 
The U.S. Constitution is officially adopted by the new nation when New Hampshire becomes the ninth state to ratify it. The document includes a fugitive slave clause and the "three-fifths" clause by which each slave is considered three-fifths of a person for the purposes of congressional representation and tax apportionment.
1788
New York passes a new comprehensive slave law, confirming that all current slaves are slaves for life.
1788
Connecticut and Massachusetts forbid residents from participating in the slave trade.
1788
South Carolina permits domestic slave trade to continue.
1789
The Maryland Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Free Negroes and Others Unlawfully Held in Bondage is founded.
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1789
Maryland denies Quaker requests to end the exportation of slaves.
1790
Congress denies naturalization to anyone who is not a free white.
1790
Congress advocates the expansion of slavery into the Southwest.
1791
Quaker-educated Benjamin Banneker, an astronomer and mathematician, becomes the first black man to publish an almanac.
1791
Vermont and Kentucky are admitted to the Union.
1792
Congress excludes blacks from military service.
1792
Freetown, Sierra Leone in West Africa is founded by 1,100 slaves who were freed by the British during the Revolutionary War.
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