Sources

In Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin publishes All Slave-keepers that keep the Innocent in Bondage, Apostates, an antislavery tract written by the Pennsylvanian Quaker Benjamin Lay.

In Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin publishes All Slave-keepers that keep the Innocent in Bondage, Apostates, an antislavery tract written by the Pennsylvanian Quaker Benjamin Lay.

The Molasses Act attempted to stop the triangular trade between the Americas, Europe, and Africa trade fueled by West Indies slave trade requiring more slaves to harvest sugar destined to colonial ports to be converted into rum for shipment to England as a European trade commodity.

The Spanish reverse a 1730 decision and declare that slaves fleeing to Florida from Carolina will not be sold or returned.

The ‘Chesapeake Rebellion’, an uprising of several hundred enslaved people in Virginia, ends with the brutal suppression of the rebels.

Increased conflict between British troops and the maroon community in Jamaica leads to the start of the First Maroon War.

The Quaker Yearly Meeting in London again writes to Friends in Pennsylvania telling them that slave trading ‘is not a Commendable nor allowed Practice’. This provokes debate among Friends in Philadelphia.

French Louisiana prohibits slaves from marrying without the permission of their owners.

New York enacts a fugitive slave law.

John Hepburn, a Quaker from New Jersey, publishes The American Defence of the Christian Golden Rule, or, An Essay to prove the Unlawfulness of making Slaves of Men.