US Congress abolishes slavery in the District of Columbia

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...

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...

Lincoln announced that enslaved people in areas still rebelling on January 1, 1863 would be declared free. The warning gave Confederate states a period to return to the Union and preserved slavery...

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...