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