Remembering Slavery: Learning Guide: Chapter 1:Time Line

Chapter I.
INTRODUCTION:
SLAVERY AS MEMORY
AND HISTORY

Time Line

1619 The first African slaves are brought to America.

1777-1820 Northern states abolish slavery.

1807 The slave trade from Africa to the United States ends.

1831 Nat Turner's slave revolt.

1852 The publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, which depicts the horrors of slavery for a wide readership.

1857 The Dred Scott decision rules that the new western territories have no right to prohibit slavery.

1860 Abraham Lincoln is elected president on a Republican platform opposed to slavery; in response, most southern states secede by early 1861.

1861 The Civil War begins at Fort Sumter, South Carolina.

1863 Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves free in Confederate territory and enlisting African Americans in the military.

1865 The Confederacy is defeated and the Civil War ends. The 13th Amendment ending slavery is ratified.

1866 Congress passes the 14th Amendment, granting African American men citizenship and protecting their civil rights.

1867 Congress passes the Reconstruction Acts, dividing the South into five military districts and giving African American men the right to vote.

1870 The 15th Amendment, prohibiting states from denying the right to vote on the basis of race, is ratified.

1877 Rutherford B. Hayes becomes president and ends Reconstruction.

1877 Thomas Edison invents the phonograph.

1898 Valdemar Poulsen of Denmark invents the magnetic wire recorder, the precursor to the modern tape recorder.

1920s Scholars and historians, particularly from African-American colleges, begin interviewing former slaves.

1936-1938 As part of a larger project of collecting first-hand biographies of ordinary American people, the New Deal's Federal Writers' Project begins interviewing thousands of former slaves.

1930s-1940s A second group of scholars (including John, Ruby and Alan Lomax, Zora Neale Hurston, and John Henry Faulk), inspired by the Federal Writers' Project but working independently, begins tape-recording the spoken words of former slaves.

1960s The Civil Rights Movement sparks a growing interest in slavery and slave narratives.

1990s New technology enables the old, aluminum disks upon which the original interviews with former slaves were recorded to be "remastered," vastly improving the quality and audibility of the recordings.

FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS:
As with all historical sources and documents, this Time Line should be read with a critical eye. Think about the ways in which it helps provide context for the interviews with former slaves, but also the ways in which it is limited. What events are not included? What kind of perspective does a Time Line provide? What are alternative ways to provide background or an overview of a particular period? What other ways might one organize this overview other than a chronological "line"? You might try creating your own time line, or adding to this one.

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1619	The first African slaves are brought to America.
1777-1820	Northern states abolish slavery.
1807	The slave trade from Africa to the United States ends.
1831	Nat Turner's slave revolt.
1852	The publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, which depicts the horrors of slavery for a wide readership.
1857	The Dred Scott decision rules that the new western territories have no right to prohibit slavery.
1860	Abraham Lincoln is elected president on a Republican platform opposed to slavery; in response, most southern states secede by early 1861.
1861	The Civil War begins at Fort Sumter, South Carolina.
1863	Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves free in Confederate territory and enlisting African Americans in the military.
1865	The Confederacy is defeated and the Civil War ends. The 13th Amendment ending slavery is ratified.
1866	Congress passes the 14th Amendment, granting African American men citizenship and protecting their civil rights.
1867	Congress passes the Reconstruction Acts, dividing the South into five military districts and giving African American men the right to vote.
1870	The 15th Amendment, prohibiting states from denying the right to vote on the basis of race, is ratified.
1877	Rutherford B. Hayes becomes president and ends Reconstruction.
1877	Thomas Edison invents the phonograph.
1898	Valdemar Poulsen of Denmark invents the magnetic wire recorder, the precursor to the modern tape recorder.
1920s	Scholars and historians, particularly from African-American colleges, begin interviewing former slaves.
1936-1938	As part of a larger project of collecting first-hand biographies of ordinary American people, the New Deal's Federal Writers' Project begins interviewing thousands of former slaves.
1930s-1940s	A second group of scholars (including John, Ruby and Alan Lomax, Zora Neale Hurston, and John Henry Faulk), inspired by the Federal Writers' Project but working independently, begins tape-recording the spoken words of former slaves.
1960s	The Civil Rights Movement sparks a growing interest in slavery and slave narratives.
1990s	New technology enables the old, aluminum disks upon which the original interviews with former slaves were recorded to be "remastered," vastly improving the quality and audibility of the recordings.

Chapter I. INTRODUCTION: SLAVERY AS MEMORY AND HISTORY

Chapter I.
INTRODUCTION:
SLAVERY AS MEMORY
AND HISTORY