Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, taking effect January 1, 1863, declares enslaved people in Confederate-held territory to be free, transforming the Civil War from a conflict to preserve the Union into a crusade against slavery. The proclamation faces immediate and violent opposition from …
Abraham LincolnNorthern DemocratsCopperheadsFrederick DouglassGeorge McClellanemancipationracismcopperheadsresistancewhite-supremacy+1 more
Fifty-three recently abducted Africans being transported aboard the Spanish schooner Amistad from Havana to Puerto Príncipe, Cuba revolt under the leadership of Joseph Cinqué, killing the captain and cook while sparing the Spanish navigator to sail them back to Sierra Leone. The Africans had been …
Joseph CinquéAmistad captivesJohn Quincy AdamsLewis TappanU.S. Supreme Courtslaveryinstitutional-corruptionresistancelegal-victoryinternational-law
Denmark Vesey, a free Black carpenter and Methodist leader who purchased his freedom in 1800 after winning a $1,500 lottery, allegedly plans the most extensive slave insurrection in U.S. history, organizing thousands of enslaved and free Blacks in Charleston, South Carolina to overthrow the …
Gabriel, a 24-year-old enslaved blacksmith from Brookfield plantation in Henrico County, Virginia, plans to lead what may be the most extensive slave rebellion in American history up to that point, with an estimated several thousand participants prepared to seize Richmond, kill white inhabitants …