istoryworld
Events relating to trade
The Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800, outlawing trade unions in Britain, are repealed
A network of undercover abolitionists in the southern states of America help slaves escape to freedom in the north
Nat Turner leads a revolt by fellow slaves in Southampton County, Virginia, killing 59 whites and provoking more repressive legislation
Under the leadership of William Lloyd Garrison a society is formed in the USA calling for the immediate abolition of slavery
Sarah and Angelina Grimké join the abolitionist crusade, each publishing a powerful anti-slavery pamphlet in the same year
The Portuguese ban the shipping of slaves from the coast of Angola
Mutiny by slaves on a Spanish vessel leads two years later to a significant abolitionist victory in the Amistad case
Britain sends four naval ships up the river Niger to make anti-slavery treaties with local kings
Isambard Kingdom Brunel launches the Great Britain, the first iron steamship designed for the transatlantic passenger trade
Escaped slave Frederick Douglass publishes the first of three volumes of autobiograrphy
The Wilmot Proviso is defeated in the US Senate, heightening north-south tensions on the issue of slavery
The Scottish missionary David Livingstone is profoundly shocked by what he sees of the slave trade at the heart of Africa
The slave trade, but not slavery itself, is banned in Washington and the district of Columbia
Brazil, historically the world's second largest importer of slaves from Africa, finally bans the slave trade
The US Congress passes the Compromise of 1850, designed to defuse the growing crisis over slavery
The Fugitive Slave Act, concerned with the arrest of runaway slaves, is the most contentious part of the Compromise of 1850
Escaped slave Harriet Tubman makes the first of many dangerous journeys back into Maryland to bring other slaves into freedom
Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes a massively successful antislavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, that sells 300,000 copies in its first year
An anti-slavery movement, formed in the USA to oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act, adopts a resonant name, calling itself the Republican party
Commodore Matthew Perry, commanding a powerful US fleet, persuades the Japanese to open their country to western trade – ending their period of isolation
The controversial Kansas-Nebraska Act passes into law, enabling citizens of these territories to decide whether or not to allow slavery
Abolitionist John Brown presides over the lynching of five pro-slavery men at Pottawatomie in Kansas
An ultra-reactionary Supreme Court judgement in the Dred Scott case heightens US tensions over slavery
Abraham Linclon comes to national prominence through his debates on slavery with Stephen Douglas, his rival for an Illinois seat in the Senate
John Brown is captured leading a group of abolitionists to seize arms from the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry
