1710s

On April 6, approximately 25 enslaved Akan and Coromantee Africans set fire to a building in lower Manhattan and ambushed whites who came to extinguish it, killing 9 and wounding 6. Colonial militia suppressed the revolt. In the aftermath, 21 enslaved people were executed — some burned at the stake, broken on the wheel, or hung in chains — and 6 died by suicide before capture.

Colonial court records from Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia document numerous cases of enslaved people accused of poisoning enslavers and their families. Enslaved healers and herbalists possessed knowledge of toxic plants unavailable to European colonists. South Carolina passed a specific law in 1751 making poisoning by an enslaved person a capital offense, confirming the scale of the practice.

Colonial court records from Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia document enslaved people accused of poisoning enslavers. Enslaved healers possessed knowledge of toxic plants unavailable to Europeans. South Carolina passed a specific 1751 law making poisoning a capital offense, confirming the scale of the practice.

Following the 1712 revolt, New York made manumission nearly impossible by requiring a £200 bond and £20 annual annuity. Laws also restricted enslaved people from gathering in groups of more than three. Fear of rebellion was used to permanently restrict all Black New Yorkers.

Following the 1712 revolt, New York enacted laws making manumission nearly impossible by requiring freed people's former enslavers to pay a £200 bond and £20 per year annuity. The laws also restricted enslaved people from gathering in groups of more than three. Fear of rebellion was used to justify permanent restrictions on all Black New Yorkers, free and enslaved.

The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 included the Asiento de negros, granting Britain a monopoly on supplying enslaved Africans to Spanish colonies in the Americas. Under the agreement, Britain was entitled to transport 4,800 enslaved Africans per year for 30 years to Spanish American ports. The South Sea Company was granted the contract and became a major transatlantic slave-trading corporation. The agreement formalized British commercial dominance in human trafficking and accelerated the volume of people torn from West Africa. It represented the integration of the slave trade into the highest levels of European state diplomacy, treated as a commercial asset equivalent to trade in goods.

Pennsylvania imposed a prohibitive import duty on enslaved people in 1712, limiting slavery's growth under Quaker influence. While not abolition, it created conditions where Pennsylvania had fewer enslaved people and Quaker abolitionists had more social leverage.

Pennsylvania, under Quaker influence, imposed a prohibitive import duty on enslaved people in 1712, effectively limiting the growth of slavery in the colony. The law reflected ongoing Quaker moral pressure following the 1688 Germantown petition. While not abolition, it created conditions under which Pennsylvania had a smaller enslaved population than its Southern counterparts and Quaker abolitionists had more social leverage.

In 1709, a plot involving both enslaved Africans and enslaved Native Americans spread across at least three Virginia counties — James City, Surry, and Isle of Wight. A second conspiracy, involving only African American enslaved people, was planned to launch on Easter 1710. An enslaved man named Will betrayed the plot to authorities. Will was granted his freedom as reward; his enslaver Robert Ruffin was compensated £40 from public funds. Two of the plot's leaders were tried by the General Court, convicted, and executed. The conspiracies were part of a wave of early 18th-century Virginia plots that reflected growing resistance to the hardening racial slavery codified by the 1705 slave codes.

Enslaved New Yorkers set fires and fought back; brutal executions followed.