1696

The Royal African Trade Company loses its monopoly and New England colonists enter the slave trade.

Thomas Southerne in London publishes his dramatic version of Behn’s Oroonoko, or, the Royal Slave.

Philadelphia Quakers rule that Friends ‘be Careful not to Encourage the bringing in of any more Negroes, & that such that have Negroes be Careful of them, bring them to Meetings, or have Meetings with them in their Families, & Restrain them from Loose, & Lewd Living.’ This is probably the first institutional attempt to limit slave trading in America.

Revelations of a plot to assassinate William III led to the drafting of an oath of loyalty to the King, rejected by many Tory and peers.