Boston Massacre becomes a flashpoint in imperial protest

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...

In 1750 the trustees’ restriction on slavery gave way as settlers and planters pressed for plantation labor. Enslaved Africans were brought into the colony in growing numbers. This reversal shows...

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...

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...

A petition submitted in Felix’s name demanded freedom and challenged enslavement as incompatible with natural rights. It was one of several petitions by Black people in Massachusetts that used the...

The colony restricted the importation of enslaved people and imposed penalties on traders, while existing slavery and Rhode Island’s participation in the Atlantic economy continued. The act came after...

The organization formed to assist free Black people illegally held in bondage and later broadened its work against slavery. Its founding preceded the Declaration of Independence and shows abolitionist...

During the American Revolution, Virginia’s royal governor offered freedom to enslaved people belonging to rebels who joined British forces. The offer was a military strategy, not a principled...