fugitive Slave Act; slaveholder Edward Gorsuch was killed in the confrontation. Federal authorities...

The abolition law ended legal slavery after years of petitions, uprisings, and military service by Afro-Venezuelans. Compensation went to enslavers rather than formerly enslaved people, and formal...

The act organized Kansas and Nebraska territories and allowed settlers to decide whether slavery would be permitted, repealing the Missouri Compromise restriction. It intensified armed conflict and...

President Castilla decreed abolition during a political crisis. Enslaved people had escaped, negotiated, and joined military forces; the government compensated owners while formerly enslaved people...

The Supreme Court ruled that Black people descended from enslaved Africans could not be citizens under the federal Constitution and that Congress could not bar slavery in federal territories. The...

Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter after slaveholding states seceded to protect slavery. Enslaved people escaped to Union lines and pressed the conflict toward emancipation. Their actions...