Print

viii Chronology of Events 1804 New Jersey, the last northern state to do so, abolishes slav- ery, following Pennsylvania (1780), Massachusetts and New Hampshire (1783), Connecticut and Rhode Island (1784), Vermont (1791), and New York (1799). 1808 Importation of African slaves into the United States is out- lawed. 1822 Denmark Vesey plans a slave insurrection in South Carolina. 1826 Secretary of State Henry Clay unsuccessfully petitions Great Britain for the return of slave fugitives in Canada. 1829 David Walker publishes Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World. Wilberforce, the fi rst black settlement in Canada, is founded. 1831 The term “Underground Railroad” is coined following the ar- rival of steam-powered locomotives in the United States. The New England Anti-Slavery Society is founded. William Lloyd Garrison publishes the fi rst issue of the Liberator. Nat Turner’s rebellion in Virginia. 1833 The American Anti-Slavery Society is founded. 1842 The U.S. Supreme Court in Prigg v. Pennsylvania upholds the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act but declines to oblige the states to co- operate with federal offi cers enforcing it. The Canadian black settlement of Dawn is founded. 1844 Offi cials in Pensacola, Florida, brand S.S., for “Slave Stealer,” on Jonathan Walker’s palm after his unsuccessful attempt to sail seven slaves to freedom. Slave abductors Calvin Fairbank and Delia Webster are sen- tenced to prison terms in Kentucky. 1845 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave is published. 1847 The inaugural issue of North Star, an abolitionist paper co- edited by Frederick Douglass and Martin Delaney, is printed. 1848 Daniel Drayton, captain of the Pearl, tries to sail nearly 80 slaves out of Washington, D.C.