– On January 1, white abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) launches the newspaper The Liberator (running from 1831-1865).
– In February, Mary Prince (1788-after1833) from Bermuda becomes the first Black woman to publish a slave narrative.
– On August 21, an enslaved uprising in Southampton, Virginia, led by Nat Turner (1800-1831), leads to multiple deaths of enslavers and a subsequent crackdown on enslaved communities, including new restrictive slave laws. Turner is executed for his part in the insurrection.