Skip to main content

The timeline can be navigated by dragging the pointer on the timeline bar, located at the bottom of the screen on the desktop version and on the left of the screen on mobile. To filter by a specific topic, make a selection on the dropdown “Filters” menu or click “Search” to do a keyword search. To learn more, click “Read More” below.

Read More
Painting of Black folks of all ages sitting on benches. Behind them, several white people gather closely. On stage, a white man in a hat.
Painting of an auction of enslaved Black people by Eyre Crowe (1861). (Photo: Heinz Collection)

Colonies make lifelong servitude for enslaved Africans mandatory.

1664

LLP
IS
BH
REL
SLA
Painting of an auction of enslaved Black people by Eyre Crowe (1861). (Photo: Heinz Collection)

A Maryland law passed in 1664 prevents enslaved people from obtaining their freedom via English legal precedents that allow it under particular circumstances. Similar laws are passed in the colonies of New York, New Jersey, the Carolinas, and Virginia, where a statute is passed declaring that enslaved African people who are baptized into Christianity are not exempt from bondage.