1748: Enlightenment author Montesquieu argued that slavery is universally wrong in "The Spirit of the Laws"

1759: Enlightenment author Voltaire criticized slavery in "Candide"

1760: Tacky's War slave rebellion in Jamaica sparked uprisings throughout the Caribbean

1776: Adam Smith argued that free labor is cheaper and more productive than slavery during the industrial era in "The Wealth of Nations"

1776: Continental Congress member Thomas Jefferson used ideals of equality in writing the Declaration of Independence, including the phrase "all men are created equal"

1787: Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade formed by Quakers in Great Britain

1793: Eli Whitney patented cotton gin, transforming harvesting of cotton for textile industry

1794: New government of France after the French Revolution abolished slavery

1804: Republic Of Haiti proclaimed after successful slave revolt and revolution against French colonial government

1807: British Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act, making slave trade illegal in the British Empire

1820s and 1830s: Second Great Awakening of Methodist and Baptist Churches fueled abolition movement in United States

1831: Slave Nat Turner led then-largest slave rebellion in the United States in Virginia

1833: Slavery Abolition Act outlaws slavery in British territories in India, Canada, and South Africa.

1865: 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery in the United States