Timeline of abolition of slavery and serfdom

Ancient times

Date	Jurisdiction	Description
Early sixth century BC	Polis of Athens	The Athenian lawgiver Solon abolishes debt slavery and frees all Athenian citizens who had formerly been enslaved.
539 BC		In the Cyrus Cylinder, Cyrus the Great claims that he freed the people of Babylon from forced labor. This has been at times interpreted as Cyrus abolishing slavery in Babylon or the whole of Persia, but there is no consensus on the matter among historians. In Judaism, Cyrus is referred as a messiah for ending the Babylonian Captivity.
326 BC	Roman Republic	Lex Poetelia Papiria abolishes debt bondage.
3rd century BC	Maurya Empire	Ashoka abolishes the slave trade and encourages people to treat slaves well.
221–206 BC	Qin Dynasty	Measures to eliminate the landowning aristocracy include the abolition of slavery and the establishment of a free peasantry who owed taxes and labor to the state. They also discouraged serfdom. The dynasty was overthrown in 206 BC and many of its laws were overturned.
9–12 AD	Xin Dynasty	Wang Mang, first and only emperor of the Xin Dynasty, usurped the Chinese throne and instituted a series of sweeping reforms, including the abolition of slavery and radical land reform from 9–12 A.D.

Medieval times

Date	Jurisdiction	Description
~500	Ireland	Slavery ends for a time in Ireland, but resumes by the ninth century.
590–604		Pope Gregory I bans Jews from owning Christian slaves.
7th century	Francia	Queen Balthild, a former slave, and the Council of Chalon-sur-Saône condemn the enslavement of Christians. Balthild purchases slaves, mostly Saxon, and manumits them.
741–752		Pope Zachary bans the sale of Christian slaves to Muslims, purchases all slaves acquired in the city by Venetian traders, and sets them free.
840	Carolingian Empire	Pactum Lotharii: Venice pledges to neither buy Christian slaves in the Empire, nor sell them to Muslims. Venetian slavers switch to trading Slavs from the East.
873	Christendom	Pope John VIII declares the enslavement of fellow Christians a sin and commands their release.
~900	Byzantine Empire	Emperor Leo VI the Wise prohibits voluntary self-enslavement and commands that such contracts shall be null and void and punishable by flagellation for both parties to the contract.
922	West Francia	The Council of Koblenz equates the enslavement and sale of a Christian with homicide.
960		Slave trade banned in the city under the rule of Doge Pietro IV Candiano.
1080	Angevin Empire	William the Conqueror prohibits the sale of any person to "heathens" as slaves.
1100	Normandy	Serfdom no longer present.
1102	England	The Council of London bans the slave trade.
1120		The Council of Nablus decrees that a man who rapes his own slave should be castrated, and that a man who rapes a slave belonging to another should be castrated and exiled.
c. 1160	Norway	The Gulating bans the sale of house slaves out of the country.
1171		All English slaves in the island freed by the Council of Armagh.
1198	France	Trinitarian Order founded with the purpose of redeeming war captives.
1214	Korčula	The Statute of the Town abolishes slavery.
1218	Aragon	Mercedarians founded in Barcelona with the purpose of ransoming poor Christians enslaved by Muslims.
~1220	Holy Roman Empire	The Sachsenspiegel, the most influential German code of law from the Middle Ages, condemns slavery as a violation of man's likeness to God.
1245	Aragon	James I bans Jews from owning Christian slaves, but allows them to own Muslims and Pagans.
1256		Liber Paradisus promulgated. Slavery and serfdom abolished, all serfs in the commune are released.
1274	Norway	Landslov mentions only former slaves, implying that slavery was abolished in Norway.
1315	France	Louis X publishes a decree abolishing slavery and proclaiming that "France signifies freedom", that any slave setting foot on French ground should be freed. However some limited cases of slavery continued until the 17th century in some of France's Mediterranean harbours in Provence, as well as until the 18th century in some of France's overseas territories. Most aspects of serfdom are also eliminated de facto between 1315 and 1318.
1335	Sweden	Slavery abolished. However, slaves are not banned entry into the country until 1813. In the 18th and 19th Centuries, slavery will be practiced in the Swedish-ruled Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy. Sweden never had serfdom in except in a few territories it later acquired which was ruled under a local legal code.
1347	Poland	The Statutes of Casimir the Great issued in Wiślica emancipate all non-free people.
1368	Ming Dynasty	The Hongwu Emperor abolishes all forms of slavery, but it continues across China. Later rulers, as a way of limiting slavery in the absence of a prohibition, pass a decree that limits the number of slaves per household and extracts a severe tax from slave owners.
1416		Slavery and slave trade abolished.
1435	Canary Islands	Pope Eugene IV's Sicut Dudum bans enslavement of Christians in the Canary Islands on pain of excommunication. However non-Christian Guanches can still be enslaved.
1477		Isabella I bans slavery in newly conquered territories.
1479		The Treaty of Alcaçovas bans Castilian ships from sailing to Africa south of the Canaries, making the importation of African slaves south of the Sahara de facto Portuguese monopoly.
1480	Galicia	Remnant serfdom abolished by the Catholic Monarchs.
1486	Aragon	Ferdinand II promulgates the :es:Sentencia arbitral de Guadalupe|Sentence of Guadalupe, abolishing Carolingian-remnant serfdom in Old Catalonia.
1490		After a long court case, the Catholic Monarchs order that all La Gomera natives enslaved in the aftermath of the 1488 rebellion must be freed and returned to the island at Conquistador Pedro de Vera's expense. De Vera is also relieved from his post as Governor of Gran Canaria in 1491.
1493		Queen Isabella bans the enslavement of Native Americans unless they are hostile or cannibalistic. Native Americans are ruled to be subjects of the Crown. Columbus is preempted from selling Indian captives in Seville and those already sold are tracked, purchased from their buyers and released.

1500–1700 (Early Modern)

1701–1799 (Late Modern)

1800–1829

Date	Jurisdiction	Description
1800		American citizens banned from investment and employment in the international slave trade in an additional Slave Trade Act.
1802	French First Republic	Napoleon re-introduces slavery in sugarcane-growing colonies.
1802	Ohio	State constitution abolishes slavery.
1803		Abolition of transatlantic slave trade takes effect on January 1.
1804		Slavery abolished.
1804		Haiti declares independence and abolishes slavery.
1804–1813	Serbia	Local slaves emancipated.
1805	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	A bill for abolition passes in House of Commons but is rejected in the House of Lords.
1806		In a message to Congress, Thomas Jefferson calls for criminalizing the international slave trade, asking Congress to "withdraw the citizens of the United States from all further participation in those violations of human rights … which the morality, the reputation, and the best of our country have long been eager to proscribe."
1807		International slave trade made a felony in Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves; this act takes effect on 1 January 1808, the earliest date permitted under the Constitution.The domestic trade in slaves in the United States continued until 1865.
1807	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	Abolition of the Slave Trade Act abolishes slave trading in British Empire. Captains fined £120 per slave transported. Patrols sent to the African coast to arrest slaving vessels. The West Africa Squadron is established to suppress slave trading; by 1865, nearly 150,000 people freed by anti-slavery operations.
1807	Warsaw	Constitution abolishes serfdom.
1807		The Stein-Hardenberg Reforms abolish serfdom.
1807	Michigan Territory	Judge Augustus Woodward denies the return of two slaves owned by a man in Windsor, Upper Canada. Woodward declares that any man "coming into this Territory is by law of the land a freeman."
1808		Importation and exportation of slaves made a crime.
1810	New Spain	Independence leader Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla demands the abolition of slavery.
1811	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	Slave trading made a felony punishable by transportation for both British subjects and foreigners.
1811		The Cortes of Cádiz abolish the last remaining seigneurial rights.
1811	British East India Company	The Company issued regulations 10 of 1811, prohibiting the transport of slaves into Company territory, adding to the 1774 restrictions.
1811		The First National Congress approves a proposal of :es:Manuel de Salas|Manuel de Salas that declares Freedom of Wombs, freeing the children of slaves born in Chilean territory, regardless of their parents' condition. The slave trade is banned and the slaves who stay for more than six months in Chilean territory are automatically declared freedmen.
1812		The Cortes of Cádiz passes the Spanish Constitution of 1812, giving citizenship and equal rights to all residents in Spain and her territories, excluding slaves. During deliberations, Deputies José Miguel Guridi y Alcocer and Agustín Argüelles unsuccessfully argue for the abolition of slavery.
1813	New Spain	Independence leader José María Morelos y Pavón declares slavery abolished in the documents Sentimientos de la Nación.
1813	La Plata	Law of Wombs passed by the Assembly of Year XIII. Slaves born after 31 January 1813 will be granted freedom when they are married, or on their 16th birthday for women and 20th for men, and upon their manumission will be given land and tools to work it.
1814	La Plata	After the occupation of Montevideo, all slaves born in modern Uruguayan territory are declared free.
1814		Slave trade abolished.
1815	French First Republic	Napoleon abolishes the slave trade.
1815		Slave trade banned north of the Equator in return for a £750,000 payment by Britain.
1815	Florida	British withdrawing after the War of 1812 leave a fully armed fort in the hands of maroons, escaped slaves and their descendants, and their Seminole allies. Becomes known as Negro Fort.
1815	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Sweden-Norway Bourbon Restoration Austria	The Congress of Vienna declares its opposition to slavery.
1816	Estonia	Serfdom abolished.
1816	Florida	Negro Fort destroyed in the Battle of Negro Fort by U.S. forces under the command of General Andrew Jackson.
1816	Algeria	Algiers bombarded by the British and Dutch navies in an attempt to end North African piracy and slave raiding in the Mediterranean. 3,000 slaves freed.
1817	Courland	Serfdom abolished.
1817		Ferdinand VII signs a cedula banning the importation of slaves in Spanish possessions beginning in 1820, in return for a £400,000 payment from Britain. However, some slaves are still smuggled in after this date. Both slave ownership and internal commerce in slaves remained legal.
1817	Venezuela	Simon Bolivar calls for the abolition of slavery.
1817		4 July 1827 set as date to free all ex-slaves from indenture.
1817	La Plata	Constitution supports the abolition of slavery, but does not ban it.
1818	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.
1818	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.
1818	Bourbon Restoration	Slave trade banned.
1818	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	Bilateral treaty taking additional measures to enforce the 1814 ban on slave trading.
1819	Livonia	Serfdom abolished.
1819	Upper Canada	Attorney-General John Robinson declares all black residents free.
1819		The ancient Hawaiian kapu system is abolished during the ʻAi Noa, and with it the distinction between the kauwā slave class and the makaʻāinana.
1820		The Compromise of 1820 bans slavery north of the 36º 30' line; the Act to Protect the Commerce of the United States and Punish the Crime of Piracy is amended to consider the maritime slave trade as piracy, making it punishable with death.
1820	Indiana	The supreme court orders almost all slaves in the state to be freed in Polly v. Lasselle.
1820		The 1817 abolition of the slave trade takes effect.
1821		The Plan of Iguala frees the slaves born in Mexico.
1821		In accordance with Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, Florida becomes a territory of the United States. A main reason was Spain's inability or unwillingness to capture and return escaped slaves.
1821	Peru	Abolition of slave trade and implementation of a plan to gradually end slavery.
1821		Emancipation for sons and daughters born to slave mothers, program for compensated emancipation set.
1822	Haiti	Jean Pierre Boyer annexes Spanish Haiti and abolishes slavery there.
1822	Liberia	Founded by the American Colonization Society as a colony for emancipated slaves.
1822	Muscat and Oman	First bilateral treaty limiting the slave trade in Zanzibar.
1823		Slavery abolished.
1823	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	The Anti-Slavery Society is founded.
1823		Prohibition of slavery is enshrined in the Greek Constitution of 1823, during the Greek War of Independence.
1824		The new constitution effectively abolishes slavery.
1824	Central America	Slavery abolished.
1825	Uruguay	Importation of slaves banned.
1825	Haiti	France, with warships at the ready, demanded Haiti compensate France for its loss of slaves and its slave colony
1827	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Sweden-Norway	Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.
1827		Last vestiges of slavery abolished. Children born between 1799 and 1827 are indentured until age 25 or age 28.
1827	Saint Helena	Phased emancipation of over 800 resident slaves, some six years before the British parliament passed legislation to ban slavery in all colonies.
1829		Last slaves freed just as the first president of partial African ancestry is elected.

1830–1849

Date	Jurisdiction	Description
1830	Coahuila y Tejas	Mexican President Anastasio Bustamante attempts to implement the abolition of slavery. To circumvent the law, Anglo-Texans declare their slaves "indentured servants for life."
1830		Slavery abolished.
1830		Mahmud II issues a firman freeing all white slaves.
1831	Bolivia	Slavery abolished.
1831	Brazil	Law of 7 November 1831, abolishing the maritime slave trade, banning any importation of slaves, and granting freedom to slaves illegally imported into Brazil. The law was seldom enforced prior to 1850, when Brazil, under British pressure, adopted additional legislation to criminalize the importation of slaves.
1832		Slavery abolished with independence.
1832	Coahuila y Tejas	Anahuac Disturbances: Juan Davis Bradburn, American-born Mexican officer at Anahuac,Texas, confronts slave-owning American settlers, enforcing Mexican abolition of slavery and refusing to hand over two escaped slaves.
1834	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 comes into force, abolishing slavery throughout most of the British Empire but on a gradual basis over the next six years. Legally frees 700,000 in the West Indies, 20,000 in Mauritius, and 40,000 in South Africa. The exceptions are the territories controlled by the East India Company and Ceylon.
1834	July Monarchy	French Society for the Abolition of Slavery founded in Paris.
1835		Freedom granted to all slaves in the moment they step on Serb soil.
1835	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland July Monarchy	Bilateral treaties abolishing the slave trade.
1835	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	Bilateral treaties abolishing the slave trade.
1835		A decree of Felipe Santiago Salaverry re-legalizes the importation of slaves from other Latin American countries. The line "no slave shall enter Peru without becoming free" is taken out of the Constitution in 1839.
1836		Prime Minister Sá da Bandeira bans the transatlantic slave trade and the importation and exportation of slaves from, or to the Portuguese colonies south of the equator.
1836		Slavery made legal again with independence.
1837		Slavery abolished outside of the colonies.
1838	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	All slaves in the colonies become free after a period of forced apprenticeship following the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.
1839	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society replaces the Anti-Slavery Society.
1839	East India Company	The Indian indenture system is abolished in territories controlled by the Company, but this is reversed in 1842.
1839	Catholic Church	Pope Gregory XVI's In supremo apostolatus resoundingly condemns slavery and the slave trade.
1840	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.
1840	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	First World Anti-Slavery Convention meets in London.
1840		Taking slaves banned by Treaty of Waitangi
1841	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland July Monarchy Austria	Quintuple Treaty agreeing to suppress the slave trade.
1841		United States v. The Amistad finds that the slaves of La Amistad were illegally enslaved and were legally allowed, as free men, to fight their captors by any means necessary.
1842	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	Bilateral treaty extending the enforcement of the slave trade ban to Portuguese ships south of the Equator.
1842		Law for the gradual abolition of slavery passed.
1843	East India Company	The Indian Slavery Act, 1843, Act V abolishes slavery in territories controlled by the Company.
1843	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	Bilateral treaties abolishing the slave trade.
1843	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	Bilateral treaties abolishing the slave trade.
1843	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	Bilateral treaties abolishing the slave trade.
1843	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Bolivia	Bilateral treaties abolishing the slave trade.
1844		Mihail Sturdza abolishes slavery in Moldavia.
1845	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	36 Royal Navy ships assigned to the Anti-Slavery Squadron, making it one of the largest fleets in the world.
1845	Illinois	In Jarrot v. Jarrot, the Illinois Supreme Court frees the last indentured ex-slaves in the state who were born after the Northwest Ordinance.
1846		Slavery abolished under Ahmad I ibn Mustafa bey rule.
1847		Slave trade from Africa abolished.
1847	Saint Barthélemy	Last slaves freed.
1847		The last indentured ex-slaves, born before 1780 are freed.
1847	Danish West Indies	Royal edict ruling the freedom of children born from female slaves and the total abolition of slavery after 12 years. Dissatisfaction causes a slave rebellion in Saint Croix the next year.
1848	Austria	Serfdom abolished.
1848	French Second Republic	Slavery abolished in the colonies. Gabon is founded as a settlement for emancipated slaves.
1848	Danish West Indies	Governor Peter von Scholten declares the immediate and total emancipation of all slaves in an attempt to end the slave revolt. For this he is recalled and tried for treason, but the charges are later dropped.
1848		Last remains of the Stavnsbånd effectively abolished.
1848	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Muscat and Oman	Bilateral treaties abolishing the slave trade.
1849	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	Bilateral treaties abolishing the slave trade.
1849	Maryland	Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Dorchester County.
1849	Sierra Leone	The Royal Navy destroys the slave factory of Lomboko.

1850–1899

Date	Jurisdiction	Description
1850		The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 requires the return of escaped slaves to their owners regardless of the state they are in.
1850	Brazil	:pt:Eusébio de Queirós|Eusébio de Queiróz Act criminalizing the maritime slave trade as piracy, and imposing other criminal sanctions on the importation of slaves.
1851	Brazil	Bilateral treaty of October 12, Uruguay accepts returning to Brazil the escaped slaves from that country. Brazilians who owned land in Uruguay were allowed to have slaves in their properties.
1851	Taiping Heavenly Kingdom	Slavery abolished along with opium, gambling, tobacco, alcohol, polygamy, prostitution, and foot binding.
1851	New Granada	Slavery abolished. After years of laws that only purported a partial advancement towards abolition, President José Hilario López pushed Congress to pass total abolition on May 21. Former owners were compensated with government issued bonds.
1851		Slavery abolished.
1851	Lagos	Reduction of Lagos: The British attack the city and replace King Kosoko with Akitoye because of the former's refusal to ban the slave trade.
1852	Hawaii	1852 Constitution officially declared slavery illegal.
1852	Lagos	Bilateral treaty banning the slave trade and human sacrifice.
1853	Argentina	Slavery abolished.
1854		Slavery abolished.
1854		Slavery abolished.
1854		Trade of Circassian children banned.
1855		Slavery abolished.
1856		Slavery abolished.
1857		Dred Scott v. Sanford rules that black slaves and their descendants cannot gain American citizenship and that slaves are not entitled to freedom even if they live in a free state for years.
1857	Egypt	Firman banning the trade of Black African slaves.
1858		Zanj slave trade banned in the Middle East, Balkans and Cyprus.
1859	Atlantic Ocean	Definitive suppression of the transatlantic slave trade.
1859		The Wyandotte Constitution establishes the future state of Kansas as a free state, after four years of armed conflict between pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups in the territory. Southern dominance in the Senate of the United States delays the admission of Kansas as a state until 1861.
1859		Kazakhs banned from having slaves, although slavery persists in some areas through the rest of the century.
1860		Indian indenture system abolished.
1860		Last slave ship to unload illegally on U.S. territory, the Clotilda.
1861		The Emancipation reform of 1861 abolishes serfdom.
1861		The election of Abraham Lincoln leads to the attempted secession of several slaveholding states and the American Civil War.
1862	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	Bilateral treaty abolishing the slave trade.
1862	Cuba	Slave trade abolished.
1862		Nathaniel Gordon becomes the only person hanged in U.S. history "for being engaged in the slave trade".
1863		Slavery abolished in the colonies, emancipating 33,000 slaves in Surinam, 12,000 in the Dutch Antilles, and an indeterminate number in Indonesia.
1863		Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in Confederate-controlled areas. Most slaves in "border states" are freed by state action, and a separate law frees the slaves in Washington, D.C.
1863	Iceland	Exemptions introduced to serfdom under the Vistarband system.
1863		Slavery abolished.
1864	Congress Poland	Serfdom abolished.
1865		Slavery abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, excluding convicted criminals. It affects 40,000 remaining slaves. Thirty out of thirty-six states vote to ratify it; New Jersey, Delaware, Kentucky, and Mississippi vote against.
1865		Juneteenth: U.S. General Gordon Granger proclaims the end of slavery in Galveston.
1865		Spanish Abolitionist Society founded in Madrid by Julio Vizcarrondo, José Julián Acosta and :ca:Joaquim Maria Sanromà|Joaquín Sanromá.
1866	Indian Territory	Slavery abolished. US government treaties with the "Five Civilized Tribes" in the Indian Territory, which allied with the Confederacy, required all five tribes to abolish slavery for renewed US recognition of their governments.
1866	Iowa	Thirteenth Amendment ratified.
1866		Thirteenth Amendment ratified.
1867		Law of Repression and Punishment of the Slave Trade.
1867		Peonage Act of 1867, mostly targeting use of Native American peons in New Mexico Territory. Slavery among native tribes in Alaska was abolished after the purchase from Russia in 1867.
1868	Cuba	Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and other independence leaders free their slaves and proclaim the independence of Cuba, starting the Ten Years War.
1869		Louis I abolishes slavery in all Portuguese territories and colonies.
1870		Amidst great opposition from the Cuban and Puerto Rican planters, Segismundo Moret drafts a "Law of Free Wombs" that frees children of slaves, slaves older than 65 years, and slaves serving in the Spanish Army, beginning in 1872.
1870		Thirteenth Amendment ratified.
1871	Brazil	Rio Branco Law makes the children born to slave mothers free.
1871		Slave trade criminalized.
1871		Abolition of the han system or Japanese feudalism.
1873	Puerto Rico	Slavery abolished.
1873	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Zanzibar Madagascar	Triple treaty abolishing the slave trade.
1874		Slavery abolished.
1879	Bulgaria	Slavery abolished with independence. The Constitution states that any slave that enters Bulgarian territory is immediately freed.
1882		A firman emancipates all slaves, white and black.
1884		Slavery abolished.
1885	Brazil	Sexagenarians Law passed, freeing all slaves over the age of 60 and creating other measures for the gradual abolition of slavery, such as a Manumissions Fund administered by the State.
1886	Cuba	Slavery abolished.
1888	Brazil	Golden Law decreeing the total abolition of slavery with immediate effect, without indemnities to slave owners. The financial aid to the freedmen planned by the monarchy never takes place due to the 15 November 1889 military coup that establishes a Republic in the country.
1889	Italy	An Italian court finds that Josephine Bakhita was never legally enslaved according to Italian, British, or Egyptian law and is a free woman.
1890	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Germany Congo Italy Sweden-Norway Zanzibar Persia	Brussels Conference Act – a collection of anti-slavery measures to put an end to the slave trade on land and sea, especially in the Congo Basin, the Ottoman Empire, and the East African coast.
1894	Korea	Slavery abolished, but it survives in practice until 1930.
1894	Iceland	Vistarband effectively abolished.
1895	Taiwan	Taiwan is annexed by Japan, where slavery has been abolished
1895	Egypt	Slavery abolished.
1895		First slaves freed
1896	Madagascar	Slavery abolished.
1897	Zanzibar	Slavery abolished.
1897	Siam	Slave trade abolished.
1897	Bassora	Children of freedmen issued separate certificates of liberation to avoid enslavement and separation from their parents.
1899	Ndzuwani	Slavery abolished.

1900–1949

1950–present