- Illustration from the book: The Black Man's Lament, Or, How to Make Sugar by Amelia Opie (London, 1826)
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Slavery |
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The abolition of slavery occurred at different times in different countries. It frequently occurred sequentially in more than one stage – for example, as abolition of the trade in slaves in a specific country, and then as abolition of slavery throughout empires. Each step was usually the result of a separate law or action. This timeline shows abolition laws or actions listed chronologically. It also covers the abolition of serfdom.
Although slavery is technically illegal in all countries today, the practice continues in many locations around the world, primarily in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe, often with government support. [1]
During classical antiquity, several prominent societies in Europe and the ancient Near East regulated enslavement for debt and the related but distinct practice of debt bondage (in which a creditor could extract compulsory labor from a debtor in repayment of their debt, but the debtor was not formally enslaved and was not subject to all the conditions of chattel slavery, such as being perpetually owned, sellable on the open market, or stripped of kinship).
Reforms listed below such as the laws of Solon in Athens, the Lex Poetelia Papiria in Republican Rome, or rules set forth in the Hebrew Bible in the Book of Deuteronomy generally regulated the supply of slaves and debt-servants by forbidding or regulating the bondage of certain privileged groups (thus, the Roman reforms protected Roman citizens, the Athenian reforms protected Athenian citizens, and the rules in Deuteronomy guaranteed freedom to a Hebrew after a fixed duration of servitude), but none abolished slavery, and even what protections were instituted did not apply to foreigners or noncitizen subjects.
Date | Jurisdiction | Description |
---|---|---|
Early sixth century BC | ![]() | The Athenian lawgiver Solon abolishes debt slavery of Athenian citizens and frees all Athenian citizens who had formerly been enslaved. [2] [3] Athenian chattel slavery continued to be practiced, and the loss of debt-bondage as a competing source of compulsory labor may even have spurred slavery to become more important in the Athenian economy henceforth. [4] |
3rd century BC | ![]() | Indian emperor Ashoka abolishes the slave trade but not slavery. [5] Slavery remaining legal in parts of India until 1876, though illegal slave holdings were still being recorded, in Princely states, by the 1891 census. [6] |
326 BC | Roman Republic | Lex Poetelia Papiria abolishes Nexum contracts, a form of pledging the debt bondage of poor Roman citizens to wealthy creditors as security for loans. Chattel slavery was not abolished, and Roman slavery would continue to flourish for centuries. |
9–12 AD | Xin dynasty | Wang Mang, first and only emperor of the Xin dynasty, usurped the Chinese throne and instituted a series of sweeping reforms, including the abolition of slavery and radical land reform from 9–12 A.D. [7] [8] However, this and other reforms turned popular and elite sentiment against Wang Mang, and slavery was reinstituted after he was killed by an angry mob in 23 A.D. |
Date | Jurisdiction | Description |
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590–604 | ![]() | Pope Gregory I bans Jews from owning Christian slaves. [9] |
7th century | Francia | Queen Balthild, a former slave, and the Council of Chalon-sur-Saône (644–655) condemn the enslavement of Christians. Balthild purchases slaves, mostly Saxon, and manumits (frees) them. [10] |
741–752 | ![]() | Pope Zachary bans the sale of Christian slaves to Muslims, purchases all slaves acquired in the city by Venetian traders, and sets them free. |
840 | ![]() ![]() | Pactum Lotharii : Venice pledges to neither buy Christian slaves in the Empire, nor sell them to Muslims. Venetian slavers switch to trading Slavs from the East. |
873 | Christendom | Pope John VIII declares the enslavement of fellow Christians a sin and commands their release. [11] |
~900 | Byzantine Empire | Emperor Leo VI the Wise prohibits voluntary self-enslavement and commands that such contracts shall be null and void and punishable by flagellation for both parties to the contract. [12] |
956 | Goryeo Dynasty (Korea) | Slaves were freed on a large scale in 956 by the Goryeo dynasty. [13] Gwangjong of Goryeo proclaimed the Slave and Land Act (노비안검법, 奴婢按檢法), an act that "deprived nobles of much of their manpower in the form of slaves and purged the old nobility, the meritorious subjects and their offspring and military lineages in great numbers". [14] |
960 | ![]() | Slave trade banned in the city under the rule of Doge Pietro IV Candiano. |
1080 | ![]() | William the Conqueror prohibits the sale of any person to "heathens" (non-Christians) as slaves. |
1100 | ![]() | Serfdom no longer present. [15] |
1102 | ![]() | The Council of London bans the slave trade: "Let no one dare hereafter to engage in the infamous business, prevalent in England, of selling men like animals." [16] [17] |
c. 1160 | ![]() | The Gulating bans the sale of house slaves out of the country.[ citation needed ] |
1171 | ![]() | All English slaves in the island freed by the Council of Armagh. [17] |
1198 | ![]() | Trinitarian Order founded with the purpose of redeeming war captives. |
1214 | Korčula | The Statute of the Town abolishes slavery. [18] [19] [ better source needed ] |
1218 | ![]() | Mercedarians founded in Barcelona with the purpose of ransoming poor Christians enslaved by Muslims. |
~1220 | ![]() | The Sachsenspiegel, the most influential German code of law from the Middle Ages, condemns slavery as a violation of man's likeness to God. [20] |
1245 | ![]() | James I bans Jews from owning Christian slaves, but allows them to own Muslims and Pagans. [21] |
1256 | ![]() | Liber Paradisus promulgated. Slavery and serfdom abolished, all serfs in the commune are released. |
1315 | ![]() | Louis X publishes a decree abolishing slavery and proclaiming that "France signifies freedom", that any slave setting foot on French ground should be freed. [22] However some limited cases of slavery continued until the 17th century in some of France's Mediterranean harbours in Provence, as well as until the 18th century in some of France's overseas territories. [23] Most aspects of serfdom are also eliminated de facto between 1315 and 1318. [24] |
1318 | ![]() | King Philip V abolishes serfdom in his domain. [25] |
1335 | ![]() | Slavery abolished (including Sweden's territory in Finland). However, slaves are not banned entry into the country until 1813. [26] In the 18th and 19th centuries, slavery was practiced in the Swedish-ruled Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy. Sweden never practiced serfdom, except in a few territories it later acquired which were ruled under a local legal code. |
1347 | ![]() | The Statutes of Casimir the Great issued in Wiślica emancipate all non-free people. [27] |
1368 | ![]() | Emperor Hongwu abolished most forms of slavery, [7] limiting even the highest ranks of household to less than 20 household slaves. Later in the dynasty saw a resurgence of debt servitude, primarily in the south, as a result of population growth against the dearth of arable lands, often taking euphemisms like "adoption" to circumvent its still outlawed status. [28] |
1416 | ![]() | Slavery and slave trade abolished. |
1423 | ![]() | King orders to free all Christian slaves. [29] |
1435 | ![]() | Pope Eugene IV's Sicut Dudum bans enslavement of baptised Christians, "or those freely seeking baptism" in the Canary Islands on pain of excommunication. [30] |
1441 | ![]() | First slaves captured in Africa were brought to Portugal. [29] |
1477 | ![]() | Isabella I bans slavery in newly conquered territories. [31] |
1480 | ![]() | Remnant serfdom abolished by the Catholic Monarchs. [32] |
1486 | ![]() | Ferdinand II promulgates the Sentence of Guadalupe, abolishing Carolingian-remnant serfdom (remença) in Old Catalonia. |
1490 | ![]() | After a long court case, the Catholic Monarchs order that all La Gomera natives enslaved in the aftermath of the 1488 rebellion must be freed and returned to the island at Conquistador Pedro de Vera's expense. De Vera is also relieved from his post as Governor of Gran Canaria in 1491. [33] |
1493 | Queen Isabella bans the enslavement of Native Americans unless they are hostile or cannibalistic. [31] Native Americans are ruled to be subjects of the Crown. Columbus is preempted from selling Indian captives in Seville and those already sold are tracked, purchased from their buyers and released. |
Date | Jurisdiction | Description |
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1503 | ![]() | Native Americans allowed to travel to Spain only on their own free will. [34] |
1512 | The Laws of Burgos establish limits to the treatment of natives in the Encomienda system. | |
1518 | ![]() | Decree of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V establishing the importation of African slaves to the Americas, under monopoly of Laurent de Gouvenot, in an attempt to discourage enslavement of Native Americans. |
1528 | Charles V forbids the transportation of Native Americans to Europe, even on their own will, in an effort to curtail their enslavement. Encomiendas are banned from collecting tribute in gold with the reasoning that Natives were selling their children to get it. [35] | |
1530 | Outright slavery of Native Americans under any circumstance is banned. However, forced labor under the Encomienda continues. | |
1536 | The Welser family is dispossessed of the Asiento monopoly (granted in 1528) following complaints about their treatment of Native American workers in Venezuela. | |
1537 | New World | Pope Paul III forbids slavery of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and any other population to be discovered, establishing their right to freedom and property (Sublimis Deus). [36] |
1542 | ![]() | The New Laws ban slave raiding in the Americas and abolish the slavery of natives, but replace it with other systems of forced labor like the repartimiento. Slavery of Black Africans continues. [23] New limits are imposed to the Encomienda. |
1549 | Encomiendas banned from using forced labor. | |
1550-1551 | Valladolid Debate on the innate rights of indigenous peoples of the Americas. | |
1552 | Bartolomé de las Casas, "the first to expose the oppression of indigenous peoples by Europeans in the Americas and to call for the abolition of slavery there." [37] | |
1562 | ![]() | Akbar I librates all Indian-born slaves and concubines in his empire. [38] |
1570 | ![]() | King Sebastian of Portugal bans the enslavement of Native Americans under Portuguese rule, allowing only the enslavement of hostile ones. This law was highly influenced by the Society of Jesus, which had missionaries in direct contact with Brazilian tribes. |
1574 | ![]() | Last remaining serfs emancipated by Elizabeth I. [24] |
![]() | Slavery abolished by royal decree. [39] | |
1588 | ![]() | The Third Statute of Lithuania abolishes slavery. [40] |
1590 | ![]() | Toyotomi Hideyoshi bans slavery except as punishment for criminals. [41] |
1595 | ![]() | Trade of Chinese slaves banned. [42] |
1602 | ![]() | The Clifton Star Chamber Case set a precedent, that impressing / enslaving children to serve as actors was illegal. |
1609 | ![]() | The Moriscos, many of whom are serfs, are expelled from Peninsular Spain unless they become slaves voluntarily (known as moros cortados, "cut Moors") However, a large proportion avoid expulsion or manage to return. [43] |
1624 | ![]() | Enslavement of Chinese banned. [44] [45] |
1649 | ![]() | The sale of Russian slaves to Muslims is banned. [46] |
1652 | ![]() | Roger Williams and Samuel Gorton work to pass legislation abolishing slavery in Providence Plantations, the first attempt of its kind in North America. It does not go into effect. [47] |
1677 | ![]() | Shivaji I banned, freed and stopped import and export of all slaves under his Empire. [48] [49] [50] |
1679 | ![]() | Feodor III converts all Russian field slaves into serfs. [51] [52] |
1683 | ![]() | Slavery of Mapuche prisoners of war abolished. [53] |
1687 | ![]() | Fugitive slaves from the Thirteen Colonies granted freedom in return for conversion to Catholicism and four years of military service. |
1688 | ![]() | The Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery is the first religious petition against African slavery in what would become the United States. |
Date | Jurisdiction | Description |
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1706 | ![]() | In Smith v. Browne & Cooper, Sir John Holt, Lord Chief Justice of England, rules that "as soon as a Negro comes into England, he becomes free. One may be a villein in England, but not a slave." [54] [55] |
1711-1712 | ![]() | Slave trade banned by Mamia I of Imereti. |
1712 | ![]() | Moros cortados expelled. [56] |
1715 | ![]() ![]() | Native American slave trade in the American Southeast reduces with the outbreak of the Yamasee War. |
1723 | ![]() | Peter the Great converts all house slaves into house serfs, effectively making slavery illegal in Russia. |
1723–1730 | ![]() | The Yongzheng emancipation seeks to free all slaves to strengthen the autocratic ruler through a kind of social leveling that creates an undifferentiated class of free subjects under the throne. Although these new regulations freed the vast majority of slaves, wealthy families continued to use slave labor into the twentieth century. [57] |
1732 | ![]() | Province established without African slavery in sharp contrast to neighboring colony of Carolina. In 1738, James Oglethorpe warns against changing that policy, which would "occasion the misery of thousands in Africa." [58] Native American slavery is legal throughout Georgia, however, and African slavery is later introduced in 1749. |
1738 | ![]() | Fort Mosé, the first legal settlement of free blacks in what is today the United States, is established. Word of the settlement sparks the Stono Rebellion in Carolina the following year. |
1761 | ![]() | The Marquis of Pombal bans the importation of slaves to metropolitan Portugal. [59] encouraging instead the trade of African slaves to Brazil. [60] [61] [62] [63] |
1766 | ![]() | Muhammad III of Morocco purchases the freedom of all Muslim slaves in Seville, Cádiz, and Barcelona. [64] |
1770 | ![]() | The Circassians of the Abdzakh region started a great revolution in Circassian territory in 1770. Classes such as slaves, nobles and princes were completely abolished. The Abdzakh Revolution coincides with the French Revolution. While many French nobles took refuge in Russia, some of the Circassian nobles took the same path and took refuge in Russia. [65] |
1772 | ![]() | Somersett's case rules that no slave can be forcibly removed from England. This case was generally taken at the time to have decided that the condition of slavery did not exist under English law in England and Wales, and resulted in the emancipation of the remaining ten to fourteen thousand slaves or possible slaves in England and Wales, who were mostly domestic servants. [66] |
1773 | ![]() | A new decree by the Marquis of Pombal, signed by the king Dom José, emancipates fourth-generation slaves [59] and every child born to an enslaved mother after the decree was published. [67] |
1774 | ![]() | Government of Bengal passed regulations 9 and 10 of 1774, prohibiting the trade in slaves without written deed, and the sale of anyone not already enslaved. [68] |
1775 | ![]() | Dunmore's Proclamation promises freedom to slaves who desert the American revolutionaries and join the British Army as Black Loyalists. |
![]() | Pennsylvania Abolition Society formed in Philadelphia, the first abolition society within the territory that is now the United States of America. | |
![]() | Atlantic slave trade banned or suspended in the United Colonies during the Revolutionary War. This was a continuation of the Thirteen Colonies' non-importation agreements against Britain, as an attempt to cut all economic ties with Britain during the war. [69] | |
1777 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [70] |
![]() | The Constitution of the Vermont Republic partially bans slavery, [70] freeing men over 21 and women older than 18 at the time of its passage. [71] The ban is not strongly enforced. [72] [73] | |
1778 | ![]() | Joseph Knight successfully argues that Scots law cannot support the status of slavery. [74] |
1779 | ![]() | The Philipsburg Proclamation frees all slaves who desert the American rebels, regardless of their willingness to fight for the Crown. |
1780 | ![]() | An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery passed, freeing future children of slaves. Those born prior to the Act remain enslaved for life. The Act becomes a model for other Northern states. Last slaves freed 1847. [75] |
1783 | ![]() | Slavery abolished in the recently annexed Crimean Khanate. [76] |
![]() | Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules slavery unconstitutional, a decision based on the 1780 Massachusetts constitution. All slaves are immediately freed. [77] | |
![]() | Joseph II abolishes slavery in Bukovina. [78] | |
![]() | Gradual abolition of slavery begins. | |
1784 | ![]() | Gradual abolition of slavery, freeing future children of slaves, and later all slaves. [79] |
![]() | Gradual abolition of slavery begins. | |
1786 | ![]() | A policy of completely banning slavery is adopted by governor-designate Arthur Phillip for the soon-to-be established colony. [80] |
1787 | ![]() | The United States in Congress Assembled passes the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, outlawing any new slavery in the Northwest Territories. |
![]() | Founded by Great Britain as a colony for emancipated slaves. [81] | |
![]() | Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade founded in Great Britain. [70] | |
1788 | Sir William Dolben's Act regulating the conditions on British slave ships enacted. | |
![]() | Abolitionist Society of the Friends of the Blacks founded in Paris. | |
![]() | Limits imposed to serfdom under the Stavnsbånd system. | |
1789 | ![]() | Last remaining seigneurial privileges over peasants abolished. [82] |
1791 | ![]() | The Constitution of May 3, 1791 introduced elements of political equality between townspeople and nobility, and placed the peasants under the protection of the government; thus, it mitigated the worst abuses of serfdom. |
1791 | ![]() | Emancipation of second-generation slaves in the colonies. [64] |
1792 | ![]() | Transatlantic slave trade declared illegal after 1803, though slavery continues in Danish colonies to 1848. [83] |
1792 | ![]() | The importation of slaves to the island of Saint Helena was banned in 1792, but the phased emancipation of over 800 resident slaves did not take place until 1827, which was still some six years before the British parliament passed legislation to ban slavery in the colonies. [84] |
1793 | ![]() | Commissioner Leger-Felicite Sonthonax abolishes slavery in the northern part of the colony. His colleague Etienne Polverel does the same in the rest of the territory in October. |
![]() | Importation of slaves banned by the Act Against Slavery. | |
1794 | ![]() | Slavery abolished in all French territories and possessions. [85] |
![]() | The Slave Trade Act bans both American ships from participating in the slave trade and the export of slaves in foreign ships. [69] | |
![]() | The Proclamation of Połaniec, issued during the Kościuszko Uprising, ultimately abolished serfdom in Poland, and granted substantial civil liberties to all peasants. | |
1798 | ![]() | Slavery banned in the islands after their capture by French forces under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte. [86] |
1799 | ![]() | Gradual emancipation act freeing the future children of slaves, and all slaves in 1827. [87] |
![]() | The Colliers (Scotland) Act 1799 ends the legal servitude or slavery of coal and salt miners that had been established in 1606. [88] |
Date | Jurisdiction | Description |
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1800 | Joseon | State slavery banned in 1800. Private slavery continued until being banned in 1894. |
1800 | ![]() | American citizens banned from investment and employment in the international slave trade in an additional Slave Trade Act. |
1802 | ![]() | Napoleon re-introduces slavery in sugarcane-growing colonies. [89] |
![]() | State constitution abolishes slavery. | |
1803 | ![]() | Abolition of Danish participation in the transatlantic slave trade takes effect on 1 January. |
1804 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [90] |
![]() | Haiti declares independence and abolishes slavery. [70] | |
1804–1813 | ![]() | First Serbian Uprising against Ottoman Empire. |
1805 | ![]() | A bill for abolition passes in House of Commons but is rejected in the House of Lords. |
1806 | ![]() | In a message to Congress, Thomas Jefferson calls for criminalizing the international slave trade, asking Congress to "withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further participation in those violations of human rights ... which the morality, the reputation, and the best of our country have long been eager to proscribe." |
1807 | International slave trade made a felony in Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves; this act takes effect on 1 January 1808, the earliest date permitted under the Constitution. [91] | |
![]() | Abolition of the Slave Trade Act abolishes slave trading throughout the British Empire. Captains fined £100 per slave transported. Patrols sent to the African coast to arrest slaving vessels. The West Africa Squadron (Royal Navy) is established to suppress slave trading; by 1865, nearly 150,000 people freed by anti-slavery operations. [92] | |
![]() | Constitution abolishes serfdom. [93] | |
![]() | The Stein-Hardenberg Reforms abolish serfdom. [93] | |
![]() | Judge Augustus Woodward denies the return of two slaves owned by a man in Windsor, Upper Canada. Woodward declares that any man "coming into this Territory is by law of the land a freeman." [94] | |
1808 | ![]() | Importation and exportation of slaves made a crime. [95] |
1810 | ![]() | Independence leader Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla proclaimed the abolition of slavery three months after the start of the Independence of Mexico from Spain. |
1811 | ![]() | Slave trading made a felony punishable by transportation for both British subjects and foreigners. |
![]() | The Cortes of Cádiz abolish the last remaining seigneurial rights. [64] | |
![]() | The Company issued regulations 10 of 1811, prohibiting the transport of slaves into Company territory, adding to the 1774 restrictions. [68] | |
![]() | The First National Congress approves a proposal of Manuel de Salas that declares Freedom of Wombs, freeing the children of slaves born in Chilean territory, regardless of their parents' condition. The slave trade is banned and the slaves who stay for more than six months in Chilean territory are automatically declared freedmen. | |
1812 | ![]() | The Cortes of Cádiz pass the Spanish Constitution of 1812, giving citizenship and equal rights to all residents in Spain and her territories, excluding slaves. During deliberations, Deputies José Miguel Guridi y Alcocer and Agustín Argüelles unsuccessfully argue for the abolition of slavery. [64] |
1813 | ![]() | Independence leader José María Morelos y Pavón declares slavery abolished in Mexico in the documents Sentimientos de la Nación. |
![]() | Law of Wombs passed by the Assembly of Year XIII. Slaves born after 31 January 1813 will be granted freedom when they are married, or on their 16th birthday for women and 20th for men, and upon their manumission will be given land and tools to work it. [96] | |
1814 | ![]() | After the occupation of Montevideo, all slaves born in modern Uruguayan territory are declared free. |
![]() | Slave trade abolished. | |
1815 | ![]() | Napoleon abolishes the slave trade. |
![]() | Slave trade banned north of the Equator in return for a £750,000 payment by Britain. [97] | |
![]() | British withdrawing after the War of 1812 leave a fully armed fort in the hands of maroons, escaped slaves and their descendants, and their Seminole allies. Becomes known as Negro Fort. | |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | The Congress of Vienna declares its opposition to the slave trade. [98] | |
1816 | ![]() | Serfdom abolished. |
![]() | Negro Fort destroyed in the Battle of Negro Fort by U.S. forces under the command of General Andrew Jackson. | |
![]() | Algiers bombarded by the British and Dutch navies in an attempt to end North African piracy and slave raiding in the Mediterranean. 3,000 slaves freed. | |
1817 | ![]() | Serfdom abolished. |
![]() ![]() | Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade. [99] | |
![]() | Ferdinand VII signs a cedula banning the importation of slaves in Spanish possessions beginning in 1820, [64] in return for a £400,000 payment from Britain. [97] However, some slaves are still smuggled in after this date. Both slave ownership and internal commerce in slaves remained legal. | |
![]() | Simon Bolivar calls for the abolition of slavery. [64] | |
![]() | 4 July 1827 set as date to free all ex-slaves from indenture. [100] | |
![]() | Constitution supports the abolition of slavery, but does not ban it. [64] | |
1818 | ![]() ![]() | Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade. [101] |
![]() | Slave trade banned. | |
![]() ![]() | Bilateral treaty taking additional measures to enforce the 1814 ban on slave trading. [101] | |
1819 | ![]() | Serfdom abolished. |
![]() | Attorney-General John Robinson declares all black residents free. | |
![]() | The ancient Hawaiian kapu system is abolished during the ʻAi Noa, and with it the distinction between the kauwā slave class and the makaʻāinana (commoners). [102] | |
1820 | ![]() | The Compromise of 1820 bans slavery north of the 36º 30' line; the Act to Protect the Commerce of the United States and Punish the Crime of Piracy is amended to consider the maritime slave trade as piracy, making it punishable with death. |
![]() | The supreme court orders almost all slaves in the state to be freed in Polly v. Lasselle . | |
![]() | The 1817 abolition of the slave trade takes effect. [103] | |
1821 | ![]() | The Plan of Iguala frees the slaves born in Mexico. [64] |
![]() ![]() | In accordance with Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, Florida becomes a territory of the United States. A main reason was Spain's inability or unwillingness to capture and return escaped slaves. | |
![]() | Abolition of slave trade and implementation of a plan to gradually end slavery. [64] | |
![]() | Emancipation for sons and daughters born to slave mothers, program for compensated emancipation set. [104] | |
1822 | ![]() | Jean Pierre Boyer annexes Spanish Haiti and abolishes slavery there. |
![]() | Founded by the American Colonization Society as a colony for emancipated slaves. | |
![]() ![]() | First bilateral treaty limiting the slave trade in Zanzibar. | |
1823 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [70] |
![]() | The Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions (Anti-Slavery Society) is founded. | |
![]() | Prohibition of slavery is enshrined in the Greek Constitution of 1823, during the Greek War of Independence. [105] | |
1824 | ![]() | The new constitution effectively abolishes slavery. |
![]() | Slavery abolished. [106] | |
1825 | ![]() | Importation of slaves banned. |
![]() | France, with warships at the ready, demanded Haiti compensate France for its loss of slaves and its slave colony | |
1827 | ![]() ![]() | Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade. [101] |
![]() | Last vestiges of slavery abolished. Children born between 1799 and 1827 are indentured until age 25 (females) or age 28 (males). [107] | |
![]() | Phased emancipation of over 800 resident slaves, some six years before the British parliament passed legislation to ban slavery in all colonies. [84] | |
1829 | ![]() | Last slaves freed just as the first president of partial African ancestry (Vicente Guerrero) is elected. [70] |
Date | Jurisdiction | Description |
---|---|---|
1830 | ![]() | Mexican President Anastasio Bustamante attempts to implement the abolition of slavery. To circumvent the law, Anglo-Texans declare their slaves "indentured servants for life". [108] |
1830 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. |
1831 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [70] |
![]() | Law of 7 November 1831, abolishing the maritime slave trade, banning any importation of slaves, and granting freedom to slaves illegally imported into Brazil. The law was seldom enforced prior to 1850, when Brazil, under British pressure, adopted additional legislation to criminalize the importation of slaves. | |
1832 | ![]() | Slavery abolished with independence. |
1832 | ![]() | Anahuac Disturbances: Juan Davis Bradburn, American-born Mexican officer at Anahuac,Texas, confronts slave-owning American settlers, enforcing Mexican abolition of slavery and refusing to hand over two escaped slaves. |
1834 | ![]() | The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into force, abolishing slavery throughout most of the British Empire but on a gradual basis over the next six years. [109] Legally frees 700,000 in the West Indies, 20,000 in Mauritius, and 40,000 in South Africa. The exceptions are the territories controlled by the East India Company and Ceylon. [110] |
![]() | French Society for the Abolition of Slavery founded in Paris. [111] | |
1835 | ![]() | Freedom granted to all slaves in the moment they step on Serb soil. [112] |
![]() ![]() | Bilateral treaties abolishing the slave trade. [101] | |
![]() ![]() | ||
![]() | A decree of Felipe Santiago Salaverry re-legalizes the importation of slaves from other Latin American countries. The line "no slave shall enter Peru without becoming free" is taken out of the Constitution in 1839. [113] | |
1836 | ![]() | Prime Minister Sá da Bandeira bans the transatlantic slave trade and the importation and exportation of slaves to or from the Portuguese colonies south of the equator. |
![]() | Slavery made legal again with independence. | |
1837 | ![]() | Slavery abolished outside of the colonies. [64] |
1838 | ![]() | All slaves in the colonies become free after a period of forced apprenticeship following the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions (now London Anti-Slavery Society) winds up. |
1839 | ![]() | The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (after several changes, now known as Anti-Slavery International) is founded. |
![]() | The Indian indenture system is abolished in territories controlled by the company, but this is reversed in 1842. | |
![]() | Pope Gregory XVI's In supremo apostolatus resoundingly condemns slavery and the slave trade. | |
1840 | ![]() ![]() | Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade. |
![]() | First World Anti-Slavery Convention meets in London. | |
![]() | Taking slaves banned by Treaty of Waitangi. [114] | |
1841 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | Quintuple Treaty agreeing to suppress the slave trade. [70] |
![]() | United States v. The Amistad finds that the slaves of La Amistad were illegally enslaved and were legally allowed, as free men, to fight their captors by any means necessary. | |
1842 | ![]() ![]() | Bilateral treaty extending the enforcement of the slave trade ban to Portuguese ships south of the Equator. |
![]() | Law for the gradual abolition of slavery passed. [64] | |
1843 | ![]() | The Indian Slavery Act, 1843, Act V abolishes slavery in territories controlled by the company. |
![]() ![]() | Bilateral treaties abolishing the slave trade. [101] | |
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1844 | ![]() | Mihail Sturdza abolishes slavery in Moldavia. |
![]() | Slave trade abolished. [64] | |
1845 | ![]() | 36 Royal Navy ships assigned to the Anti-Slavery Squadron, making it one of the largest fleets in the world. |
![]() | In Jarrot v. Jarrot, the Illinois Supreme Court frees the last indentured ex-slaves in the state who were born after the Northwest Ordinance. [115] | |
1846 | ![]() | Slavery abolished in Tunisia under Ahmed Bey rule. [116] |
1847 | ![]() | Slave trade from Africa abolished. [117] |
![]() | Last slaves freed. [118] | |
![]() | The last indentured ex-slaves, born before 1780 (fewer than 100 in the 1840 census [119] ) are freed. | |
![]() | Royal edict ruling the freedom of children born from female slaves and the total abolition of slavery after 12 years. Dissatisfaction causes a slave rebellion in Saint Croix the next year. | |
1848 | ![]() | Serfdom abolished. [120] [121] [122] |
![]() | Slavery abolished in the colonies. Gabon is founded as a settlement for emancipated slaves. | |
![]() | Governor Peter von Scholten declares the immediate and total emancipation of all slaves in an attempt to end the slave revolt. For this he is recalled and tried for treason, but the charges are later dropped. [70] [118] [123] | |
![]() | Last remains of the Stavnsbånd effectively abolished. | |
![]() ![]() | Bilateral treaties abolishing the slave trade. [101] | |
1849 | ![]() ![]() | |
![]() | The Royal Navy destroys the slave factory of Lomboko. |
Date | Jurisdiction | Description |
---|---|---|
1850 | ![]() | The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 requires the return of escaped slaves to their owners regardless of the state they are in. |
![]() | Eusébio de Queirós Law (Law 581 of 4 September 1850) criminalizing the maritime slave trade as piracy, and imposing other criminal sanctions on the importation of slaves (already banned in 1831). [124] | |
1851 | ![]() | Bilateral treaty of 12 October, Uruguay accepts returning to Brazil the escaped slaves from that country. Brazilians who owned land in Uruguay were allowed to have slaves in their properties. |
![]() | Slavery nominally abolished along with opium, gambling, polygamy and foot binding. [125] [126] [127] | |
![]() | Slavery abolished. [104] After years of laws that only purported a partial advancement towards abolition, President José Hilario López pushed Congress to pass total abolition on 21 May. Former owners were compensated with government issued bonds. [128] | |
![]() | Slavery abolished in the country by José María Urvina. [129] | |
Lagos | Reduction of Lagos: The British capture the city of Lagos and replace King Kosoko with Akitoye because of the former's refusal to ban the slave trade. | |
1852 | ![]() | 1852 Constitution officially declared slavery illegal. [130] |
![]() Lagos | Bilateral treaty banning the slave trade and human sacrifice. | |
1853 | ![]() | Slavery abolished with the sanction of a new federal Constitution. [131] |
1854 | ![]() | Slavery abolished by Ramón Castilla. [132] [70] |
![]() | Slavery abolished. [70] [104] | |
1855 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. |
1856 | ![]() | |
1857 | ![]() | Dred Scott v. Sandford rules that black slaves and their descendants cannot gain American citizenship and are not entitled to freedom even if they live in a free state for years. |
![]() | Firman banning the trade of Black African (Zanj) slaves.[ citation needed ] | |
1858 | ![]() | British government takes direct control of all land owned by the East India Company, making previously East India Company directly managed territory subject to the slavery laws applicable in the rest of the British Empire. |
1859 | Atlantic Ocean | Definitive suppression of the transatlantic slave trade. |
![]() | The Wyandotte Constitution establishes the future state of Kansas as a free state, after four years of armed conflict between pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups in the territory. Southern dominance in the U.S. Senate delays the admission of Kansas as a state until 1861. | |
![]() | Kazakhs banned from having slaves, although slavery persists in some areas through the rest of the century. [133] [ better source needed ] | |
1860 | ![]() | Last slave ship to unload illegally on U.S. territory, the Clotilda . |
1861 | ![]() | The Emancipation reform of 1861 abolishes serfdom. [134] |
![]() | The election of Abraham Lincoln leads to the attempted secession of eleven slaveholding states and the American Civil War. | |
![]() British India | Indian Penal Code explicitly prohibits slavery in British administered territory. | |
1862 | ![]() | Congress passes the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, freeing all slaves in the District of Columbia. [135] |
![]() ![]() | Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade (African Slave Trade Treaty Act). [101] | |
![]() | Slave trade abolished. [70] | |
![]() | Nathaniel Gordon becomes the only person hanged in U.S. history "for being engaged in the slave trade". | |
1863 | ![]() | Slavery abolished in the colonies, emancipating 33,000 slaves in Surinam, 12,000 in Curaçao and Dependencies, [136] and an indeterminate number in the East Indies. |
![]() | Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in Confederate-controlled areas. Most slaves in "border states" are freed by state action, and a separate law frees the slaves in Washington, D.C. | |
![]() | Exemptions introduced to serfdom under the Vistarband system. | |
![]() | Slavery abolished. [137] | |
1864 | ![]() | Serfdom abolished. [138] |
1865 | ![]() | Slavery abolished, except as punishment for crime, by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It frees all remaining slaves, about 40,000, in the border slave states that did not secede. [139] Thirty out of thirty-six states vote to ratify it; New Jersey, Delaware, Kentucky, and Mississippi vote against. Mississippi does not officially ratify it until 2013. [140] |
![]() | Juneteenth: U.S. General Gordon Granger proclaims the end of slavery in Galveston. | |
![]() | Spanish Abolitionist Society founded in Madrid by Julio Vizcarrondo, José Julián Acosta and Joaquín Sanromá. [64] | |
1866 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [141] U.S. government treaties with the Five Tribes that governed the Indian Territory, which previously allied with the Confederacy, required them to abolish slavery for renewed U.S. recognition of their continued independence. |
![]() | Thirteenth Amendment ratified. | |
![]() | ||
1867 | ![]() | Law of Repression and Punishment of the Slave Trade. [64] |
![]() | Peonage Act of 1867, mostly targeting use of Native American peons in New Mexico Territory. Slavery among native tribes in Alaska was abolished after the purchase from Russia in 1867. [142] | |
1868 | ![]() | Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and other independence leaders free their slaves and proclaim the independence of Cuba, starting the Ten Years War. |
1869 | ![]() | Louis I abolishes slavery in all Portuguese territories and colonies. |
![]() | Slavery abolished. | |
1870 | ![]() | Amidst great opposition from the Cuban and Puerto Rican planters, Segismundo Moret drafts a "Law of Free Wombs" that frees children of slaves, slaves older than 65 years, and slaves serving in the Spanish Army, beginning in 1872. [64] |
![]() | Thirteenth Amendment ratified. | |
1871 | ![]() | Rio Branco Law (Law of Free Birth) declares the children born to slave mothers free. [143] |
![]() | Abolition of the han system or Japanese feudalism. | |
1873 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. |
![]() ![]() ![]() | Triple treaty abolishing the slave trade. [101] | |
1874 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [144] |
1877 | ![]() | The Anglo-Egyptian Slave Trade Convention abolishes the slave trade gradually in 1877–1884. This also gradually abolishes slavery itself over the next decades. |
1879 | ![]() | Slavery abolished with independence. The Constitution states that any slave that enters Bulgarian territory is immediately freed. |
1882 | ![]() | A firman emancipates all slaves, white and black. [145] |
1884 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. |
1885 | ![]() | Saraiva-Cotegipe Law passed, freeing all slaves over the age of 60 and creating other measures for the gradual abolition of slavery, such as a Manumissions Fund administered by the State. |
1886 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [70] |
1888 | ![]() | Golden Law decreeing the total abolition of slavery with immediate effect. [146] |
1889 | ![]() | An Italian court finds that Josephine Bakhita was never legally enslaved according to Italian, British, or Egyptian law and is a free woman. |
1890 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | Brussels Conference Act – a collection of anti-slavery measures to put an end to the slave trade on land and sea, especially in the Congo Basin, the Ottoman Empire, and the East African coast. |
1894 | ![]() | Slavery abolished, but it survives in practice until 1930. [147] |
![]() | Vistarband effectively abolished (but not de jure). | |
1895 | ![]() | Taiwan is annexed by Japan, where slavery has been abolished. |
1895 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [148] |
![]() | First slaves freed [149] | |
1896 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. |
1897 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [150] |
![]() | Slave trade abolished. [151] | |
![]() | Children of freedmen issued separate certificates of liberation to avoid enslavement and separation from their parents.[ citation needed ] | |
1899 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. |
Date | Jurisdiction | Description |
---|---|---|
1900 | ![]() | Slavery abolished 22 February 1900, by proclamation of Richard P. Leary. [152] |
1901 | ![]() | Thirteenth Amendment ratified. |
1902 | ![]() | Gradual abolition of slavery. [153] |
1903 | ![]() | "Slave" no longer used as an administrative category. |
1904 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | International Agreement for the suppression of the White Slave Traffic signed in Paris. Only France, the Netherlands and Russia extend the treaty to the whole extent of their colonial empires with immediate effect, and Italy extends it to Eritrea but not to Italian Somaliland. [154] |
![]() | Slavery abolished. [155] | |
1905 | ![]() | Slavery formally abolished. Though up to one million slaves gain their freedom, slavery continues to exist in practice for decades afterward. |
1906 | ![]() | Slavery abolished beginning on 31 January 1910. Adult slaves are converted into hired laborers and the minors freed upon reaching age 25. [156] |
![]() | Slavery abolished. [157] | |
1908 | ![]() | The Young Turk Revolution eradicates the open trade of Zanj and Circassian women from Constantinople. [158] |
![]() | Belgium annexes the Congo Free State, ending the practice of slavery there. | |
1912 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [151] |
1915 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [159] |
1917 | ![]() | Indian indenture system abolished. [160] |
1917 | ![]() | Decree Abolishing Classes and Civil Ranks |
1918 | ![]() | Supreme Court rules in Arver v. United States that the 13th Amendment prohibition against involuntary servitude does not apply to conscription. The government can constitutionally force people to serve in the military against their will. |
1919 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [155] |
1922 | ![]() | Slave trade abolished, slave holding remained legal. [161] |
1923 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [162] |
![]() | Convict lease abolished after the death of Martin Tabert, who was whipped for being too ill to work.[ citation needed ] | |
![]() | Slavery of Mui tsai abolished. | |
1924 | ![]() | Slavery abolished.[ citation needed ] |
![]() | Slavery abolished [163] | |
![]() | Temporary Slavery Commission appointed. | |
![]() | Slavery abolished [164] | |
1926 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [165] |
![]() | Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery. | |
![]() | Slavery abolished. [159] | |
![]() | Law of Property Act 1925. | |
1927 | ![]() | 1926 Slavery Convention ratified. |
![]() ![]() ![]() | Treaty of Jeddah (1927) abolishing the slave trade. | |
1928 | ![]() | Abolition of domestic slavery practised by local African elites. [166] Although established as a place for freed slaves, a study found practices of domestic slavery still widespread in rural areas in the 1970s.[ citation needed ] |
![]() | Convict lease abolished, the last state in the Union to do so. | |
1929 | ![]() | Slavery abolished and criminalized. [167] |
1930 | ![]() | Forced Labour Convention. |
1935 | ![]() | The invading Italian General Emilio De Bono claims to have abolished slavery in the Ethiopian Empire. [168] |
![]() | Nazi Germany legalized forced labor. [169] | |
1936 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [170] |
![]() | Slavery abolished. [171] | |
1937 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [172] |
1940 | ![]() | Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Circular 3591 abolishing all forms of convict leasing. |
1945 | ![]() | Millions of forced labourers and slaves are freed after the fall of the Third Reich; see forced labour under German rule during World War II. |
![]() | Millions of forced labourers and sex slaves are freed after the defeat of the Japanese Empire; see comfort women, rōmusha , East Asia Development Board. | |
1946 | ![]() | Fritz Sauckel, Nazi official responsible for procuring forced labor in occupied Europe during World War II, is convicted of crimes against humanity and hanged. [173] |
![]() | Beginning of large slave defections encouraged by the French Fourth Republic and the Sudanese Union – African Democratic Rally party. | |
1948 | ![]() | Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares slavery contrary to human rights. [174] |
1949 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [172] |
Date | Jurisdiction | Description |
---|---|---|
1952 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [175] [176] |
1953 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | 1926 Slavery Convention ratified. |
1954 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |
1955 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |
1956 | ![]() | Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery. |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | 1926 Slavery Convention ratified. | |
1957 | ![]() | The Abolition of Forced Labour Convention eliminates some exceptions admitted in the 1930 Forced Labour Convention. |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | 1926 Slavery Convention ratified. | |
1958 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [178] |
![]() ![]() | 1926 Slavery Convention ratified. | |
1959 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | |
1960 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [180] |
![]() | First president Modibo Keita makes the effective abolition of slavery a prominent goal of the government. However, his efforts are largely abandoned during the dictatorship of Moussa Traoré (1968–1991). | |
1961 | ![]() | 1926 Slavery Convention ratified. |
1961 | ![]() | Slavery abolished under Moroccan Constitution, although domestic slave practices continued. [161] |
1962 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [175] |
![]() | ||
![]() ![]() ![]() | 1926 Slavery Convention ratified. | |
1963 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |
1964 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [lower-alpha 1] |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | 1926 Slavery Convention ratified. | |
1965 | ![]() | |
1966 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |
1967 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [182] |
1968 | ![]() | 1926 Slavery Convention ratified. |
1969 | ![]() ![]() | |
1970 | ![]() | Slavery abolished. [183] |
1972 | ![]() | 1926 Slavery Convention ratified. |
1973 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | |
1974 | ![]() | |
1976 | ![]() ![]() | |
![]() | Thirteenth Amendment ratified. | |
1981 | ![]() | Slavery abolished, [184] [185] though the ban was not enforced and many people continued to be held as slaves. [186] |
![]() ![]() | 1926 Slavery Convention ratified. | |
1982 | ![]() | |
1983 | ![]() ![]() | |
1984 | ![]() | |
1985 | ![]() | |
1986 | ![]() ![]() ![]() | |
1987 | ![]() | |
1990 | ![]() ![]() | |
1992 | ![]() | |
1993 | ![]() | |
1994 | ![]() | |
1995 | ![]() | |
![]() | The Mississippi Legislature unanimously votes to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution after a clerk discovers it never had. It is the last eligible state in the union to do so. However, state officials fail to send the required documentation to the state register. [187] | |
1996 | ![]() | 1926 Slavery Convention ratified. |
![]() | Last Magdalene Laundry closes. | |
1997 | ![]() ![]() | 1926 Slavery Convention ratified. |
1998 | ![]() | Forced ritual servitude of girls in Ewe shrines banned. |
Date | Jurisdiction | Description |
---|---|---|
2001 | ![]() ![]() | 1926 Slavery Convention ratified. |
2003 | ![]() | Slavery criminalized. [180] |
2006 | ![]() | 1926 Slavery Convention ratified. |
![]() | Temedt, an organization against slavery and the discrimination of former slaves, is founded in Essakane. | |
2007 | ![]() | Slavery criminalized. [188] |
![]() | 1926 Slavery Convention ratified. | |
2008 | ![]() | |
2009 | ![]() | Section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. [189] |
2010 | ![]() | Slavery criminalized. [190] |
2013 | ![]() | Ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment legally recorded. [187] |
2015 | ![]() | Modern Slavery Act 2015. [191] |
2017 | ![]() | Criminalization of human trafficking. [192] |
![]() | Slavery criminalized. [193] | |
2018 | ![]() | Prison exception removed from Colorado's constitutional ban on slavery. [194] |
2019 | ![]() ![]() | Defeat and debellatio of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant leads to the freeing of thousands of slaves, including Yazidi and Christian sex slaves. [195] [196] [197] |
2020 | ![]() ![]() | Prison exception removed from both states' constitutional ban on slavery. [198] [199] |
2022 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | Prison exception removed from the states' constitutional ban on slavery. [200] |
Present | Worldwide | Although slavery is now abolished de jure in all countries, [201] [202] de facto practices akin to it continue today in many places throughout the world, almost exclusively in Asia and Africa. [203] [204] [205] [206] |
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labor. Slavery typically involves compulsory work with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavement is the placement of a person into slavery.
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved people around the world.
The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807 is a United States federal law that provided that no new slaves were permitted to be imported into the United States. It took effect on January 1, 1808, the earliest date permitted by the United States Constitution.
The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865, predominantly in the South. Slavery was established throughout European colonization in the Americas. From 1526, during the early colonial period, it was practiced in what became Britain's colonies, including the Thirteen Colonies that formed the United States. Under the law, an enslaved person was treated as property that could be bought, sold, or given away. Slavery lasted in about half of U.S. states until abolition in 1865, and issues concerning slavery seeped into every aspect of national politics, economics, and social custom. In the decades after the end of Reconstruction in 1877, many of slavery's economic and social functions were continued through segregation, sharecropping, and convict leasing.
In the United States before 1865, a slave state was a state in which slavery and the internal or domestic slave trade were legal, while a free state was one in which they were prohibited. Between 1812 and 1850, it was considered by the slave states to be politically imperative that the number of free states not exceed the number of slave states, so new states were admitted in slave–free pairs. There were, nonetheless, some slaves in most free states up to the 1840 census, and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 specifically stated that a slave did not become free by entering a free state.
Christian views on slavery are varied regionally, historically and spiritually. Slavery in various forms has been a part of the social environment for much of Christianity's history, spanning well over eighteen centuries. In the early years of Christianity, slavery was an established feature of the economy and society in the Roman Empire, and this persisted in different forms and with regional differences well into the Middle Ages. Saint Augustine described slavery as being against God's intention and resulting from sin. In the eighteenth century the abolition movement took shape among Christians across the globe.
The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which provided for the gradual abolition of slavery in most parts of the British Empire. It was passed by Earl Grey's reforming administration and expanded the jurisdiction of the Slave Trade Act 1807 and made the purchase or ownership of slaves illegal within the British Empire, with the exception of "the Territories in the Possession of the East India Company", Ceylon, and Saint Helena. The Act was repealed in 1998 as a part of wider rationalisation of English statute law; however, later anti-slavery legislation remains in force.
Slavery in the Spanish American colonies was an economic and social institution which existed throughout the Spanish Empire including Spain itself. In its American territories, early Spanish monarchs put forth laws against enslaving Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Queen Isabella outlawed the enslavement of Native Americans in the Spanish colonies of the New World because she viewed the natives as subjects of the Spanish monarchy. While Spain displayed an early abolitionist stance towards the Indigenous, some instances of illegal Native American slavery continued to be practiced by rogue individuals, particularly until the New Laws of 1543 which expressly prohibited it.
Compensated emancipation was a method of ending slavery, under which the enslaved person's owner received compensation from the government in exchange for manumitting the slave. This could be monetary, and it could allow the owner to retain the slave for a period of labor as an indentured servant. Cash compensation rarely was equal to the slave's market value.
The history of slavery spans many cultures, nationalities, and religions from ancient times to the present day. Likewise, its victims have come from many different ethnicities and religious groups. The social, economic, and legal positions of enslaved people have differed vastly in different systems of slavery in different times and places.
Proslavery is support for slavery. It is sometimes found in the thought of ancient philosophers, religious texts, and in British writings and in American writings especially before the American Civil War but also later through the 20th century. Arguments in favor of slavery include deference to the Bible and thus to God, some people being natural slaves in need of supervision, slaves often being better off than the poorest non-slaves, practical social benefit for the society as a whole, and slavery being a time-proven practice by multiple great civilizations.
Slavery in Britain existed before the Roman occupation and until the 11th century, when the Norman conquest of England resulted in the gradual merger of the pre-conquest institution of slavery into serfdom, and all slaves were no longer recognised separately in English law or custom. By the middle of the 12th century, the institution of slavery as it had existed prior to the Norman conquest had fully disappeared, but other forms of unfree servitude continued for some centuries.
Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, owned more than 600 slaves during his adult life. Jefferson freed two slaves while he lived, and five others were freed after his death, including two of his children from his relationship with his slave Sally Hemings. His other two children with Hemings were allowed to escape without pursuit. After his death, the rest of the slaves were sold to pay off his estate's debts.
This timeline of events leading to the American Civil War is a chronologically ordered list of events and issues that historians recognize as origins and causes of the American Civil War. These events are roughly divided into two periods: the first encompasses the gradual build-up over many decades of the numerous social, economic, and political issues that ultimately contributed to the war's outbreak, and the second encompasses the five-month span following the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States in 1860 and culminating in the capture of Fort Sumter in April 1861.
In the United States, abolitionism, the movement that sought to end slavery in the country, was active from the late colonial era until the American Civil War, the end of which brought about the abolition of American slavery through the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Abolitionism in the United Kingdom was the movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries to end the practice of slavery, whether formal or informal, in the United Kingdom, the British Empire and the world, including ending the Atlantic slave trade. It was part of a wider abolitionism movement in Western Europe and the Americas.
Slavery in China has taken various forms throughout history. Slavery was abolished as a legally recognized institution, including in a 1909 law fully enacted in 1910, although the practice continued until at least 1949. Illegal acts of forced labor and sexual slavery in China continue to occur in the 21st century, but those found guilty of such crimes are punished harshly. The Chinese term for slave (nuli) can also be roughly translated into 'debtor', 'dependent', or 'subject'. Slaves in China were a very small part of the population and could include war prisoners, kidnapping victims or people who had been sold.
The Samba rebellion was a purported slave rebellion, described by the French historian Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz in his Histoire de la Louisiane. The revolt is said to have taken place in 1731, in what was then French Louisiana. Contemporary with the Natchez revolt, it was personified to its alleged leader, an enslaved man called "Samba Bambara". While Le Page du Pratz gives a brief recollection of the events, which was more a conspiracy to revolt rather than an actual revolt, his information is not verified by any existent official documents.
Commonwealth v. Aves, 35 Mass. 193 (1836), was a case in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on the subject of transportation of slaves to free states. In August 1836, Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled that slaves brought to Massachusetts "for any temporary purpose of business or pleasure" were entitled to freedom. The case was the most important legal victory for abolitionists in the 1830s and set a major precedent throughout the North.
Although the United States Constitution did not use the words "slave" or "slavery", it dealt directly with American slavery in at least five provisions and indirectly protected the institution elsewhere in the document.
Ashoka outlawed the slave trade in the Mauryan Empire
Maar nu mag UEd., soo lange ik meester van dese landen ben, geen slaven nog slavinnen kopen, nog vervoeren. (As long as I am master of these lands, you may not buy slaves, nor transport slaves.)