Timeline of abolition of slavery and serfdom

Proclamation of the Abolition of Slavery in the French Colonies, 27 April 1848, 1849, by François Auguste Biard, Palace of Versailles

The abolition of slavery occurred at different times in different countries. It frequently occurred sequentially in more than one stage – for example, as abolition of the trade in slaves in a specific country, and then as abolition of slavery throughout empires. Each step was usually the result of a separate law or action. This timeline shows abolition laws or actions listed chronologically. It also covers the abolition of serfdom.

Although slavery of non-prisoners is technically illegal in all countries today, the practice continues in many locations around the world, primarily in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe, often with government support.

Ancient times

During classical antiquity, several prominent societies in Europe and the ancient Near East regulated enslavement for debt and the related but distinct practice of debt bondage (in which a creditor could extract compulsory labor from a debtor in repayment of their debt, but the debtor was not formally enslaved and was not subject to all the conditions of chattel slavery, such as being perpetually owned, sellable on the open market, or stripped of kinship).

Reforms listed below such as the laws of Solon in Athens, the Lex Poetelia Papiria in Republican Rome, or rules set forth in the Hebrew Bible in the Book of Deuteronomy generally regulated the supply of slaves and debt-servants by forbidding or regulating the bondage of certain privileged groups (thus, the Roman reforms protected Roman citizens, the Athenian reforms protected Athenian citizens, and the rules in Deuteronomy guaranteed freedom to a Hebrew after a fixed duration of servitude), but none abolished slavery, and even what protections were instituted did not apply to foreigners or noncitizen subjects.

Date Jurisdiction Description
Early sixth century BC Polis of Athens The Athenian lawgiver Solon abolishes debt slavery of Athenian citizens and frees all Athenian citizens who had formerly been enslaved. Athenian chattel slavery continued to be practiced, and the loss of debt-bondage as a competing source of compulsory labor may even have spurred slavery to become more important in the Athenian economy henceforth.
3rd century BC Maurya Empire Indian emperor Ashoka abolishes the slave trade.
326 BC Roman Republic Lex Poetelia Papiria abolishes Nexum contracts, a form of pledging the debt bondage of poor Roman citizens to wealthy creditors as security for loans. Chattel slavery was not abolished, and Roman slavery would continue to flourish for centuries.
9–12 AD Xin dynasty Wang Mang, first and only emperor of the Xin dynasty, usurped the Chinese throne and instituted a series of sweeping reforms, including the abolition of slavery and radical land reform from 9–12 A.D. However, this and other reforms turned popular and elite sentiment against Wang Mang, and slavery was reinstituted after he was killed by an angry mob in 23 A.D.

Medieval times

N.B.: Many of the listed reforms were reversed over succeeding centuries.
Date Jurisdiction Description
590–604  Rome Pope Gregory I bans Jews from owning Christian slaves.
7th century Francia Queen Balthild, a former slave, and the Council of Chalon-sur-Saône (644–655) condemn the enslavement of Christians. Balthild purchases slaves, mostly Saxon, and manumits (frees) them.
741–752  Rome Pope Zachary bans the sale of Christian slaves to Muslims, purchases all slaves acquired in the city by Venetian traders, and sets them free.
840 Carolingian Empire
 Venice
Pactum Lotharii: Venice pledges to neither buy Christian slaves in the Empire, nor sell them to Muslims. Venetian slavers switch to trading Slavs from the East.
873 Christendom Pope John VIII declares the enslavement of fellow Christians a sin and commands their release.
~900 Byzantine Empire Emperor Leo VI the Wise prohibits voluntary self-enslavement and commands that such contracts shall be null and void and punishable by flagellation for both parties to the contract.
956 Goryeo Dynasty (Korea) Slaves were freed on a large scale in 956 by the Goryeo dynasty. Gwangjong of Goryeo proclaimed the Slave and Land Act (노비안검법, 奴婢按檢法), an act that "deprived nobles of much of their manpower in the form of slaves and purged the old nobility, the meritorious subjects and their offspring and military lineages in great numbers".
960  Venice Slave trade banned in the city under the rule of Doge Pietro IV Candiano.
1080 Norman England William the Conqueror prohibits the sale of any person to "heathens" (non-Christians) as slaves.
1100 Normandy Serfdom no longer present.
1102 Norman England The Council of London bans the slave trade: "Let no one dare hereafter to engage in the infamous business, prevalent in England, of selling men like animals."
c. 1160 Norway The Gulating bans the sale of house slaves out of the country.[citation needed]
1171  Ireland All English slaves in the island freed by the Council of Armagh.
1198 France Trinitarian Order founded with the purpose of redeeming war captives.
1214 Korčula The Statute of the Town abolishes slavery.[better source needed]
1218 Catalonia Aragon Mercedarians founded in Barcelona with the purpose of ransoming poor Christians enslaved by Muslims.
~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.
1245 Catalonia Aragon James I bans Jews from owning Christian slaves, but allows them to own Muslims and Pagans.
1256  Bologna Liber Paradisus promulgated. Slavery and serfdom abolished, all serfs in the commune are released.
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. However some limited cases of slavery continued until the 17th century in some of France's Mediterranean harbours in Provence, as well as until the 18th century in some of France's overseas territories. Most aspects of serfdom are also eliminated de facto between 1315 and 1318.
1318 France King Philip V abolishes serfdom in his domain.
1335 Sweden Slavery abolished (including Sweden's territory in Finland). However, slaves are not banned entry into the country until 1813. In the 18th and 19th centuries, slavery was practiced in the Swedish-ruled Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy. Sweden never practiced serfdom, except in a few territories it later acquired which were ruled under a local legal code.
1347 Poland The Statutes of Casimir the Great issued in Wiślica emancipate all non-free people.
1368 Ming Dynasty Emperor Hongwu abolished most forms of slavery, limiting even the highest ranks of household to less than 20 household slaves. Later in the dynasty saw a resurgence of debt servitude, primarily in the south, as a result of population growth against the dearth of arable lands, often taking euphemisms like "adoption" to circumvent its still outlawed status.
1416  Ragusa Slavery and slave trade abolished.
1423 Poland King orders to free all Christian slaves.
1435 Canary Islands Pope Eugene IV's Sicut Dudum bans enslavement of baptised Christians, "or those freely seeking baptism" in the Canary Islands on pain of excommunication.
1477 Crown of Castile Castile Isabella I bans slavery in newly conquered territories.
1480 Galicia Remnant serfdom abolished by the Catholic Monarchs.
1486 Crown of Aragon Aragon Ferdinand II promulgates the Sentence of Guadalupe, abolishing Carolingian-remnant serfdom (remença) in Old Catalonia.
1490 Crown of Castile Castile After a long court case, the Catholic Monarchs order that all La Gomera natives enslaved in the aftermath of the 1488 rebellion must be freed and returned to the island at Conquistador Pedro de Vera's expense. De Vera is also relieved from his post as Governor of Gran Canaria in 1491.
1493 Queen Isabella bans the enslavement of Native Americans unless they are hostile or cannibalistic. 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.

1500–1700

Date Jurisdiction Description
1503 Crown of Castile Castile Native Americans allowed to travel to Spain only on their own free will.
1512 The Laws of Burgos establish limits to the treatment of natives in the Encomienda system.
1518 Spanish Empire Spain Decree of Holy Roman Emperor 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 Charles V forbids the transportation of Native Americans to Europe, even on their own will, in an effort to curtail their enslavement. Encomiendas are banned from collecting tribute in gold with the reasoning that Natives were selling their children to get it.
1530 Outright slavery of Native Americans under any circumstance is banned. However, forced labor under the Encomienda continues.
1536 The Welser family is dispossessed of the Asiento monopoly (granted in 1528) following complaints 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).
1542 Spanish Empire 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. New limits are imposed to the Encomienda.
1549 Encomiendas banned from using forced labor.
1550-1551 Valladolid Debate on the innate rights of indigenous peoples of the Americas.
1552 Bartolomé de las Casas, "the first to expose the oppression of indigenous peoples by Europeans in the Americas and to call for the abolition of slavery there."
1562 Mughal Empire Akbar I librates all Indian-born slaves and concubines in his empire.
1570  Portugal King Sebastian of Portugal bans the enslavement of Native Americans under Portuguese rule, allowing only the enslavement of hostile ones. This law was highly influenced by the Society of Jesus, which had missionaries in direct contact with Brazilian tribes.
1574  England Last remaining serfs emancipated by Elizabeth I.
 Philippines Slavery abolished by royal decree.
1588 Lithuania The Third Statute of Lithuania abolishes slavery.
1590  Japan Toyotomi Hideyoshi bans slavery except as punishment for criminals.
1595  Portugal Trade of Chinese slaves banned.
1602  England The Clifton Star Chamber Case set a precedent, that impressing / enslaving children to serve as actors was illegal.
1609 Spanish Empire Spain The Moriscos, many of whom are serfs, are expelled from Peninsular Spain unless they become slaves voluntarily (known as moros cortados, "cut Moors") However, a large proportion avoid expulsion or manage to return.
1624  Portugal Enslavement of Chinese banned.
1649 Russia The sale of Russian slaves to Muslims is banned.
1652 Providence Plantations Roger Williams and Samuel Gorton work to pass legislation abolishing slavery in Providence Plantations, the first attempt of its kind in North America. It does not go into effect.
1677 Maratha Empire Shivaji I banned, freed and stopped import and export of all slaves under his Empire.
1679  Russia Feodor III converts all Russian field slaves into serfs.
1683 Spanish Empire Spanish Chile Slavery of Mapuche prisoners of war abolished.
1687 Spanish Empire Spanish Florida Fugitive slaves from the Thirteen Colonies granted freedom in return for conversion to Catholicism and four years of military service.
1688 Pennsylvania The Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery is the first religious petition against African slavery in what would become the United States.

1701–1799

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."
1711–1712 Imereti Slave trade banned by Mamia I of Imereti.
1712  Spain Moros cortados expelled.
1715 North Carolina
South Carolina
Native American slave trade in the American Southeast reduces with the outbreak of the Yamasee War.
1723  Russia Peter the Great converts all house slaves into house serfs, effectively making slavery illegal in Russia.
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.
1732 Georgia Province established without African slavery in sharp contrast to neighboring colony of Carolina. In 1738, James Oglethorpe warns against changing that policy, which would "occasion the misery of thousands in Africa." Native American slavery is legal throughout Georgia, however, and African slavery is later introduced in 1749.
1738 Spain Spanish Florida Fort Mosé, the first legal settlement of free blacks in what is today the United States, is established. Word of the settlement sparks the Stono Rebellion in Carolina the following year.
1761  Portugal The Marquis of Pombal bans the importation of slaves to metropolitan Portugal. encouraging instead the trade of African slaves to Brazil.
1766  Spain Muhammad III of Morocco purchases the freedom of all Muslim slaves in Seville, Cádiz, and Barcelona.
1770  Circassia The Circassians of the Abdzakh region started a great revolution in Circassian territory in 1770. Classes such as slaves, nobles and princes were completely abolished. The Abdzakh Revolution coincides with the French Revolution. While many French nobles took refuge in Russia, some of the Circassian nobles took the same path and took refuge in Russia.
1771 Kingdom of Sardinia Kingdom of Sardinia Serfdom abolished in the lands ruled by the House of Savoy.
1772  England Somersett's case rules that no slave can be forcibly removed from England. 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.
1773  Portugal A new decree by the Marquis of Pombal, signed by the king Dom José, emancipates fourth-generation slaves and every child born to an enslaved mother after the decree was published.
1774 East India Company Government of Bengal passed regulations 9 and 10 of 1774, prohibiting the trade in slaves without written deed, and the sale of anyone not already enslaved.
1775 Virginia Dunmore's Proclamation promises freedom to slaves who desert the American revolutionaries and join the British Army as Black Loyalists.
United States Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Abolition Society formed in Philadelphia, the first abolition society within the territory that is now the United States of America.
 United States Atlantic slave trade banned or suspended in the United Colonies during the Revolutionary War. This was a continuation of the Thirteen Colonies' non-importation agreements against Britain, as an attempt to cut all economic ties with Britain during the war.
1777 Portugal Madeira Slavery abolished.
 Vermont The Constitution of the Vermont Republic partially bans slavery, freeing men over 21 and women older than 18 at the time of its passage. The ban is not strongly enforced.
1778  Scotland Joseph Knight successfully argues that Scots law cannot support the status of slavery.
1779 British America The Philipsburg Proclamation frees all slaves who desert the American rebels, regardless of their willingness to fight for the Crown.
1780 United States 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.
1781 Austria Archduchy of Austria Joseph II abolishes personal bondage of serfs and allows their freedom of movement with the Serfdom Patent of 1781.
1783  Russian Empire Slavery abolished in the recently annexed Crimean Khanate.
Massachusetts Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules slavery unconstitutional, a decision based on the 1780 Massachusetts constitution. All slaves are immediately freed.
 Austrian Empire Joseph II abolishes slavery in Bukovina.
New Hampshire Gradual abolition of slavery begins.
British America After being settled into by Quakers, Beaver Harbour, New Brunswick becomes the first settlement in British North America to ban slavery, forbidding slave masters from entering.
1784 Connecticut Gradual abolition of slavery, freeing future children of slaves, and later all slaves.
Rhode Island Gradual abolition of slavery begins.
1785 Kingdom of Hungary Kingdom of Hungary In response to the Revolt of Horea, Joseph II abolishes personal bondage and allows freedom of movement for peasants in Hungary with the urbarium of 22 August 1785.
1786 New South Wales A policy of completely banning slavery is adopted by governor-designate Arthur Phillip for the soon-to-be established colony.
1787  United States The United States in Congress Assembled passes the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, outlawing any new slavery in the Northwest Territories.
Sierra Leone Founded by Great Britain as a colony for emancipated slaves.
 Great Britain Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade founded in Great Britain.
1788 Sir William Dolben's Act regulating the conditions on British slave ships enacted.
 France Abolitionist Society of the Friends of the Blacks founded in Paris.
 Denmark Limits imposed to serfdom under the Stavnsbånd system.
1789  France Last remaining seigneurial privileges over peasants abolished.
1791  Poland-Lithuania The Constitution of May 3, 1791 introduced elements of political equality between townspeople and nobility, and placed the peasants under the protection of the government; thus, it mitigated the worst abuses of serfdom.
1791  France Emancipation of second-generation slaves in the colonies.
1792  Denmark-Norway Transatlantic slave trade declared illegal after 1803, though slavery continues in Danish colonies to 1848.
1792 United Kingdom Saint Helena The importation of slaves to the island of Saint Helena was banned in 1792, but the phased emancipation of over 800 resident slaves did not take place until 1827, which was still some six years before the British parliament passed legislation to ban slavery in the colonies.
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.
 Upper Canada Importation of slaves banned by the Act Against Slavery.
1794  France Slavery abolished in all French territories and possessions.
 United States The Slave Trade Act bans both American ships from participating in the slave trade and the export of slaves in foreign ships.
 Poland-Lithuania The Proclamation of Połaniec, issued during the Kościuszko Uprising, ultimately abolished serfdom in Poland, and granted substantial civil liberties to all peasants.
1798 French First Republic Occupied Malta Slavery banned in the islands after their capture by French forces under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte.
1799  New York Gradual emancipation act freeing the future children of slaves, and all slaves in 1827.
 Scotland The Colliers (Scotland) Act 1799 ends the legal servitude or slavery of coal and salt miners that had been established in 1606.

1800–1829

Date Jurisdiction Description
1800 Joseon State slavery banned in 1800. Private slavery continued until being banned in 1894.
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.
United States Ohio State constitution abolishes slavery.
1803  Denmark-Norway Abolition of Danish participation in the transatlantic slave trade takes effect on 1 January.
1804  New Jersey Slavery abolished.
 Haiti Haiti declares independence and abolishes slavery.
1804–1813 Serbia First Serbian Uprising against Ottoman Empire.
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 International slave trade made a felony in Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves; this act takes effect on 1 January 1808, the earliest date permitted under the Constitution.
 United Kingdom Abolition of the Slave Trade Act abolishes slave trading throughout the British Empire. Captains fined £100 per slave transported. 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.
Poland Warsaw Constitution abolishes serfdom.
 Prussia The Stein-Hardenberg Reforms abolish serfdom.
United States 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."
1808  United States Importation and exportation of slaves made a crime.
1810 New Spain Independence leader Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla proclaimed the abolition of slavery three months after the start of the Independence of Mexico from Spain.
1811  United Kingdom Slave trading made a felony punishable by transportation for both British subjects and foreigners.
 Spain The Cortes of Cádiz abolish the last remaining seigneurial rights.
British East India Company The Company issued regulations 10 of 1811, prohibiting the transport of slaves into Company territory, adding to the 1774 restrictions.
 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 Cortes of Cádiz pass the Spanish Constitution of 1812, giving citizenship and equal rights to all residents in Spain and her territories, excluding slaves. During deliberations, Deputies José Miguel Guridi y Alcocer and Agustín Argüelles unsuccessfully argue for the abolition of slavery.
1813 New Spain Independence leader José María Morelos y Pavón declares slavery abolished in Mexico in the documents Sentimientos de la Nación.
United Provinces Law of Wombs passed by the Assembly of Year XIII. Slaves born after 31 January 1813 will be granted freedom when they are married, or on their 16th birthday for women and 20th for men, and upon their manumission will be given land and tools to work it.
1814 United Provinces After the occupation of Montevideo, all slaves born in modern Uruguayan territory are declared free.
 Netherlands Slave trade abolished.
1815  France Napoleon abolishes the slave trade.
 Portugal Slave trade banned north of the Equator in return for a £750,000 payment by Britain.
Spain Florida British withdrawing after the War of 1812 leave a fully armed fort in the hands of maroons, escaped slaves and their descendants, and their Seminole allies. Becomes known as Negro Fort.
 United Kingdom
 Portugal
Sweden-Norway
 France
Austria Austria
 Russia
 Spain
 Prussia
The Congress of Vienna declares its opposition to the slave trade.
1816 Estonia Serfdom abolished.
Spain Florida Negro Fort destroyed in the Battle of Negro Fort by U.S. forces under the command of General Andrew Jackson.
Algeria Algiers bombarded by the British and Dutch navies in an attempt to end North African piracy and slave raiding in the Mediterranean. 3,000 slaves freed.
1817 Courland Serfdom abolished.
 United Kingdom
 Spain
Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.
 Spain Ferdinand VII signs a cedula banning the importation of slaves in Spanish possessions beginning in 1820, in return for a £400,000 payment from Britain. However, some slaves are still smuggled in after this date. Both slave ownership and internal commerce in slaves remained legal.
Venezuela Simon Bolivar calls for the abolition of slavery.
 New York 4 July 1827 set as date to free all ex-slaves from indenture.
United Provinces Constitution supports the abolition of slavery, but does not ban it.
1818  United Kingdom
 Portugal
Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.
 France Slave trade banned.
 United Kingdom
 Netherlands
Bilateral treaty taking additional measures to enforce the 1814 ban on slave trading.
1819 Livonia Serfdom abolished.
United Kingdom Upper Canada Attorney-General John Robinson declares all black residents free.
 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).
1820  United States The Compromise of 1820 bans slavery north of the 36º 30' line; the Act to Protect the Commerce of the United States and Punish the Crime of Piracy is amended to consider the maritime slave trade as piracy, making it punishable with death.
Indiana The supreme court orders almost all slaves in the state to be freed in Polly v. Lasselle.
 Spain The 1817 abolition of the slave trade takes effect.
1821  Mexico The Plan of Iguala frees the slaves born in Mexico.
 United States
 Spain
In accordance with Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, Florida becomes a territory of the United States. A main reason was Spain's inability or unwillingness to capture and return escaped slaves.
Peru Abolition of slave trade and implementation of a plan to gradually end slavery.
 Gran Colombia Emancipation for sons and daughters born to slave mothers, program for compensated emancipation set.
1822 Haiti Haiti Jean Pierre Boyer annexes Spanish Haiti and abolishes slavery there.
Liberia Liberia Founded by the American Colonization Society as a colony for emancipated slaves.
Muscat and Oman Muscat and Oman
 United Kingdom
First bilateral treaty limiting the slave trade in Zanzibar.
1823  Chile Slavery abolished.
 United Kingdom The Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions (Anti-Slavery Society) is founded.
Greece Prohibition of slavery is enshrined in the Greek Constitution of 1823, during the Greek War of Independence.
1824  Mexico The new constitution effectively abolishes slavery.
Central America Slavery abolished.
1825 Uruguay Importation of slaves banned.
Haiti Haiti France, with warships at the ready, demanded Haiti compensate France for its loss of slaves and its slave colony
1827  United Kingdom
Sweden-Norway
Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.
 New York Last vestiges of slavery abolished. Children born between 1799 and 1827 are indentured until age 25 (females) or age 28 (males).
United Kingdom Saint Helena Phased emancipation of over 800 resident slaves, some six years before the British parliament passed legislation to ban slavery in all colonies.
1829  Mexico Last slaves freed just as the first president of partial African ancestry (Vicente Guerrero) is elected.

1830–1849

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".
1830  Uruguay Slavery abolished.
1831 Bolivia Slavery abolished.
Empire of Brazil 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.
1832  Greece Slavery abolished with independence.
1832 Coahuila y Tejas Anahuac Disturbances: Juan Davis Bradburn, American-born Mexican officer at Anahuac,Texas, confronts slave-owning American settlers, enforcing Mexican abolition of slavery and refusing to hand over two escaped 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. 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.
 France French Society for the Abolition of Slavery founded in Paris.
1835  Serbia Freedom granted to all slaves in the moment they step on Serb soil.
 United Kingdom
 France
Bilateral treaties abolishing the slave trade.
 United Kingdom
 Denmark
 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.
1836  Portugal Prime Minister Sá da Bandeira bans the transatlantic slave trade and the importation and exportation of slaves to or from the Portuguese colonies south of the equator.
1837  Spain Slavery abolished outside of the colonies.
1838  United Kingdom All slaves in the colonies become free after a period of forced apprenticeship following the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions (now London Anti-Slavery Society) winds up.
1839  United Kingdom The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (after several changes, now known as Anti-Slavery International) is founded.
East India Company The Indian indenture system is abolished in territories controlled by the company, but this is reversed in 1842.
Papal States Catholic Church Pope Gregory XVI's In supremo apostolatus resoundingly condemns slavery and the slave trade.
1840  United Kingdom
 Venezuela
Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.
 United Kingdom First World Anti-Slavery Convention meets in London.
 New Zealand Taking slaves banned by Treaty of Waitangi.
1841  United Kingdom
 France
 Russia
 Prussia
Austrian Empire Austria
Quintuple Treaty agreeing to suppress the slave trade.
 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.
 Paraguay Law for the gradual abolition of slavery passed.
1843 East India Company The Indian Slavery Act, 1843, Act V abolishes slavery in territories controlled by the company.
 United Kingdom
 Uruguay
Bilateral treaties abolishing the slave trade.
 United Kingdom
 Mexico
 United Kingdom
 Chile
 United Kingdom
Bolivia
1844  Moldavia Mihail Sturdza abolishes slavery in Moldavia.
 Paraguay Slave trade abolished.
 Dominican Republic Dominican Republic declares independence from Haiti; abolition of slavery reinforced.
1845  United Kingdom 36 Royal Navy ships assigned to the Anti-Slavery Squadron, making it one of the largest fleets in the world.
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.
1846  Tunisia Slavery abolished in Tunisia under Ahmed Bey rule.
1847  Ottoman Empire Slave trade from Africa abolished.
Saint Barthélemy Last slaves freed.
 Pennsylvania The last indentured ex-slaves, born before 1780 (fewer than 100 in the 1840 census) are freed.
Denmark Danish West Indies Royal edict ruling the freedom of children born from female slaves and the total abolition of slavery after 12 years. Dissatisfaction causes a slave rebellion in Saint Croix the next year.
1848 Austrian Empire Austria Serfdom abolished.
 France Slavery abolished in the colonies. Gabon is founded as a settlement for emancipated slaves.
Denmark Danish West Indies Governor Peter von Scholten declares the immediate and total emancipation of all slaves in an attempt to end the slave revolt. For this he is recalled and tried for treason, but the charges are later dropped.
 Denmark Last remains of the Stavnsbånd effectively abolished.
 United Kingdom
Muscat and Oman Muscat and Oman
Bilateral treaties abolishing the slave trade.
1849  United Kingdom
 Trucial States
United Kingdom Sierra Leone The Royal Navy destroys the slave factory of Lomboko.

1850–1899

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.
Empire of Brazil Brazil Eusébio de Queirós Law (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 Empire of Brazil Brazil

 Uruguay

Bilateral treaty of 12 October, Uruguay accepts returning to Brazil the escaped slaves from that country. Brazilians who owned land in Uruguay were allowed to have slaves in their properties.
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Slavery nominally abolished along with opium, gambling, polygamy and foot binding.
New Granada Slavery abolished. After years of laws that only purported a partial advancement towards abolition, President José Hilario López pushed Congress to pass total abolition on 21 May. Former owners were compensated with government issued bonds.
 Ecuador Slavery abolished in the country by José María Urvina.
Lagos Reduction of Lagos: The British capture the city of Lagos and replace King Kosoko with Akitoye because of the former's refusal to ban the slave trade.
1852 Hawaii Hawaii 1852 Constitution officially declared slavery illegal.
 United Kingdom
Lagos
Bilateral treaty banning the slave trade and human sacrifice.
1853 Argentine Confederation Argentina Slavery abolished with the sanction of a new federal Constitution.
1854  Peru Slavery abolished by Ramón Castilla.
 Venezuela Slavery abolished.
1855  Moldavia Slavery abolished.
1856  Wallachia
1857  United States Dred Scott v. Sandford rules that black slaves and their descendants cannot gain American citizenship and are not entitled to freedom even if they live in a free state for years.
Egypt Firman banning the trade of Black African (Zanj) slaves.[citation needed]
1858  United Kingdom British government takes direct control of all land owned by the East India Company, making previously East India Company directly managed territory subject to the slavery laws applicable in the rest of the British Empire.
1859 Atlantic Ocean Definitive suppression of the transatlantic slave trade.
 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 U.S. Senate delays the admission of Kansas as a state until 1861.
 Russia Kazakhs banned from having slaves, although slavery persists in some areas through the rest of the century.[better source needed]
1860  United States Last slave ship to unload illegally on U.S. territory, the Clotilda.
1861  Russia The Emancipation reform of 1861 abolishes serfdom.
 United States The election of Abraham Lincoln leads to the attempted secession of eleven slaveholding states and the American Civil War.
 United Kingdom
British India

Indian Penal Code explicitly prohibits slavery in British administered territory.

1862  United States Congress passes the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act, freeing all slaves in the District of Columbia.
 United States
 United Kingdom
Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade (African Slave Trade Treaty Act).
Spain Spanish Cuba Slave trade abolished.
 United States Nathaniel Gordon becomes the only person hanged in U.S. history "for being engaged in the slave trade".
1863  Netherlands Slavery abolished in the colonies, emancipating 33,000 slaves in Surinam, 12,000 in Curaçao and Dependencies, and an indeterminate number in the East Indies.
 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.
Denmark Iceland Exemptions introduced to serfdom under the Vistarband system.
 Chatham Islands Slavery abolished.
1864 Congress Poland Serfdom abolished.
1865  United States Slavery abolished, except as punishment for crime, by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It frees all remaining slaves, about 40,000, in the border slave states that did not secede. Thirty out of thirty-six states vote to ratify it; New Jersey, Delaware, Kentucky, and Mississippi vote against. Mississippi does not officially ratify it until 2013.
 Texas Juneteenth: U.S. General Gordon Granger proclaims the end of slavery in Galveston.
 Spain Spanish Abolitionist Society founded in Madrid by Julio Vizcarrondo, José Julián Acosta and Joaquín Sanromá.
1866 Oklahoma Oklahoma Slavery abolished. U.S. government treaties with the Five Tribes that governed the Indian Territory, which previously allied with the Confederacy, required them to abolish slavery for renewed U.S. recognition of their continued independence.
Iowa Thirteenth Amendment ratified.
 New Jersey
1867  Spain Law of Repression and Punishment of the Slave Trade.
 United States Peonage Act of 1867, mostly targeting use of Native American peons in New Mexico Territory. Slavery among native tribes in Alaska was abolished after the purchase from Russia in 1867.
1868 Spain Spanish 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.
 Paraguay Slavery abolished.
1870  Spain Amidst great opposition from the Cuban and Puerto Rican planters, Segismundo Moret drafts a "Law of Free Wombs" that frees children of slaves, slaves older than 65 years, and slaves serving in the Spanish Army, beginning in 1872.
 Texas Thirteenth Amendment ratified.
1871 Empire of Brazil Brazil Rio Branco Law (Law of Free Birth) declares the children born to slave mothers free.
 Japan Abolition of the han system or Japanese feudalism.
1873 Puerto Rico Slavery abolished.
 United Kingdom
Zanzibar
Madagascar
Triple treaty abolishing the slave trade.
1874  Gold Coast Slavery abolished.
1877  Egypt The Anglo-Egyptian Slave Trade Convention abolishes the slave trade gradually in 1877–1884. This also gradually abolishes slavery itself over the next decades.
1879 Bulgaria 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.
1884  Cambodia Slavery abolished.
1885 Empire of Brazil Brazil Saraiva-Cotegipe Law 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 Spain Spanish Cuba Slavery abolished.
1888 Empire of Brazil Brazil Golden Law decreeing the total abolition of slavery with immediate effect.
1889 Kingdom of Italy 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 Germany
 Portugal
Congo Free State Congo
Kingdom of Italy 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 Korean Empire Korea Slavery abolished, but it survives in practice until 1930.
Denmark Iceland Vistarband effectively abolished (but not de jure).
1895 Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan is annexed by Japan, where slavery has been abolished.
1895 Egypt Slavery abolished.
 Italian Somaliland First slaves freed
1896 Madagascar Slavery abolished.
1897 Zanzibar Slavery abolished.
Thailand Siam Slave trade abolished.
Ottoman Empire Bassora Children of freedmen issued separate certificates of liberation to avoid enslavement and separation from their parents.[citation needed]
1899 France Ndzuwani Slavery abolished.

1900–1949

Date Jurisdiction Description
1900 United States Guam Slavery abolished 22 February 1900, by proclamation of Richard P. Leary.
1901  Delaware Thirteenth Amendment ratified.
1902 Cameroon Gradual abolition of slavery.
1903  French Sudan "Slave" no longer used as an administrative category.
1904  United Kingdom
 Germany
 Denmark
 Spain
 France
Kingdom of Italy Italy
 Netherlands
 Portugal
 Russia
International Agreement for the suppression of the White Slave Traffic signed in Paris. Only France, the Netherlands and Russia extend the treaty to the whole extent of their colonial empires with immediate effect, and Italy extends it to Eritrea but not to Italian Somaliland.
British East Africa Slavery abolished.
1905  French West Africa Slavery formally abolished. Though up to one million slaves gain their freedom, slavery continues to exist in practice for decades afterward.
1906  China Slavery abolished beginning on 31 January 1910. Adult slaves are converted into hired laborers and the minors freed upon reaching age 25.
 Barotseland Slavery abolished.
1908  Ottoman Empire The Young Turk Revolution eradicates the open trade of Zanj and Circassian women from Constantinople.
 Congo Free State Belgium annexes the Congo Free State, ending the practice of slavery there.
1912 Thailand Siam Slavery abolished.
1915 Malaysia British Malaya Slavery abolished.
1917  British Raj Indian indenture system abolished.
1917  Soviet Russia Decree Abolishing Classes and Civil Ranks
1918  United States Supreme Court rules in Arver v. United States that the 13th Amendment prohibition against involuntary servitude does not apply to conscription. The government can constitutionally force people to serve in the military against their will.
1919  Tanganyika Slavery abolished.
1922  Morocco Slave trade abolished, slave holding remained legal.
1923  Afghanistan Slavery abolished.
 Florida Convict lease abolished after the death of Martin Tabert, who was whipped for being too ill to work.[citation needed]
 Hong Kong Slavery of Mui tsai abolished.
1924 Kingdom of Iraq Iraq Slavery abolished.
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan Slavery abolished
 League of Nations Temporary Slavery Commission appointed.
 Turkey Slavery abolished
1926    Nepal Slavery abolished.
 League of Nations Convention to Suppress the Slave Trade and Slavery.
United Kingdom British Burma Slavery abolished.
 United Kingdom Law of Property Act 1925.
1927  Spain 1926 Slavery Convention ratified.
 United Kingdom
Najd Nejd
 Hejaz
Treaty of Jeddah (1927) abolishing the slave trade.
1928 Sierra Leone Abolition of domestic slavery practised by local African elites. Although established as a place for freed slaves, a study found practices of domestic slavery still widespread in rural areas in the 1970s.[citation needed]
 Alabama Convict lease abolished, the last state in the Union to do so.
1929  Persia Slavery abolished and criminalized.
1930  League of Nations Forced Labour Convention.
1935 Ethiopian Empire Ethiopia The invading Italian General Emilio De Bono claims to have abolished slavery in the Ethiopian Empire.
1936 Northern Nigeria Slavery abolished.
United Kingdom Bechuanaland Slavery abolished.
1937 Bahrain Slavery abolished.
1941  United States Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Circular 3591 abolishing all forms of convict leasing.
1945 Occupied Germany Millions of forced labourers and slaves are freed after the fall of the Third Reich; see forced labour under German rule during World War II.
 Japanese Empire Millions of forced labourers and sex slaves are freed after the defeat of the Japanese Empire; see comfort women, rōmusha, East Asia Development Board.
1946 Occupied Germany Fritz Sauckel, Nazi official responsible for procuring forced labor in occupied Europe during World War II, is convicted of crimes against humanity and hanged.
 French Sudan Beginning of large slave defections encouraged by the French Fourth Republic and the Sudanese Union – African Democratic Rally party.
1948  United Nations Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares slavery contrary to human rights.
1949  Kuwait Slavery abolished.

1950–1999

Date Jurisdiction Description
1952  Qatar Slavery abolished.
1953  Australia
 Canada
 Liberia
 New Zealand
 South Africa
  Switzerland
 United Kingdom
1926 Slavery Convention ratified.
1954  Afghanistan
 Austria
 Cuba
 Denmark
 Egypt
 Finland
 India
 Italy
 Mexico
 Monaco
 Sweden
 Syria
1955  Ecuador
Kingdom of Greece Greece
Kingdom of Iraq Iraq
 Israel
 Netherlands
 Pakistan
 Philippines
 Republic of China (Taiwan)
 Turkey
1956  United Nations Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of Slavery.
Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic Byelorussia
 Soviet Union
United States United States
 South Vietnam
1926 Slavery Convention ratified.
1957  United Nations The Abolition of Forced Labour Convention eliminates some exceptions admitted in the 1930 Forced Labour Convention.
 Albania
 Libya
 Burma
 Norway
 Romania
 Sudan
1926 Slavery Convention ratified.
1958  Bhutan Slavery abolished.
 Hungary
 Ceylon
1926 Slavery Convention ratified.
1959  Jordan
 Morocco
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Ukraine
1960  Niger Slavery abolished.
 Mali First president Modibo Keita makes the effective abolition of slavery a prominent goal of the government. However, his efforts are largely abandoned during the dictatorship of Moussa Traoré (1968–1991).
1961  Nigeria 1926 Slavery Convention ratified.
1961  Morocco Slavery abolished under Moroccan Constitution, although domestic slave practices continued.
1962  Saudi Arabia Slavery abolished.
 North Yemen
 Belgium
 Sierra Leone
 Tanganyika
1926 Slavery Convention ratified.
1963  Algeria
 France
 Guinea
 Kuwait
   Nepal
1964  Trucial States Slavery abolished.
 Jamaica
 Madagascar
 Niger
 Uganda
1926 Slavery Convention ratified.
1965  Malawi
1966  Brazil
 Malta
 Trinidad and Tobago
 Tunisia
1967  South Yemen Slavery abolished.
1968  Mongolia 1926 Slavery Convention ratified.
1969 Ethiopian Empire Ethiopia
 Mauritius
1970  Oman Slavery abolished.
1972  Fiji 1926 Slavery Convention ratified.
1973  West Germany
 Mali
 Saudi Arabia
 Zambia
1974  Lesotho
1976  Bahamas
 Barbados
 Kentucky Thirteenth Amendment ratified.
1981  Mauritania Slavery abolished, though the ban was not enforced and many people continued to be held as slaves.
 Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
 Solomon Islands
1926 Slavery Convention ratified.
1982  Papua New Guinea
1983  Bolivia
 Guatemala
1984  Cameroon
1985  Bangladesh
1986  Cyprus
 Mauritania
 Nicaragua
1987  North Yemen
1990  Bahrain
 Saint Lucia
1992  Croatia
1993  Bosnia and Herzegovina
1994  Dominica
1995  Chile
 Mississippi The Mississippi Legislature unanimously votes to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution after a clerk discovers it never had. It is the last eligible state in the union to do so. However, state officials fail to send the required documentation to the state register.
1996  Azerbaijan 1926 Slavery Convention ratified.
 Ireland Last Magdalene Laundry closes.
1997  Kyrgyzstan
 Turkmenistan
1926 Slavery Convention ratified.
1998  Ghana Forced ritual servitude of girls in Ewe shrines banned.

2000–present

Date Jurisdiction Description
2001 Serbia and Montenegro Yugoslavia
 Uruguay
1926 Slavery Convention ratified.
2003  Niger Slavery criminalized.
2006  Montenegro 1926 Slavery Convention ratified.
 Mali Temedt, an organization against slavery and the discrimination of former slaves, is founded in Essakane.
2007  Mauritania Slavery criminalized.
 Paraguay 1926 Slavery Convention ratified.
2008  Kazakhstan
2009  United Kingdom Section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.
2010  Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Slavery criminalized.
2013  Mississippi Ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment legally recorded.
2015  United Kingdom Modern Slavery Act 2015.
2017 Navajoland Criminalization of human trafficking.
 Chad Slavery criminalized.
2018  Colorado Prison exception removed from Colorado's constitutional ban on slavery.
2019  Iraq
 Syria
Defeat and debellatio of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant leads to the freeing of thousands of slaves, including Yazidi and Christian sex slaves.
2020  Utah
 Nebraska
Prison exception removed from both states' constitutional ban on slavery.
2022  Alabama
 Oregon
 Tennessee
 Vermont
Prison exception removed from the states' constitutional ban on slavery.
Present Worldwide Although slavery is now abolished de jure in all countries, de facto practices akin to it continue today in many places throughout the world, almost exclusively in Asia and Africa.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Except Abu Dhabi, the rest of the Trucial States officially abolished slavery by a joint declaration in 1956. Abu Dhabi officially abolished it in 1963.

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