British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society is founded

Delegates at a national antislavery convention adopted a declaration demanding the immediate abolition of slavery. The meeting followed years of Black organizing, petitions, and resistance, and...

Three days after the national antislavery convention, a group of women met and organized a female antislavery society. Black women were members and leaders, although later narratives often...

The Slavery Abolition Act took effect across most British colonies. Many adults were placed in “apprenticeship,” a coercive labor system that required continued unpaid work for former enslavers....

Enslaved and free African Muslims organized an urban uprising against slavery and racial repression. Authorities crushed the revolt and increased surveillance and deportations. The surviving police...

The apprenticeship system ended, completing formal emancipation in most British Caribbean colonies. Formerly enslaved people celebrated freedom while confronting landlessness, wage coercion, and...

Mende captives rebelled aboard the Spanish schooner Amistad while being transported illegally within Cuba. They sought to return to Africa, but the ship was intercepted and the survivors were held...

The Court ruled that the Mende captives had been illegally kidnapped and enslaved and could not be returned to Spanish claimants. The judgment recognized their right to resist unlawful captivity,...

A decree abolished slavery as the country faced civil conflict. Afro-Uruguayans had long resisted bondage and served in military forces; emancipation did not remove racial inequality or the economic...

The act barred colonial courts from recognizing claims to enslaved persons and penalized officials who enforced them. It did not instantly end all forms of bondage or coerced labor. The measure...

The proclamation of independence from Haiti established a new political order on the eastern side of Hispaniola. The preceding Haitian state had abolished slavery across the island; Dominican...