Timeline of key events

c.1000 Shona people establish the Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe

c.1066 Battle of Hastings

c.1130 Foundation of the Kingdom of Benin, West Africa

c.1215 The Magna Carta is signed

c.1235 Rise and expansion of the Kingdom of Mali

c.1347 The Black Death in Europe

c.1439 Portugal takes the Azores and explores the Gold Coast

c.1441 Portuguese take 10 African captives to Portugal

c.1444 Prince Henry of Portugal captures 235 Africans

c.1450 The Kingdom of Benin expands

c.1460 Sugar cultivated by African slaves in Madeira

c.1482 Portuguese build slave fortress

c.1484 Canary Islands begin to produce sugar using enslaved Africans

c.1492 Columbus lands in the Bahamas

c.1494 The Treaty of Tordesillas

c.1502 First enslaved Africans in the Americas

c.1506 King Afonso I opposes slave traders

c.1509 Reign of Henry VIII, King of England

c.1510 Ferdinand of Spain orders enslaved Africans to be imported

c.1535 Frey Bartolomé de las Casas advises that Africans would be better suited to work the plantations

c.1550 Approximately 10,000 enslaved Africans resident in Lisbon

c.1552 Rebellion of enslaved Africans in Hispaniola

c.1555 First enslaved Africans are brought to England

c.1562 Sir John Hawkins makes first known British slave trading voyage to Africa

c.1564 John Hawkins voyages to Sierra Leone

c.1565 Seville, Spain, has 5000 African residents

c.1580 The crowns of Portugal and Spain unite

c.1588 Spanish Armada

c.1591 Fall of the Songhay Kingdom

c.1592 Dutch end Portuguese monopoly

c.1600 Dutch enter the trade

c.1601 Elizabeth I expels African people

c.1607 Colony of Virginia is founded

c.1610 Up to 135,000 English go to the Caribbean

c.1618 British Crown allows the Guinea Company to trade with West Africa

c.1619 Beginning of the trade in enslaved Africans in Virginia

c.1620 Pilgrim Fathers set sail for America

c.1621 Dutch West India Co. established

c.1623 Thomas Warner founds settlement on St Kitts

c.1625 British occupy Barbados

c.1626 First ship of enslaved Africans arrives at St Kitts

c.1630 Queen Nzinga organises state of Matamba; former enslaved Africans can be free in Ndongo

c.1631 Charles I grants London merchants monopoly trade with Guinea

c.1636 Slave ship 'Desire' launched; American slave trade begins

c.1640 Sugar in Barbados

c.1649 Enslaved Africans revolt on Barbados

c.1651 Guinea Company founded in London

c.1652 Dutch establish colony at Cape of Good Hope

c.1652 First coffee house established in Britain.

c.1655 British capture Jamaica from Spain

c.1656 Enslaved Africans revolt in Guadeloupe

c.1657 Juan de Bolas surrenders to British

c.1668 Lobby’s rebellion in Jamaica

c.1672 Royal Africa Company formed to regulate trade in enslaved Africans

c.1675 Enslaved Africans executed

c.1678 Mutiny by enslaved Africans reported

c.1679 Enslaved Africans revolt in St Domingue

c.1683 Enslaved African conspiracy in Jamaica is uncovered

c.1685 Enslaved African rebellion

c.1689 British Parliament issues new charter to Royal African Company

c.1690 Major revolt by enslaved Africans in Jamaica

c.1692 Conspiracy to massacre plantation owners discovered

c.1698 Act of Parliament legalises British slave trade

c.1699 80% of Caribbean residents are enslaved Africans

c.1700 Asante empire unites under Osei Tutu

c.1702 War of the Spanish Succession

c.1713 Britain gains all of St Kitts

c.1719 Robinson Crusoe

c.1720 Rise of the Kingdom of Dahomey

c.1729 Ignatius Sancho

c.1730 Britain becomes the biggest slave trading country

c.1730 First Maroon War

c.1735 Tackey’s rebellion

c.1745 Olaudah Equiano

c.1746 Revolt of enslaved Africans in Jamaica

c.1750 Revolt of enslaved Africans aboard 'King David'

c.1752 Revolt of enslaved Africans in Martinique

c.1752 Royal African Company is dissolved

c.1759 William Wilberforce

c.1760 Thomas Clarkson

c.1760 Rebellion of Enslaved Africans in Jamaica

c.1761 Revolt of enslaved Africans in Nevis

c.1761 Dutch treaty with escaped enslaved Africans

c.1763 Treaty of Paris

c.1765 Uprising by enslaved Africans in Jamaica

c.1769 Granville Sharpe collects evidence

c.1772 Somerset case ruling

c.1772 John Stedman

c.1774 John Wesley denounces slavery

c.1774 Royal Commission set up regarding slave trade

c.1778 Slavery is declared illegal on Scottish soil

c.1778 The House of Commons appoints a Committee to investigate the British slave trade

c.1781 The Zong

c.1783 Zong insurance case heard

c.1786 Thomas Clarkson essay on slavery published

c.1787 Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade is set up

c.1787 Ottabah Cuguoano publishes first abolitionist book in English by an African

c.1787 Thomas Clarkson writes pamphlet 'A Summary View of the Slave Trade'

c.1788 The Dolben Act

c.1788 The Amacree Coin

c.1788 William Pitt introduces Bill to abolish the slave trade

c.1789 Olaudah Equiano publishes autobiography

c.1789 William Wilberforce delivers abolition speech

c.1791 Slave uprising in St Domingue starts revolution

c.1791 William Wilberforce presents first abolition bill to the Commons

c.1792 Commons votes to abolish slave trade; Lords rejects

c.1793 French Revolutionary War

c.1794 French revolutionary government abolishes slavery

c.1795 Second Maroon War in Jamaica

c.1795 Rebellion in St Vincent

c.1796 St Vincent expels Caribs from the island

c.1796 Napoleon restores slavery in the French colonies

c.1796 John Stedman publishes account of his experiences

c.1797 Wilberforce loses a motion to abolish the slave trade

c.1798 Toussaint L’Ouverture gains control of St Domingue

c.1800 Napoleon sends troops to re-establish slavery

c.1802 Toussaint L’Ouverture is taken prisoner

c.1802 Denmark abolishes the slave trade

c.1802 First West India dock opens

c.1803 Toussaint L’Ouverture dies

c.1803 Denmark abolishes transatlantic slave trade

c.1804 St Domingue renamed Haiti

c.1804 The Dutch abolish the slave trade

c.1805 Commons passes Bill for Abolition; Lords reject

c.1807 British Act of Parliament to abolish transatlantic slave trade

c.1807 Britain declares Sierra Leone a crown colony

c.1808 US ban trade in slaves from Africa

c.1808 British West Africa Squadron established

c.1815 Congress of Vienna

c.1816 Bussa’s rebellion in Barbados

c.1817 Slave Registration Act

c.1818 Frederick Douglas

c.1820 The Spanish abolish the slave trade

c.1823 Uprising of enslaved Africans in Demerara

c.1823 Society for the Migration and Gradual Abolition of Slavery

c.1824 Hanover Slave Rebellion in Jamaica

c.1830 Two million enslaved Africans in the US

c.1831 The Baptist War and other rebellions

c.1832 The Great Reform Act

c.1833 Bill passed for Emancipation Act

c.1833 Revolt against apprenticeship on St Kitts

c.1834 Act for the Abolition of Slavery passed as law throughout British Empire

c.1838 Apprenticeship scheme fails

c.1839 Enslaved Africans revolt on board 'Amistad'

c.1840 J.M.W. Turner's painting 'The Slave Ship' put on display

c.1841 US Supreme Court upholds freedom of those in 'Amistad' case

c.1842 Webster-Ashburton Treaty

c.1845 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

c.1848 Emancipation of enslaved Africans by the French

c.1849 Harriet Tubman & the Underground Railroad

c.1850 The Fugitive Slave Law (US)

c.1865 Slavery is abolished in America

c.1865 Uprising by Black Jamaicans in Morant Bay

c.1869 Portugal abolishes the slave trade

c.1870 1.5 million enslaved people in Brazil

c.1871 Fisk Jubilee Singers tour along the Underground Railroad Path

c.1873 Fisk Jubilee singers perform in Europe

c.1886 Slavery is abolished in Cuba

c.1888 Slavery is abolished in Brazil

c.1895 The Golliwog

c.1900 "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" composed

c.1912 First written blues published

c.1920 Mamie Smith records the first major 'race record'

c.1920 Abolition of slavery in colonies

c.1921 'Shuffle Along' musical

c.1925 Louis Armstrong - Hot Five / Hot Seven

c.1925 Paul Robeson debut as bass-baritone

c.1935 Slavery is abolished in Saudi Arabia

c.1939 Marian Anderson open air concert

c.1942 Ethiopia abolishes slavery

c.1956 Nat King Cole Show debut

c.1962 Saudi Arabia compensates owners

c.1963 Assassination of President J.F. Kennedy

c.1964 American Civil Rights Act is passed

c.1964 Nelson Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment

c.1965 Voting Rights Act in the United States is passed

c.1965 Assassination of Malcolm X

c.1968 Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr

c.1973 Trevor McDonald becomes Britain’s first Black newsreader

c.1976 Race Relations Act enforced (Britain)

c.1981 Brixton Riots

c.1987 Diane Abbott and Bernie Grant become MPs

c.1990 Apartheid ban lifted (South Africa)

c.1999 Togo and Benin pass legislation on trafficking children

c.2000 Mali and Cote d’Ivoire sign child trafficking treaty

c.2001 News of ship carrying child slaves

c.2007 Bicentenary anniversary of the British Abolition of the Slave Trade Act

c.2009 Barack Obama elected US President

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