Timeline of African-American History: 1619–1896

In 1619, A Dutch slave trader sold a group of 20 people, who had been kidnapped from what is today known as Angola, to the English colonists in Virginia. While other Africans, both free and enslaved, had come to the Americas before this time, 1619 is considered to be the year that slavery began in what would later become the United States. There are no reliable statistics to show how many people were kidnapped from Africa while the slave trade lasted, but estimates show that between six and seven million were kidnapped in the 1700s alone. Many European countries engaged in the slave trade, including Denmark–Norway.

The thirteen American colonies declared themselves independent from Britain with the words: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.' In the North, where slavery was rare and less important for the economy than it was in the South, ideas began to spread that slavery was wrong. By the end of the 18th century, most northern states had abolished slavery.

In the years following the American Revolutionary War, the South faced economic crisis as the soil had become depleted from tobacco farming. Income failed, and prices of slaves dropped. The plantations that upheld the slavery system faced ruin, which might have meant the end of slavery. However, in 1793, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. This simple machine revolutionised the production of cotton, which became the most important crop in the South. This meant a continuation of slavery.

In 1807 the British Empire outlawed the trading of slaves within the British Empire. The same year, the US Congress passed a law banning the import of slaves to the United States from Africa. The law came into effect in 1808. However, slaves that were already in the United States could still be freely bought and sold. The enslaved population in the United States grew steadily over the following years and reached nearly four million by 1860.

The early abolitionist movement was driven by enslaved people’s own efforts to free themselves, and the opposition to slavery from white groups such as the Quakers. The Underground Railroad was a collaboration of people, both white and Black, who offered shelter and aid to escaped slaves, so that they might find freedom in the North. When Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, which made it the law to return escaped slaves to slavery, the movement grew, and more and more people supported the abolishment of slavery. The novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, published in 1852, became immensely popular and gathered much support for the abolitionist cause.

Abraham Lincoln said: 'I believe the government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.' The Republican Party had taken a clear stand against slavery, so when Abraham Lincoln became President, the South declared secession from the United States. Establishing the Confederate States of America led to civil war.

Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, which ended slavery. However, the war still had to be won, so slavery actually ended in the United States in 1865, when the North defeated the South. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution (1865) made slavery illegal in the United States: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."

During the reconstruction period, the United States was to be rebuilt after the damaged caused by the civil war. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. His successor, President Johnson, granted a pardon to all southern whites, except the Confederate leaders: They had all their property and rights restored, except the right to own slaves. Having regained power, the white community began to systematically introduce laws to keep the newly freed slaves from gaining an equal place in society and ensuring that they had to rely on getting work from white people. These laws were known as black codes.

Union soldiers were stationed in the South during this period to uphold the peace and, to a certain extent, to protect the Black population. In 1868, the 14th amendment to the Constitution was passed to guarantee Black citizens the same protection under the law as white citizens. In 1870, the 15th amendment to the Constitution was introduced that guaranteed every citizen an equal right to vote. A number of laws and regulations were introduced in the South to circumvent these amendments.

The Ku Klux Klan was established in 1869. This was a terrorist organisation that used marches threatening violence, burning crosses, kidnapping, mutilation, hangings and other forms of murder, as methods to achieve their goal: to prevent Black people from achieving an equal place in society.

In 1887, newspaper editor and former slave T. Thomas Fortune formed the first major civil rights organization called the Afro-American League. (Two years later the organisation changed its name to the National Afro-American League.) The organisation sought equal opportunities in voting, civil rights, education, and public accommodations. The organization also wanted lynchings to end.

When the last union soldiers left the South, more and more laws limiting black people’s rights were introduced. These laws were known as Jim Crow laws, named after a character from the theatre. To play this character, white people would paint their faces black and perform routines intended to mock Black people.

In 1896, the Supreme Court upheld the Jim Crow laws in the ruling 'Plessy v. Ferguson'. Homer Plessy was arrested for sitting in a carriage meant for white people on the train. He argued that this was a violation of his constitutional rights. The Supreme Court ruled that a law that merely implies a legal distinction between white people and Black people was not unconstitutional. The decision introduced the separate but equal doctrine. Under the doctrine, state and local governments could require that services, facilities, public accommodation, housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation were segregated, which was already the case throughout the states that had been part of the Confederacy. The ‘equal’ part existed in name only. What was offered to the Black population was always of poorer quality than that which was offered to the white population.

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