1860s

Lincoln declares the enslaved in rebel states free, transforming the war into a fight for freedom.

Union troops announce emancipation in Galveston — two and a half years after the Proclamation.

Slavery is abolished — except as punishment for crime, a loophole that enables convict leasing.

A terror organization forms in Tennessee to attack Black citizens and Reconstruction.

Citizenship and equal protection are written into the Constitution.

Lincoln's election triggers Southern secession over the future of slavery.

The war that will end slavery opens at Charleston Harbor.

Black Union soldiers prove their valor in a costly assault on a Confederate fort.

Sherman sets aside coastal land for freed families — a promise soon revoked.

A federal agency to aid the formerly enslaved with food, schools, and labor contracts.

Southern states pass laws to control freedpeople and force them back into labor.

The first federal law to define citizenship and affirm equal rights regardless of race.

Congress frees the enslaved in Washington, D.C., with compensation to owners.

White mobs attack Black New Yorkers during anti-draft violence.

White mobs and police kill dozens of Black residents over three days.

A white mob attacks a Black suffrage convention, killing dozens.