Timeline for major events in the history of American/British slavery
Click on the blue highlighted links
The slave trade is alive, well, and unhampered by governmental oversight in the mid-1700s.
| 1783 | The Zong Incident. One hundred and thirty-three slaves thrown overboard for insurance claims. Brought to court through the efforts of Equiano. Marks the strong beginning to the abolitionist movement in England. |
| 1789 | Olaudah Equiano publishes The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano |
| 1793 | The Fugitive Slave Act. Any escaped slave in the North may be caught and returned to the South. Wide-open for abuse by slave catchers. Remember the story of Joseph Clipson in Equiano's Interesting Narrative. |
| 1798 | A coalition of slaves under the leadership of Toussaint l'Ouverture defeats and drives the British out of Haiti. Haiti effectively becomes the first American non-slave State. |
| 1833 | The Bill for the Abolition of Slavery in England
passes--England.
The founding of the American Anti-Slavery Society |
| 1839 | The Amistad revolt. Sengbe tribesmen take over the Amistad ship but can't navigate it. They drift down the American coast until picked up almost dead. |
| 1850 | The Compromise. Trying to fix the weakness of the Fugitive Slave Act (1793) and to avoid civil war, the North agrees to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act. |
| 1852 | Uncle Tom's Cabin published |
| 1861 | Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl |
| 1861-1865 | Civil War |
| 1863 | The Emancipation Proclamation |
