People, Locations, Episodes

The Xhosa Wars Begin

*On this date in 1789, we affirm the Xhosa Wars. Also known as the Cape Frontier Wars or the Kaffir Wars, they were a series of nine wars or outbreaks between the Xhosa Kingdom and white European slave traders in what is now the Eastern Cape in South Africa. These war incidents were the longest-running military action […]

White Supremacy in America, an article

*White supremacy in America from this date, 1790, is written about.  This is the conviction that white people are superior to other races and should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and protection of white power and privilege. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine of scientific racism.  It motivates contemporary movements, including […]

The Naturalization Act of 1790 is Passed

*On this date, 1790, the Naturalization Act of 1790 was passed. This law of the United States Congress set the first uniform rules for granting United States citizenship by naturalization. The law limited naturalization to “free white person[s] … of good character”. It excluded Native Americans, indentured servants, Black slaves, free Blacks, and later Asians, […]

The Butler Island Plantation is Established

*The Butler Island Plantation was affirmed on this date in 1790. This estate is a former rice plantation on Butler Island on the Altamaha River delta just South of Darien, Georgia. Major Pierce Butler, a founding father of the United States and a supporter of slavery, owned the property in 1790. He ran the plantation […]

The Brown Fellowship Society is Formed

*The Brown Fellowship Society, a Black self-help organization, was founded on this date in 1790. They were founded in Charleston, South Carolina, and their motto was “Charity and Benevolence.” They were founded by five free nonwhites who attended St. Philip’s Episcopal Church: James Mitchell, George Bampfield, William Cattel, George Bedon, and Samuel Saltus. They were […]

The First Haitian Slave Revolt Occurs

On this date in 1791, the first slave revolt in Haiti took place.

The island was settled in the 1600s by French buccaneers. In 1664, the newly established French West India Company took control ofthe colony, and named it named Saint-Domingue. France formally claimed control of the western portion of the island of Hispaniola., and later, France named its newly colonized island Saint Domingue in early 1700s.

The Saint-Domingue Revolt Begins

*On this date in 1791, the Saint-Domingue revolt began. This was a confrontation by African and Indigenous people against French slave traders. At the time, Saint-Domingue occupied approximately one-third of the western portion of Hispaniola, the island Christopher Columbus claimed for Spain in 1492. Spanish exploitation quickly reduced the native Arawakan population to such a […]

Freetown (Sierra Leone) is Founded

*Freetown, Sierra Leone, was founded on this date in 1792. It is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. Abolitionist John Clarkson founded Freetown as a settlement for freed Afro Caribbean and enslaved Africans in America. Like many African countries, they fell into colonization by Europe because of the Berlin Conference of 1884. It is a major port […]

Denmark Abolishes Slavery

On this date in 1792, Denmark abolished slavery. Denmark was the first established sovereign European state to prohibit the slave trade (but not slavery: that honor rests with Vermont, which abolished slavery in 1777).

Brom & Brett v. Ashley is Ruled

*On this date in 1792, Brom & Brett v. Ashley was decided.  This was the first legal decision against American slavery, ordering John Ashley, a white-American slave owner, to release black servants Mum Brett  (Elizabeth Freeman) and Brom (a Negro man) from bondage.   When the case was tried in August 1781 before the County Court of Common Pleas […]

The 1793 Fugitive Slave Act Is Signed

*The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 was signed into law on this date.   This was an Act of the United States Congress to give effect to the Fugitive Slave Clause of the US Constitution (Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3), which the Thirteenth Amendment later superseded. The former guaranteed a right for a slaveholder to recover an escaped slave. The […]

France Abolishes Slavery

*On this date in 1794 France abolished slavery. As a nation they had a lukewarm commitment to abolition. Under Napoleon they reestablished slavery in 1802 along with the reinstitution of the “Code noir”, prohibiting Blacks, mulattoes and other people of color from entering French colonial territory or intermarrying with whites.

These orders carried out by General Antoine Richepance brutally reinstituted slavery in the French Antilles in 1802. Thousands of people of color were killed in Guadeloupe alone as they fought to retain their freedom.

The Slave Trade Act of 1794 is Passed

*The Slave Trade Act of 1794 was passed on this date in 1794. This law, passed by the United States Congress, prohibited American ships from engaging in the international slave trade. It was signed into law by President George Washington and was the first of several anti-slavery trade acts of Congress. In 1800, Congress strengthened […]

The Boston African Society is Established

*On this date in1796 the Boston African Society was established. Started with forty-four members, they were a group of Blacks that provided a form of health insurance and funeral benefits, as well as spiritual brotherhood, to its members.

The Bahian Conspiracy Begins

*On this date, in 1798, the Bahian Conspiracy was declared.  Also known as the Revolt of the Tailors (after the occupation of many of the leaders), it was a late eighteenth-century African slave rebellion in Bahia, in the State of Brazil. This separatist movement had a popular base and extensive participation from Afro Brazilians.  The objective of the rebelling baianos was proposing to liberate […]