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Introduction
About the time the young Marquis
de Lafayette first came to America in 1777, the international movement
that eventually brought an end to the institution of slavery was
just gathering steam. Lafayette's own ardent opposition to slavery
seems to have been an outgrowth of his experiences fighting for American
liberty. At some point, late in the American Revolution, he ceased
to regard slaves as chattel, and embraced what was to become his lifelong
commitment to equality for the "black part of mankind." Throughout
the rest of his long and eventful life, he continued to champion freedom
for all men-black
or white-everywhere.
Slavery Timeline
1619 |
U.S. |
Slaves are first brought
to Virginia |
1688 |
U.S. |
Pennsylvania Quakers voice opposition
to slavery |
1772 |
England |
Granville Sharp secures legal decision
that West Indian planters cannot hold slaves in Britain |
1777 |
U.S. |
Vermont Constitution is first U.S.
document to abolish slavery |
1781 |
France |
Slave revolt in Haiti under the
leadership of Toussaint L’Ouverture against the free Blacks and Whites |
1794 |
France |
National Assembly abolishes slave
trade and slavery outright |
1802 |
France |
Napoleon Bonaparte re-establishes
slavery and the slave trade as they existed in 1789 |
1777-1804 |
U.S. |
All states north of Maryland abolish
slavery |
2 March 1807 |
U.S. |
Slave trade with Africa abolished,
but smuggling continues until about 1862 |
1807 |
England |
Slave trade to British Colonies
abolished under leadership of William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson |
1838 |
England |
Slavery abolished in British West
Indies |
1848 |
France |
Slavery abolished in French Possessions |
1863 |
U.S. |
Emancipation Proclamation frees
slaves in areas of rebellion |
1865 |
U.S. |
13th Amendment to the Constitution
outlaws slavery |
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