Notes

1619 The first African American indentured servants arrive in the American colonies. Less
than a decade later, the first slaves are brought into New Amsterdam (later, New York
City). By 1690, every colony has slaves.
1739 The Stono Rebellion, one of the earliest slave revolts, occurs in Stono, South Carolina.
1793 Eli Whitney’s (1765 – 1825) cotton gin increases the need for slaves.

1808 Congress bans further importation of slaves.
1831 In Boston, William Lloyd Garrison (1805 – 1879) begins publication of the anti-slavery
newspaper the Liberator and becomes a leading voice in the Abolitionist movement.
1831 – 1861 Approximately 75,000 slaves escape to the North using the Underground Railroad.
1846 Ex-slave Frederick Douglass (1818 – 1895) publishes the anti-slavery North Star
newspaper.
1848 Augustus Saint Gaudens (1848 – 1907) is born in Ireland. His family soon emigrates to the
United States.
1849 Harriet Tubman (c. 1820 – 1913) escapes from slavery and becomes an instrumental leader
of the Underground Railroad.
1850 Congress passes another Fugitive Slave Act, which mandates government participation in
the capture of escaped slaves.
Boston citizens, including some of the wealthiest, storm a federal courthouse in an attempt
to free escaped Virginia slave Anthony Burns (1834 – 1862).
1857 The Dred Scot v. Sanford case: congress does not have the right to ban slavery in the states;
slaves are not citizens.
1860 Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865) is elected president, angering the southern states.
1861 The Civil War begins.
1863 Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation proclaims that all slaves in rebellious
territories are forever free.
1863 Massachusetts 54th regiment of African American troops led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw
(1837 – 1863) marches out of Boston on May 28th, heading into combat.
1865 The Civil War ends.
Lincoln is assassinated. Seventeen-year-old Augustus Saint Gaudens is so moved by the
sight of Lincoln’s body lying in state that he views it twice.
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting slavery, is ratified.
The era of Reconstruction begins.
1866 The “Black Codes” are passed by all white legislators of the former