1619 - 1865 American Slavery Era
1619 – 1865 AMERICANSLAVERY ERA
1619The beginning of American slaveryIn late August of 1619 aship arrived at PointComfort in the Britishcolony of Virginia, bearinga cargo of 20 to 30enslaved Africans. Theirarrival inaugurated abarbaric system of chattelslavery in the UnitedStates that would last forthe next 250 years.
1641Massachusetts Becomes First State to FormallyLegalize Slavery.This develops into a system ofeconomic dependence onenslavement of people to produce thekey goods (tobacco, sugar cane,cotton) that other economic sectors(banking, land speculation, trade, etc.)are intrinsically linked to. As the USeconomy develops and grows it doesso with dependency on a system ofenslaved labor.
1676Social Identities FluidIn early colonial America, social identities arefluid and class distinctions trump physical ones.On Virginia plantations, European indenturedservants and African slaves mix freely. In 1676,Bacon's Rebellion unites poor Africans andEuropeans against Indians and wealthyplanters. Although the rebellion is short lived, the alliance alarms the colonial elite, whorealize the labor system based on indentured servitude is unstable. Coincidentally,captured Africans, perceived as stronger workers by Europeans, become more availableat this time. Planters turn increasingly to African slavery for labor, while grantingincreased freedoms to Europeans.
1705Virginia Slave Codes PassedAs wealthy planters turn from indentured servitudetowards slavery, they begin to write laws making slaverypermanent for Africans, and dividing Blacks from whitesand slaves from free men. African Americans arepunished more harshly for crimes and their rights areincreasingly curtailed. Poor whites are given newentitlements and opportunities, including as overseerswho police the slave population. Over time, poor whitesidentify more with wealthy whites and the degradation ofslavery is identified with Blackness.
1776Birth of "Caucasian"Johann Blumenbach, one of many 18th-century naturalists, laysout the scientific template for race in On the Natural Varieties ofMankind. Although he opposes slavery, he maps a hierarchicalpyramid of five human types, placing "Caucasians" at the topbecause he believes a skull found in the Caucasus Mountains isthe "most beautiful form.from which.the others diverge."This model is widely embraced, andBlumenbach inadvertently paves the wayfor scientific claims about whitesuperiority.
1781Jefferson Suggests BlackInferiorityWith Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson becomes thefirst prominent American to suggest that Africans areinnately inferior:"I advance it therefore, as a suspicion only, thatblacks.are inferior to the whites in the endowments ofbody and mind." His writings help rationalize slavery in anation otherwise dedicated to equality, and he calls onscience to find proof.
1790Naturalization Reserved For WhitesThe 1790 Naturalization Act reserves adopted citizenship for whites only. AfricanAmericans are not guaranteed citizenshipuntil 1868, when the FourteenthAmendment to the Constitution is ratifiedduring Reconstruction. Native Americansbecome citizens through individual treatiesor intermarriage and finally, through the1924 Indian Citizenship Act. Asianimmigrants are ineligible for citizenshipuntil the 1954 McCarran-Walter Actremoves all racial barriers to naturalization.Without citizenship, nonwhites can't vote,own property, bring suit, or testify in court all the basic protections and privileges that whites take for granted.
1819The Civilization ActThe Civilization Act provides U.S.government funds to subsidizeProtestant missionary educators toconvert Native Americans toChristianity.
1830Native Tribes Dispossessed of LandsThroughout the 19th century, American Indianlands are taken away and given to white settlers. In1830, thousands of Native Americans are forciblyrelocated from east of the Mississippi River toOklahoma. Many die en route. The 1862Homestead Act encourages a flood of squatters toinvade Indian lands in the midwest. Alreadysuffering from decimation of the buffalo, nomadicPlains Indian tribes are forced to relocate togovernment reservations. The 1887 Dawes Actbreaks up collectively owned Indian lands and redistributes it to individuals, allowing"surplus" land to be sold to whites. Lewis Cass, Secretary of War under President Jackson,sums up 19th-century Indian policy this way: "The Indians are entitled to the enjoyment of allthe rights which do not interfere with the obvious designs of Providence."
1800’s – Mid-1900’sIndian Boarding SchoolsWashington was home to a number of Indian Boarding schools in the late 1800s and into the mid1900s, where Native children were removed from their families andinstitutionalized for training as workers in the white settler economy.The trauma inflicted on children byremoval from families, and the recordof abuses incurred in these schools is now understood to be asource of historical trauma that continues to impact many tribestoday. Here we see photos from the Tulalip School and the YakimaBoarding school at Ft. Simcoe. Both housed hundreds of childrenover the years they operated.
1848Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the U.S.Mexican WarMexico cedes one third of its territory, including thefuture states of California, Texas, Utah, New Mexico,Arizona, Nevada, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.The treaty promises to protect the land, language, andculture of Mexicans living in ceded territory and givesthem the right to become U.S. citizens if they stay.Congress refuses to pass Article X, stipulatingprotection of ancestral lands, and instead requiresMexicans to prove their legitimate title to land in U.S.courts, by speaking English, with U.S. lawyers.
1854 - 1855Puget Sound Tribes Dispossessed ofLands62 leaders of major Western Washington tribes, including the Nisqually andPuyallup, and Territorial Gov. Stevens sign the treaty at Medicine Creek onDecember 26, 1854. The tribes cede most of their lands in exchange for 32,500,designated reservations, and the permanent right of access to traditional huntingand fishing grounds. This pact was followed in January 1855 with the signing oftreaties at Point Elliott (now Mukilteo) and Point No Point (near Hansville on theKitsap Peninsula), which relocated remaining of Puget Sound tribes toreservations. The agreements did not secure a durable peace, however, and thenew Territory experienced several bloody clashes over the next fouryears.Nisqually Chief Leschi later claimed not to have signed the treaty andfiercely resisted confinement on a reservation. He allegedly led an attack onSeattle on January 26, 1856, and was hanged in 1858 on unrelated (and, in theopinion of many pioneers, false) charges of murder and rebellion.
1857African Americans DeniedCitizenshipIn the Dred Scott decision, the U.S. Supreme Court declares that"Negroes," whether free or enslaved, are not citizens. As ChiefJustice Taney puts it, they have "no rights which any white man isbound to respect." Free Black people are taxed like whites, butthey do not enjoy the same protection and entitlements. AfricanAmericans are not granted citizenship until 1868. Meanwhile,centuries of slavery generate wealth for whites only. When slavesin Washington, D.C., are freed in 1862, reparation is paid not toslaves but to slaveowners for their loss of property.
1865 – 1954RECONSTRUCTION,JIM CROW, RACIALAPARTHEID ANDSEGREGATION ERA
186513th Amendment RatifiedWhile abolishing the current system of slavery the text of the 13th amendment providesone exception of involuntary servitude: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, exceptas a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall existwithin the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
1866The Black CodesImmediately after the civil war, legislatures in former southern slavery states beginpassing state and local laws that make it nearly impossible for Black people to freelymove in public space without breaking a law. These laws would be known as BlackCodes. Ways a Black person could break the law included: vagrancy, speaking loudly toa White woman, walking beside a railroad, or selling vegetables after dark.
186814th Amendment Guarantees Equal RightsPassage of the Fourteenth Amendment is a landmark event, not only for AfricanAmericans but for all Americans. Conceived during Reconstruction, the amendmentextends citizenship to African Americans andattempts to heal Civil War wounds byemphasizing national unity. The amendmentdefines citizenship for the first time, guaranteesall citizens equal protection and due processunder the law, and most importantly, grantscitizens privileges and immunities that cannotbe abridged. Although the amendment'sstrength is tested by discriminatory laws andpolicies throughout the 20th century, the equalprotection clause forms the cornerstone of the1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision andis the legal basis for all civil rights and anti-discrimination efforts to this day.
1870–1928Native American Children Taken From TheirCommunitiesNative American children are removed from their communities by U.S. governmentmandate and put in boarding schools to “civilize” indigenous people.
1882Chinese Exclusion Law suspends Immigration ofLaborers For Ten YearsThe passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act came after a longperiod of anti-Chinese discrimination. There were more than200 incidents of ethnic cleansing in the last half of thenineteenth century, many of them occurring before thepassage of the Act.
1887Jim Crow Segregation BeginsBeginning in the late 19th century, southern states codify a system of laws and practicesto subordinate African Americans to whites. The "new" social order, reinforced throughviolence and intimidation, affects schools, public transportation,jobs, housing, private life and voting rights. Cutting across classboundaries, Jim Crow unites poor and wealthy whites, whiledenying African Americans equality in the courts, freedom ofassembly and movement, and full participation as citizens. Thefederal government adopts segregation under President Wilson in1913, and is notintegrated untilthe 1960s.
1898U.S. ImperialismThe U.S. defeats Spain and acquires Puerto Rico,Guam, and the Philippines, and annexes Hawaii.Puerto Rico has been defined as an unincorporatedterritory that “belongs to but is not part of the U.S.”which is unapologetically racist.Territorial inhabitants were considered unfit and notmature enough to be self-governed or be part of theunion because of their condition as “uncivilized” and“alien races.”
1922Supreme Court Ruling DefinesWhite as CaucasianJapanese businessman Takao Ozawa petitions the supremecourt for naturalization. He argued that his skin is as white, ifnot whiter, than any so-called Caucasian; the Court rulesOzawa cannot be a citizen because he is not “white” withinthe meaning of the statute, asserting that the best-knownscience of the time defines Ozawa as of the Mongolian race.
1923U.S. v. Bhagat Singh ThindIn U.S. v. Bhagat Singh Thind, the Supreme Courtrecognizes that East Indians are “scientifically”Caucasians but concludes they are not white inpopular (white) understanding, reversing the logicused in the Ozawa case.
1924Changing Definitions ofWho is BlackIn 1705, Virginia defines any child,grandchild, or great grandchild of a Negro asa mulatto. In 1866, the state decrees thatevery person having one-fourth or moreNegro blood shall be deemed a coloredperson. In 1910, the percentage is changedto 1/16th. Finally in 1924, the Virginia RacialPurity Act defines Black persons as havingany trace of African ancestry - the infamous"one-drop" rule. Practically speaking, mostpeople cannot prove their ancestry and therule is applied inconsistently. Other states also define Blackness differently. As historianJames Horton notes, one could cross a state line and literally, legally change race.
1924Indian Citizenship Act makesAll Native Americans U.S.CitizensAll Native Americans are granted U.S. citizenshipon June 2, 1924. Congress is grateful for service byNative Americans during World War I and isinspired by their assimilation into U.S. society. Untilthis time, Native Americans qualified for citizenship if the lands they held were removedfrom trust status and the protection of the U.S. Government.The law did little to change the lives of Puget Sound Indians. The mechanism ofwardship continued, with Indian agents controlling the management and disposition oftribal lands and allotments. Citizenship did not relieve Native Americans from racialdiscrimination and they continued to experience state regulation of their treaty rights tofishing off-reservation.
1926Racial RestrictiveCovenantsRacial deed restrictions became commonafter 1926 when the U.S. Supreme Courtvalidated their use. The restrictions were anenforceable contract and an owner whoviolated them risked forfeiting the property.Many neighborhoods prohibited the sale or rental of propertyto Asian Americans and Jews as well as Blacks. The USSupreme Court stopped enforcing racial restrictive covenantsby 1948, but private companies continued to use them, alongwith Redlining by real estate agents and mortgage brokers.
1929 - 1936Redlining in Washington StateHousing discrimination and racially segregatedneighborhoods are one of the most pernicious andimpactful examples of structural racism. Vividly illustratedhere by redline maps from 1936 (Seattle) and 1929(Tacoma and Spokane). The legacy of racial segregatedspaces is still being felt by communities of color acrossour state.
1930Mexicans Added to CensusMexicans, like other minority groups, are defined differently at various times. In the 19thcentury, they are classified as white and allowed to naturalize, based upon an 1848treaty. In 1930, nativists lobby to classify them separately on the census, to limit theirimmigration and reinforce their distinctness from whites. During World War II, as demandfor Mexican labor grows, Mexicans are againclassified as whites. In the 1970s, they arereclassified as "Hispanics." As census historianHyman Alterman notes, the definition dependson political climate: "It was not an accident thatin the census of 1930, persons of Mexican birthor ancestry were classified as 'nonwhite'. Thiswas a policy decision, not a mistake."
1934U.S. Housing Programs BenefitWhites OnlyIn the 1930s and 1940s, the federal government createsprograms that subsidize low-cost loans, opening up homeownership to millions of Americans for the first time.Government underwriters also introduce anational appraisal system that effectively locksnonwhites out of homebuying just as manywhite Americans are getting in. In post-WWIIrestricted suburbs, European "ethnics" blendtogether as whites, while minorities are"marked" by urban poverty. Two legacies ofthis discrimination are still with us today:segregated communities and a substantialwealth gap between whites and nonwhites.
1935People of Color Denied Social Security/ExcludedFrom UnionsIn 1935, Congress passes two laws that protect American workers and excludenonwhites. The Social Security Act exemptsagricultural workers and domestic servants(predominantly African American, Mexican, andAsian) from receiving old-age insurance. The WagnerAct also known as the National Labor Relations Act,guarantee workers' rights, but does not prohibitunions from racial discrimination. Nonwhites arelocked out of higher-paying jobs and union benefitssuch as medical care, job security, and pensions. Aslow-income workers, minorities have the greatestneed for these provisions, yet they are systematicallydenied what most Americans take for granted.
1944GI BillThe GI Bill also known as the Serviceman’s Readjustment Act provided education andmortgage benefits to returning WWII veterans; primarily to working class whitemen. Black veterans faced discrimination in employment, education, and housing.
1947Mendez vs. Westminster School DistrictIn 1945, Mexican parents tried to enroll their children into the Main Street ElementarySchool located in the Westminster School District, Orange County, California and wererefused admission based on race. A class action lawsuit wasfiled on behalf of 5,000 families against four school districtsincluding Westminster and Santa Ana for discrimination.The Mendez's counsel, David Marcus, argued in court fordesegregation of California's schools "on the grounds thatperpetuation of school admissions on the basis of race ornationality violated the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments ofthe National Constitution." In 1946, federal judge Paul J.McCormick ruled in favor of Mendez and found that “thesegregation of Mexican Americans in public schools was aviolation of the state law” and unconstitutional under theFourteenth Amendment because of the denial of due processand equal protection. McCormick struck down systematicsegregation in public schools in California.
1954 – Present Day CivilRights Law and MassIncarceration
1954Legal Segregation EndsIn the wake of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, civil rights advocates led byMartin Luther King, Jr. organize a yearlong boycott of city buses in Montgomery,Alabama, to protest the state's resistance to school integration. What begins as astruggle over schools spreads to public transportation, voting, and all areas of social life.Despite the violent opposition of some white groups, especially in the Deep South,integration and the freedom struggle continuethrough the work of whites and nonwhitesalike. Students, church groups, workers, andvolunteers participate in massive nonviolentprotest, civil disobedience, and publiceducation campaigns. Their efforts culminatein the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibiteddiscrimination based on race, color, sex,religion, or national origin and desegregatedpublic facilities; and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which made racial discrimination invoting illegal.
1964The Civil Rights Act of 1964The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion,sex, or national origin in voting, public accommodations, public facilities, publiceducation, federally funded programs, and employment; it is considered the mostsignificant piece of civil rights legislation since the Emancipation Proclamation.
1965The Negro Family: The Case for National ActionreportThe U.S. Department of Labor published areport titled, The Negro Family: The Case forNational Action. This report frames the issueof poverty in Black people communities as aproduct of an internal “tangle of pathology”that produces broken homes and poverty. Thereport influences social welfare poli cy makersfor the next 30 years
1972Human Diversity is MappedIn the early 1970s, geneticist Richard Lewontin decides to find out just how muchgenetic variation falls within, versus between, the groups we call races. He discoversthat 85% of all humanvariation can be found withinany local population; about94% within any continent.This means local groups aremuch more diverse than theyappear, and our species as awhole is much more similarthan we appear. Lewontin'swork, confirmed over andover again by others, remainsan important milestone in ourunderstanding of race andbiology.
1974Lau v. Nichols Guarantees Bilingual EducationA class-action suit by 1,800 Chinese families whose children speak limited English leadsto a unanimous Supreme Court decision with far-reaching consequences. The courtmandates that school districts must provide students with special instruction to ensure"equal access" to the curriculum. Significantly, the court distinguishes between treatingstudents "the same" and supplying them with tools to put them on a par with otherstudents. Although the case deals with language ability and public education, it opens upa new era in federal enforcement of equalopportunity laws.
1977Government DefinesRace/Ethnic CategoriesIn response to civil rights legislation, thefederal Office of Management and Budgetissues Directive 15, creating standardgovernment race and ethnic categories for thefirst time. The categories are meant to aidagencies, but they are arbitrary, inconsistent,and based on varying assumptions. Forexample, "Black" is defined as a "racial group"but "white" is not. "Hispanic" reflects Spanishcolonization and excludes non-Spanish partsof Central and South America; while"American Indian or Alaskan Native" requires "cultural identification through tribalaffiliation or community recognition" - a condition of no other category. The categoriesare amended in 1996, and "Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander" is added.
198926 Washington Tribes and Governor BoothGardner Sign The Centennial AccordThe accord affirms the sovereignty of Washington's federally recognized tribes and callsfor clearer communication and better collaboration between tribal and stategovernments. It marks one step forward in a long history of conflict between the tribesand the state dating back to the 1850s, a conflict that came to a head in the fish wars ofthe 1960s and 1970s. Federalcourts affirmed the tribes' fishingrights in 1974, but the statecontinued to fight the rulings untilthe early 1980s.
1994Black-white wealth gapCenturies of inequality are not remedied overnight. Today, the average white family haseight times the wealth of the averagenonwhite family. Even at the same incomelevel, whites have, on average, two to threetimes as much wealth. Whites are morelikely to be segregated that any other group,and 86% of suburban whites still live inplaces with a Black population of less than1%. Today, 71% of whites own their ownhome, compared to 44% of AfricanAmericans. Black and Latino mortgageapplicants are 60% more likely than whitesto be turned down for loans, even aftercontrolling for employment, financial, andneighborhood characteristics.
1998Ban on Bilingual Education ProgramsCalifornia voters passProposition 227 (“English for thechildren”) banning bilingualeducation programs in publicschools.
2006Racial Restrictive CovenantsGov. Christine Gregoire signed into law Senate Bill 6169, which makes it easier forneighborhoods governed by homeowners associations to rid themselves of racialrestrictive covenants.
2007Schools Prohibited from Assigning Students toPublic Schools to Solely Achieve RacialIntegrationDecisions in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1,along with Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education, prohibit assigning studentsto public schools solely for the purpose of achieving racial integration and decline torecognize racial balance as a compelling state interest. What we are continuing to see isthat schools whose student population is primarily white are more successful and havemore resources. Our schools whose students are primarilyblack and Latino are less likely to have experienced teachers,advanced courses, instructional materials and adequatefacilities, according to the United States Department ofEducation’s Office for Civil Rights.
2011Fair Housing TestA fair housing test in the Seattle area found discriminatory behavior in 69% of the rentalproperty’s tested. Demographic reports for the Seattlearea show that population in north Seattle, ahistorically redlined area, remains 75% white.
2013Black Lives Matter MovementThe Black Lives Matter movement begins after George Zimmerman is acquitted in thedeath of Trayvon Martin. Following the shooting deaths of Michael Brown, JohnCrawford III, and Eric Garner in 2014, and Freddie Gray in 2015, the movement grows.The Black Lives Matter Movement’s mission is to build local power and to intervene inviolence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. The movement isguided by the fact that all Black lives matter, regardless of actual or perceived sexualidentity, gender identity, gender expression, economic status, ability, disability, religiousbeliefs or disbeliefs, immigration status, or location. Those who are a part of themovement embody and practice justice, liberation, and peace in engagements with oneanother.
Native Tribes Dispossessed of Lands Throughout the 19th century, American Indian lands are taken away and given to white settlers. In 1830, thousands of Native Americans are forcibly relocated from east of the Mississippi River to Oklahoma. Many die en route. The 1862 Homestead Act encourages a flood of squatters to invade Indian lands in the .
AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 1861–1865 AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 1861–1865 Civil War soldier Union Forces: estimated at 2,000,000 and made up of whites, African Americans and Native Americans. To command all the men, the Union had 583 generals led by Lieutenant General U.S. Grant. Confederate Forces: es
3 Climate-induced migration and modern slavery Contents About the authors 4 Acknowledgements 5 Executive summary 6 Chapter 1: What is ‘modern slavery’? 11 1.1 What is modern slavery and what forms does it take? 11 1.2 Who is impacted and at risk? 12 1.3 Drivers of modern slavery 13 Cha
Hunt, P. (2018) Ancient Greek and Roman Slavery. Malden MA. Wiedemann, T. E. J. (1981) Greek and Roman Slavery: A Sourcebook. London Provisional lecture programme: Classics and slavery: the politics of the historiography of ancient Greek and Roman slavery 2 Slave and the law: the articulation of slave status across the Greek world
modern slavery and human trafficking and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.4 With the goal firmly set, governments, businesses and campaigners have joined the fourth anti-slavery movement to help eradicate slavery for good.5 However, technological advancements for data collection on modern slavery could hold the key to end this fight.
The topic of slavery often immediately evokes pictures of men in chains, whips, and brutal conditions. Our minds often take us to stories of the slave trade in the United States or movies highlighting their own depictions of Biblical slavery. In this type of slavery, people were taken captive and forced into slavery.
Slavery and Abolition in the Founding Era 7 Black and White Voices SAFE_Cov6.indd 1 2/25/2021 5:36:00 PM. Slavery and Abolition in the Founding Era 7 . "On the Death of General Wooster" (1778) LEMUEL HAYNES (1753-1833). 9 from "The Battle of Lexington" (1775) LANCASTER HILL, PETER BESS, BRISTER .
1619 marked the beginning of slavery in North America as 20 African captives were sold in the colony of Jamestown. Although slavery had existed elsewhere in the world, this event gave rise to the establishment of plantation economics in the south. Throughout the next 250 years the institution of slavery differed in the south from the north
2 Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Vol 06.03. 3 Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Vol 14.03. 4 Reagent Chemicals, American Chemical Society Specifications, American Chemical Society, Washington, DC. For suggestions on the testing of reagents not listed by the American Chemical Society, see Analar Standards for Laboratory Chemicals, BDH Ltd., Poole, Dorset, U.K., and the United States Pharmacopeia .
