| 1775 | - Second Continental Congress opens.
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| 1776 | - Declaration of Independence adopted.
- Virginia adopts state bill of rights.
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| 1777 | - Articles of Confederation sent to states.
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| 1778 | - State constitutions completed.
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| 1780 | - Pennsylvania institutes gradual emancipation.
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| 1781 | - Articles of Confederation ratified.
- Creation of executive departments.
- Massachusetts slaves sue for freedom.
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| 1782 | - Virginia relaxes state manumission law.
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| 1783 | - Newburgh Conspiracy exposed.
- Treaty of Paris ends the war.
- Massachusetts enfranchises taxpaying free blacks.
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| 1784 | - Gradual emancipation laws passed in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
- Treaty of Fort Stanwix.
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| 1785 | - Treaty of Fort McIntosh.
- Congress calls for large requisition.
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| 1786 | - Shays’s Rebellion begins.
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| 1787 | - Shays’s Rebellion crushed.
- Northwest Ordinance.
- Delaware provides manumission law.
- Constitutional convention meets in Philadelphia.
- The Federalist Papers begin to publish.
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| 1788 | - U.S. Constitution ratified.
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| 1790 | - Maryland provides manumission law.
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| 1799 | - Gradual emancipation law passed in New York.
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| 1804 | - Gradual emancipation law passed in New Jersey.
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