| 1808 | External slave trade outlawed. |
| 1810 | Suffrage extended throughout South to all adult white males. |
| 1820 | Southern legislatures enact slave codes. Southern legislatures restrict free blacks. Southern intellectuals fashion systematic defense of slavery. |
| 1822 | Denmark Vesey executed. |
| 1829 | An Appeal . . . to the Coloured Citizens of the World published. |
| 1830 | Southern slaves number approximately two million. |
| 1831 | First issue of the Liberator published. Nat Turner leads slave rebellion. |
| 1836 | Arkansas admitted to Union as slave state. |
| 1840 | Cotton accounts for more than 60 percent of nation’s exports. |
| 1845 | Texas and Florida admitted to Union as slave states. |
| 1860 | Southern slaves number nearly four million, on |