c. 1-1067 AD

Ancient Ghana, 400 miles (644 km) north of modern-day Ghana, becomes a major trading empire, deriving its power and wealth from gold.

1235-1645

Sundiata Keita comes to power and rules over the Empire of Mali. The city of Timbuktu is transformed into a major city of trade and scholarship. The gold and salt trades formed the economic basis of the Empire.

1324

Mansa Musa, a successor of Sundiata, rules Mali at its height and makes a famous pilgrimage to Mecca, bringing a huge entourage and so much gold that it plummets on the world market.

1464- c. 1550

With the decline of Mali, the Songhay Empire rises to prominence. King Sunni Ali Ber comes to power and he and his successor, Askia Mohammed Toure, extend their rule over an area more vast than Mali or Ghana. Songhay reaches its peak in the 15th and 16th centuries.

c. 1200-1500

The state of Great Zimbabwe flourishes in southern Africa. Its people build the largest medieval stone structure south of the Sahara Desert. It is the centre of a vast international commercial system and covers a huge area between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers.

1500s

The European slave trade begins.

1501

Portuguese explorers enslave 50 Amerindian men and women in Labrador or Newfoundland.

17th century

1605

Mathieu Da Costa, an African translator hired by Samuel de Champlain for his expedition from France to Port Royal, is the first Black person to arrive in Canada.

1619

Slavery begins in North America with the arrival in Jamestown, Virginia of a Dutch slave trading ship carrying 20 Africans.

1628

A six-year-old boy from Madagascar is the first Black person to appear in records as being brought directly from Africa and sold as a slave in New France for 50 crowns. He is later baptized and given the name Olivier Le Jeune.

1689

King Louis XIV of France gives limited approval for the importation of slaves into New France in order to fill a shortage of available servants and agricultural workers.

18th century

1709

King Louis XIV formally authorizes slavery in New France, thus laying the legal foundation for slavery in the colony.

1734

Marie-Joseph Angélique, a slave born in Portugal, is tortured and hanged in June for causing the fire that burned down a substantial portion of the city of Montreal.

1775-1783

The Thirteen Colonies wage the American War of Independence against Britain and form a new country called the United States of America (1776).

1783

The American Revolution ends and United Empire Loyalists – both white and Black – who wish to remain loyal to Britain move to Canada.

1790

An imperial statute allows Loyalists to enter Upper Canada from the United States without paying duty on their slaves if they obtain a licence from the Lieutenant Governor.

1793

Chloe Cooley, an enslaved woman in Upper Canada, is forced to cross the Niagara River when she is sold to a new owner in New York state. Her resistance leads to the passage of the 1793 Act limiting slavery in Upper Canada that prevents the importation of slaves and allows for the gradual emancipation of children of slaves born after this date.

1793

The first Fugitive Slave Law is passed in the United States, providing for the capture and return of runaway slaves.

19th century

1800-1863

After the passage of the 1793 Act to limit slavery in Upper Canada, enslaved African Americans flee to Canada. By the 1840s, an organized system of underground assistance evolves – which eventually becomes known as the Underground Railroad. It is run by abolitionists and Quakers and is a loosely constructed network of escape routes that originates in the southern United States, winding its way to the less restrictive North, and eventually to Canada.

1807

Britain abolishes the transatlantic slave trade.

1808

The United States Congress passes a law prohibiting the importation of slaves from Africa.

1812

Black volunteers fight under the British flag in a separate "Colored Corps" in the War of 1812 to defend their home in Canada and prevent a return to slavery.

1819

The Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada offers land grants in Oro Township to Black veterans of the War of 1812, creating an early Black settlement in the province.

1828

The Amherstburg First African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) is erected.

1829-1830

The enforcement of oppressive Black Codes in Ohio leads former residents of Cincinnati to found the Wilberforce Settlement near present-day Lucan, Ontario.

1830

Josiah Henson escapes Kentucky with his wife and four children and settled near Fort Erie, Ontario. Henson goes on to become a leading Black abolitionist and important community leader.

1831

Nat Turner, an enslaved preacher, leads the most significant slave revolt in American history. Dozens of whites are murdered and Turner is captured and hanged. In response, Virginia enacts even more oppressive laws against Blacks.

1833

Upper Canada refuses to extradite the fugitive slaves Thornton and Lucie Blackburn. The case serves as a precedent in the extradition of fugitive slaves from Upper Canada. The Blackburns are allowed to remain in Canada because to return them would ensure their re-enslavement.

1834

Slavery is officially abolished throughout the British Empire on August 1. Emancipation Day celebrations begin to take place in Black communities across Ontario and are still observed today.

1837

An escaped slave, Solomon Moseby, is arrested in Niagara for stealing a horse to affect his getaway. During his transportation back to Kentucky, one of the first race riots in Canada breaks out in opposition to his extradition. Two men are killed and Moseby escapes.

1837

The 1837 Rebellion breaks out in Upper Canada, led by William Lyon Mackenzie. Black volunteers, including Josiah Henson, form a number of "Colored Corps" to defend the government and support Black rights in the province.

1837

Thornton Blackburn starts the first cab company in Toronto, a red and yellow carriage drawn by a single horse.

1841

The Dawn Settlement near Dresden, Ontario is founded by Josiah Henson and Hiram Wilson.

1842

The British American Institute opens at the Dawn Settlement. It attracts hundreds of Blacks who settle in the area.

1849

The Elgin Settlement and Buxton Mission are founded by Rev. William King on 9,000 acres (3,642 hectares) in Kent County. The settlement is an important terminus of the Underground Railroad that attracts hundreds of free Blacks.

1849

Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery and repeatedly returns to the southern United States to assist enslaved people in their escape to freedom.

1849

Josiah Henson publishes his biography The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself.

1850

The second Fugitive Slave Law is enacted by United States Congress. The severity of the new law results in a flood of enslaved and free Blacks escaping to the safety of Canada.

1850

The Common Schools Act, enacted by Egerton Ryerson, forces Black children to attend segregated schools in many communities across the province.

1851

Henry and Mary Bibb begin publication of the first Black Canadian anti-slavery newspaper – the Voice of the Fugitive – out of Sandwich (Windsor) in Canada West.

1851

The Anti-Slavery Society of Canada is formed in Toronto.

1851

A North American convention is held at St. Lawrence Hall in Toronto with anti-slavery leaders from across the United States and Canada West to discuss emigration and other related issues.

1852

Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin is published and becomes an international bestseller, drawing attention from all over the world to the horrors of slavery.

1853

The Provincial Freeman, an abolitionist newspaper, is established by Mary Ann and Isaac Shadd. Mary Ann Shadd becomes the first Black woman to own and publish a newspaper in North America.

1856

The British Methodist Episcopal Church is founded in Canada West when some AME branches choose to separate from their parent body. The name change is partially an expression of acknowledgement and gratitude for the freedom found in the British colony.

1857

The ruling in the Dred Scott case in Missouri states that enslaved people in the United States are not humans but property and that Congress does not have the right to ban slavery in states.

1858

John Brown holds a convention in Chatham to form a constitution and lay plans to overthrow slavery in the United States, building on secret meetings held in various centres in Canada West to recruit followers to join his cause.

1859

John Brown and 21 followers, including Osborne Anderson from Chatham, raid and capture the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown's attempt to overthrow slavery in the United States fails and he is tried and hanged.

1860

John Anderson (from the Brantford area) is arrested seven years after he fled from Missouri, where he had killed a man who tried to prevent his escape. There is international interest in the case as the United States seeks to have him extradited. The case is dismissed on a technicality.

1861

The American Civil War begins. After the ban on Black soldiers is rescinded in 1862, nearly 1,000 African Canadian men join the Union Army in different Black regiments.

1863

The Emancipation Proclamation is issued by President Abraham Lincoln, declaring all slaves to be free.

1863

The United States Freemen's Inquiry Commission tours Black settlements throughout Ontario to conduct interviews and to make recommendations to assist in planning for the transition from slavery to freedom.

1865

The Civil War ends and President Lincoln is assassinated.

1865

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution officially abolishes slavery in the United States.

1883

Josiah Henson dies on May 5.

1893

Chatham schools are finally desegregated following a well-organized campaign led by the Kent County Civil Rights League.

1898

R. Nathaniel Dett becomes the organist at the British Methodist Episcopal Church, now the Nathaniel Dett Memorial Chapel, in his hometown of Niagara Falls, Ontario. He goes on to become an award-winning composer, scholar and choral director.

20th century

1901

Talented musician, vaudevillian and prolific composer, Shelton Brooks, moves from his hometown of Amherstburg, Ontario to the United States, where he goes on to write hit songs such as "Dark Town Strutter's Ball" and "Some of these Days." The latter song was popularized in the 1970s television show "All in the Family."

1915

Hattie Rhue Hatchett, a teacher and composer from North Buxton, writes "That Sacred Spot." It becomes the Canadian military's official marching song for the troops during the First World War.

1916

The segregated No. 2 Construction Battalion is formed for Black men who want to serve during the First World War. Over 600 men join from across Canada and the United States.

1939-1945

Black volunteers are accepted into the Canadian forces during the Second World War and hundreds serve alongside whites on the battlefields of Europe.

1942

The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters is organized in Canada. In 1945, it becomes the first all-Black union to sign a collective agreement with Canadian Pacific Rail.

1948

Hugh Burnett and fellow Blacks from Dresden, Chatham and Buxton organize the National Unity Association to combat discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodation.

1951

The Government of Ontario passes the Fair Employment Practices Act that outlaws discrimination in employment based on race, creed or national origin.

1954

The Government of Ontario passes the Fair Accommodations Practices Act making discrimination in public facilities illegal.

1955

In an act of resistance, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama. Her arrest leads to a year-long bus boycott by the Black community. Buses are desegregated in December 1956. Rev. Martin Luther King, one of the leaders of the boycott, emerges as a national civil rights leader in the United States.

1961

The Ontario Human Rights Commission is established to administer the Ontario Human Rights Code. Dr. Daniel Hill – a noted Canadian sociologist, civil servant, human rights specialist and Black Canadian historian – becomes its first director.

1962

The Ontario Human Rights Code is enacted, the first of its kind in Canada.

1963

Leonard Braithwaite is the first Black Canadian to be elected to a provincial legislature as the member for Etobicoke, Ontario.

1967

Canadian immigration policy is liberalized with the points system that allows un-sponsored immigrants to enter Canada based on their skills and education. Hundreds of thousands of Blacks immigrate to Canada from the Caribbean, Africa and other regions over the next 30 years.

1968

Lincoln Alexander is the first Black Canadian to be elected to the House of Commons in Ottawa, representing Hamilton West. He later becomes the federal Minister of Labour in 1979.

1969

The National Black Coalition of Canada is formed in Toronto at a meeting of 28 organizations.

1973

The first national Congress of Black Women is held in Toronto, hosted by the Canadian Negro Women's Association.

1974

Rosemary Brown, Member of the Legislative Assembly in British Columbia and the first Black woman to be elected to a Canadian legislature in 1972, becomes the first woman to compete for the leadership of a national political party (New Democrat Party); she comes second in a tight race. She later serves as Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission from 1993 to 1996.

1978

Stanley Grizzle becomes the first appointed Black Canadian judge in the Canadian Court of Citizenship.

1985

Lincoln Alexander is sworn in as Ontario's Lieutenant Governor. He is the first Black Canadian to be appointed to this vice-regal position.

1993

Jean Augustine becomes the first Black woman in Canada to be elected to the House of Commons. She is elected in the Etobicoke-Lakeshore riding and later serves in Cabinet as Minister of State and as Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister.

21st century

2005

Michaëlle Jean is sworn is as Canada's first Black Governor General.

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