Category: Slavery

Statute of Gaspar Yanga

Mexico – Yanga, First Black Town In North America

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…

The Big House at Whitney Plantation Historic District in Louisiana. Photo Credit: © Bill Leiser via Wikimedia Commons.

United States – Whitney Plantation Historic District

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…

Lei Áurea aka Golden Act. Photo Credit: © Arquivo Nacional via Wikimedia Commons.

Brazil – Lei Áurea (“Golden Act”)

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…

Reading the Emancipation Proclamation. Photo Credit: © New York Public Library Digital Collections.

United States – Emancipation Proclamation

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. Photo Credit: © New York Public Library Digital Collections.

United States – Robert Smalls, Naval Pilot

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…

Slavery Abolition Act. Photo Credit: © New York Public Library Digital Collections.

United Kingdom – Slavery Abolition Act 1833

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…

Toussaint Louverture, Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. Photo Credit: © New York Public Library Digital Collections.

Haiti – The Haitian Revolution

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…

Landing negroes at Jamestown from Dutch man-of-war, 1619. Photo Credit: © New York Public Library Digital Collections.

Enslaved Africans Land In The United States

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…

United States – Turtle Island Revolt

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…