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Chesapeake Slavery
Began as indentured servants. English indentured servants were the chief source of agricultural labor in Virginia and Maryland before 1675. They accounted for 75 percent of the 130,000 English immigrants to Virginia and Maryland during the seventeenth century. Bacon's Rebellion led to slavery increase. -
Abolitionism
(1730-1865) Americans and other people who were trying to get rid of slavery. William Lloyd Garrison started the Liberator that began the Abolitionist movement. In the early nineteenth century, increasing numbers of people in the northern United States held that the nation's slaves should be freed immediately, without compensation to slave owners. -
Stono Rebellion
The most serious slave rebellion in the the colonial period which occurred in 1739 in South Carolina. 100 African Americans rose up, got weapons and killed several whites then tried to escape to South Florida. The uprising was crushed and the participants executed. The main form of rebellion was running away, though there was no where to go. -
Three Fifths Compromise
Determined that each slave would be counted as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of apportioning taxes and representation. The compromise granted disproportionate political power to Southern slave states. In an attempt to gain even more power the Southern states wished to account their slaves as part of their population. The North rejected the attempt as the slaves were not recognized as citizens and could not vote themselves. -
Black Protestantism
(1790s) A form of Protestantism that was devised by Christian slaves in the Chesapeake and spread to the Cotton South as a result of the domestic slave trade. It emphasized the evangelical message of emotional conversion, ritual baptism, communal spirituality, and the idea that blacks were "children of God" and should be treated accordingly. -
New York Emancipation Act of 1799
Allowed slavery in New York to continue until 1828 and freed slave children only at the age of 25 after July 4, 1799. Consequently, as late as 1810, almost 30,000 blacks in the northern states were still enslaved. -
Frederick Douglass
(1818-1895) Influential writer. one of the most prominent African American figures in the abolitionist movement. escaped from slavery in Maryland. he was a great thinker and speaker. published his own antislavery newspaper called the north star and wrote an autobiography that was published in 1845. -
Nat Turner’s Revolt
A slave rebellion that took place in Southampton County, Virginia, during August 1831. Led by Nat Turner, rebel slaves killed from 55 to 65 people, the highest number of fatalities caused by any slave uprising in the Southern United States. -
American Anti-Slavery Society
Founded in 1833 by William Lloyd Garrison and other abolitionists. Garrison burned the Constitution as a pro-slavery document. Argued for "no Union with slaveholders" until they repented for their sins by freeing their slaves. Immediate abolition of slavery. -
Underground Railroad
(1850-1860) A network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early-to-mid 19th century, and used by African-American slaves to escape into free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. -
Compromise of 1850
Forestalled the Civil War by instating the Fugitive Slave Act , banning slave trade in DC, admitting California as a free state, splitting up the Texas territory, and instating popular sovereignty in the Mexican Cession -
Fugitive Slave Act
Enacted by Congress in 1793 and 1850, these laws provided for the return of escaped slaves to their owners. The North was lax about enforcing the 1793 law, which irritated the South to no end. The 1850 law was tougher and was aimed at eliminating the underground railroad. -
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1853 that highly influenced England's view on the American Deep South and slavery. a novel promoting abolition. intensified sectional conflict. -
Bleeding Kansas
(1854-1861) Was a sequence of violent events involving Free-States and pro-slavery "Border Ruffians" elements that took place in Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S. state of Missouri between roughly 1854 and 1858 attempting to
influence whether Kansas would enter the Union as a free or slave state. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
Passed by the U.S. Congress on May 30, 1854. It allowed people in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. The Act served to repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which prohibited slavery north of latitude 36°30´. -
Booker T. Washington
(1856-1915) A former slave. Encouraged blacks to keep to themselves and focus on the daily tasks of survival, rather than leading a grand uprising. Believed that building a strong economic base was more critical at that time than planning an uprising or fighting for equal rights. Washington also stated in his famous "Atlanta Compromise" speech in 1895 that blacks had to accept segregation in the short term. Served as important role models for later leaders of the civil rights movement. -
Dred Scott v. Sandford
1857 Supreme Court decision that stated that slaves were not citizens; that living in a free state or territory, even for many years, did not free slaves; and declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional -
Freeport Doctrine
Stated that exclusion of slavery in a territory (where it was legal) could be determined by the refusal of the voters to enact any laws that would protect slave property. Stated by Stephen Douglas during the Lincoln-Douglass debates, eventually led to his loss in the 1860 presidential election. -
John Brown’s Raid
An effort by armed abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt in 1859 by taking over a United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. The Militant, John Brown seized the U.S. arsenal at Harper's Ferry. He planned to end slavery by massacring slave owners and freeing their slaves. He was captured and executed. -
Ida B. Wells
(1862-1931) African American journalist. published statistics about lynching, urged African Americans to protest by refusing to ride streetcars or shop in white owned stores. Highly Influential -
Emancipation Proclamation
As the nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free." Issued by Lincoln as a way to broaden the goals of the war and achieve a moral victory, but through its principles it freed absolutely no slaves on the day it was given. It changed the purpose of the war and caused Europeans to withdraw from supporting South. -
Black Codes
(1865-1866) Laws passed by southern states after the Civil War denying ex-slaves the complete civil rights enjoyed by whites and intended to force blacks back to plantations and impoverished lifestyles. It prevented “free” African Americans to participate in any basic human rights, directly put African Americans back down to slavery status. -
Ku Klux Klan
(1865–1870) and (1915-1944) Secret domestic militant organizations in the United States, originating in the southern states and eventually having national scope, that are best known for advocating white supremacy and acting as terrorists while hidden behind conical hats, masks and white robes. The KKK has a record of terrorism, violence, and lynching to intimidate, murder, and oppress African Americans, Jews and other minorities and to intimidate and oppose Roman Catholics and labor unions. -
Freedmen’s Bureau
The first kind of primitive welfare agency used to provide food, clothing, medical care, and education to freedman and to white refugees. First to establish school for blacks to learn to read. U.S. federal government agency. -
13th Amendment
Constitutional amendment prohibiting all forms of slavery and involuntary servitude. Former Confederate States were required to ratify the amendment prior to gaining re entry into the union. A Proclamation Without Emancipation -
Civil Rights Act of 1866
Granted citizenship and the same rights enjoyed by white citizens to all male persons in the United States "without distinction of race or color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude." An act declaring that everyone born in the U.S. is a citizen, regardless of race, color, or previous condition of slavery. -
W.E.B. Du Bois
(1868-1963) Fought for immediate implementation of African American rights. Opponent of Booker T Washington, he helped to found Niagara Movement in 1905 to fight for and establish equal rights. This movement later led to the establishment of the NAACP. -
14th Amendment
An amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, defining national citizenship and forbidding the states to restrict the basic rights of citizens or other persons. Defines U.S. citizenship: all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. are citizens. -
15th Amendment
The 15th amendment passed by Republicans that forbade either the federal government or the states from denying citizens the right to vote on the basis of race, color, or "previous conditions of servitude". Set up the foundation for future equal opportunity laws. -
Civil Rights Act of 1875
Enforcement Act or Force Act, was a United States federal law enacted during the Reconstruction Era to guarantee African Americans equal treatment in public accommodations, public transportation, and to prohibit exclusion from jury service. -
Jim Crow
(1877-1954) Laws written to separate blacks and whites in public areas/meant African Americans had unequal opportunities in housing, work, education, and government -
Civil Rights Cases 1883
Name attached to five cases brought under the Civil Rights Act of 1875. In 1883, the Supreme Court decided that discrimination in a variety of public accommodations, including theaters, hotels, and railroads, could not be prohibited by the act because such discrimination was private discrimination and not state discrimination. Court ruled that Congress could not legislate against the racial discrimination practiced by private citizens -
Negro Leagues
Formed by African Americans as a result of being excluded from participating professionally in the American and National baseball leagues, the most popular American sport. Segregated Sports Leagues -
Marcus Garvey
(1887-1940) Head of the Universal Negro Improvement Association; urged black economic cooperation and founded a chain of UNIA grocery stores and other business United Negro Improvement -
Plessy v. Ferguson
Supreme Court case about Jim Crow railroad cars in Louisiana; the Court decided by 7 to 1 that legislation could not overcome racial attitudes, and that it was constitutional to have "separate but equal" facilities for blacks and whites. -
National Association of Colored Women
Founders of the NACW included Harriet Tubman, Frances E.W. Harper, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell. The NACW became involved in campaigns in favor of women's suffrage and against lynching and Jim Crow laws. They also led efforts to improve education, and care for both children and the elderly. -
Thurgood Marshall
(1908-1993) The first African American to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Prior to becoming a judge, he was a lawyer who was best remembered for his activity in the Little Rock 9 and his high success rate in arguing before the Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown v. Board of Education. -
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) Founded to abolish segregation and discrimination, to oppose racism and to gain civil rights for African Americans, got Supreme Court to declare grandfather clause unconstitutional -
United Negro Improvement Association
A Black Nationalist fraternal organization founded by Marcus Garvey, dedicated to racial pride, economic self-sufficiency, and the formation of an independent black nation in Africa. -
Great Migration
(1916-1970) Movement of over 300,000 African American from the rural south into Northern cities between 1914 and 1920. Purpose was to find jobs and escape constant segregation and racism. -
Chicago Race Riot
Black populations expanded to white neighborhoods, and found jobs as strikebreakers, and they were triggered by an indecent at a beach lead to black and white gangs killing fifteen whites and 23 blacks -
Harlem Renaissance
(1920s) Black artistic movement in New York City in the 1920s, when writers, poets, painters, and musicians came together to express feelings and experiences, especially about the injustices of Jim Crow; leading figures of the movement included Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Duke Ellington, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes -
Malcolm X
(1925-1965) Black minister of the Nation of Islam, urged blacks to claim their rights by any means necessary, more radical than other civil rights leaders of the time. He initially advocated nationalism, self-defense, and racial separation. After a pilgrimage to Mecca, he began publicly accepting the idea of cooperation between blacks and whites. Assassinated in 1965. -
Martin Luther King Jr.
(1929-1968) U.S. Baptist minister and civil rights leader. A noted orator, he opposed discrimination against blacks by organizing nonviolent resistance and peaceful mass demonstrations. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. Nobel Peace Prize Winner -
Nation of Islam
A religious group, popularly known as the Black Muslims, founded by Elijah Muhammad to promote black separatism and the Islamic religion. -
Stokely Carmichael
(1941-1998) Head of SNCC who preached "overtaking white Americans" and "Black Power". -
Executive Order 8802
Passed by FDR in 1941 prohibited discriminatory employment practices by fed agencies and all unions and companies engaged in war related work. It established the Fair Employment Practices Commission to enforce the new policy. -
Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
Civil rights organization founded in 1942 in Chicago by James Farmer and other members of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) that espoused nonviolent direct action. In 1961, it organized the Freedom Rides on interstate bus lines throughout the South to call attention to blatant violations of recent Supreme Court rulings against segregation in interstate commerce. -
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
1954 supreme court ruling reversing the policy of segregation, declaring that separate can never be equal and a year later ordered the integration of all public schools. -
Montgomery Bus Boycott
(1955-1956) In 1955, after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, Dr. Martin L. King led a boycott of city buses. After 11 months the Supreme Court ruled that segregation of public transportation was illegal. -
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
Founded by MLK, which taught that civil rights could be achieved through nonviolent protests. -
Black Power
(1960s-1970s) An idea that emphasized racial pride and the creation of black political and cultural institutions to nurture and promote black collective interests, advance black values, and secure black autonomy. -
Greensboro Sit-Ins
Protests where 4 students from the NC Agricultural and Technical College sat down at whites only lunch counter. Once they were there, they refused to move. Each day, they came back with many more protesters. These sit-ins led to the formation of the SNCC and more sit-ins across the country. -
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
One of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It played a major role in the sit-ins, freedom rides, the 1963 March on Washington, the Freedom Summer, and the MFDP. Young people. -
Freedom Riders
Organized mixed-race groups who rode interstate buses deep into the South to draw attention to and protest racial segregation, beginning in 1961. This effort by northern young people to challenge racism proved a political and public relations success for the Civil Rights Movement. -
March on Washington
A large political rally that took place in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech advocating racial harmony at the Lincoln Memorial during the march. widely credited as helping lead to the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the National Voting Rights Act (1965). -
Civil Rights Act of 1964
This act made racial, religious, and sex discrimination by employers illegal and gave the government the power to enforce all laws governing civil rights, including desegregation of schools and public places. LBJ -
Harlem Riot
Occurred in July 1964 during the first "long hot summer"; police shot a black criminal suspect in Harlem; young people were angered by the police brutality and looted and rioted for a week. -
Selma March
King organized this major demonstration in Alabama to press for the right of blacks to register to vote. Selma sheriff led local police in a televised brutal attack on demonstrators. Two northern white marchers were murdered, and the outrage that came after helped LBJ pass the Civil Rights Act of 1965. -
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Created in 1964, this agency works to eliminate employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, disability, age or other criteria unrelated to job performance. It investigates complaints of discrimination; files lawsuits in cases of discrimination and is responsible for enforcing equal opportunity laws in federal departments, offices and agencies. -
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Invalidated the use of any test or device to deny the vote and authorized federal examiners to register voters in states that had disenfranchised blacks. -
The Black Panthers
An African-American militant organization established to promote Black Power and self-defense through acts of social agitation. It was active in the United States from the mid-1960s into the 1970s. Started in Oakland, CA. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated at a Memphis hotel. James Earl Ray, white man who resented the increasing black influence in society. Set off a new round of riots across the country. -
Bakke v. California
Ruled that a university's use of racial "quotas" in its admissions process was unconstitutional, but a school's use of "affirmative action" to accept more minority applicants was constitutional in some circumstances.