| Date |
Jurisdiction |
Description |
| ~500 |
Ireland |
Slavery (or at least slave trading) ends for a time in Ireland,[5] but resumes by the ninth century.[6] |
| 873 |
Christendom |
Pope John VIII commands under penalty of sin that all Christians who hold other Christians as slaves must set them free. [7] |
| 960 |
Venice |
Doge Pietro IV Candiano reconvenes the popular assembly and had it approve of a law prohibiting the slave trade in the Italian city-state. |
| 1080 |
Normandy and England |
William the Conqueror prohibits the sale of any person to "heathens" (non-Christians) as slaves. |
| 1100 |
Normandy |
Serfdom no longer present.[8] |
| 1102 |
England |
Slave trade and serfdom are condemned by the Church at the Council of London. |
| 1117 |
Iceland |
Slavery abolished.[9] Reintroduced as Vistarband from 1490 to 1894 in various forms. |
| 1214 |
Korčula |
The Statute of the Town abolishes slavery.[10] |
| 1215 |
England |
Magna Carta signed. Clause 30, commonly known as Habeas Corpus, would form the basis of a law against slavery in English common law. |
| ~1220 |
Holy Roman Empire |
The Sachsenspiegel, the most influential German code of law from the Middle Ages, condemns slavery as a violation of man's likeness to God.[11] |
| 1256 |
Holy Roman Empire |
The Liber Paradisus is promulgated. Bologna abolishes slavery and serfdom and releases all the serfs in its territories. |
| 1274 |
Norway |
Landslov (Land's Law) mentions only former slaves, implying that slavery was abolished in Norway. |
| 1290 |
England |
Edward I passes Quia Emptores, breaking any indenture to an estate, on the sale or transfer of the estate. |
| 1315 |
France |
Louis X publishes a decree abolishing slavery and proclaiming that "France signifies freedom", that any slave setting foot on French ground should be freed.[12] However some limited cases of slavery continued till the 17th century in some of France's Mediterranean harbours in Provence, as well as till the 18th century in some of France's overseas territories.[13] Most aspects of serfdom are also eliminated de facto between 1315 and 1318.[14] |
| 1335 |
Sweden |
Slavery abolished (including Sweden's territory in Finland). However, slaves are not banned entry into the country until 1813.[15] In the 18th and 19th Centuries, slavery will be practiced in the Swedish-ruled Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy. |
| 1347 |
Poland |
The Statutes of Casimir the Great issued in Wiślica emancipate all non-free people.[16] |
| 1368 |
Ming Dynasty |
The Hongwu Emperor abolishes all forms of slavery,[3] but it continues across China. Later rulers, as a way of limiting slavery in the absence of a prohibition, pass a decree that limits the number of slaves per household and extracts a severe tax from slave owners.[17] |
| 1416 |
Ragusa |
Slavery and slave trade abolished. |
| 1435 |
Canary Islands |
Pope Eugene IV's Sicut Dudum bans enslavement of Christians in the Canary Islands on pain of excommunication.[18] However the non-Christian Guanches can still be enslaved.[13] |
| 1477 |
Castile |
Isabella I bans slavery in newly conquered territories.[19] |
| 1486 |
Aragon |
Ferdinand II promulgates the Sentence of Guadalupe, abolishing Carolingian-remnant serfdom (remença) in Old Catalonia. |
| 1490 |
Castile |
The slaves of one particular trader are released by a royal cedula.[20] |
| 1493 |
Castile |
Queen Isabella bans the enslavement of Native Americans unless they are hostile or cannibalistic.[21] Native Americans are ruled to be subjects of the Crown. Columbus is preempted from selling Indian captives in Seville and those already sold are tracked, purchased from their buyers and released. |
| Date |
Jurisdiction |
Description |
| 1503 |
Castile |
Native Americans only allowed to travel to Spain on their own free will.[22] |
| 1512 |
Castile |
The Laws of Burgos establish limits to the treatment of natives in the Encomienda system. |
| 1518 |
Spain |
Decree of Charles V establishing the importation of African slaves to the Americas, under monopoly of Laurent de Gouvenot, in an attempt to discourage enslavement of Native Americans. |
| 1528 |
Spain |
Charles V forbids the transportation of Native Americans to Europe, even on their own will, in an effort to curtail their enslavement. |
| 1530 |
Spain |
Outright slavery of Native Americans under any circumstance is banned. However, forced labor under the Encomienda system continues. |
| 1536 |
Spain |
The Welser family is dispossessed of the Asiento monopoly (granted in 1528) following complains about their treatment of Native American workers in Venezuela. |
| 1537 |
New World |
Pope Paul III forbids slavery of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and any other population to be discovered, establishing their right to freedom and property (Sublimis Deus).[23] |
| 1542 |
Spain |
The New Laws ban slave raiding in the Americas and abolish the slavery of natives, but replace it with other systems of forced labor like the repartimiento. Slavery of Black Africans continues.[13] New limits are imposed to the Encomienda. |
| 1549 |
Spain |
Encomiendas banned from using forced labor. |
| 1552 |
Spain |
Bartolomé de las Casas, who had once defended the importation of African slaves as a way to protect Native Americans, also condemns African slavery. |
| 1569 |
England |
An English court case involving Cartwright, who had brought a slave from Russia, is said on the basis of a summary written more than a century later, to have ruled slavery illegal in England, but appears to have been more about the nature of legally acceptable punishment than slavery per se, and certainly did not soon become a recognized precedent for outlawing slavery as slaves continued to be bought and sold in Liverpool and London markets without legal hindrance into the 18th century. See the article "Slavery at common law". |
| 1574 |
England |
Last remaining serfs emancipated by Elizabeth I.[24] |
| 1588 |
Lithuania |
The Third Statute of Lithuania abolishes slavery.[25] |
| 1590 |
Japan |
Toyotomi Hideyoshi bans slavery except as punishment for criminals.[26] |
| 1595 |
Portugal |
Trade of Chinese slaves banned.[27] |
| 1609 |
Spain |
The Moriscos, many of whom are serfs, are expelled from Peninsular Spain unless they become slaves voluntarily (known as moros cortados, "cut Moors").[28] |
| 1624 |
Portugal |
Enslavement of Chinese banned.[29][30] |
| 1640 |
Virginia |
John Punch, an African indentured servant, is sentenced to lifetime slavery after his third attempt to run out on his contract. He is considered the first known black slave in British North America, although his son, John Bunch, was born free and owned land and slaves himself. Punch's descendants include former US president Barack Obama. |
| 1683 |
Chile |
Slavery of Mapuche prisoners of war abolished.[31] |
| 1687 |
Florida |
Slaves fugitive from British colonies are granted freedom in return for conversion to Catholicism and four years of military service. |
| Date |
Jurisdiction |
Description |
| 1706 |
England |
In Smith v. Browne & Cooper, Sir John Holt, Lord Chief Justice of England, rules that "as soon as a Negro comes into England, he becomes free. One may be a villein in England, but not a slave."[32][33] |
| 1723 |
Russia |
Slavery abolished but serfdom retained.[34] |
| 1723-1730 |
Qing Dynasty |
The Yongzheng emancipation seeks to free all slaves to strengthen the autocratic ruler through a kind of social leveling that creates an undifferentiated class of free subjects under the throne. Although these new regulations freed the vast majority of slaves, wealthy families continued to use slave labor into the twentieth century.[17] |
| 1706 |
Georgia |
Province established without black slavery in sharp contrast to neighboring Carolina. In 1738, James Oglethorpe warns against changing that policy, which would "occasion the misery of thousands in Africa."[35] Native American slavery is legal throughout, however, and black slavery is later introduced in 1749. |
| 1712 |
Spain |
Moros cortados expelled.[36] |
| 1715 |
North Carolina
South Carolina |
Local Native American slavery dies out with the outbreak of the Yamasee War. |
| 1738 |
Florida |
Fort Mose, the first legal settlement of free blacks in the modern territory of the United States, is established. Word of the settlement sparks the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina the following year. |
| 1761 |
Portugal |
The Marquis of Pombal bans the importation of slaves to metropolitan Portugal[37] |
| 1766 |
Spain |
Muhammad III of Morocco purchases the freedom of all Muslim slaves in Seville, Cadiz and Barcelona.[38] |
| 1772 |
United Kingdom |
Somersett's case rules that no slave can be forcibly removed from Britain. This case was generally taken at the time to have decided that the condition of slavery did not exist under English law in England and Wales, and emancipated the remaining ten to fourteen thousand slaves or possible slaves in England and Wales, who were mostly domestic servants.[39] |
| 1773 |
Portugal |
Fourth-generation slaves emancipated.[40] |
| 1775 |
Pennsylvania |
Pennsylvania Abolition Society formed in Philadelphia, the first abolition society within the territory that is now the United States of America. |
| 1775-1783 |
United States |
Atlantic slave trade banned or suspended.[41] |
| 1777 |
Madeira |
Slavery abolished.[42] |
| 1777 |
Vermont |
The Constitution of the Vermont Republic partially bans slavery,[42] freeing men over 21 and women older than 18 at the time of its passage.[43] The ban is not strongly enforced.[44] |
| 1778 |
Scotland |
Joseph Knight successfully argues that Scots law cannot support the status of slavery.[45] |
| 1780 |
Pennsylvania |
An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery passed, freeing future children of slaves. Those born prior to the Act remain enslaved for life. The Act becomes a model for other Northern states. Last slaves freed 1847.[46] |
| 1783 |
Russia |
Slavery abolished in the recently annexed Crimean Khanate.[47] |
| 1783 |
Massachusetts |
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules slavery unconstitutional, a decision based on the 1780 Massachusetts constitution. All slaves are immediately freed.[48] |
| 1783 |
Habsburg Monarchy |
Joseph II abolishes slavery in Bukovina.[49] |
| 1783 |
New Hampshire |
Gradual abolition of slavery begins. |
| 1784 |
Connecticut |
Gradual aboliton of slavery, freeing future children of slaves, and later all slaves.[50] |
| 1784 |
Rhode Island |
Gradual abolition of slavery begins. |
| 1786 |
New South Wales |
A no slavery policy is adopted by governor-designate Arthur Phillip for the soon-to-be established colony.[51] |
| 1787 |
United States |
The United States in Congress Assembled passes the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, outlawing any new slavery in the Northwest Territories. |
| 1787 |
Sierra Leone |
Founded by Britain as a colony for emancipated slaves.[52] |
| 1787 |
United Kingdom |
Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade founded in Britain.[42] |
| 1788 |
United Kingdom |
Sir William Dolben's Act regulating the conditions on British slave ships enacted. |
| 1788 |
France |
Abolitionist Society of the Friends of the Blacks founded in Paris. |
| 1789 |
France |
Last remaining seigneurial privileges over peasants abolished.[53] |
| 1791 |
France |
Emancipation of second generation slaves in the colonies.[54] |
| 1792 |
Denmark-Norway |
Transatlantic slave trade declared illegal after 1803, though slavery continues in Danish colonies to 1848.[55] |
| 1793 |
Saint-Domingue |
Commissioner Leger-Felicite Sonthonax abolishes slavery in the northern part of the colony. His colleague Etienne Polverel does the same in the rest of the territory in October. |
| 1793 |
Upper Canada |
Importation of slaves banned by the Act Against Slavery. |
| 1794 |
France |
Slavery abolished in all French territories and posessions.[56] |
| 1794 |
United States |
The Slave Trade Act bans both American ships from participating in the slave trade and the importation of slaves by foreign ships.[41] |
| 1798 |
Occupied Malta |
Slavery banned in the islands after their capture by Napoleon.[57] |
| 1799 |
New York |
Gradual emancipation act freeing the future children of slaves, and all slaves in 1827.[58] |
| 1799 |
Scotland |
The Colliers (Scotland) Act 1799 ends the legal slavery of coal miners that had been established in 1606.[59] |
| Date |
Jurisdiction |
Description |
| 1800 |
United States |
American citizens banned from investment and employment in the international slave trade in an additional Slave Trade Act. |
| 1802 |
France |
Napoleon re-introduces slavery in sugarcane-growing colonies.[60] |
| 1802 |
Ohio |
State constitution abolishes slavery. |
| 1803 |
Denmark-Norway |
Abolition of transatlantic slave trade takes effect on January 1. |
| 1804 |
New Jersey |
Gradual abolition of slavery begins, freeing future children of slaves.[50] Those born prior to the Act remain enslaved for life. The process later becomes complete with the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865. |
| 1804 |
Haiti |
Haiti declares independence and abolishes slavery.[42] |
| 1804-1813 |
Serbia |
Local slaves emancipated. |
| 1805 |
United Kingdom |
A bill for abolition passes in House of Commons but is rejected in the House of Lords. |
| 1806 |
United States |
In a message to Congress, Thomas Jefferson calls for criminalizing the international slave trade, asking Congress to "withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further participation in those violations of human rights … which the morality, the reputation, and the best of our country have long been eager to proscribe." |
| 1807 |
United States |
International slave trade made a felony in Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves; this act takes effect on 1 January 1808.[61] |
| 1807 |
United Kingdom |
Abolition of the Slave Trade Act abolishes slave trading in British Empire. Captains fined £120 per slave transported. |
| 1807 |
Warsaw |
Constitution abolishes serfdom.[62] |
| 1807 |
United Kingdom |
Patrols sent to the African coast to arrest slaving vessels. The West Africa Squadron (Royal Navy) is established to suppress slave trading; by 1865, nearly 150,000 people freed by anti-slavery operations.[63] |
| 1807 |
Prussia |
The Stein-Hardenberg Reforms abolish serfdom.[62] |
| 1807 |
Michigan Territory |
Judge Augustus Woodward denies the return of two slaves owned by a man in Windsor, Upper Canada. Woodward declares that any man "coming into this Territory is by law of the land a freeman."[64] |
| 1808 |
United States |
Importation and exportation of slaves made a crime.[65] |
| 1810 |
New Spain |
Independence leader Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla demands the abolition of slavery. |
| 1811 |
United Kingdom |
Slave trading made a felony punishable by transportation for both British subjects and foreigners. |
| 1811 |
Spain |
The Cadiz Cortes abolish the last remaining seigneurial rights.[66] |
| 1811 |
Chile |
The First National Congress approves a proposal of Manuel de Salas that declares Freedom of Wombs, freeing the children of slaves born in Chilean territory, regardless of their parents' condition. The slave trade is banned and the slaves who stay for more than six months in Chilean territory are automatically declared freedmen. |
| 1812 |
Spain |
The Cadiz Constitution gives citizenship and equal rights to all residents in Spain and her colonies, excluding slaves. Deputies José Miguel Guridi y Alcocer and Agustín Argüelles argue for the abolition of slavery unsuccessfully.[67] |
| 1813 |
New Spain |
Independence leader José María Morelos y Pavón declares slavery abolished in the documents Sentimientos de la Nación. |
| 1813 |
La Plata |
Law of Wombs passed by the Assembly of Year XIII. The law states that those born after 31 January 1813 will be granted freedom when contracting matrimony, or on their 16th birthday for women and 20th for men, and upon their manumission will be given land and tools to work it.[68] |
| 1814 |
La Plata |
After the occupation of Montevideo, all slaves born in modern Uruguayan territory are declared free. |
| 1814 |
Netherlands |
Slave trade abolished. |
| 1815 |
Portugal |
Slave trade banned north of the Equator in return for a £750,000 payment by Britain.[69] |
| 1815 |
United Kingdom
Portugal
Sweden-Norway
France
Austria
Russia
Spain
Prussia |
The Congress of Vienna declares its opposition to slavery.[70] |
| 1816 |
Estonia |
Serfdom abolished. |
| 1817 |
Courland |
Serfdom abolished. |
| 1817 |
Spain |
Ferdinand VII signs a cedula banning the importation of slaves in Spanish posessions beginning in 1820,[71] in return for a £400,000 payment from Britain.[72] However, some slaves are still smuggled in after this date. |
| 1817 |
Venezuela |
Simon Bolivar calls for the abolition of slavery.[73] |
| 1817 |
New York |
4 July 1827 set as date to free all ex-slaves from indenture.[74] |
| 1817 |
La Plata |
Constitution supports the abolition of slavery, but does not ban it.[75] |
| 1818 |
United Kingdom
Spain |
Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.[76] |
| 1818 |
United Kingdom
Portugal |
Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.[76] |
| 1818 |
France |
Slave trade banned. |
| 1818 |
United Kingdom
Netherlands |
Bilateral treaty taking additional measures to enforce the 1814 ban on slave trading.[76] |
| 1819 |
Livonia |
Serfdom abolished. |
| 1819 |
Upper Canada |
Attorney-General John Robinson declares all black residents free. |
| 1819 |
Hawaii |
The ancient Hawaiian kapu system is abolished during the ʻAi Noa, and with it the distinction between the kauwā slave class and the makaʻāinana (commoners).[77] |
| 1820 |
United States |
The Compromise of 1820 bans slavery north of the 36º 30' line. |
| 1820 |
Indiana |
The supreme court orders almost all slaves in the state to be freed in Polly v. Lasselle. |
| 1821 |
Mexico |
The Plan of Iguala frees the slaves born in Mexico.[78] |
| 1821 |
Peru |
Abolition of slave trade and implementation of a plan to gradually end slavery.[79] |
| 1821 |
Gran Colombia |
Emancipation for sons and daughters born to slave mothers, program for compensated emancipation set.[80] |
| 1822 |
Haiti |
Jean Pierre Boyer annexes Spanish Haiti and abolishes slavery there. |
| 1822 |
Liberia |
Founded by the American Colonization Society as a colony for emancipated slaves. |
| 1822 |
Greece |
Slavery abolished with independence. |
| 1823 |
Chile |
Slavery abolished.[42] |
| 1823 |
United Kingdom |
The Anti-Slavery Society is founded. |
| 1824 |
Mexico |
The new constitution effectively abolishes slavery. |
| 1824 |
Central America |
Slavery abolished. |
| 1825 |
Uruguay |
Importation of slaves banned. |
| 1827 |
United Kingdom
Sweden-Norway |
Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.[76] |
| 1827 |
New York |
Last vestiges of slavery abolished. Children born between 1799 and 1827 are indentured until age 25 (females) or age 28 (males).[81] |
| 1828 |
Illinois |
In Phoebe v. Jay, the Illinois Supreme Court rules that indentured servants in Illinois cannot be treated as chattel and bequeathing them by will is illegal. [82] |
| 1829 |
Mexico |
Last slaves freed just as the first president of partial African ancestry (Vicente Guerrero) is elected.[42] |
| Date |
Jurisdiction |
Description |
| 1830 |
Coahuila y Tejas |
Mexican President Anastasio Bustamante attempts to implement the abolition of slavery. To circumvent the law, Anglo-Texans declare their slaves "indentured servants for life."[83] |
| 1830 |
Uruguay |
Slavery abolished. |
| 1831 |
Bolivia |
Slavery abolished.[42] |
| 1831 |
Brazil |
Law of 7 November 1831, abolishing the maritime slave trade, banning any importation of slaves, and granting freedom to slaves illegally imported into Brazil. The law was seldom enforced prior to 1850, when Brazil, under British pressure, adopted additional legislation to criminalize the importation of slaves. |
| 1834 |
United Kingdom |
The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into force, abolishing slavery throughout most of the British Empire but on a gradual basis over the next six years.[84] Legally frees 700,000 in the West Indies, 20,000 in Mauritius, and 40,000 in South Africa. The exceptions are the territories controlled by the East India Company and Ceylon.[85] |
| 1834 |
France |
French Society for the Abolition of Slavery founded in Paris.[86] |
| 1835 |
Serbia |
Freedom granted to all foreign slaves that cross the autonomous principality's borders.[87] |
| 1835 |
United Kingdom
France |
Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.[76] |
| 1835 |
United Kingdom
Denmark |
Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.[76] |
| 1835 |
Peru |
A decree of Felipe Santiago Salaverry re-legalizes the importation of slaves from other Latin American countries. The line "no slave shall enter Peru without becoming free" is taken out of the Constitution in 1839.[88] |
| 1836 |
Portugal |
Transatlantic slave trade abolished. |
| 1836 |
Texas |
Slavery made legal again with independence. |
| 1836 |
Portugal |
Prime Minister Sá da Bandeira bans the importation and exportation of slaves from or to the Portuguese colonies south of the equator. |
| 1837 |
Spain |
Slavery abolished outside of the colonies.[89] |
| 1838 |
United Kingdom |
All slaves in the colonies become free after a period of forced apprenticeship following the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. |
| 1839 |
United Kingdom |
The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (today known as Anti-Slavery International) replaces the Anti-Slavery Society. |
| 1839 |
East India Company |
The Indian indenture system is abolished in territories controlled by the Company, but this is reversed in 1842. |
| 1840 |
United Kingdom
Venezuela |
Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade. |
| 1840 |
United Kingdom |
First World Anti-Slavery Convention meets in London. |
| 1841 |
United Kingdom
France
Russia
Prussia
Austria |
Quintuple Treaty agreeing to suppress the slave trade.[42] |
| 1841 |
United States |
United_States_v._The_Amistad finds that the slaves of La Amistad were illegally enslaved and were legally allowed, as free men, to fight their captors by any means necessary. |
| 1842 |
United Kingdom
Portugal |
Bilateral treaty extending the enforcement of the slave trade ban to Portuguese ships south of the Equator. |
| 1842 |
Paraguay |
Law for the gradual abolition of slavery passed.[90] |
| 1843 |
East India Company |
The Indian Slavery Act, 1843, Act V abolishes slavery in territories controlled by the Company. |
| 1843 |
United Kingdom
Uruguay |
Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.[76] |
| 1843 |
United Kingdom
Mexico |
Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.[76] |
| 1843 |
United Kingdom
Chile |
Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.[76] |
| 1843 |
United Kingdom
Bolivia |
Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.[76] |
| 1845 |
United Kingdom |
36 Royal Navy ships assigned to the Anti-Slavery Squadron, making it one of the largest fleets in the world. |
| 1845 |
Illinois |
In Jarrot v. Jarrot, the Illinois Supreme Court frees the last indentured ex-slaves in the state who were born after the Northwest Ordinance.[82] |
| 1846 |
Tunisia |
Ahmad I ibn Mustafa abolishes the slave trade under British pressure, but this is later reversed by his successr, Muhammad II ibn al-Husayn.[91] |
| 1847 |
Ottoman Empire |
Slave trade from Africa abolished.[92] |
| 1847 |
Saint Barthélemy |
Last slaves freed.[93] |
| 1847 |
Pennsylvania |
The last indentured ex-slaves, born before 1780 (fewer than 100 in the 1840 census[94]) are freed. |
| 1848 |
Austria |
Serfdom abolished.[95][96][97] |
| 1848 |
France |
Slavery abolished in the colonies. Gabon is founded as a settlement for emancipated slaves. |
| 1848 |
Danish West Indies |
Slavery abolished.[42][93] |
| 1848 |
United Kingdom
Muscat and Oman |
Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.[76] |
| 1849 |
United Kingdom
Trucial States |
Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.[76] |
| 1849 |
Maryland |
Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Dorchester County. |
| 1849 |
Sierra Leone |
The Royal Navy destroys the slave factory of Lomboko. |
| Date |
Jurisdiction |
Description |
| 1850 |
United States |
The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 requires the return of escaped slaves to their owners regardless of the state they are in. |
| 1850 |
Brazil |
Eusébio de Queiróz Act (Law 581 of 4 September 1850) criminalizing the maritime slave trade as piracy, and imposing other criminal sanctions on the importation of slaves (already banned in 1831). |
| 1851 |
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom |
Slavery abolished along with opium, gambling, tobacco, alcohol, polygamy, prostitution and foot binding.[98][99][100] |
| 1851 |
New Granada |
Slavery abolished.[80] |
| 1851 |
Ecuador |
Slavery abolished.[101] |
| 1852 |
Hawaii |
Slavery abolished.[102] |
| 1853 |
Argentina |
Slavery abolished.[103] |
| 1854 |
Peru |
Slavery abolished.[42] |
| 1854 |
Venezuela |
Slavery abolished.[42][80] |
| 1855 |
Moldavia |
Slavery abolished. |
| 1856 |
Wallachia |
Slavery abolished. |
| 1857 |
United States |
Dred Scott v. Sanford rules that black slaves and their descendants can't gain American citizenship and that slaves aren't entitled to freedom even if they live in a free state for years. |
| 1859 |
Atlantic Ocean |
Definitive suppression of the transatlantic slave trade. |
| 1859 |
United States |
The Wyandotte Constitution establishes the future state of Kansas as a free state, after four years of armed conflict between pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups in the territory. Southern dominance in the Senate of the United States delays the admision of Kansas as a state until 1861. |
| 1860 |
British Raj |
Indian indenture system abolished. |
| 1861 |
Russia |
The Emancipation reform of 1861 abolishes serfdom.[104] |
| 1861 |
United States |
The election of abolitionist Abraham Lincoln leads to the attempted secession of several slaveholding states and the American Civil War. |
| 1862 |
United States
United Kingdom |
Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade (African Slave Trade Treaty Act).[76] |
| 1862 |
Cuba |
Slave trade abolished.[42] |
| 1863 |
Netherlands |
Slavery abolished in the colonies, emancipating 33,000 slaves in Surinam, 12,000 in the Dutch Antilles,[105] and an indeterminate number in Indonesia. |
| 1863 |
United States |
Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in Confederate-controlled areas. Most slaves in "border states" are freed by state action, and a separate law frees the slaves in Washington, D.C. |
| 1864 |
Poland |
Serfdom abolished.[106] |
| 1865 |
United States |
Slavery abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment, excluding convicted criminals. It affects 40,000 remaining slaves.[107] However, many Southern states soon enact draconian Black Codes that force freedmen into involuntary servitude and peonage. |
| 1865 |
Spain |
Spanish Abolitionist Society founded in Madrid by Julio Vizcarrondo, José Julián Acosta and Joaquín Sanromá.[108] |
| 1866 |
Indian Territory |
Slavery abolished.[109] |
| 1867 |
Spain |
Law of Repression and Punishment of the Slave Trade.[110] |
| 1867 |
United States |
Peonage Act of 1867, mostly targeting use of Native American peons in New Mexico Territory. |
| 1868 |
Cuba |
Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and other independence leaders free their slaves and proclaim the independence of Cuba, starting the Ten Years War. |
| 1869 |
Portugal |
Louis I abolishes slavery in all Portuguese territories and colonies. |
| 1870 |
Spain |
Amidst great opposition from the Cuban and Puerto Rican planters, Segismundo Moret drafts a "Law of Free Wombs" that frees the children of slaves, the slaves older than 65 years and the slaves serving in the Spanish Army, beginning in 1872.[111] |
| 1871 |
Brazil |
Rio Branco Law (Law of Free Birth) makes the children born to slave mothers free.[112] |
| 1873 |
Puerto Rico |
Slavery abolished. |
| 1873 |
United Kingdom
Zanzibar
Madagascar |
Triple treaty abolishing the slave trade.[76] |
| 1874 |
Gold Coast |
Slavery abolished.[113] |
| 1877 |
Egypt |
Slavery abolished. |
| 1879 |
Bulgaria |
Slavery abolished with independence. The Constitution states that any slave that enters Bulgarian territory is immediately freed. |
| 1882 |
Ottoman Empire |
A firman emancipates all slaves, white and black.[114] |
| 1884 |
Cambodia |
Slavery abolished. |
| 1885 |
Brazil |
Sexagenarians Law (a.k.a. Saraiva-Cotegipe Act) passed, freeing all slaves over the age of 60 and creating other measures for the gradual abolition of slavery, such as a Manumissions Fund administered by the State. |
| 1886 |
Cuba |
Slavery abolished.[42] |
| 1888 |
Brazil |
Golden Law decreeing the total abolition of slavery with immediate effect, without indemnities to slave owners, but the financial aid to the freedmen planned by the monarchy never takes place due to a military coup that establishes a Republic in the country.[115] |
| 1889 |
Italy |
An Italian court finds that Josephine Bakhita was never legally enslaved according to Italian, British or Egyptian law and is a free woman. |
| 1890 |
United Kingdom
France
Germany
Portugal
Congo
Italy
Spain
Netherlands
Belgium
Russia
Austria-Hungary
Sweden-Norway
Denmark
United States
Ottoman Empire
Zanzibar
Persia |
Brussels Conference Act – a collection of anti-slavery measures to put an end to the slave trade on land and sea, especially in the Congo Basin, the Ottoman Empire, and the East African coast. |
| 1894 |
Korea |
Slavery abolished, but it survives in practice until 1930.[116] |
| 1896 |
Madagascar |
Slavery abolished. |
| 1897 |
Zanzibar |
Slavery abolished.[117] |
| 1897 |
Siam |
Slave trade abolished.[118] |
| 1899 |
Ndzuwani |
Slavery abolished. |