Timeline for American slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work.

was a civil war fought from 1861 to 1865 between the United States and several Southern slave states that had declared their secession and formed the Confederate States of America

legislation designed to avoid division between North and South over slavery

In 1822, freedman Denmark Vesey plotted a huge uprising near Charleston. He and dozens of accomplices were captured and hanged.

a secret network of people who helped slaves escape the South

led a Virginia slave revolt in 1831 that killed nearly 60 people before he and his followers were caught and executed

immediate freedom and full political and social rights for African Americans.

escaped slave who spoke passionately about his experiences, also published in his autobiography Narratives of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a best-selling novel that condemned slavery

divided Nebraska region into two territories, giving voters in each area the right to decide whether or not to allow slavery