The first child of Sally Hemings and her owner, Thomas Jefferson, is born.

Nearly two centuries later, in 1983, Cyrus Cassells writes “Sally Hemings to Thomas Jefferson”

Enslaved Virginian Gabriel Prosser plans a slave rebellion that is foiled before it can begin, resulting in the executions of himself and twenty-five others. Because many white Americans were already anxious from the violent racial uprising in the Haitian Revolution, and to maintain social control despite their disproportionately small numbers, some legislatures pass new laws restricting the movement of slaves.

Free Black abolitionist David Walker publishes his incendiary Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, which argued for racial equality and urged decisive—even violent—action to achieve it. In response, many Southern states banned possession or distribution of the Appeal, and several bounties were offered for Walker’s capture or killing.

Enslaved Virginian Nat Turner leads the deadliest slave uprising in U.S. history, killing dozens of whites.

The “First Annual Convention of the People of Colour” is held in Philadelphia, aimed at improving the situation of African Americans in the United States. Like the many “Colored Conventions” that follow over the coming two decades, it helps forge an active community through reform and the establishment of schools, literary societies, and fundraising drives.

Sarah Louisa Forten's antislavery poem "The Grave of the Slave" is published in The Liberator

The first known pot made by enslaved South Carolinian pot maker David Drake is produced. Despite South Carolina’s Slave Codes that outlaw writing by enslaved people, Drake sometimes incises his pottery with lines of original verse, creating a unique record of African American poetry during the antebellum decades.

The kidnapped Mende Africans aboard the Spanish slave ship Amistad execute a successful mutiny and take over the ship near Cuba but are eventually captured in American waters. A high-profile legal case to determine the fate of the now imprisoned Mende fuels the abolitionist cause in the US. In 1841, the United States Supreme Court affirms an earlier ruling to release the Mende and declare them free.

In Hartford, CT, sixteen-year-old Ann Plato publishes a book of essays and poems, including “The Natives of America” and “Reflections.”

Creole Louisiana poet of color Armand Lanusse edits Les Cenelles, a poetry collection by contemporary Louisiana poets of color, including Camille Thierry and Pierre Dalcour. The book is often considered the first anthology of African American literature.

Seven years after running away to escape slavery, Frederick Douglass publishes his influential Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845). The autobiographical account demonstrates the cruelty of slavery, further fueling the abolitionist movement. Douglass’s antislavery activism was significantly influenced by William Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator, and in 1847 he creates his own influential abolitionist newspaper, the North Star (later renamed Frederick Douglass’ Paper). Douglass is often regarded as a preeminent voice of antebellum abolitionism.

In 1966, Robert Hayden publishes “Frederick Douglas,” and in 2011 Evie Shockley publishes “The Lost Letters of Frederick Douglass.”

James Whitfield, and barber and poet, publishes America, and Other Poems, which includes both “America” and “To Cinque” and would mark the start of his career in abolitionism.

British abolitionist Julia Griffiths publishes Autographs for Freedom, an anthology of antislavery writings featuring an introduction and poem by Charles L. Reason and a poem by George B. Vashon.

Lucy Terry’s “Bars Fight,” first composed in 1746 and transmitted orally for over a century, is finally published in print.

Charlotte Forten Grimke’s "In the earnest path of duty” is published in The Liberator about five months after her first known poem, “A Parting Hymn,” is sung by her classmates at graduation.

The kidnapped Mende Africans aboard the Spanish slave ship Amistad execute a successful mutiny and take over the ship near Cuba but are eventually captured in American waters. A high-profile legal case to determine the fate of the now imprisoned Mende fuels the abolitionist cause in the US. In 1841, the United States Supreme Court affirms an earlier ruling to release the Mende and declare them free.

The Thirteenth Amendment abolishes slavery in the United States.

The Reconstruction Era begins, rebuilding the postwar South and striving for racial justice.

Southern legislatures increasingly pass oppressive Black Codes that legally limit acceptable behavior for Black people and prevent their economic advancement. Many Black Codes will remain in place into the 1960s and 70s.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper speaks at the National Women’s Rights Convention, demanding the inclusion of Black women’s rights as a priority within the larger women’s rights movement.

The first Jim Crow Laws are enacted, legalizing racial segregation in public accommodations. Segregation would be upheld by the 1896 ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, and it would continue to divide America into the 1960s and beyond.

Booker T. Washington founds what would become known as the Tuskegee Institute, a school to train Black Americans to become educators or tradespeople.

While riding in a whites-only car on a train to Memphis, Ida B. Wells violates a segregation law and is physically dragged out of the car. In response, she writes a newspaper article and successfully sues the railroad, later becoming an anti-lynching activist and investigative journalist.

In Plessy v. Ferguson, the US Supreme Court rules that segregation is constitutional if the conditions of each segregated space were “separate but equal.” The case paved the way for decades of legal racial segregation throughout the United States.

Poet Paul Laurence Dunbar marries poet and short-story writer Alice Moore of New Orleans. Domestic violence becomes a major factor in their separation four years later.