1700s
1700–1799Chattel slavery hardens even as revolution promises liberty.
Zoom in — decades
Key events
- September 9, 1739The Stono Rebellion
The largest slave uprising in the British mainland colonies; dozens march toward Spanish Florida and freedom before being suppressed.
- September 17, 1787The Constitution and the Three-Fifths Clause
The Constitution counts the enslaved as three-fifths of a person and protects the slave trade.
- October 1705Virginia Slave Codes of 1705
Colonial Virginia consolidates slavery into a sweeping legal code defining the enslaved as property.
- April 6, 1712New York City slave revolt
Enslaved New Yorkers set fires and fought back; brutal executions followed.
- March 5, 1770Crispus Attucks and the Boston Massacre
Crispus Attucks, a man of African and Native descent, is among the first killed in the Revolution.
- November 7, 1775Lord Dunmore's Proclamation
Virginia's royal governor offers freedom to enslaved people who join the British; thousands flee.
- March 1, 1780Pennsylvania's Gradual Abolition Act
The first abolition law in the new nation, freeing future-born children of the enslaved.
- July 13, 1787The Northwest Ordinance bans slavery
Slavery is prohibited in the Northwest Territory, shaping the free-state North.
- March 26, 1790The Naturalization Act of 1790
Citizenship by naturalization is restricted to "free white persons."
- February 12, 1793The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793
The first federal law authorizing the capture of escapees in free states.
- March 14, 1793The cotton gin entrenches slavery
Eli Whitney's machine makes cotton wildly profitable, vastly expanding the demand for enslaved labor.
- March 18, 1741· debatedThe New York Conspiracy of 1741
A wave of fires sparks panic and the execution of dozens of enslaved and poor New Yorkers.
- April 14, 1775First abolition society founded
The Pennsylvania Abolition Society, the first in America, is organized in Philadelphia.