Slavery in America - Animated Map

Click on the image to animate the map.

Slavery in America started in the early seventeenth century when workers were brought to the Jamestown settlement.  As more people immigrated to the "new world," the need for workers grew as well.  Slavery became a way to fill that need. 

Some areas in the North also permitted slavery until laws were passed to abolish it.  New York, for example, passed a law in 1799 which called for the gradual freeing of slaves, although it took until 1824 before slavery was fully eliminated in that state. 

A similar development happened in New Jersey, where an 1804 law freeing enslaved people was not fully realized until 1865 (when the end of the Civil War abolished slavery throughout the country).   

This animated map provides a snapshot view of slavery in America from 1789 (when George Washington became president) to 1861 (when Abraham Lincoln became president).

Credits

Map online, courtesy Kenmayer who produced the animation with maps created by Golbez.

License:  This imae is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. In short:  You are free to distribute and modify the file as long as you attribute its author(s) or licensor(s).