Kansas-Nebraska Act reopens the question of slavery’s expansion

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 novel appeared in book form and quickly became a major antislavery text. It helped shape public debate but also circulated racial stereotypes and displaced Black authors’ direct testimony in...

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...

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...

Congress ended slavery in the federal district and paid compensation to enslavers, while formerly enslaved residents received no comparable payment. Black Washingtonians had petitioned and organized...

The act declared enslaved people held by people engaged in rebellion against the United States to be free and empowered the president to employ Black men in military service. Its reach depended on...