Important Dates

1526	Spanish explorers bring the first Africans into what is now the United States.
1619	Africans arrive in Jamestown, VA. Aboard a Dutch ship. Not as slaves but, as indentured servants. Probably the first African American's in the North American English Colonies.
1638	New England slave trade begins. Native American slaves were exchanged in the West Indies for Africans and goods.
1641	Massachusetts Bay Colony sanctions enslavement of Africans and sets a precedent later followed by all the New England Colonies.
1661	Virginia's fugitive slave law legalizes slavery.
1662	Virginia declares the mother's status determines that of her child.
1638	New England slave trade begins. Native American slaves were exchanged in the West Indies for Africans and goods.
1641	Massachusetts Bay Colony sanctions enslavement of Africans and sets a precedent later followed by all the New England Colonies.
1661	Virginia's fugitive slave law legalizes slavery.
1662	Virginia declares the mother's status determines that of her child.
1663	In Maryland a law is passed that all blacks brought into the colony are automatically slaves.
1670	Virginia repeals a law that allows freed slaves and indentured servants to vote.
1755	All thirteen colonies legally recognize the institution of slavery. Prince Hall and fourteen other free blacks initiated into British Army Lodge Masonic Order. First African American Masonic Order.
1777	Vermont becomes the first state to abolish slavery.
1793	Nations first fugitive slave law was passed. Eli Whitney introduces the cotton gin.
1820	Missouri Compromise is reached, admitting Missouri in the Union in 1821 as a slave state. Harriet Tubman was born in Dorchester County Maryland.
1822	Denmark Vesey, a free Blackman in Charleston, South Carolina plans slave revolt. He and 34 other blacks were executed.
1827	Gradual emancipation law frees ten thousand when New York abolishes slavery on July 4^th.
1831	Nat Turner leads slave revolt in Southampton County, VA.
1849	Harriet Tubman escapes Brodas Plantation.
1857	Dred Scott case.
1859	John Brown raids Harpers Ferry.
1861	Start of the Civil War.
1865	End of the Civil War. The 13^th Amendment to the Constitution officially abolishes slavery in the United States.

Timeline