African American History & Culture Museum
Ref: Smithsonian Institute. National Museum of African American History & Culture. Washington DC.
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Slavery
Enslavement of Africans was a long process that began at the moment of capture and extended through a series of ordeals leading to the plantation fields or some other forced service. Each step of the process magnified the inhumanity of New World enslavement. Scholars estimate that of every 100 people seized in Africa, only 64 would survive the march from the interior to the coast; only 57 would board ship; and just 48 would live to be placed in slavery in the Americas.
Most Africans came to colonial N. America from W. Africa; some came from the Caribbean. Of the total number of Africans transported throughout the New World, only a small fraction came to colonial N. America. They arrived mainly in four areas: the Chesapeake (33%), the Carolinas and Georgia (54%), the Gulf Coast (6%), and the North (7%). In this new environment they merged W. African culture with their American experience and created the African American story.
Total Slaves imported to the Americas: ~12.5M.
From: Biafra, Benin, W. Central Africa, Gold Coast, Senegambia.
By: Portugal (31%), UK (40%), France (18%), Netherlands (6%).
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Slavery in the Carolinas
1763: Spain cedes Florida to the English.
1740: South Carolina’s Slave Code imposes harsh surveillance upon people of color- “if any such slave shall assault and stricke such white person, such slave may be lawfully killed.”
1739: The Stono Rebellion; enslaves Africans take up arms and attempt to march to Spanish Florida for freedom.
1720: Charleston begins to dominate the Transatlantic Slave trade in N. America. Over 40% of all Africans shipped to N. America enter through Charleston.
1720: Rice becomes Carolina’s most lucrative export, supplanting trade in turpentine, wood, and American Indian slaves.
1715-1717: The Yamassee War nearly destroys the Carolina colony and limits enslavement of Native Americans.
1708: Enslaved Africans are over 50% of the Carolina population and rice becomes a staple crop. Enslaved Indians represent 9% of the colony’s population.
1693: Enslaved Africans in the Carolinas flee to Spanish Florida, where they are offered freedom.
1669: Carolina’s fundamental constitution grants every free man “absolute power and authority over his negro slave.”
1663: England establishes the Province of Carolina.
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Slavery in Virginia
1715: VA abolishes voting rights for free Negroes and Indians.
1705: VA law states it is legal to dismember an unruly slave.
1705: VA law states All negro, mulatto and Indian slaves are considered real estate.
1691: VA law states that free blacks and white persons married to blacks are banished from the colony.
1680: VA law states that no black person (whether slave or free) may carry weapons, travel without a pass or lift a hand against a white person.
1664: VA Law enforces slavery for life.
1662: Children are born slave or free depending on the status of their mother.
1619: The first people of African descent are brought to Point Comfort in Virginia.
1617: The first commercial crop of tobacco is shipped to England from VA.
1607: 104 Englishmen arrive in Virginia.
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Slavery in Louisiana
1803: The USA acquires Louisiana territory.
1800: Treaty of San Ildefonso cedes Louisiana to France.
1780s: The number of free people of African descent triplets.
1769: Black militiamen from Cuba enforce Spanish control.
1763: French Louisiana cedes to Spain.
1731: Over 6000 western Africans (mostly Bambara) are enslaved in French Louisiana.
1721: French and German settlers migrate to French Louisiana.
1719: The first slave ship transports Africans to Louisiana.
1719: New Orleans is founded by French Company of the Indies.
1706-1718: Native Americans are enslaved after the French and Chitimacha Indians War.
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Civil War
Slavery and American Life: Every American lived a life touched by slavery. They wore clothes made from cotton, ate cakes sweetened with sugar, and smoked tobacco. They traveled on slave-made roads, railroads, and canals. Working with little rest and facing the constant threat of violence, enslaved blacks provided other Americans with a higher standard of living through cheap consumer goods and a strong national infrastructure. Slavery was deeply woven into daily life.
Constitutional Crisis: Jealous of federal authority, N. and S. states grew increasingly suspicious of one another's power in Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court. 10 of the first 16 presidents owned slaves, and northerners questioned how the S., with fewer voters, held on to the presidency. Southerners protested each time Congress limited slavery in the territories. Meanwhile abolitionists demanded an end to slavery. As Americans debated the Constitution's stance on slavery, enslaved people watched, listened, and acted to free themselves.
Slave Resistance: It is no coincidence that when slavery entered the news, enslaved people often rebelled. In 1800 Gabriel Prosser's Rebellion in Richmond, VA, followed the slave rebellion in Haiti. In 1822 Denmark Vesey's Rebellion in Charleston, SC, followed the Missouri Compromise. In 1831 Nat Turner's Rebellion followed the publication of David Walker's Appeal to African Americans to rise up against oppression. Slave owners reacted with violence and the law, writing "black codes" that limited the mobility of enslaved and free African Americans.
Competing Economies and Matters of Race: Many Americans opposed slavery. White workers saw enslaved people as undercutting their pay with cheap labor. Farmers feared the competition from wealthy slave owners for land and agricultural markets. Other Americans thought slavery would inevitably lead to rebellion. Regardless of their stance, most white Americans did not want to be integrated with African Americans. Only a few believed that slavery denied human equality. In 1853 IN Congressman George Julian said, "The American people are emphatically a negro-hating people.”
The Splintering of Political Parties: The Republican Party formed in 1854. It promised to restrict slavery in the new states and territories so that free white laborers and farmers would not have to compete against slave owners. Some Republicans, such as Lincoln, believed that the nation could not survive half slave and half free. They advocated an end to the institution. Others pressed for compromise and worked to limit slavery's expansion. The party won around 40% of votes in 1856.
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Reconstruction
When Reconstruction came to an end in 1877, the majority of African Americans lived in the South. As white southerners regained control of state and local governments, they passed new laws to keep blacks and whites segregated and to condemn African Americans to an inferior, restricted, second-class citizenship. To resist the impact of these laws, African Americans created communities and institutions to sustain themselves and looked for ways to protest their treatment.
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Black Codes
After the Civil War the former Confederate States passed laws intended to restrict the rights of African Americans. These "black codes" punished vagrancy, forced freedmen to sign labor contracts, and blocked their right to vote. Violators were subject to arrest, and the labor of prisoners was auctioned off to the highest bidder. In the end black codes created an oppressive system of customs and laws intended to tightly restrict the civic and economic rights of African Americans.
Louisiana: Every negro is required to be in the regular service of some white person, or former owner, who shall be held responsible for the conduct of said negro. But said employer or former owner may permit said negro to hire his own time by special permission in writing, which permission shall not extend over seven days at any one time.
Mississippi: If any freedman, free negro, or mulatto, convicted of any of the misdemeanors provided against in this act, shall fail or refuse for the space of five days, after conviction, to pay the fine and costs imposed, such person shall be hired out by the sheriff or other officer, at public outcry, to any white person who will pay said fine and all costs, and take said convict for the shortest time.
South Carolina: No person of color shall migrate into and reside in this state, unless, within twenty days after his arrival within the same, he shall enter into a bond with two freeholders as sureties.
Florida: When a person of color working on a farm or plantation deliberately disobeys orders, is impudent or disrespectful to his employer, refuses to do the work assigned, or leaves the premises, he can be arrested.
North Carolina: No person of color can testify against a white person in court, unless the white person agrees to it.
Texas: Only white men can serve on juries, hold office, and vote in any state, county, or municipal election.
Tennessee: No colored persons have the right to vote, hold office or sit on juries in this state.
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Jim Crow Laws
Alabama
Nurses: No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which negro men are placed.
Arizona
1865: Miscegenation; marriages between whites and “Negroes, mulattoes, Indians, Mongolians” declared illegal and void.
1901: Miscegenation; revision of the 1865 statue that added the word “descendants” to the list of minority groups. The revised statutes also stated that marriages would be valid if legal where they were contracted, but noted that AZ residents could not evade the law by going to another state to perform the ceremony.
1909: Education; school district trustees were given by the authority to segregate black students from white children only where there were more than 8 Negro pupils in the school district. The legislature passed the law over a veto by the governor.
1911-1962: Segregation, Miscegenation, Voting; passed 6 segregation laws, 4 against miscegenation, 2 school segregation statutes, and a voting rights statute that required voters to pass a literacy test. The state’s miscegenation laws prohibited blacks, Indians, and Asians from marrying whites, and were not repealed until 1962.
1927: Education; in an area with 25 or more black high school students, an election would be called to determine if these pupils should be segregated in separate but equal facilities.
1928: Miscegenation; forbade marriages between persons of the Caucasian, Asian, and Malay races.
1956: Miscegenation; marriage of persons of “Caucasian blood with Negro, Mongolian, Malay, or Hindu void.” Native Americans were originally included in an earlier statute, but were deleted by amendment.
Arkansas
1866: Education; no African American or racially mixed citizen would be allowed to attend any public education building aside from the one reserved for “colored persons.”
1866: Miscegenation; prohibited any repeals or amendments of common laws concerning interracial marriages between whites and African Americans or racially mixed citizens.
1872: Public Carriers and Accommodations; it was unlawful for railroads, steamboats, stagecoaches, or other public carriers to refuse to provide the same accommodations for those who are paying the same fare, no matter their race. This law also applied to any public housing, entertainment, or restaurants.
1872: Education; it was unlawful to refuse to provide similar or equal accommodations in an educational system for students of any age.
1884: Miscegenation; marriages of white persons with African Americans or racially mixed citizens declared illegal.
1891: Railroads; railroad companies and their employees had the power to assign passengers to seats and waiting rooms for each race. Customers who refused to accept the assignments could be fined between $50 and $400. Employees who failed to assign a passenger to the correct seat or waiting rooms could be fined $25. Railway companies not following the law could be fined between $100 and $500.
1893: Railroads; all railroad companies were required to provide separate but equal accommodations for people of different races. In addition to providing separate passenger cars, the companies were also required to create separate waiting rooms at all passengers stations in the state.
1897: Education; black and white students studying to become teachers were required to attend separate colleges .
1903: Streetcars; all streetcar companies were forced to separate white and black passengers in cars. Failure of the passengers or companies to do so could result in penalties. Passengers who refused to take their assigned seats were subject to a misdemeanor and a fine of #25. Companies that failed to enforce the law could be found guilty of a misdemeanor and fined $25 .
1921: Miscegenation; this law prohibited cohabitants between whites and African Americans and defined the term “African America” as any person who has any African American blood in his or her veins.
1935: Public Accommodations; all racetracks and sports establishments were required to be segregated between whites and any person of a different race.
1947: Public Accommodations; a series of laws were passed that made segregation mandatory at polling places, on railroad cars, streetcars, and buses, and in prisons.
1947 Public Accommodations; separate washrooms required for whites and workers of other races in all miner.
1947: Voting Rights; voters were required to pay a poll tax when voting in any election.
1947: Miscegenation; sexual relations and/or marriages between whites and blacks were made illegal. The penalty for breaking this law once was a fine of $20 to $100. A second offense resulted in a $100 minimum fine and up to 12 months of imprisonment. Three or more offenses resulted in one to three years of imprisonment.
1947: Health Care; separate tuberculosis hospitals were required for African Americans.
1947: Education; segregation of races in public schools was required.
1957: Education; no children were required to enroll in a racially segregated school.
1957: Public Carriers; racial segregation on buses, streetcars, and all other public carriers was required by law.
1958: Education; the governor was empowered to close schools after polling residents in a school district. The ballots read: “In support of racial integration of all schools that are a part of the school district,” or “not in support of racial integration of all schools that are a part of the school district.”
1959: Public Carriers; all interstate buses required to assign segregated seating to all passengers according to race.
California
1870: Education; African American and Indian children must attend separate schools. A separate school would be established upon the written request by the parents of 10 such children. “A less number may be provided for in separate schools in any other manner.”
1872: Alcohol Sales; prohibited the sale of liquor to Indians. The act remained legal until its repeal in 1920.
1879: Voting Rights; “No native of China” would ever have the right to vote in the state of CA; repealed in 1926.
1879: Employment; prohibited public bodies from employing Chinese and called upon the legislature to pretct “the state…from the burdens and evils arising from” their presence. A statewide anti-Chinese referendum was passed by 99.4% of voter in 1879.
1880: Miscegenation; prohibited white persons from marrying a “Negro, mulatto, or Mongolian.”
1890: Residential; San Francisco ordered all Chinese inhabitants to move into a single area of the city within 6 months or face imprisonment. Th ordinance was later found to be unconstitutional by a federal court.
1891: Residential; required all Chinese to carry at all times a “certificate of residence.” Without it, a Chinese immigrant could be arrested and jailed.
1894: Voting rights; any person who could not read the constitution in English or write his name would be disenfranchised. An advisory referendum indicated that nearly 80% of voters supported an educational requirement.
1901: Miscegenation; the 1850 law prohibiting marriage between white persons and Negroes or mulattoes was amended, adding “Mongolian.”
1909: Miscegenation; persons of Japanese descent were added to the list of undesirable marriage partners of white CA’s as noted in the earlier 1880 statute.
1913: Property; Asian immigrants were prohibited from owning or leasing property by statues known as the “Alien Land Laws.” The CA Supreme Court struck down the laws in 1952.
1931: Miscegenation; prohibited marriages between persons of the Caucasian and Asian races.
1933: Miscegenation; broadened earlier statute to also prohibit marriages between whites and Malays.
1945: Miscegenation; prohibited marriages between whites and “Negroes, mulattoes, Mongolians, and Malays.”
1947: Miscegenation; subjected US servicemen and Japanese women who wanted to marry to rigorous background checks. Barred the marriage of Japanese women to white servicemen if the women were employed in undesirable occupations.
Colorado
1864: Miscegenation; marriage between Negroes or mulattoes and white persons “absolutely void.” Penalty: Find between $50 and $500, or imprisonment between three months and two years, or both.
1864-1908: Miscegenation; three laws on miscegenation were passed between 1864 and 1908. School segregation was barred in 1876, followed by ending the segregation of public facilities in 1885. Four laws protecting civil liberties were passed between 1930 and 1957, when the anti-miscegenation statute was repealed.
1908: Miscegenation; marriage between Negroes or mulattoes and whites prohibited. Penalty: punishable by imprisonment from three months to two years, or a fine of between $50 to $500, or both. Performing a marriage ceremony punishable by a fine of $50 to $500, or three months to two years imprisonment, or both.
1930: Miscegenation; miscegenation declared a misdemeanor.
Connecticut
1879: Military; state government authorized to organize four independent companies of infantry of “colored men.” Companies were to receive the same pay as other companies.
1908: Miscegenation; prohibited intermarriage between white persons and those persons having one-eight or more Negro blood.
1933: Miscegenation; miscegenation declared a felony.
1935: Education; upheld school segregation as originally authorized by statute of 1869.
Florida
Miscegenation; “all marriages between a white person and a Negro or between a white person and a person of Negro descent to the 4th generation inclusive, are hereby forever prohibited.”
Georgia
Public Accommodations: all persons licensed to conduct a restaurant, shall serve either white people exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall not sell to the two races within the same room or serve the two races anywhere under the same license."
Recreation: “It shall be unlawful for any amateur white baseball team to play baseball on any vacant lot or baseball diamond within two blocks of a playground devoted to the Negro race, and it shall be unlawful for any amateur colored baseball team to play baseball in any vacant lot or baseball diamond within two blocks of any playground devoted to the white race.”
Restaurants: All persons licensed to conduct a restaurant, shall serve either white people exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall not sell to the two races within the same room or serve the two races anywhere under the same license.
Illinois
1927: Housing; Chicago adopted racially restrictive housing covenants. In 1948 SCOTUS ruled that enforcement of racial restrictive covenants was unconstitutional.
Indiana
1869: Education; separate schools to be provided for black children. If not a sufficient number of students to organize a separate school, trustees were to find other means of educating black children.
1905: Miscegenation; miscegenation prohibited. Persons who violated the miscegenation law could be imprisoned between one and ten years.
1952: Miscegenation; marriage between whites and Negroes void.
1952: Adoptions; required that due regard be given to race on adoption petitions.
Kansas
1905: Education; separate schools may be organized and maintained in Kansas City, KS, for education of white and colored children, including high schools; “but no discrimination on account of color shall be made in high schools, except as provided herein.”
Kentucky
1866: Miscegenation; whites may not marry any African American who is more than 12% African American (meaning have a blood relation up to the 3rd generation to an African American). Penalty of not following this law was a felony punishable by imprisonment in the state penitentiary up to five years.
1866: Education; all school district trustees were empowered to create schools for African American children.
1873: Education; it was unlawful for a black child to attend a white school, and vice versa. No separate-colored school was allowed to be located within one mile of a separate white school. This law excluded schools in cities and towns but did not allow the schools in those areas within 600’ of the other.
1890: Railroads; all railway companies were required to provide separate but equal accommodation for white and colored passengers. Penalty to do so resulted in the passengers or conductors receiving a fine of $25 or imprisonment for 20 days. Any officers and directors of railway companies that failed to follow this law were found guilty of a misdemeanor and could be fined between $100 and $500. This law excluded streetcars.
1892: Railroads; separate coaches for white and colored passengers were mandatory. Signs stating the race for each car must be posted. Railway companies that failed to do so could be fined from $500 to $1500. Any conductors who failed to enforce the law were to be fined from $50 to $100.
1893: Miscegenation; any marriage between a white person and an African American or mixed citizen was prohibited.
1894: Railroads; stations must provide separate but equal waiting rooms for the white and colored passengers. Clearly visible signs must designate which race was in each room. Penalty to do so could result in a fine of $25 or imprisonment up to 30 days. Any agents failing to enforce the law were subject to a misdemeanor that was punishable by a fine of $25 to $50.
1894: Miscegenation; any marriage between a person of color and a white person was prohibited.
1902: Streetcars; all streetcars must provide separate but equal accommodations to a passenger of any race. Passengers or conductors could receive a fine of $25 or imprisonment up to 30 days for failing to abide by segregation. Any railway company that refused to follow could receive a fine of $100 or imprisonment between two and six months.
1904: Education; it was unlawful to maintain or operate any college, school, or institution where persons of the white and African American races were both allowed to attend. This law did not prohibit private schools or colleges from maintaining a segregated school in different location for each race. The penalty for not following this law resulted in any violates receiving a $1000 fine.
1908: Public Accommodations; it was unlawful for whites and blacks to purchase and consume alcohol on the same location. Penalty for this act was a misdemeanor punishable by a fine from $50 to $500 or an imprisonment in the parish prison or jail up to two years.
1908: Miscegenation; cohabitation of a white person and an African American without legal marriage is a felony. Penalty resulted in imprisonment from one month to one year, with or without hard labor.
1909: Health Care; an institution for the education of colored deaf-mutes was to be established. But segregation in this school was to still be enforced.
1912: Housing; building permits for building Negro houses in white communities, or any portion of a community inhabited principally by white people, and vice versa prohibited. Penalty: violators fined from $50 to $2000, “and the municipality shall have the right to cause said buildings to be removed and destroyed.”
1914: Public Accommodations; all circuses, shows, and tent exhibitions were required to provide two ticket offices with individual ticket sellers and two entrances to the performance for each race.
1915: Education; no white children to attend any graded common school for colored children and vice versa.
1918: PRISONS This law allowed the segregation of races in all municipal, parish, and state prisons.
1921: Education; separate public schools for the education of white and black children between the ages of 6-18.
1921: Housing; African American and white families prohibited from living in the same home.
1928: Education; white and African American schoolchildren received different textbooks.
1928: Public Carriers; separate but equal accommodations were required on all forms of public transportation.
1932: HOUSING No person or businesses were allowed to rent an apartment in an apartment complex or other housing buildings to a person who differs in race from the other occupants.
1932: Miscegenation; all interracial marriages were outlawed. The law invalidated interracial marriages if the parties went to another legal power where such marriages were legal. Marriages between African Americans and Native Americans were also prohibited
1933: Public Accommodations; segregated libraries for different races were authorized.
1934: Education; all schools required to be racially segregated.
1942: Health Care; nursing homes must provide separate but equal accommodations for whites and African Americans.
1944: Miscegenation; any marriage between a white person and an African American or racially mixed citizen was prohibited. Penalty to follow this law was a fine of $500 to $6000. If the people continued to be interracially married the result would be imprisonment from three to twelve months.
1944: Railroads; separate coaches for white and African American passengers were required.
1948: School Segregation; African American physicians and nurses prohibited from taking postgraduate courses in public hospitals.
1950: School Segregation; African Americans were allowed to attend colleges and universities under two conditions: if comparable courses were not available at KT’s African American College in Frankfort, and if the school's governing body approved.
1951: Miscegenation; any intimate relations between whites and African Americans were illegal. Failure to follow this law ended in fines up to $1000, up to five years in prison, or both.
1951: Adoption; interracial adoptions were banned.
1952: Miscegenation; interracial marriages prohibited. Penalties for falling to follow this law were up to $1,000, up to five years in prison, or both.
1953: Health Care; separate tuberculosis hospitals were required for each race. Repealed in 1954.
1956: Employment; all persons, firms, or corporations were required to create separate bathroom facilities for members of the white and African American races employed by them or allowed to come into the business. Separate eating rooms as well as separating eating and drinking utensils were required for members of the white and African American races. Not following this law could result in a misdemeanor charge, a fine, of $100 to $100, or 60 days to one year in prison.
1956: Recreation; all businesses prohibited from permitting any dancing, social functions, entertainments, athletic training, games, sports or contests on their premises in which the participants arc members of the white and African American races.
1956: Public Accommodations; all public parks, recreation centers, playgrounds, etc, required to be segregated.
1956: Public Carriers; all forms of public transportation were to be segregated.
1957: Education; all public schools were required to be racially segregated.
1957: Education; non-segregated schools would receive no state funds.
1960: Voting Rights; the races of all candidates were to be written on the ballots.
Louisiana
Housing: any person who shall rent any part of any such building to a negro person or a negro family when such building is already in whole or in part in occupancy by a white person or white family, or vice versa when the building is in occupancy by a negro person or negro family, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Maine
1795: Miscegenation; prohibiting intermarriage between whites and blacks repealed.
1893: Voting rights; voters were required to be able to read the constitution and write their names.
Maryland
Railroads- “All railroad companies and corporations, and all persons running or operations cars or coaches by steam on any railroad line or track in the state of MD, for the transportation of passengers, are hereby required to provide separate cars or coaches for the travel and transportation of the white and colored passengers.
Mississippi
Publishing- Any person…who shall be guilty of printing, publishing, or circulating printed, typewritten or written matter urging or presenting for public acceptance or general information, arguments, or suggestions in favor of social equality or of intermarriage between whites and Negroes, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject fo fine not exceeding $5000 or imprisonment not exceeding 6 months or both.
Missouri
Education: Separate free schools shall be established for the education of children of African descent; and it shall be unlawful for any colored child to attend any white school, or any white child to attend a colored school.
Montana
1871: Education; children of African descent would be provided separate schools.
1897: Residency and Voting Rights; “Any person living on an Indian or military reservation" was excluded from residency, unless that person had acquired a residence in a county of the state and is in the employment of the government while living on a reservation. Without residency, a person could not vote.
1909: Miscegenation; intermarriage prohibited between whites and Negroes, Chinese and Japanese. Penalty: misdemeanor, carrying a fine of $500 or imprisonment of one month, or both.
1921: Miscegenation; miscegenation prohibited. Interracial marriages nullified if parties went to another jurisdiction where the marriages were legal. Also prohibited marriages between persons of the Caucasian and Asian races.
Nebraska
1865: Miscegenation; marriage between whites and a Negro or mulatto declared illegal. Penalty: misdemeanor with a fine up to $100 or imprisonment in the county jail for up to six months, or both.
1911: Miscegenation; marriages between a white and colored person declared illegal. Also noted that marriages between whites and those persons with one-quarter or more Negro blood were void.
1929: Miscegenation; marriages forbidden between persons of the Caucasian race and those persons with one-eighth or more Asian blood.
1943: Miscegenation; marriages prohibited between whites and anyone with one-eighth or more Negro blood.
Nevada
1865: EDUCATION; Negroes, Asians, and Indians prohibited from attending public schools. The Board of Trustees of any district could establish a separate school for educating Negroes, Asians, and Indians, if deemed advisable.
1912: Miscegenation; unlawful for a white person to intermarry with any person of Ethiopian or black race, Malay or brown race, Mongolian or yellow race, or Indian or red race, within the State." Penalty: misdemeanor for participants and the minister who performed such a ceremony. White person found to be living with the above-mentioned groups would be fined between $100 and $500, or confined in the county jail from six months to one year, or both.
1929: Miscegenation; Miscegenation declared a misdemeanor. Also forbade marriages between persons of the Caucasian, Asian, and Malay races.
1955: Miscegenation; Miscegenation illegal, with a penalty of $100 to $1,000 and/or six months to one year imprisonment
1957: Miscegenation; Gross misdemeanor for whites to maRry a person of a black, brown, or yellow race.
New Mexico
Education: Separate rooms shall be provided for the teaching of pupils of African a descent, and [when] said rooms are so provided, such pupils may not be admitted to the school rooms occupied by pupils of Caucasian or other descent.”
North Carolina
Education: "Books shall not be interchangeable between the white and colored schools, but shall continue to be used by the race first using them."
Libraries: The state librarian is directed to fit up and maintain a separate place for the use of the colored people who may come to the horary for the purpose of reading books or periodicals
North Dakota
1933: Education; "It would not be expedient to have the Indian children mingle with the white children in our educational institutions by reason of the vastly different temperament and mode of living and other differences and difficulties of the two races
1943: Miscegenation; cohabitation between blacks and whites prohibited. Penalty: 30 days to one year imprisonment, or $100 to $500 fine.
Ohio
1877: Miscegenation; unlawful for a person of "pure white blood, who intermarries, or has illicit carnal intercourse, with any Negro or person having a distinct and visible admixture of African blood. Penalty: fined up to $100, or imprisoned up to three months, or both. Any person who knowingly officiates such a marriage can be charged with a misdemeanor and fined up to $100 or imprisoned in three months, or both.
1878: Education; school districts given discretion to organize separate schools for colored children if "in their judgment it may be for the advantage of the district to do so."
1953: Adoption; race to be taken into account on adoption petitions.
Oklahoma
1903: Workers Accomodations; the baths and lockers for the Negroes shall be separate from the white race, but may be in the same building.
1904: Education; "Any instructor who shall teach in any school, college or institution where members of the white and colored race are received and enrolled as pupils for instruction shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined in any sum not less than $10 nor more than $50 for each offense."
1907: Voting Rights; voters must be able to read and write any section of the state constitution. Exempted were those who were enfranchised on Jan. 1, 1866, and lineal descendants of such persons.
1907: Funerals; blacks were not allowed to use the same hearse as whites.
1908: Voting; inmates of institutions were excluded from voting. including "any person kept in a poorhouse at public expense, except federal, Confederate, and Spanish-American ex-soldiers or sailors.”
1928: Recreation; "The Conservation Commission shall have the right to make segregation of the white and colored races as to the exercise of fishing, boating, and bathing.
1937: Communications; “the corporate commission is hereby vested with power and authority to require telephone companies…to maintain separate booths for white and colored patrons when there is a demand for such separate booths. That the Corporation Commission shall determine the necessity for said separate booths only upon complaint of the people in the two and vicinity to be served after due hearing as now provided by law in other complaints filed with the Corporation Commission.
Oregon
1867: Miscegenation; White persons prohibited from intermarrying with any “Negro, Chinese, or any person having 1/4 or more Negro, Chinese or kanaka blood, or any person having more than one-half Indian blood.” Penalty; imprisonment in the penitentiary or the county jail for between three months and one year. Those who licensed or performed such a ceremony could be jailed for three months to one year, or fined between $100 and $1000.
1924: Voting Rights; voters required to read the constitution in English and write their name.
1930: Miscegenation; miscegenation declared a felony, and marriages prohibited between persons of the Caucasian race and persons with one-fourth or more Chinese or Kanaka blood.
1953: Adoption; adoption petition must state race or color of adopting parents.
Pennsylvania
1869: Education; black children prohibited from attending Pittsburgh schools.
1956: Adoptions; petition must state race or color of adopting parents.
Rhode Island
1872: Miscegenation; intermarriage prohibited. Penalty: $1,000 fine, or up to six months imprisonment.
South Carolina
Public Carriers and Accomodations: No persons, firms. or corporations, who or which furnish meals to passengers at station restaurants or station eating houses, in times limited by common carriers of said passengers, shall furnish said meals to white and colored passengers in the same room, or at the same table, or at the same counter."
Family Law: "It shall be unlawful for any parent, relative, or other white person in this State, having the control or custody of any white child, by right of guardianship, natural or acquired, or otherwise, to dispose of, give or surrender such white child permanently into the custody, control, maintenance, or support, of a negro.”
South Dakota
1909: Miscegenation; Intermarriage or illicit cohabitation forbidden between blacks and whites. Penalty: Felony, punishable by a fine up to $1000, or by imprisonment up to ten years, or both.
1913: Miscegenation; marriage prohibited between whites and persons belonging to the “African, Corean (Korean), Malayan, or Mongolian race.” Penalty: Felony, punishable by a fine up to $1000 or by imprisonment in state prison up to ten year, or both.
1929: Miscegenation; miscegenation declared a felony. Also forbade marriages between persons of the Caucasian, Asian, and Malay races.
1952: Adoption; petitions must state race of petitioner and child.
Texas
1950: Recreation; separate facilities required for white and black citizens in state parks.
1953: Public Carriers; public carriers to be segregated.
1958: Education; no child compelled to attend schools that are racially mixed. No desegregation unless approved by election. Governor may close schools were troops used to enforce desegregation on federal authority.
Utah
1888: Miscegenation; intermarriage prohibited between a Negro and a white person, and between a “Mongolian: and a white person.
1933: Miscegenation; marriage prohibited between persons of the Caucasian and Asian races.
1953: Miscegenation; marriage between “white and Negro, Malayan, mulatto, quadroon, or octoroon void.”
Virginia
Public Accomodations: "Every person...operating... any public hall, theater, opera house, motion picture show or any place of public entertainment or public assemblage which is attended by both white and colored persons, shall separate the white race and the colored race and shall set apart and designate... certain seats therein to be occupied by white persons and a portion thereof, or certain seats therein, to be occupied by colored persons."
Railroads: "The conductors or managers on all such railroads shall have power, and are hereby required, to assign to each white or colored passenger his or her respective car, coach or compartment. If the passenger fails to disclose his race, the conductor and managers, acting in good faith, shall be the sole judges of his race."
Theaters: Every person…operating. any public hall, theatre, opera house, motion picture show or any place of public entertainment or public assemblage which is attended by both white and colored persons, shall separate the white race and the colored race and shall set apart and designate... certain seats therein to be occupied by white persons and a portion thereof, or certain seats therein, to be occupied by colored persons.
Washington
1866: Miscegenation; marriage prohibited between white persons and Negroes, Indians, or a person of half or more Negro or Indian blood
1887: Miscegenation; Anti-miscegenation law repealed.
1896: Voting Rights; "Indians not taxed shall never be allowed the elective franchise."
1896: Voting Rights; voters required to read and speak English. In 1912 a statute was passed noting, “If naturalized, must furnish satisfactory evidence that he is capable of reading and speaking the English language so as to comprehend the meaning of ordinary English prose.
1927: Housing; a restrictive housing covenant in the Capitol Hill area read: “The parties…agree with others that no part of the lands owned by them shall ever be used or occupied by or sold, conveyed, leased, rented, or given to Negroes or any person of negro blood.
1928: Housing; a restrictive covenant for the Broadmoor subdivision read: "No part of said property hereby conveyed shall ever be used or occupied by any Hebrew or any person of the Ethiopian, Malay, or any Asiatic race.”
1940s: Housing; “A realtor should never be instrumental in introducing into a neighborhood a character of property or occupancy, members of any race of nationality, or any individual whose presence will clearly be detrimental to property values in that neighborhood.” Voluntary agreements between realtors and homeowners continued well into the 1960s.
West Virginia
Education: “White and colored persons shall not be taught in the same school,” according to the state constitution Article XII, Section 8. Repealed in Nov, 1994.
Wyoming
Miscegenation: "All marriages of white persons with Negroes, Mulattos, Mongolians, or Malaya hereafter contracted in the State of Wyoming are and shall be illegal and void."
1887: Education; separate schools could be provided for colored children when there were fifteen or more colored children within any school district.
1889: Voting Rights; voters required to read the state constitution.
1908: Miscegenation; all marriages of white persons with Negroes, Mulattoes, Mongolians, or Malaya hereafter contracted in the state of WY are and shall be illegal and void.
1931: Education; schools to be segregated only when 15 or more colored children were in a district.
1931: Miscegenation; miscegenation declared a misdemeanor and marriages prohibited between persons of the Caucasian, Asian and Malay races.
1945: Miscegenation; marriage of whites to Negroes, mulattoes, Mongolians, Malayans void. Penalty: $100 to $1,000 and/or one to five years imprisonment.
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Road to Equality
Protest Marches & Campaigns
Albany, GA 1961: Movement launched in the fall of 1961 that ended unsuccessfully in the summer of 1962.
Birmingham, AL 1963: A massive direct-action campaign organized to end the city's system of segregation.
DC 1963: March for Jobs and Freedom highlighted by Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech.
MS 1964: Voter registration campaign organized during the Freedom Summer of 1964.
Selma, AL 1965: Protest marches organized to highlight voting restrictions on African Americans in Alabama.
Chicago, IL 1966: Chicago campaign.
DC 1968: Poor People's Campaign.
Memphis, TN 1968: Sanitation worker’s protest.
Sit-Ins
Wichita, KS Jul, 1958: NAACP Youth Council members stage a sit-in at Dockum Drug Store.
Greensboro, NC 1 Feb, 1960: North Carolina A&T College sit-in.
Durham, NC 8 Feb, 1960: North Carolina College sit-in.
Fayetteville, NC 8 Feb, 1960: Fayetteville State Teachers College sit-in.
Winston-Salem, NC 8 Feb, 1960: Winston-Salem Teachers College sit-in.
Charlotte, NC 9 Feb, 1960: Johnson C. Smith University students' sit-in.
Raleigh, NC 10 Feb, 1960: Saint Augustine's College, Shaw University sit-in Hampton, Virginia February 11, 1960: Hampton Institute students' sit-in.
Rock Hill, SC 12 Feb, 1960: Clinton Junior College sit-in.
Nashville, TN 13 Feb, 1960: Fisk University students' sit-in.
Tallahassee, FL 13 Feb, 1960: Florida A&M University students' sit-in.
Richmond, VA 20 Feb, 1960: Virginia Union University sit-in.
Baltimore, MD 22 Feb, 1960: Coppin State Teachers College sit-in.
Montgomery, AL 24 Feb, 1960: Alabama State College sit-in.
Tuskegee, AL 26 Feb, 1960: Tuskegee Institute sit-in.
Daytona Beach, FL 2 Mar, 1960: Bethune-Cookman College sit-in.
Houston, TX 4 Mar, 1960: Southern University sit-in.
New Orleans, LA 8 Mar, 1960: Dillard University, Southern University sit-in.
Atlanta, GA 15 Mar, 1960: Clark University, Morehouse College, Morris Brown College, Spelman College sit-in.
Jackson, MS 28 May, 1963: Tougaloo College students and faculty members sit in at Woolworth's lunch counter.
Arlington, VA 9 Jun, 1960: Sit-in.
BUS BOYCOTTS
Baton Rouge, LA 1953: Eight-day boycott that inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Montgomery, AL 1955: Boycott started by Rosa Parks and led by MLK.
Tallahassee, FL 1956: Boycott begins when two female students from Florida A&M U. refuse to sit in "colored" section of the bus.
Jackson, TN 1960: Six Lane College students are arrested after separate groups board two buses operated by Jackson City Lines, Inc.
SCHOOL DESEGREGATION
Farmville, VA 1950: Barbara Johns, a 16-yo junior at Robert Moton High School, organizes and leads 450 students in a strike against segregated schools.
Topeka, KS 1955
Prince Edward County, Virginia, Clarendon County, South Carolina, State of Delaware Washington, D. C.: In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court orders the desegregation of schools in these places.
Tuscaloosa, AL 1956: Under court order, the U. of Alabama admits Autherine Lucy.
Charlotte, NC 1957: Four students, including Dorothy Counts, are assigned to desegregate Harding High School.
Little Rock, AR 1957: POTUS IKE orders federal troops to protect nine students desegregating Central High School.
New Orleans, LA 1960: Four female students, including Ruby Bridges, desegregate William Frantz Elementary School under the protection of U.S. marshals.
New Rochelle, NY 1961: Federal judge orders the school system to desegregate.
Athens, GA 1961: Federal district court orders the U. of Georgia to desegregate.
Oxford, MS 1962: Federal appeals court orders the U. of Mississippi to admit James Meredith.
Clemson, SC 1963: Clemson College becomes the first integrated public school in the state.
Tuscaloosa, AL 1963: Two African American students, Vivian Malone and James A. Hox successfully register at the University of Alabama despite the resistance of Gov. George Wallace.
Prince Edward County, VA 1964: Supreme court decision, Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward forces schools to reopen and desegregate.
FREEDOM RIDES (4-18 May, 1961)
4 May: DC to Richmond, VA to Farmville, VA to Greensboro, NC.
8 May: Charlotte, NC; rider arrested.
9 May: Rock Hill, SC; John Lewis assaulted.
12 May: Winnsboro, SC to Atlanta, GA.
14 May: Anniston, AL; bus is fire bombed.
14 May: Birmingham, AL; riders attacked by mob.
17 May: Nashville, TN
20 May: Birmingham, AL; Nashville SNCC Freedom Riders arrested.
20 May: Montgomery, AL; Riders attacked by mob.
24 May: Jackson, MS; Freedom riders arrested and sent to Parchman prison.
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Rise & Fall of Black Communities
Closing Factories, Losing Jobs: Corporations eliminated 32M industrial jobs, mostly in urban areas, in the 1970s and 1980s. The South Bronx lost 600K jobs, Detroit 250K, Los Angeles >125K. Each industrial job gone meant less money for local services and businesses and tax revenues. City dwellers with the resources-white mainly, but also middle-class African American- left for the suburbs, or the South.
De-Industrialization: The decline of factory jobs and labor unions in the 1970s disproportionately affected black workers as more than 30% of black families lived in.
The Results of Poverty: In 1970 there were no organized gangs operating in South Centra, LA; 10y later there were 155 separate gangs claiming 30K members. Over that decade, unemployment soared, social services declined, and families struggled. Some young people banded together in gangs for friendship and support or, sometimes, out of fear. Unable to find steady work, some turned to the underground economy of petty crimes and drug dealing. Despair intensified in the mid-1980s with the spread of AIDS and crack cocaine.
Black Magic Gang, Bronx, New York, 1972: The 500 members of this gang or "club" formally rejected hard drugs. Said one, "Younger people have seen their older brothers mess up their lives using drugs."
The Urban Housing Crisis: For decades federal housing policies explicitly promoted segregation. Government-sponsored mortgages and insurance regulations virtually excluded black people from specific neighborhoods. Urban renewal replaced many black neighborhoods with ill-designed public housing projects. Even with passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, African Americans had little recourse against the discriminatory practices of the private real estate industry. Worcester, MA 1968
By 1970 the average black city dweller lived in a segregated neighborhood. Segregated housing made it just that much more difficult to deal with issues of unemployment, education, health, and crime. Beginning in 1968, reductions in federal government spending on urban issues made the situation even worse.
Subdivisions and Planned Communities: Housing and lending discrimination confined many black families to urban and suburban areas without amenities everyone wants: access to public transportation, well-stocked grocery stores, and quality schools. For solidly middle-class African Americans, opportunities to move away from lower-wage earners sometimes came in the form of "subdivisions" -planned developments of large, family-style homes. The suburbs of DC, and Atlanta attracted African Americans into such enclaves in the 1970s and into gated communities decades after.
As the rise of African American political power and cultural influence continued through the 1970s, black mobility improved, afforded by better jobs and better pay. Yet African Americans still had limited real estate options. They often faced higher rates on bank loans, unwelcoming neighbors in the suburbs, and the prospect of city officials financially abandoning a neighborhood once white people left and the area became predominantly black. Cities with majority black populations were hit especially hard.
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Misc Quotes
“Liberty must either cut the throat of slavery or slavery would cut the throat of liberty.”-Frederick Douglas (1856).
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Chronology
2016: SCOTUS argues Fisher v. the University of TX, upholding that the implementation of an affirmative action program at the University of TX was constitutional and did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment (African American Museum).
1978: SCOTUS argues Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, concluding that while racial quotas were unconstitutional, race can be used as a factor-among other criteria-in admissions decisions at universities to redress past discrimination (African American Museum).
1966: Huey Newton and Bobby Seale found the Black Panther Party in Oakland, CA. They preach a militant philosophy-armed self-defense and an immediate end to the oppression of black people. Panthers quickly came into conflict with police and the FBI. After a series of arrests and trials, the influence of the Black Panthers waned. But at its height the party represented the growing outrage among some African Americans over the country's slow pace of change (African American Museum).
1963: Civil rights leaders A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin begin plans for a march on DC to protest segregation, the lack of voting rights, and unemployment among African Americans. Randolph and Rustin enlisted the support of all the major civil rights organizations, and the march-on August 28-was a resounding success. The high point was MLK’s famous "I Have A Dream" speech, which kindled hope for the future and inspired the crowd and the nation (African American Museum).
12 Jun, 1963: Murder of NAACP Field Secretary Medgar Evers in MS, shot in the back as he walked to his car. Evers had traveled the state investigating acts of violence and intimidation. He also organized voter registration drives, economic boycotts, and demonstrations. His accused killer, Byron De La Beckwith Jr., remained tree until 1994, when he was finally convicted. Evers was the first major civil rights leader assassinated in the 1960s (African American Museum).
Feb, 1960: Four students from NC AST launched the most publicized of the student sit-ins. The men contacted a reporter, bought items at Woolworth's, and then sat at the lunch counter requesting service. After being refused they left, but returned the next day with other students. The protest spread to other stores in the city and across the state, though the demonstrators were spat upon, pelted with eggs, harassed, and arrested. Within a month lunch counters across NC began desegregating (African American Museum).
1960: The interracial Nonviolent Action Group in Washington DC begins sit- ins at Peoples Drug Store, Drug Fair, Lansburgh's, and Woolworth department stores, and a Howard Johnson's restaurant in Arlington, VA. The manager at Peoples removed seats to prevent the demonstrations. After several weeks, the businesses relented and integrated. NAG students then moved on to Glenn Echo amusement park, Hi-Boy restaurant, and the Hiser Theater in MD where they also ultimately were successful (African American Museum).
1958: Ten African American students entered the Dockum Drugstore in Wichita, Kansas, and sat at the lunch counter, waiting to be served. They arrived well dressed and only spoke when addressed by the Dockum staff. White students also began to join them, and similar protests were launched at all the other Dockum stores in the city. Revenue at the chain of drugstores began to decline, and 23 days after the movement began the store owners gave in and agreed to integrate their stores (African American Museum).
1956: SCOTUS rules that bus segregation is unconstitutional- bus boycotts and segregated seating came to an end (African American Museum).
1954: SCOTUS argues Hernandez v. Texas which Identifies Mexican Americans as a distinct group-neither “Negro" nor "white" —warranting protection against discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14™ Amendment (African American Museum).
1954: SCOTUS argues Brown v. Board of Education, prohibiting racial segregation in public schools, and affirming that "separate" was unequal and unconstitutional (African American Museum).
1950: Officials in Baton Rouge, LA, outlaw the city's only independent black-owned bus company. African Americans were forced to ride segregated buses and sit in designated sections at the back. But African Americans made up 80% of the riders, and they organized a boycott in 1953. The city ultimately compromised- seats were available to all riders. Whites sat from the front to the back and African Americans from the back to the front. The boycott was a model for Montgomery two years later (African American Museum).
1947: Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) integrates Major League Baseball. Robinson was a military officer, a former college student, a non-southerner, and a Negro Leagues ballplayer. All of these factors contributed to the decision by Brooklyn Dodgers' General Manager Branch Rickey to promote Robinson as the central figure in the "noble experiment." In recognition of Robinson's courage and influence, Major League Baseball ultimately retired his number throughout the league; he is the only player in major professional sports in the USA to receive that honor (African American Museum).
1946: SCOTUS argues Sweatt v. Painter, which challenges the doctrine that separate was equal, and mandated access for a black law school student to learn alongside his white peer group (African American Museum).
20 Jun, 1943: Detroit Race Riot; fighting breaks out at Belle Isle amusement park between black teenagers, white youths, and white sailors. As the fighting spread, white mobs attacked African Americans in downtown Detroit, including men riding buses to work. African Americans destroyed white-owned businesses in their neighborhood. The local police were unable to gain control, and POTUS FDR reluctantly sent federal troops to restore order. 34 people died, and $2M worth of property was destroyed. The troops remained for six months (African American Museum).
Jan, 1923: The Rosewood Massacre occurs in the predominantly black central FL town after a white woman in nearby Sumner claims she had been assaulted. Over the next several days, mobs attacked and destroyed Rosewood and shot residents. While their homes burned, the families in Rosewood fled to nearby woods and swamps with only the clothes on their backs. They were never able to return, and the town disappeared. The exact number of people killed was never determined (African American Museum).
1921: The Tulsa race riot; the worst outbreak of racial violence in American history. White residents resented the economic success of African Americans and the prosperity of some of their neighborhoods, which contained several churches and scores of black-owned businesses. In 18 hrs, marauding white mobs destroy >1,000 homes and businesses. Black residents, including some veterans, fought to protect their neighborhoods but were overwhelmed. In the end, their community was completely destroyed, leaving 9,000 people homeless (African American Museum).
Feb, 1909: NAACP; following the 1908 Springfield, IL race riots, a group of 60 people including seven Africans Americans meet to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) “to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of minority group citizens of the US and eliminate race prejudice” (African American Museum).
1908: Jack Johnson (1878-1946) defeats Tommy Burns, becoming the first African American heavyweight-boxing champion (African American Museum).
1896: SCOTUS argues Plessy v. Ferguson, legalizing a social order of racial segregation in public accommodations, with the doctrine of "separate but equal." Reinforced second-class citizenship and substandard treatment for African Americans (African American Museum).
1892: Homer Plessy of New Orleans, LA, volunteers to test the legality of railroad car segregation in the state. He sits in a "whites only" car, refuses to move to a segregated car, is arrested, and sued in court. The case eventually reaches the SCOTUS, which rules that segregation is legal as long as the accommodations are "separate but equal." This ruling propped up segregation laws for more than 50 years, though separate facilities were rarely equal (African American Museum).
1877: End of reconstruction; the majority of African Americans live in the South. As white southerners regained control of state and local governments, they passed new laws to keep blacks and whites segregated and to condemn African Americans to an inferior, restricted, second-class citizenship. To resist the impact of these laws, African Americans created communities and institutions to sustain themselves and looked for ways to protest their treatment (African American Museum).
1870: The prison farm of Angola in Louisiana is founded on a former slave plantation. It’s later taken over by the state in 1901. In the 1950s it was deemed the "bloodiest prison in America” (African American Museum).
1865: Rise of the KKK; Confederate veterans organize the first Ku Klux Klan group in TN. The Klan spread quickly, intent on intimidating freedmen across the South. After the end of Reconstruction, Klansmen escalated their violence to discourage African Americans from voting or running for office. They also threatened Republican politicians. Their actions helped white Democrats return to power in the South and undermined the political influence of African Americans (African American Museum).
12 Apr, 1864: Massacre at Ft. Pillow; A unit led by Maj. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest massacred an estimated 295 Union soldiers- mostly African Americans. Unwilling to recognize African Americans as a worthy enemy, the Confederacy categorized black Union soldiers as criminals and executed them. "Remember Fort Pillow" became a battle cry for African American soldiers (African American Museum).
Jan, 1863: ~179K African Americans join the USCT and 20-30K serve in the Union Navy (African American Museum).
1857: SCOTUS argues Dred Scott v. Sandford, ruling that Americans of African descent-whether enslaved or free-were not citizens of the USA, and thus held no rights to sue in federal court (African American Museum).
1854: George Gliddon and Josiah Nott publishes “Types of Mankind” drawing on “decades of work by scientists and popular theories of the day and concluding that a natural hierarchy existed among animal and human species and that different races appeared independently in different parts of the world” (African American Museum).
1854: The Kansas-Nebraska Act permits slavery to expand above the 36 degrees, 30 minutes parallel, overturning the Missouri Compromise (African American Museum).
21-23 Aug, 1831: Nat Turner’s Rebellion; enslaved people rise up in Southampton County, VA. Led by Nat Turner, rebels moved across plantations, murdering roughly 55 whites and rallying enslaved people. They planned to move on to Jerusalem, VA, to seize guns and then make a permanent home in the Great Dismal Swamp. By August 23, the rebels had been defeated. More than 200 black men and women, both enslaved and free, were executed. Turner's Rebellion alarmed Americans and inflamed the debate over slavery (African American Museum).
1831-1832: SCOTUS argues Cherokee Indian cases ruling that only the USG, not individual states, had the power to negotiate and resolve claims with Indian nations," including claims concerning Indian lands. The rulings were not enforced however (African American Museum).
1820: The Missouri Compromise; Missouri, a Slave state, and Maine, a free state, apply to join the Union. USC accepts both to preserve the delicate balance of power in the Senate. In an effort to avoid future conflict, the government also restricts slavery to land below the parallel 36°30'. News of the Missouri Compromise spread quickly. Believing that slavery was weakened, enslaved people in SC led by Denmark Vesey organize for rebellion (African American Museum).
1803: The USA purchases the Louisiana territory from France (African American Museum).
1800: The Treaty of San Ildefonso cedes Louisiana to France (African American Museum).
1791-1804: The Haitian Revolution shakes the institution of slavery throughout the New World, and left slave owners in the USA terrified of a slave rebellion. Inspired by the French Revolution, those enslaved in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) rebelled in 1791. Led by Toussaint Louverture, the rebels secured the entire island after 10 yrs of fighting and issued a constitution abolishing slavery. After Louverture's death, Lt. Jean-Jacques Dessalines continued the revolution and declared independence in 1804 (African American Museum).
1780s: The number of free people of African descent triplets (African American Museum).
Nov, 1775: Dunmore’s Proclamation; VA Royal Governor John Murray issues a proclamation that offers freedom to “all indentured servants, Negroes, or others…that are able and willing to bear arms” for the crown. But this promise was not fulfilled. After the war, Black men owned by Loyalist slaveholders were returned to enslavement (African American Museum).
1775: George Washington pens a letter to Col. Henry Lee remarking that the success of the war depended upon which side most quickly armed Africans. The Patriot leaders were initially reluctant to enlist Africans in the armed forces for fear of a rebellion and the loss of their enslaved property. But the British offered enslaved people freedom after service, and by 1776, George Washington also extended the promise of freedom to Africans who enlisted in his Army (African American Museum).
1767: The Spanish Cadiz Company secures the asiento to supply 6900 enslaved Africans to the Spanish colonies annually (African American Museum).
1763: Spain cedes Florida to the English (African American Museum).
1763: French Louisiana cedes to Spain (African American Museum).
1741: The New York Conspiracy; enslaved Africans and poor whites join forces and plot to burn New York City, kill wealthy white men, and elect a new king and governor. The rebels set fires across the city, including one at the governor's mansion. Ultimately, 142 blacks and at least 12 working-class whites were accused of conspiracy. To discourage future rebellions, the punishments were harsh and swift. After the 1741 New York Slave Conspiracy, nearly 200 people were arrested based on the testimony of a 16-year-old indentured servant, Mary Burton; she testified in exchange for her freedom. Of the 142 blacks accused of being conspirators, 13 were burned at the stake, 18 were hanged, and at least 70 were deported. Four whites were hanged, including a man accused of being a Jesuit priest and Spanish (African American Museum).
1739: The Stono Rebellion; enslaves Africans take up arms and attempt to march to Spanish Florida for freedom (African American Museum).
1731: The Samba Bambara Conspiracy; Samba Bambara leads 400 Africans in a failed full-scale assault against the French. Those captured were sold into slavery in the Caribbean (African American Museum).
1731: Over 6000 western Africans (mostly Bambara) are enslaved in French Louisiana (African American Museum).
1729: The Natchez Revolt; the Natchez Indian nation initiates a war against the French, promising freedom to all who fought, enslaved Africans quickly joined the rebellion, which was defeated by the French. Most Native Americans and Africans captured were sold into slavery in the Caribbean (African American Museum).
1721: French and German settlers migrate to French Louisiana (African American Museum).
1720: Charleston begins to dominate the Transatlantic Slave trade in N. America. Over 40% of all Africans shipped to N. America enter through Charleston (African American Museum).
1720: Rice becomes Carolina’s most lucrative export, supplanting trade in turpentine, wood, and American Indian slaves (African American Museum).
1719: The first slave ship transports Africans to Louisiana (African American Museum).
1719: New Orleans is founded by French Company of the Indies (African American Museum).
1711-1712: The British South Sea Company secures the Spanish asiento, an exclusive contract granted by the King of Spain to provide an annual supply of enslaved Africans to the Spanish colonies (African American Museum).
1708: Enslaved Africans are over 50% of the Carolina population and rice becomes a staple crop. Enslaved Indians represent 9% of the colony’s population (African American Museum).
1706-1718: Native Americans are enslaved after the French and Chitimacha Indians War (African American Museum).
1705: VA law states “All negro, mulatto and Indian slaves are considered real estate” (African American Museum).
1664: VA Law enforces slavery for life (African American Museum).
1663: England establishes the Province of Carolina (African American Museum).
1660: English King Charles II grants his brother James, the Duke of York, a royal monopoly to trade exclusively in western Africans (African American Museum).
1621: The Dutch government grants the West India Company a monopoly over the Atlantic trade to challenge European rivals in the race for enslaved Africans and gold. The company establishes trading posts in Africa, plantations in Brazil and the West Indies, and parts and plantations in N. America (African American Museum).
1619: The first people of African descent are brought to Point Comfort in VA (African American Museum).
1617: The first commercial crop of tobacco is shipped to England from VA (African American Museum).
1607: 104 Englishmen arrive in Virginia (African American Museum).
1492: The Spanish military conquers the Moors- the Muslim inhabitants of Spain, and banishes them from the kingdom. Jews and Muslims who refused to convert to Christianity were violently expelled or executed. In their kingdom, national identity was defined by “limpieza de sangre” (pure blood) (African American Museum).
1455: The Pope grants the Portuguese crown exclusive rights to the sub-Saharan trade, including the trade in slaves (African American Museum).
1441: Portuguese navigators complete the first successful European voyage to sub-Saharan Africa (African American Museum).
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