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First slaves arrive in America
The first African slaves arrived in Virginia. -
Slavery is made illegal.
Slavery is made illegal in the Northwest Territory. The U.S Constitution states that Congress may not ban the slave trade until 1808. -
Invention of the cotton gin
Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin greatly increases the demand for slave labor. -
The Fugitive Slave Law
A federal fugitive slave law is enacted, providing for the return slaves who had escaped and crossed state lines. -
Slave revolt
Gabriel Prosser, an enslaved African American blacksmith, organizes a slave revolt intending to march on Richmond, Virginia. The conspiracy is uncovered, and Prosser and a number of the rebels are hanged. Virginia's slave laws are consequently tightened. -
Ban slave importation
Congress bans the importation of slaves from Africa. -
The Civil War begins
The Confederacy is founded when the deep South secedes, and the Civil War begins. -
Emancipation Proclamation
President Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring "that all persons held as slaves" within the Confederate state "are, and henceforward shall be free." -
The Civil War ends
The Civil War ends. Lincoln is assassinated. The Thirteenth Amendment abolishes slavery throughout the United States. On June 19 slavery in the United States effectively ended when 250,000 slaves in Texas finally received the news that the Civil War had ended two months earlier. -
Civil Rights Act
The Civil Rights Act was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against blacks and women, including racial segregation. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public.
