Slave insurrection in the French colony of St. Domingue begins the bloody process of founding the nation of Haiti, the first independent black country in the Americas.more than 4000 white colonists are killed and hundreds of sugar plantations destroyed. Refugees flee to America, many coming to Philadelphia, the largest and most cosmopolitan city in America with the largest northern free black community.
U.S. Constitution is officially ratified by the signing of New Hampshire on June 21, 1788, thus extending slavery.
Thomas Clarkson publishes An essay on the slavery and commerce of the human species, particularly the African, translated from a Latin Dissertation. The book, often reprinted, was one of the most influential antislavery texts of the decade.
Publication in London of An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly the African, by Thomas Clarkson. Quickly reprinted in the United States, it is the single most influential antislavery work of the late 18th century.
In the first black initiated petition to Congress, Philadelphia free blacks protest North Carolina laws re-enslaving blacks freed during the Revolution.
John Gabriel Stedman publishes The Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam. The book includes depictions of the cruelty of slavery, vividly illustrated by William Blake, but is not an avowedly abolitionist text.
As the war with revolutionary France intensifies, public interest in the slave trade diminishes throughout Britain. The Abolition Society stops meeting.