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Thomas Jefferson elected
Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican Party defeated incumbent President John Adams of the Federalist Party. -
Louisiana Purchased
It was a land deal between the United States and France, in which the U.S. acquired approximately 827,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million. -
War of 1812
United States took Great Britain in war because the British attempts to restrict U.S. trade. -
McCulloch v. Maryland
The state of Maryland had attempted to impede operation of a branch of the Second Bank of the United States by imposing a tax on all notes of banks not chartered in Maryland. -
Missouri Compromise
This provided admission of Maine as a free state along with Missouri as a slave state, thus maintaining the balance of power between North and South. -
Andrew Jackson elected
After narrowly losing to John Quincy Adams in the contentious 1824 presidential election, Jackson returned four years later to win redemption, soundly defeating Adams and becoming the nation's seventh president. -
The Liberator begins publication
An abolitionist newspaper founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Isaac Knapp in 1831. -
Nullification Crisis
When South Carolina adopted the ordinance to nullify the tariff acts and label them unconstitutional. -
Tocqueville publishes Democracy in America
French sociologist and political theorist Alexis de Tocqueville traveled to the United States in 1831 to study its prisons and returned with a wealth of broader observations that he codified in “Democracy in America” one of the most influential books of the 19th century. -
Emerson publishes self-reliance
"Self-Reliance" is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow their own instincts and ideas. -
Dorthea Dix visits her first jail with insane inmates
Dorothea Dix visited an East Cambridge jail and was appalled to see mentally ill women confined alongside hardened criminals. she embarked on a campaign to ensure humane treatment for the mentally ill in America. She began by documenting conditions in Massachusetts. She used her research to convince the legislature to enlarge the state mental institution in Worcester. She persuaded state governments around the country to assume responsibility for their mentally ill citizens. -
Fregerick Douglass publishes his autobiography
Frederick Douglass's purpose in writing his autobiography was not only to show the way in which slavery degraded slaves but also to show the way the institution of slavery degraded slave masters. -
Seneca Falls convention
Out of that first convention came a historic document, the 'Declaration of Sentiments,' which demanded equal social status and legal rights for women, including the right to vote. -
Fugitive slave act
This new law forcibly compelled citizens to assist in the capture of runaway slaves. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin published
An anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. -
Thoreau publishes Walden
Written by noted Transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, Walden is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and manual for self-reliance. -
Whitman publishes Leaves of Grass (1st edition)
This included twelve untitled poems, which were named in later editions. -
Dred Scott decision
Scott sued his master's widow for his freedom on the grounds that he had lived as a resident of a free state and territory. He won his suit in a lower court, but the Missouri supreme court reversed the decision. -
John Brown attacks Harper's Ferry
This was an effort by armed abolitionist John Brown to initiate an armed slave revolt by taking over a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. -
Abraham Lincoln elected
He won the election faced against Douglas, who represented the Northern faction of a heavily divided Democratic Party, as well as Breckinridge and Bell. -
Civil War Begins
The war began when the Confederates bombarded Union soldiers at Fort Sumter, South Carolina.
