Timeline March 1780

Events in March 1780 3

• 1780 Pennsylvania passes gradual abolition act First state law in the US to begin ending slavery On 1 March the Pennsylvania legislature passed An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery. Children born to enslaved mothers would be freed on reaching adulthood. It was among the first such laws in the Western world.
• 1780 League of Armed Neutrality European neutrals band together to protect shipping Catherine II of Russia proclaimed principles of armed neutrality in March, and Denmark and Sweden joined later in the year. The league defended neutral shipping against British searches during the American war. It increased Britain's diplomatic isolation.
• 1780 Siege of Charleston British capture the principal Southern American port British forces under Sir Henry Clinton besieged Charleston, South Carolina, from late March. General Benjamin Lincoln surrendered the city and roughly 5,000 Continental troops on 12 May. It was the greatest American defeat of the Revolutionary War.