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Jan 1, 1503
Early Spanish & Portuguese Colonies
Spanish and Portuguese bring African slaves to the Caribbean and Central America to replace Native Americans in the gold mines. -
African Slaves Arrive In North America
The first African slaves arrive in Virginia. African slaves were purchased or traded for goods in Africa. Slaves were brought in the North American continent to provide free intensive labor. -
First African American Poet
Lucy Terry, an enslaved person in 1746, becomes the earliest known black American poet when she writes about the last American Indian attack on her village of Deerfield, Massachusetts. Her poem, Bar's Fight, is not published until 1855. -
Eli Whitney
Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin greatly increases the demand for slave labor. Cotton becomes the South's main source of income as it would be referred to as " white gold ". Slave imports increase due to the production levels increasing. -
Runaway
A federal fugitive slave law is enacted, providing for the return slaves who had escaped and crossed state lines. Laws were constantly being pushed to keep African American Slaves opressesd. -
Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney Invented the cotton gin in 1793 which led to the produce of way more cotton than before the machine was bult. This invention increased the demand of slave labor more then anything which also made the south want to contiue slavery. -
Ban on The Slave Trade
The United States Federal law has stated that no new slaves were allowed to be imported into the United States. This took into effect in 1808. -
Banned Importation
Congress bans the importation of slaves from Africa. Slave trade within the states was still legal, only banned imported slaves. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was a federal statute in the United States that regulated slavery in the country's western territories. The compromise, devised by Henry Clay, was agreed to by the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States Congress and passed as a law in 1820. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
Nat Turner, an enslaved African-American preacher, leads the most significant slave uprising in American history. He and his band of followers launch a short, bloody, rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia. The militia quells the rebellion, and Turner is eventually hanged. As a consequence, Virginia institutes much stricter slave laws.
William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing the Liberator, a weekly paper that advocates the complete abolition of slavery. He becomes one of the most famous figu -
Slave ship Amistad
53 African slaves on board the slave ship the Amistad rebelled against their captors, killing all but the ship's navigator, who sailed them to Long Island, N.Y., instead of their original destination, Africa. Joseph Cinque was the group's leader. The slaves aboard the ship became unwitting symbols for the antislavery movement. -
Wilmot Proviso
introduced by Democratic representative David Wilmot of Pennsylvania, attempts to ban slavery in territory gained in the Mexican War. The proviso is blocked by Southerners, but continues to rise the debate over slavery. -
Tubman
Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery and becomes one of the most effective and celebrated leaders of the Underground Railroad. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
opening new lands for settlement, and had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by allowing white male settlers in those territories to determine through popular sovereignty whether they would allow slavery within each territory. -
Dred Scott Court Decision
A landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court which the court stated that Afrcan Americans, enslaved or free, Were not American citizens therefore had no right to sue in a federal court. For only the second time in its history the Supreme Court ruled an Act of Congress to be unconstitutional. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln as the country was entered in to the third year of the civil waIt declared that "all persons held as slaves …shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free" but it applied only to states designated as being in rebellion, not to the slave holding states of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri or to areas of the Confederacy that had already come under Union controlr. -
Freedmen's Bureau
the Freedmen’s Bureau was established in 1865 by Congress to help black slaves and poor whites in the South in the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War. 4 million slaves gained their freedom as a result of the Union victory in the war, which left many communities in decay and destroyed the South’s plantation based economy. The Freedmen’s Bureau provided food, housing and medical aid, established schools and offered legal assistance -
Black Codes
passed by Southern states, drastically restricting the rights of newly freed slaves. These laws put restrictions from blacks using " White Only" Restrooms, Water foutains, also didnt allow black to eat at the counters in Food joints. These codes lasted for 2 years, 1865-1866 -
KKK ( Ku Klux Klan)
Founded in 1866, the Ku Klux Klan expanded into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southern resistance to the Republican Party’s Reconstruction-era policies aimed at establishing political and economic equality for blacks. Its members waged an underground campaign of violence directed at white and black Republican leaders. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson.
Plessy vs. Ferguson establishes the "separate but equal" law. It also expands the Jim Crow practices in the United States. The court rejected Plessy's arguements, based on the 4th amendment. It separated the blacks and whites publicly. -
NAACP
A group of bi-ratial activists organize the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to promote "the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination." -
Universal Negro Improvement Association
Marcus Garvey established the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The motto of this organization was "One God, One Aim, One Destiny." Garvey dedicated to racial pride, economic self-sufficiency, and the formation of an independent black nation in Africa. -
Brown v. Board of Education
The Supreme Court declared that the state laws that established separate public schools for blacks & whites unconstitutional. In 1954, large portions of the United States did have segregated schools, made legal by the Plessy v. Ferguson case. -
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Mountgomery Bus Boycott begins after the arrest of Rosa Parks. The Boycott Lasts 381 days, and ended with the desegregation of the Mountgomery Alabama bus system. Martin Luther King, Jr. leads the Mountgomery Bus Boycott. -
I Have a Dream
Martin Luther King Jr delivered his famous "I Have A Dream" speech to supporters of the Civil Rights Movement, in Washington DC. He ws calling for an end to racism in the United States. -
Assassination of Malcom X
Malcom X was assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam in New York City. He was an American Muslim minister & a human rights activist. Malcom X became one of the most influental African Americans in history -
Barack Obama elected President
For the First time in history, Barack Hussein Obama became the first African American to be elected President of the United Sates. Obama was also re-elected in 2012.
