1. Partus Sequitur Ventrem (1662)
The institution of slavery had existed in America in the British colonies since 1619 and since 1526 in a Spanish-controlled area in either what is now South Carolina or Georgia. The attempt to establish a Spanish fort didn’t go well, as the enslaved people rebelled and escaped into the marshes.
For the purpose of this story, I’m going to assume that enslaved Africans would have been brought to America by Europeans because it is what they did all over the world, including but not limited to South America, the Caribbean, Japan, India, and China. Slavery existed all over the world, but an American law changed the nature of slavery forever. Partus sequitur ventrem had the offspring follow the mother’s bloodline as opposed to the father’s, which was traditional in Britain. Fathers were absolved of responsibility for those they sired, the children of female slaves were slaves as well, and it was effectively legal to rape Black women without recourse. Partus sequitur ventrem set the stage for the dramatic growth of the number of enslaved people in America. Historians call it a natural increase, though it was anything but.
2. Bacon’s Rebellion (1676)
Enslavement wasn’t the only form of cheap labor in the American colonies. Before 1700, most of the work was done by indentured servants, many of whom were Black. Some indentured servants contracted their labor in exchange for transport to the New World. Courts sentenced others for crimes committed. Britain and Scotland, in particular, sent many criminals and those charged with treason to America as indentured servants. Some were treated like slaves, but they had the prospect of eventual freedom and sometimes land when their service was over.
In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon was annoyed at the lack of government response to Native Americans who didn’t like their land being stolen. Bacon organized the lower classes, including Black enslaved people, Black indentured servants, and white indentured servants. They ultimately burned down Virginia’s capital, Jamestown. The thought of the poor rising against the upper class was so troubling that the whole structure of cheap labor was changed. Indentured servitude was phased out, and enslaved people became the primary workforce. To obtain a goal based on class, America developed a caste system where the lowest white person was above a Black one.
3. The Haitian Rebellion (1791–1804)
The successful revolution in Haiti, which resulted in freedom for enslaved Haitians, had two major effects on Black America. The fear of Black slaves performing a similar act was paramount. On many plantations, slaves greatly outnumbered their owners. Though slave patrols were instituted 100 years earlier, their numbers increased, and service was mandatory unless one was rich enough to pay someone to serve in their stead. Laws were reinstituted to keep slaves from reading and discovering about revolts elsewhere.
The second reaction to Haitian independence came from France. His goal of trading Haitian sugar was dashed, and the prospect of facing future revolts from enslaved people in America was daunting. Thomas Jefferson approached Napoleon about possibly purchasing the major port city of New Orleans. Napoleon sold America the Louisiana Territory, which contained most or all of what is now 14 American states. The new territory created a need for more slaves, and Jefferson planned to meet the need.
4. The End of the International Slave Trade (1807)
Thomas Jefferson didn’t write the Constitution, that mainly was James Madison, though you can be assured Jefferson knew what was in it, including the clause that the International Slave Trade couldn’t be ended for twenty years. When that time passed, Jefferson was the President and was also, along with many other Virginia plantation owners, going broke. Tobacco farmers in Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware had failed to rotate crops and faced decreasing yields. They also had excess slaves as there wasn’t enough work for them to do.
Jefferson ended the International Slave Trade to America on the first day possible, having passed the legislation the year before. Demand for slaves had increased since the invention of the cotton gin. Jefferson’s plan to meet the demand, even after stopping the import of slaves, was simple: he would make more slaves. Jefferson wrote George Washington advising him he could increase profits by 4% per year by having slave women produce a child every two years. The means by which these babies were produced often involved forced breeding and rape. You’ll never read that in a Florida history book where natural reproduction is the preferred term.
5. The End of the Civil War (1865)
The Civil War is important because if the South had won, slavery might have lasted a few more generations. About 4 million free Black men and women were displaced between the Emancipation Proclamation and the war’s end, and over 100,000 died as a result of starvation, smallpox, and cholera. Slavery didn’t exactly end after the war; Black Codes were implemented throughout the returning states. Work requirements and mass incarceration often found enslaved people forcibly returned to the same plantations they were freed from. Congress found a backbone and passed the Anti-KKK Acts in 1870 and 1871. With the protection of federal troops, Black people thrived somewhat during Reconstruction; despite over 2,000 lynchings and constant threats, White Southerners were anxious to rid themselves of the federal forces and eventually found a way to do so.
6. The Compromise of 1877
Let me know if you’ve heard this before: a disputed presidential election, slates of fake electors, failure to certify results? This happened in 1876 when Republican Rutherford B. Hayes ran against the Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. The race was settled in one of those smoke-filled rooms of legislators you’ve heard of. Republicans got the presidency, and Democrats got what they wanted most: the removal of federal troops. Once the soldiers were gone, Reconstruction was over, and we got almost 100 years of Jim Crow, not just in the South but throughout the nation.
The Compromise of 1877 involved Republicans and Democrats ending reconstruction for their political ends. The Republicans who were fierce advocates of the Anti-KKK Acts, now looked the other way as Democrats took back the South and implemented Jim Crow. Republican Hayes implemented the Posse Comitatus Act to ensure the federal troops would not return to protect Black Americans.
7. The G.I. Bill (1944)
Sullynyflhi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
VA loans and the previously instituted FHA loans are credited with establishing the middle class in America. Many Americans who otherwise couldn’t afford a home were now able, and veterans could get a college education and improve their standard of living. The only problem was that these programs were rarely offered to Black people, and many of the new government-backed subdivisions were white only. Most colleges and communities were segregated, and white Americans took a huge financial leap in the years after the Great Depression while Black people struggled to keep up.
8. Bloody Sunday (1965)
Unlike the Gil Scott-Heron song, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Bloody Sunday was televised, and millions of Americans watched Alabama State Police release dogs on Black non-violent protesters crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Over 600 marchers were beaten with clubs, tear gassed, and bitten in the battle for voting rights in Alabama and elsewhere. This forced Lyndon Johnson to pass the Voting Rights Act when he’d been stalling. Though the Act has since been diluted (twice) by the Supreme Court, it led to the return of Black representation in Congress and Southern state legislatures.
9. The Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr (1968)
Martin Luther King, Jr was once one of the most hated men in America, though you’d never know it based on some of those same haters selectively quoting him in support of views and actions King would have been disgusted with. After King was killed outside his Memphis hotel room, several cities erupted in violence. Congress passed the Fair Housing Act a week after his death in an attempt to appease Black people.
10. The Election of Barack Obama (2008)
Barack Obama’s election meant different things to different people. He was indeed a symbol of hope and change, especially to many Black Americans. He was also as unacceptable to others as the federal troops after the Civil War. Obama wasn’t nearly the radical some hoped he would be, but his Blackness was enough. America turned to his polar opposite, whose mission was to erase Obama’s accomplishments.
Honorable Mentions
Great Mississippi River Flood (1927)
The Great Mississippi (River) Flood | by William Spivey | Black History Month 365 | Medium
Jackie Robinson Breaks the Color Barrier (1947)
Integration of Armed Forces (1948)
Executive Order 9981 — Wikipedia
The Assassination of Malcolm X (1965)
Malcolm X | Biography, Nation of Islam, Assassination, & Facts | Britannica
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
The Release of George Floyd Video (2020)
The Black Panther Movie
Black Panther: a groundbreaking celebration of black culture | Vox
These events all had a lasting impact, some intended and some not. Most were overt acts of racism so loud they couldn’t go unnoticed. A couple, like Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) slapping Eric Endicott in The Heat of the Night and the first Black Panther movie, showed Black people in a light rarely seen in film or reality. Understanding these events in the context of their times will provide insight into how things are in the present.
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This post was previously published on Cultured.
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You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
 White Fragility: Talking to White People About Racism |
 Escape the “Act Like a Man” Box |
 The Lack of Gentle Platonic Touch in Men’s Lives is a Killer |
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Photo credit: unlisted, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
