1710 - The slave trade enveloped western Africa between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the eighteenth century alone, an estimated 6 million Africans lost their freedom and were taken to the North American colonies. Thousands died during the Middle Passage across the Atlantic Ocean.

1770-1779 - Embracing the spirit of the American Revolution, enslaved African Americans petitioned for their freedom.

1775 - African Americans fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Lord Dunmore promised freedom to enslaved African men who joined the British Army.

1780 - Massachusetts passed laws abolishing the enslavement of people within the Commonwealth.

1780's - Benjamin Banneker was one of America's earliest scientists. He made a clock out of wooden parts while still a young man. It was the first wholly American-made clock in the country. His clock kept time accurately for twenty years. Banneker was the first African American given a presidential appointment. He was appointed by George Washington as Surveyor and was a key figure in laying out the nation's new capital in Washington, D.C.

1787 - The United States Constitution was written. Prince Hall established the African Lodge of Freemasons.

1789 - George Washington elected President of the United States.

1793 - Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. Enslavement of Africans spreads in the South.

1799 - Richard Allen became the first black minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

1700's-1865 - African American slaves encode religious songs, called - spirituals, - with secret meanings. Spirituals were a means for enslaved Africans to communicate with each other without their white masters knowing or understanding what they were really saying.

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