Georgia colonial trustees end the ban on slavery

Spanish authorities established Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose north of St. Augustine, accepting Black people who escaped English Carolina if they converted to Catholicism and served the Crown....

British authorities signed a treaty with Maroon communities led by Cudjoe after prolonged warfare and Maroon resistance. The settlement recognized a degree of autonomy while imposing conditions,...

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...

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...

A royal decree declared enslaved people arriving in mainland Portugal free, an important but geographically limited measure. It did not free people in Brazil or Portuguese African territories, and 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...