Slavery in what became the United States lasted for about 246 years in law—from 1619 to 1865—but its impacts have continued long after it was abolished.

Quick Scoop: The core timeline

  • 1619 is often used as the “start date,” when about twenty captive Africans were brought to Jamestown, Virginia and forced into servitude in the English colony.
  • Over the 1600s, colonial laws turned this servitude into hereditary chattel slavery based on race, so enslaved status passed from mother to child for life.
  • By the 1700s and early 1800s, slavery was deeply embedded in the Southern economy, especially in tobacco and cotton production.
  • The legal end of slavery came in 1865 with the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery nationwide (except as punishment for crime).

So if you count from 1619 to 1865, slavery under U.S./colonial law lasted about 246 years, which is why people sometimes round it to “roughly 250 years” or say “about 400 years ago slavery began,” referring to how long ago it started, not how long it legally existed.

Mini sections

Why people sometimes say “400 years”

  • 2019 was widely marked as “400 years since 1619,” the year the first recorded Africans arrived in English Virginia.
  • That “400 years” phrase refers to the span of time from the beginning of African enslavement in English North America to today , not to the legal duration of slavery itself.

In other words, slavery lasted about 246 years in law, but it began about 400+ years ago, and its after-effects (like segregation, Jim Crow laws, and systemic racism) continued long after 1865.

Key dates at a glance

  • 1619 – First recorded Africans brought to English Jamestown, Virginia, under coercive servitude.
  • 1660s–1700s – Colonial laws increasingly define Africans and their descendants as enslaved for life, with status inherited.
  • 1808 – The U.S. bans the transatlantic importation of enslaved Africans, but slavery itself continues domestically.
  • 1863 – Emancipation Proclamation begins the process of freeing enslaved people in Confederate states (limited in reach at the time).
  • 1865 – 13th Amendment ratified; slavery formally abolished in the United States.

So, when someone asks “how long did slavery last in America,” the historically grounded answer is: about 246 years of legalized slavery, from 1619 to 1865, with deep social, economic, and political consequences that have stretched into the present.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.