 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution (1865) |
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The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States except for as punishment for a crime. This exception has become a source of debate and controversy regarding the escalation of incarceration rates and the exploitation of incarcerated people for the benefit of corporate profits. The amendment was passed by Congress January 31, 1865, and ratified December 6, 1865.
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| 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution (1868) |
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The Fourteenth Amendment gave citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States. The Equal Protection clause drastically amended the Constitution and has been used by the Supreme Court to justify expansion of rights. The amendment was passed by Congress June 13, 1866, and ratified July 9, 1868.
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| 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution (1870) |
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The Fifteenth Amendment granted the right to vote to African American men by prohibiting the denial of suffrage based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The amendment was passed by Congress February 26, 1869, and ratified February 3, 1870.
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| Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves (1807) |
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The Act abolishes the slave trade in the United States but not the slave trade itself. This came at the same time Britain ended the slave trade, although Britain abolished all slavery several decades before the United States. The Constitution of the United States provided that the slave trade had to continue for 20 years past the document’s creation, and the slave trade was ended at the 20 year mark.
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| Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia Colony (1642-1705) |
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Between 1642 and 1705, Virginia Colony established a series of statutes that increasingly limited the rights of Indigenous and Black residents while expanding the rights of Europeans. These acts reflect the increasing racialization of the colonial legal code.
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| An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa (1788) |
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A first-person account of what the slave trade looked like and the conditions on slave ships. The account demonstrates the cognitive dissonance between understanding that enslaved people are humans and the profit-centered ways they were treated.
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| An Act Concerning Slaves and Servants (1813) |
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This act was one of several passed by the New York State Legislature relating to the gradual abolition of slavery. It details conditions for manumission and reiterates that any child born to an enslaved woman after July 4, 1799 would be born free, and establishes rules for the care of freedmen.
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| An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade (1807) |
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The Act abolishes the slave trade in and among British territories, but not the slave trade itself. This came at the same time the United States ended the slave trade, although Britain abolished all slavery several decades before the United States.
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| An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery (1799) |
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This act was the first of several passed by the New York State Legislature relating to the gradual abolition of slavery. It declared that any child born to an enslaved woman after July 4, 1799 would be born free, provided that the child serve the enslaver of his or her mother until they reach the age of twenty-eight years and twenty-five years respectively.
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| An Act Further to Protect Personal Liberty (1843) |
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This Massachusetts personal liberty law aimed to counteract the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 by forbidding state-level judges and law enforcement officers from arresting or detaining any person "for the reason that he is claimed as a fugitive slave."
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| An Act Relative to Slaves and Servants (1817) |
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This act was the last of several passed by the New York State Legislature relating to the gradual abolition of slavery. It set July 4, 1827, as the date of emancipation for enslaved people in the state who had been born before July 4, 1799.
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| An Act respecting slaves, free negroes and mulattoes (1847) |
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This Missouri law is one of the Black Codes designed to ensure white supremacy prior to the Civil War, limiting literacy and assembly for enslaved people as well as preventing interstate travel for free Black people.
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| An Act to continue in force and to amend "An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees,'' and for other Purposes (1866) |
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This act of Congress extended the Freedmen's Bureau until 1868. The Freedmen's Bureau was established during Reconstruction to manage the affairs of the formerly enslaved and refugees from the Civil War. President Andrew Johnson vetoed the bill, but the veto was overridden by Congress.
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| An Act to enable persons held in slavery, to sue for their freedom (1807) |
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This territorial statute presented an opportunity for enslaved people to sue for their freedom in Louisiana Territory courts. It also specified how petitioners were to be treated by defendants while the freedom suit was being heard.
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| An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees (1865) |
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This act of Congress created the Freedmen's Bureau in order to provide aid and support to the formerly-enslaved people across the South.
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| An Act to Prevent Kidnapping (1820) |
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This act is Pennsylvania's first personal liberty law. It was written to counteract the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 and preserve the ability of free Black people to live in Pennsylvania. The act made kidnapping any Black person a felony punishable by large fines and lengthy imprisonment. It also fined any state official that took cognizance of the case of "any fugitive from labor."
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| An Act to Prevent the Immigration of Free Negroes into this State (1853) |
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This Illinois law was prohibited African Americans from moving into the state. Part of the series of laws known as Black Codes, this law and others like it intended to ensure racial inequality prior to the Civil War. Black people who resided in the state for longer than ten days could face arrest, fines, and sale by auction. Any white citizen who reported their presence was given half of the fine paid by the Black person.
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| Ann v. Henry Hight (1816) |
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Ann was a Black woman indentured by a man who took her from Maryland to Illinois and finally into Missouri, contrary to an Illinois law that required the consent of the servant if they were taken beyond the state's borders. Upon her employer's death, the executor of his estate, Henry Hight, claimed her as a slave for life. Ann petitioned for her freedom in a Missouri court and won.
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| Ann Williams, Ann Maria Williams, Tobias Williams, & John Williams v. George Miller & George Miller Jr. (1832) |
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In this successful freedom suit, a mother petitioned for her freedom and that of her three children. While her claim for freedom was not recorded in the documents filed with the court, it was likely on the basis of Maryland's ban on the importation of enslaved people for the purpose of being sold. Ann Williams had been brought into the District of Columbia in 1815 to be sold south to Georgia. In response to the impending sale, 24 year old Ann leapt from the attic of the three-story tavern owned by George Miller. Her arms and back were broken in the fall, and she was purchased by the tavern keeper for $5. The jury in her case rendered a verdict for her freedom and that of her children.
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| Arch v. Barnabas Harris (1818) |
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This freedom suit illustrates how enslaved people presented a fundamental issue in the legal system. The central question in Arch's case was a question between personal liberty, enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, versus a right to personal property, also enshrined in the Declaration.
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| Articles of Peace and Amity (1666) |
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This treaty, signed between the English colony of Maryland and twelve Eastern Woodland Native American nations, stipulated the rights of Native peoples and their lands and established regulations for interactions between Native Americans and English colonists. The document reflects an already established relationship between the colonists and Native nations by 1666.
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| Aspisa v. Hardage Lane (1837) |
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In this freedom suit, Aspisa sued for her freedom, arguing that her mother's residence in the free Northwest Territory before being taken to St. Louis where Aspisa was born entitled her to her freedom. Aspisa had filed previously against former enslavers including Joseph Rosati, the first Bishop of Saint Louis. A jury decided in favor of Aspisa's freedom in 1839, however, in a subsequent trial, the court determined her status was enslaved.
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 Broadside Reacting to the Fugitive Slave Act (1851) |
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This broadside was distributed in Boston following the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
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| California Proposition 6 (2024) |
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A proposed amendment to the California that would have banned involuntary servitude as a punishment for a crime. This measure failed in the 2024 election, meaning the State of California remains one of 16 states that still allows forced labor. A similar ballot measure also failed in 2022.
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| Charles Mahoney v. John Ashton (1791) |
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This freedom suit was based on the claim that the petitioner was descended from a free Black woman who was an indentured servant when she arrived in colonial Maryland from England. Mahoney's attorneys invoked the Somerset principle, 18th century British case law, and even the Declaration of Independence to secure his freedom, but after three jury trials, Mahoney remained enslaved.
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