1180

Kingdom of Kongo founded

1483

Portuguese navigator Diogo Cão discovers Kongo Kingdom.

1483

Portugal becomes world power, establishes relations with Angola

1485

King Njinga Nkuwu of Kongo, baptized and rules as King João. I

1513

King Afonso I attacks rebel Ndongo Kingdom.

1518

Ndongo Kingdom requests independence from Kongo.

1520

King Afonso I of Kondo establishes Christianity as national religion.

1520

Portuguese missionaries sent to Ndongo to set up independence mission, unsuccessful.

1526

King Afonso I writes to Portugal’s King complaining about African slave trade.

1545

King Diogo I crowned as new King of Kondo Kingdom.

1550

Independent Ndongo Kingdom founded.

1564

Portuguese explorer Dias de Novais secured a grant allowing him to colonize Angola (Ndongo).

1575

Dias de Novais founded São Paulo de Loanda, capital of Angola.

1575

Portugal colony of Angola is founded

1580

Portugal and Spain were united, with the union lasting until 1640.

1589

Paulo Dias de Novais, supported by King Álvaro I of Kongo, sends a large army to attack Angola. Portuguese/Kongoese army defeated at the Battle of Lukala.

1595

The Pope declares Portuguese colony of Kongo to be an “episcopal see,” the seat of the Catholic Bishop, with jurisdiction over both Kongo and Angola.

1599

Portugal and Ndongo sign a peace treaty and formalize relationships

1606   

England’s King James I granted Virginia Company Charter, to establish a settlement in the Chesapeake region of North America. 

1611

John Rolfe imports tobacco seeds from Trinidad

1614   

John Rolfe makes first shipment of Virginia West Indian tobacco grown to England

1618   

Governor Luis Mendes de Vasconcelos wages successful war on Ndongo, against the Kimbundu-speaking people, capturing thousands

1619

• Early Spring: Slave ship San Juan Bautista leaves the port of São Paulo de Loanda and sets sail from Angola to Vera Cruz, New Spain (Mexico) with 350 captured Angolans
• July: San Juan Bautista is pirated by the English ships by the White Lion and the Treasurer
• August 25:  First Africans arrive at Point Comfort in the colony of Virginia
• August: Arrival of Africans from the White Lion who were originally on the San Juan Batista.
• Remaining African captives were taken to Bermuda 
• August 30: Portuguese slaver San Juan Bautista, arrives in Vera Cruz, New Spain, with a cargo of only 147 slaves from the original 350 Africans who left Luanda, Angola.

1620

• Virginia’s first known census compiled, includes 892 Europeans, 4 Indians and 32 Africans (15 males and 17 females).
• Plymouth Colony founded

1623

William Tucker first African child born in America

1625

Virginia’s census compiled, includes 906 Europeans, 21 Africans. Twelve of the Africans are identified by name, suggesting they have been baptized.

1629

Massachusetts was the first slave-holding colony in the "New World"

1640

All people except Africans are to be provided with firearms and ammunition

1642

Virginia passes fugitive Slave Order

1643

Virginia sets tax rate for all tithable persons, to include all males who were 16 or over and all African women at the age of sixteen years or over to be deemed taxable

1645

For tax purposes, all black men and women and all other men between 16 and 60 were to be considered tithes

1647

Warwick County man mortgaged three people, an English boy, an Indian woman, and a black male to another person.

1658

All male servants imported into Virginia and all blacks of both sexes be considered tithes

1661

If a white servant ran away with a black person who was considered a servant for life, the white servant had to make satisfaction for his own time and that of the black servant.

1662

Indians and English servants were to serve the same length of time

1662

Virginia decided that “all children born in this country shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother.” 

1667:

Baptism does not alter the condition of the person as to his bondage or freedom

1668

African women, though permitted to enjoy their freedom, are still to be considered tithables and liable for the payment of taxes.

1669

A servant could be punished for resisting his/her owner or master by extending his/her term of service. If a slave resist his master . . . and by the extremity of the correction should die, that death was not to be counted as a felony.

1670

• Virginia law states that all non-Christian servants imported into the colony by shipping shall be slaves for their lives but what shall come by land shall serve, if boys or girls, until thirty years of age, if men or women twelve years and no longer”
• Massachusetts law states that the status of the mother determines if their child is free or enslaved

1671

County courts to decide whether blacks, who had descended to an intestate person’s orphan and their monetary value had been determined, should be sold at auction or kept by the guardian until the orphan came of age. 

1672

Permissible to kill or wound any runaway who was black, racially mixed, an Indian slave, or a servant for life. The owner of that person is eligible for compensation from the government if the runaway’s life was lost (4,500 lbs. of tobacco per black person and 3,000 lbs. of tobacco per Indian).

1680

The assembly decided that children should not be counted as tithes until they’re capable of working. For Christian servants, they’re counted at 14 but black children are counted as tithes at age 12

1682

• All servants except Turks and Moors, and blacks, racially mixed people, or Indians whose parents and native country are not Christian are to be treated as slaves
• No owner or master should let any black or slave that doesn’t belong to him to remain on his plantation for more than 4 hours at a time

1691

• County justices were authorized to send out armed men to apprehend “such [blacks], mulattoes or other slaves” who were runaways and if they were killed, their owner would be compensated
• If a white person were to marry a person who was black, racially mixed, or Indian, the couple had to leave Virginia within three months; fines for a free white woman producing a racially mixed child and servitude for the woman if the fine is not paid
• If the owner of a black person sets him or her free, the newly freed person has to leave Virginia within 6 months
• Virginia law bans interracial marriages
• Virginia law prohibits whites from freeing blacks or mulattoes without paying to have them removed from the colony.

1692

• Blacks and other slaves are to be denied the right to a jury trial 
• The ownership of all horses, cattle, and hogs kept by blacks or other slaves is to be transferred to the person’s owner or be forfeited to the parish

1699

The council and assembly disallowed the use of Africans as headrights

1705

• Prohibition of any black, mulatto or Indian from holding any office, whether civil, ecclesiastical, or military, or any place of public trust
• The child of an Indian and the child, grandchild or great grandchild of a black shall be held and taken to be a mulatto
• Reiteration that all blacks of both sexes and Indian women who are not free will be considered tithes
• Masters of sailing vessels are not to transport servants or slaves out of the colony without a license or pass
• Blacks and others are denied the right to testify as witnesses in court
• African, Mulatto, and Indian slaves within Virginia are to be considered real estate under the law and can be passed through inheritance
• All non-Christian servants that are imported should be considered slaves and no one is to purchase anything from a slave without the owner’s permission.

1772

Lord Mansfield's decision led to the end of slavery in England. The decision indicated slavery was unsupported by Statute and unsupported by English Common Law. The Somerset Decision was left ambiguous in Virginia and other colonies.