A timeline tracing the history of Black travelers through the centuries
Yanga is a municipality located in the southern area of the State of Veracruz. In 1932 it was renamed after Gaspar Yanga, the cimarron leader who in 1609 resisted an attack by Spanish forces trying to regain control of the area. Despite the enslaving and indentured labor of a high.. Read More…
First opened to the public on December 7, 2014, The Whitney Plantation Historic District is a museum devoted to educating the public about the history of slavery and its legacies. The museum, including the main house and outbuildings, is preserved near Wallace, in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, on.. Read More…
The Lei Áurea was preceded by the Rio Branco Law of September 28, 1871 (“the Law of Free Birth”), which freed all children born to enslaved parents, and by the Saraiva-Cotegipe Law (also known as “the Law of Sexagenarians”), of September 28, 1885, that freed enslaved people when they reached.. Read More…
United States President, Abraham Lincoln, issued the Emancipation Proclamation or Proclamation 95 which (legally) freed the enslaved. The proclamation declared “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” From the first days of the Civil War, enslaved Africans had acted to secure.. Read More…
Robert Smalls, born into slavery in Beaufort, South Carolina, freed himself, his crew, and their families during the American Civil War by commandeering CSS Planter, a Confederate transport ship and steering it to a Union-controlled enclave. In his escape, Robert Smalls used his mobility to commandeer a heavily armed Confederate.. Read More…
Harriet Tubman was born around 1820 into slavery on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland. Her parents, Harriet (“Rit”) Green and Benjamin Ross, named her Araminta Ross and called her “Minty. In 1849 Harriet Tubman made her first attempt to escape slavery. While the first attempt was not successful, she.. Read More…
The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. IV c. 73) abolished slavery in parts of the British Empire. This Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom expanded the jurisdiction of the Slave Trade Act 1807 and made the purchase or ownership of enslaved people illegal within the.. Read More…
The Haitian Revolution was an act of self-determination and self-liberation by enslaved Africans against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti. The revolt began on 22 August 1791 and ended in 1804 with the former colony’s independence. It involved Black, Mulatto, French, Spanish, and British participants.. Read More…
The first enslaved Africans arrived at Point Comfort on the Virginia Peninsula in 1619, representing a landmark in the long history of slavery in European colonies, and the beginning stages of what would become the institution of slavery in America. This event also marked the beginning of the enforced migration.. Read More…
In June of 1526, 500 colonists, 100 enslaved Africans, livestock, plants, and provisions were packed into three ships and sailed from Hispaniola for the coast of South Carolina/Georgia. They arrived on August 9th, 1526 but ran into an issue because their ship had sunk and they lost most of their.. Read More…