PAS in Context: A Timeline

PAS in Context: A Timeline

 

1688 First protest against slavery by Quakers of Germantown

1775 Formation of the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes unlawfully held in Bondage at the Sun Tavern

1777 Vermont is the first state to abolish slavery

1780 Pennsylvania legislature passes act for the gradual abolition of slavery

1784 PAS resumes activities

1787     PAS revises constitution to include non-Quaker membership
  Benjamin Franklin elected honorary president
  Richard Allen and Absalom Jones organize the Free African Society
  The Northwest Ordinance outlaws slavery in the region northwest of the Ohio River
 

The Constitution of the United States allows a male slave to count as three-fifths of a man in determining representation in the House of Representatives.

1788         

PA amends 1790 slavery act to forbid removal of African Americans from the state

1790

Society incorporated. PAS creates Committee for the Improvement of the Condition of Free  Negroes

1793

First fugitive slave law enacted by US Congress

 

Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin, making possible the expansion of slavery in the South

1794

First American Anti-Slavery Convention held in Philadelphia

 

PAS Committee on Education establishes a school for black males.

 

First census of African American community conducted by PAS

 

Richard Allen founds the Mother Bethel African Methodist Church

1803

Benjamin Rush elected president of PAS

1808

Federal law enacted prohibiting the importation of African slaves

1813

PAS forms a new Committee on Education and erects a school building on Cherry Street that will become Clarkson Hall

1818

American Colonization Society formed

1820

Missouri Compromise

1822

Denmark Vesey conspiracy

1826

Pennsylvania legislature passes personal liberty law

1827

Pennsylvania Free Produce Association formed in Philadelphia

1828

Second PAS census of free African American community

1829

Clarkson Institute formed

 

David Walker's militant antislavery pamphlet, An Appeal to the Colored People of The World, is published

 

First National Negro Convention meets in Philadelphia

1831

Nat Turner revolt

1832

Nullification Crisis

1833

Formation of the American Anti-Slavery Society and the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society

1837

New Pennsylvania constitution disenfranchises African Americans

1839

Formation of Vigilant Committee

1838

Formation of the American Free Produce Association

 

Burning of Pennsylvania Hall

 

Third PAS census of free African American community

1840

Organization of Liberty Party, first anti-slavery political party

1842

Prigg v. Pennsylvania declares PA personal liberty laws unconstitutional

1843

PAS opens the Lombard Street Infant School

1847

N. Kite’s PAS census of free African American community

 

Pennsylvania passes personal liberty law requiring trial by jury for accused fugitive slaves

1848

Free Soil Party organized

1849

Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery

1850

Fugitive Slave Act passes as part of the Compromise of 1850

1857

Dred Scott decision

 

William Still begins his UGRR journal

1859

John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry