Ancient times

• It is repeatedly said by all Tirthankaras in Jain literature: "Do not injure, abuse, oppress, enslave, insult, torment, torture, or kill any creature or living being."^[1]

• 6th century BC Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great abolishes slavery in Persia.^[2]

• 3rd century BC Indian Emperor Ashoka abolishes slave trade and encourages people to treat slaves well but does not abolish slavery itself in the Maurya Empire, covering the majority of India, which was under his rule.^[3]

• AD 9 In China, Emperor Wang Mang usurps the throne, abolishes slave trading (although not slavery), and institutes radical land reform^[4]

Early timeline

It should be noted that many of these changes were reversed in practice over the succeeding centuries.

• 1102 Trade in slaves and serfdom ruled illegal in London: Council of London (1102)
• 1117 Slavery abolished in Iceland
• 1214 The Statute of the Town of Korčula (Croatia) abolishes slavery.^[5]
• 1274 Landslova (Land's Law) in Norway mentions only former slaves, which indicates that slavery was abolished in Norway
• 1315 Louis X, king of France, publishes a decree proclaiming that "France" signifies freedom and that any slave setting foot on the French ground should be freed^[6]
• 1335 Sweden (including Finland at the time) makes slavery illegal.^[7]
• 1416 Republic of Ragusa (modern day Dubrovnik; Croatia) abolished slavery and slave trading

Modern timeline

1500–1700

• 1588 Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth abolishes slavery^[8]
• 1595 a law was passed in Portugal banning the selling and buying of Chinese slaves.^[9]
• 16th century Japan Toyotomi Hideyoshi abolishes slavery among a number of other reforms.^[10]
• 1600 Last villein dies in England^{[citation needed]}
• February 19, 1624, the King of Portugal forbade the enslavement of Chinese of either sex.^[11][12]
• 1683 The Spanish crown abolishes slavery in Chile^{[citation needed]}
• 1652 Slavery abolished in Providence Plantations.(now in USA)

1700–1800

• 1723 Russia abolishes outright slavery but retains serfdom.^[13]
• 1761, 12 February, Portugal abolishes slavery^[14] in mainland Portugal and in Portuguese possessions in India through a decree by the Marquis of Pombal.
• 1772 The Somersett's case held that no slave could 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 ten to fourteen thousand slaves or possible slaves in England and Wales, who were mostly domestic servants.^[15]
• 1777 Slavery abolished in Madeira, Portugal^[16]
• 1777 Constitution of the Vermont Republic (a state of USA now) bans slavery.^[16]
• 1778 Slavery declared illegal in Scotland
• 1780 Pennsylvania (as state of USA) passes An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery, freeing future children of slaves. Those born prior to the Act remain enslaved-for-life. The Act becomes a model for other Northern states (of USA).^[17]
• 1783 Russia abolishes slavery in Crimean Khanate^[18]
• 1783 Massachusetts (a state of USA) rules slavery illegal based on 1780 constitution.^[16] All slaves immediately freed.
• 1783 Bukovina: Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor issued an order abolishing slavery on 19 June 1783 in Czernowitz^[19]
• 1783 New Hampshire (a state of USA) begins a gradual abolition of slavery, freeing future children of slaves, and all slaves in [year].
• 1784 Connecticut (a state of USA) begins a gradual abolititon of slavery, freeing future children of slaves, and all slaves in [year].^[20]
• 1784 Rhode Island (a state of USA) begins a gradual abolition of slavery, freeing future children of slaves, and all slaves in [year].
• 1787 Sierra Leone founded by Britain as colony for emancipated slaves
• 1787 Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade founded in Britain^[16]
• 1788 Sir William Dolben's Act regulating the conditions on British slave ships enacted
• 1792 Denmark-Norway (used to be one country) declares transatlantic slave trade illegal after 1803 (though slavery continues to 1848)^[21]
• 1793 Upper Canada, abolishes import of slaves by Act Against Slavery
• 1794 French First Republic abolishes slavery^[16][22]
• 1799 New York State passes gradual emancipation act freeing future children of slaves, and all slaves in 1827.^[23]

1800–1849

• 1802 The First Consul Napoleon re-introduces slavery on French colonies growing sugarcane.^[14]
• 1803 Denmark-Norway abolishes transatlantic slave trade on 1 January 1803
• 1803 Lower Canada abolishes slavery
• 1804 New Jersey (a state of USA) begins a gradual abolition of slavery, freeing future children of slaves.^[20] Those born prior to the Act remain enslaved-for-life.
• 1804 Haiti declares independence and abolishes slavery^[16]
• 1805 Bill for Abolition passed in Commons, rejected in the House of Lords.
• 1807 25 March Abolition of the Slave Trade Act: slave trading abolished in British Empire. Captains fined £120 per slave transported.
• 1807 British begin patrols of African coast to arrest slaving vessels. West Africa Squadron (Royal Navy) established to suppress slave trading; by 1865, nearly 150,000 people freed by anti-slavery operations^[24]
• 1807 Abolition of serfdom in Prussia (a former Empire in Central Europe) through the Stein-Hardenberg Reforms.
• 1808 United States—import and export of slaves prohibited after 1 Jan.^[25]
• 1810 Mexico: Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla declared slavery abolished, but it wasn't official until Independence War finished
• 1811 Slave trading made a felony in the British Empire punishable by transportation for British subjects and foreigners.
• 1811 Spain abolishes slavery at home and in all colonies except Cuba,^[14] Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo
• 1811 Chile: The First National Congress approves a proposal drafted by Manuel de Salas that declares the Freedom of wombs, which sets free the sons of slaves born on Chilean territory, no matter the conditions of the parents; it prohibited the slave trade and recognized as freedmen those who, passing in transit through Chilean territory, stayed there for six months.
• 1814 Dutch outlaw slave trade
• 1815 British pay Portugal £750,000 to cease their trade north of the Equator^[26]
• 1815 Congress of Vienna. 8 Victorious powers declared their opposition to slavery
• 1816 Serfdom abolished in Estonia.
• 1817 Serfdom abolished in Courland (Latvia)
• 1817 Spain paid £400,000 by British to cease trade to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo^[26]
• 1817 New York State sets a date of July 4, 1827 to free all its slaves.^[27]
• 1818 Treaty between Britain and Spain to abolish slave trade ^[28]
• 1818 Treaty between Britain and Portugal to abolish slave trade ^[28]
• 1818 France and Netherlands abolish slave trading
• 1819 Treaty between Britain and Netherlands to abolish slave trade ^[28]
• 1819 Serfdom abolished in Livonia.
• 1821 Gran Colombia (Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama) declares free the sons and daughters born to slave mothers, sets up program for compensated emancipation ^[29]
• 1822 Liberia founded by American Colonization Society (USA) as a colony for emancipated slaves.
• 1822 Greece abolishes slavery
• 1823 Chile abolishes slavery^[16]
• 1824 The Federal Republic of Central America (now divided in to new countries) abolishes slavery.
• 1827 Treaty between Britain and Sweden to abolish slave trade ^[28]
• 1827 New York State abolishes slavery. Children born between 1799 and 1827 are indentured until age 25 (females) or age 28 (males).^[30]
• 1829 Mexico officially abolishes slavery^[16]
• 1830 The first Constitution of Uruguay declares the abolition of slavery.
• 1831 Bolivia abolishes slavery^[16]
• 1833 The British Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into force, abolishing slavery throughout most of the British Empire. The exceptions being territories controlled by the Honourable East India Company and Ceylon. Legally frees 700,000 in West Indies, 20,000 in Mauritius, 40,000 in South Africa.^[31]
• 1835 Treaty between Britain and France to abolish slave trade ^[28]
• 1835 Treaty between Britain and Denmark to abolish slave trade ^[28]
• 1836 Portugal abolishes transatlantic slave trade
• 1838 1 August - enslaved men, women and children in the British Empire finally became free after a period of forced apprenticeship following the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833
• 1839 British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society founded, now called Anti-Slavery International
• 1839 Indian indenture system made illegal (reversed in 1842)
• 1840 Treaty between Britain and Venezuela to abolish slave trade ^[28]
• 1841 Quintuple Treaty is signed; Britain, France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria agree to suppress slave trade^[16]
• 1842 Treaty between Britain and Portugal to extend the enforcement of the ban on slave trade to Portuguese ships sailing south of the Equator.
• 1843 Honourable East India Company becomes increasingly controlled by Britain and abolishes slavery in India by the Indian Slavery Act V. of 1843.
• 1843 Treaty between Britain and Uruguay to suppress slave trade ^[28]
• 1843 Treaty between Britain and Mexico to suppress slave trade ^[28]
• 1843 Treaty between Britain and Chile to suppress slave trade ^[28]
• 1843 Treaty between Britain and Bolivia to abolish slave trade ^[28]
• 1845 36 British Royal Navy ships are assigned to the Anti-Slavery Squadron, making it one of the largest fleets in the world.
• 1846 Tunisia abolishes slavery
• 1847 Ottoman Empire abolishes slave trade from Africa.^[32]
• 1847 Sweden abolishes slavery ^[33]
• 1847 Slavery ends in Pennsylvania (a state of USA). Those born before 1780 (fewer than 100 in 1840 Census) are freed.^[34]
• 1848 Denmark abolishes slavery ^[33]
• 1848 Slavery abolished in all French and Danish colonies ^[16]
• 1848 France founds Gabon for settlement of emancipated slaves.
• 1848 Treaty between Britain and Muscat to suppress slave trade ^[28]
• 1849 Treaty between Britain and Persian Gulf states to suppress slave trade ^[28]

1850–1899

• 1850 United States: Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 requires return of escaped slaves
• 1851 New Granada (Colombia) abolishes slavery^[29]
• 1852 The Hawaiian Kingdom abolishes kauwa system of serfdom.^[35]
• 1853 Argentina abolishes slavery when promulgating the 1853 Constitution
• 1854 Peru abolishes slavery^[16]
• 1854 Venezuela abolishes slavery^[16][29]
• 1855 Moldavia partially abolishes slavery.^[36]
• 1856 Wallachia partially abolishes slavery.^[36]
• 1860 Indenture system abolished within British occupied India.
• 1861 Russia frees its serfs in the Emancipation reform of 1861.^[37]
• 1862 Treaty between United States and Britain for the suppression of the slave trade (African Slave Trade Treaty Act).^[28]
• 1862 Cuba abolishes slave trade^[16]
• 1863 Slavery abolished in Dutch colonies.^[38]
• 1863 United States: Emancipation Proclamation declares those slaves in Confederate-controlled areas to be freed. Most slaves in "border states" are freed by state action; separate law frees the slaves in Washington, D.C.
• 1865 United States abolishes slavery with the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; about 40,000 remaining slaves are affected.^[16]
• 1869 Portugal abolishes slavery in the African colonies
• 1870 U.S. abolishes slavery in the Department of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia in 1867
• 1871 Brazil declares free the sons and daughters born to slave mothers after 28 September 1871.
• 1873 Slavery abolished in Puerto Rico
• 1873 Treaty between Britain and Zanzibar and Madagascar to suppress slave trade ^[28]
• 1874 Britain abolishes slavery in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) following its annexation in 1874 (after Third Anglo-Asante War).
• 1879 Bulgaria abolishes slavery (note: the slavery was abolished with the first constitution of the renewed Bulgarian state)
• 1882 Ottoman firman abolishes all forms of slavery, white or black.^[39]
• 1885 Brazil passes Sexagenarian Law freeing all slaves over the age of 60.
• 1886 Slavery abolished in Cuba^[16]
• 1888 Brazil passes Golden Law, abolishing slavery without indemnities to slaveowners or aid to newly freed slaves.^[40]
• 1890 Brussels Act – Treaty granting anti-slavery powers the right to stop and search ships for slaves
• 1894 Korea abolishes slavery^[41]
• 1896 France abolishes slavery in Madagascar
• 1897 Zanzibar abolishes slavery^[42] following its becoming a British protectorate.

1900–today

• 1906 China formally abolishes slavery and the law became effective on 31 January 1910, when all adult slaves were converted into hired labourers and the young were freed upon reaching age 25.^[13]
• 1912 Siam (Thailand), formally abolishes all slavery. The act of selling a person into slavery was abolished in 1897 but slavery itself was not outlawed at that time.^[43]
• 1921 Nepal abolishes slavery^[44][45]
• 1923 Afghanistan abolishes slavery^[46]
• 1924 Iraq abolishes slavery
• 1924 League of Nations Temporary Slavery Commission
• 1926 Slavery Convention. Bound all signatories to end slavery Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery (25 September 1926)
• 1928 Iran abolishes slavery^[47]
• 1928 Domestic slavery practised by local African elites abolished in Sierra Leone^[48] (ironically established as a place for freed slaves). A study found practices of domestic slavery still widespread in rural areas in the 1970s.
• 1935 Italian General Emilio De Bono proclaims slavery to be abolished in the Ethiopian Empire^[49]
• 1936 Britain eradicates slavery in Northern Nigeria^[50]
• 1942 Ethiopian Empire abolishes slavery
• 1945 In the subsequent defeat of Nazi Germany and Japan, work camps for slave labor (primarily Jewish encampments in Nazi Germany and colonists in Japanese-dominated lands) were gradually closed by the liberators.
• 1946 Fritz Sauckel, procurer of slave labor for Nazi Germany, convicted at the Nuremberg trials and executed as war criminal.
• 1948 UN Article 4 of the Declaration of Human Rights bans slavery globally^[51]
• 1952 Qatar abolishes slavery
• 1959 Slavery in Tibet is abolished by China after the Dalai Lama flees.
• 1960 Niger abolishes slavery^[52]
• 1962 Saudi Arabia abolishes slavery
• 1962 Yemen abolishes slavery
• 1963 United Arab Emirates abolishes slavery
• 1970 Oman abolishes slavery
• 1981 Mauritania abolishes slavery^[53][54][55]

While now illegal everywhere, slavery or practices akin to it continue today in many countries throughout the world.

See also

• Abolitionism
• History of slavery
• Slavery
• Slavery at common law
• Slavery in modern Africa
• Timeline of the African-American Civil Rights Movement

Further reading

• Campbell, Gwyn. The Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia (Frank Cass, 2004)
• Drescher, Seymour. Abolition: A History of Slavery and Antislavery (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
• Finkelman, Paul, and Joseph Miller, eds. Macmillan Encyclopedia of World Slavery (2 vol 1998)
• Gordon, M. Slavery in the Arab World (1989)
• Hinks, Peter, and John McKivigan, eds. Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition (2 vol. 2007) 795pp; isbn 978-0-313-33142-8
• Lovejoy, Paul. Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa (Cambridge UP, 1983)
• Morgan, Kenneth. Slavery and the British Empire: From Africa to America (2008)
• Rodriguez, Junius P., ed. The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery (1997)
• Rodriguez, Junius P., ed. Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World (2007)
• Anti slavery society
• Slavery and Abolition

References