January 1829

North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Thomas Ruffin rules in State v. Mann (1829) that a person who hires an enslaved person cannot be criminally charged for beating her, even for unauthorized cruelty. Ruffin writes that slavery requires "uncontrolled authority" over the enslaved. The ruling becomes a cornerstone precedent removing enslaved people from all legal protection against violence.

Following slave rebellions and abolitionist literature, Southern states passed laws criminalizing the education of enslaved people. Georgia (1829) imposed fines and whipping for teaching enslaved people to read or write. North Carolina (1830) extended the ban to free Black people. Virginia (1831, after Nat Turner) banned all assemblies for instruction. Alabama, South Carolina, and Louisiana passed similar statutes. By 1835 it was illegal to teach an enslaved person to read throughout the Deep South. The laws reflected the slaveholder understanding that literacy enabled resistance, access to abolitionist ideas, and freedom suits.

Following slave rebellions and abolitionist literature, Southern states passed laws criminalizing the education of enslaved people. Georgia (1829) imposed fines and whipping for teaching enslaved people to read or write. North Carolina (1830) extended the ban to free Black people. Virginia (1831, after Nat Turner) banned all assemblies for instruction. Alabama, South Carolina, and Louisiana passed similar statutes. By 1835 it was illegal to teach an enslaved person to read throughout the Deep South. The laws reflected the slaveholder understanding that literacy enabled resistance, access to abolitionist ideas, and freedom suits.

White mobs attack Cincinnati's Black community over several days in August 1829, destroying homes and businesses and using Ohio's Black Laws as legal cover. Roughly 1,100 to 2,200 Black residents flee to Canada, where they found Wilberforce Colony in Upper Canada. The violence demonstrates that even in nominally free states, Black communities face violent exclusion.

Louisiana authorities uncover a planned uprising among enslaved people in the New Orleans area in 1829. Several enslaved men are arrested and executed. The plot reflects the enduring resistance spirit in a city where the enslaved population was large, diverse, and had regular contact with free Black people from the Caribbean and other urban centers.