Black History Timeline:
In 1821 there were 23,000 people living in Washington DC, 7,000 of them were enslaved.
1917 between 350,000 and 400,000 African Americans served in World War I. (Different books give different estimates, but those are the highs and low numbers that I have found.)
In 1833, England freed the slaves across their empire.
1829 Mexico abolished slavery.
In 1831 a slave revolt in Virginia was lead by Nat Turner. It resulted in the killing of 55 whites.
1837 Martin Van Buren was the first president to ever mention slavery in an inaugural address.
1837 A abolitionist printer name Elisha P. Lovejoy was brutally murdered at his press by a pro-slavery mob in Alton, Illinois.
Vice President Johnson, common law 1/8 black wife. See page 119 Van Buren.
In 1837 there were 274 abolition groups in the State of New York.
1838 Frederick Douglass escaped from slavery. He made his way from Maryland to Massachusetts.
1839 Slaves revolted on the sailing ship Amistad. President Van Buren signed an executive order that the slaves be returned to their owner. The case was taken to court and it reached the Supreme Court. In 1841, former president John Quincy Adams (who was 73 at the time) gave an outstanding speech to free the slaves. They won the case and the salves were freed. 1840 During a naval court-martial case found a naval officer guilty for flogging (whipping) his sailors. The outcome was challenged because of of the witnesses were black. President Van Buren upheld their right to testify. This made the South very angry. |
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1846 Buffalo, New York was growing quickly with immigrants from Germany and Ireland. The city was also home for about 700 African-Americans.
1856 During the year of 1856 over 200 people were in the fight whether Kansas would enter the union as a free or slave state.
1866 The Ku Klux Klan was founded in Pulaski, Tennesse. Ex-Confederate General, Nathan Bedford Forrest served as the first Grand Wizard. Between 1868 and 1871 nearly 4,000 African-American were lynched by the Klan and other vigilante groups.
1869 Hiram Revels, from Mississippi, became the first African-American to be elected to the US Senate.
1879, February 14, Blanche Bruce became the first African-American and the only former slave to preside over the U.S. Senate. He also was the first African-American to serve a full term as a US Senator. (Hiram Revels was the first Senator in 1869, but did not serve a full term.)
1906 The Brownsville Raid took place in Brownsville, Texas. President Teddy Roosevelt gave 167 African American Soldiers discharges without honor. It wasn't until the 1970's that the men were pardoned.
1910 Taft appointed William Lewis as an assistant to the attorney general. He was the first African American to hold such a high level position in the government.
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This page was last updated on March 11, 2013