…

  • 1777 – Slavery abolished in the State of Vermont
  • 1780 – Gradual emancipation law in Pennsylvania
  • 26 August, 1789 – Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
  • 8 March, 1790 – Right for the French colonies to propose local laws
  • 28 October, 1790 – Revolt led by free mulattoes in Port-au-Prince
  • 15 May, 1791 – Civil rights for free mulattoes and free negroes (libres de couleur) born from free parents (5 or 6 % of the free people of color. Most of the free people of color are rebuffed in their demand for political rights.
  • 1791 – Slave revolt in St. Domingue (Haiti) / 24 September, 1791 – Constituent Assembly declares the statute of the people in the colonies exceed its powers.
  • 28 September, 1791 – Constituent Assembly abolish slavery in France, where there are no slaves, according to the former decision of Louis XIV
  • 28 March, 1792 (royal decree of 4 April) – free people of color, (libres de couleur) obtain civil rights
  • 19 September, 1792 – Arrival of Sonthonax, government representative in St. Domingue
  • 29 August, 1793 – Sonthonax abolishes slavery in St. Domingue
  • October 1793 – French colonies form themselves into French departments
  • 4 February, 1794 – Decree of 16 pluviôse year II. abolishing Negro slavery in the colonies («l’esclavage des nègres dans les colonies») (French revolutionary calendar starts on 22 September, 1792, first day of the Republic)
  • 22 April, 1794 – Guadeloupe captured by British troops
  • 23 April, 1794 (4 floréal II) – Victor Hugues leaves France (île d’Aix) for Guadeloupe with, on board, the decree of 16 pluviôse II and the guillotine
  • 2 June, 1794 (14 prairial II) – Victor Hugues arrives in Guadeloupe, fights the English army and abolishes slavery.
  • 18 July, 1796 (30 messidor IV) – Baco et Burnel land in Port-Louis (Isle of France-Mauritius) with the decree of 16 pluviôse II but have to sail away. Slavery maintened in Réunion (Bourbon) and Mauritius.
  • January 1800 – Victor Hugues sent to French Guiana as chief administrator
  • 1801 – Bonaparte decides to establish slavery again
  • 30 Floréal X, (20 may, 1802) law maintaining slavery in colonies given back to France (Martinique, Tobago, Sainte-Lucie)
  • 28 May, 1802 – Guadeloupe – sacrifice of colonel « of color » Delgrès who resists and then suicides with 300 of his soldiers not to surrender to the Napoleonic troups. Black troops’ resistance crushed
  • 7 June, 1802 – St. Domingue – arrest of Toussaint Louverture
  • 1803 – Victor Hugues reorganizes slavery in French Guiana
  • 1807 – British Parliament abolish slave trade
  • 8 February, 1815 – Slave trade abolished by the Congress of Vienna
  • 1823 – Slavery abolished in Chile
  • 1824 – Slavery abolished in Central America
  • 1829 – Slavery abolished in Mexico
  • 1831 – Slavery abolished in Bolivia
  • 1833 – Slavery abolished throughout the British Empire. Beginning of the apprenticeship
  • Book – Victor Schœcher, Abolition immédiate de l’esclavage, (Abolish slavery now !)
  • 1838 – end of the apprenticeship in the British West Indies
  • 1845 – Mackau Laws – trying to "improve slavery" in order to prepar its abolition.
  • 1848, february – Revolution in France. Beginning of the Second Republic.
  • 1848, 4 March – Victor Schoelcher, in charge of the colonies – "No French territory can any longer stand slavery"
  • 10 April, 1848 – Trouble in Martinique, arrival of the decree of 4 March
  • 27 April – Slavery abolished by the Second French Republic
  • 22-23 May – Uprising of slaves in Martinique and Guadeloupe
  • 23-27 May – Slavery abolished in Martinique then in Guadeloupe
  • 3-5 June – Arrival of the decree of 27 April in Martinique then in Guadeloupe
  • 10 June – Arrival of the 27 April decree in French Guiana
  • 3 July 1848 – Governor General (generalguvernør) Peter Von Scholten declared the emancipation of slaves in the Danish West Indies (Vestindien – Us Virgin Islands 1917)
  • 17 July 1848 – the existence of the 27 April decree known in Réunion.
  • 10 August, 1848 – Slavery abolished in French Guiana
  • 14 October – arrival of Sarda Garriga, French Republic General Commissioner, with the decree of 27 April, to Réunion Island. White owners try to resist legaly
  • 20 December – Slavery abolished in Réunion Island
  • 1851 – Publication – H. Beecher-Stowe, Uncle Tom’s cabin
  • 1854 – Slavery abolished in Venezuela
  • 1863 – slavey abolished in the Dutch colonies
  • 1865 – US – Slavery abolished by 13th Amendment
  • 1873 – Slavery abolished in Puerto-Rico
  • 1880 – Slavery abolished in Cuba
  • 1888 – Slavery abolished in Brazil
  • Etc.

Special thanks to Denis McKee (Reims, France/IRL), Martin S. Staum (Calgary, Alb., Ca), Cathy Hart (Richmond, VA, US), David Andress (Portsmouth, UK), Linda Pagin (Swed.), Franck Turmel-Josek (Fr) and Suzanna Betzel (NY, US).