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Second Great Awakening began
The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1790, gained momentum by 1800 and, after 1820, membership rose rapidly among Baptist and Methodist congregations whose preachers led the movement. -
Eli Whitney patented the Cotton Gin
The cotton gin was machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber and greatly changes the industry. -
Gabriel Prosser Slave Revolt
This was the first major slave revolt in U.S history where a group of about 25 slaves to violently rise up against their masters–and then build an army. Prosser was betrayed and ultimately put to death for his actions. -
Thomas Jefferson elected President
The election constitutes the first peaceful transfer of power from one political party to another in the United States.As president, Jefferson made some concessions to his opponents, including taking Hamilton’s advice to strengthen the American Navy. -
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase 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. -
Marbury v. Madison
The U.S. Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison established the principle of judicial review—the power of the federal courts to declare legislative and executive acts unconstitutional -
Beginning of Lewis and Clark expedition
The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the first American expedition to cross the western portion of the United States. Their mission was to explore the unknown territory, establish trade with the Natives and affirm the sovereignty of the United States in the region. One of their goals was to find a waterway from the US to the Pacific Ocean. -
Embargo Act
The Embargo Act was an attempt by President Thomas Jefferson and the U.S. Congress to prohibit American ships from trading in foreign ports. It was intended to punish Britain and France for interfering with American trade while the two major European powers were at war with each other. -
Chesapeake Leopard Affair
The Chesapeake–Leopard affair was a naval engagement that occurred off the coast of Norfolk between the British warship HMS Leopard and the American frigate USS Chesapeake. The crew of Leopard pursued, attacked, and boarded the American frigate, looking for deserters from the Royal Navy. -
Transcendental Club's first meeting
Frederic Henry Hedge, Ralph Waldo Emerson, George Ripley, and George Putnam met in Cambridge, Massachusetts on September 8, 1836, to discuss the formation of a new club; their first official meeting was held eleven days later at Ripley's house in Boston. -
James Madison elected President
In the end, Madison earned a decisive victory in the contest. While the Federalists achieved greater electoral success than they had in the previous election, carrying all states in New England except Vermont, the overall results confirmed the ascendancy of the Democrat-Republican Party. -
Non-Intercourse Act
Congress replaced the Embargo Act with the almost unenforceable Non-Intercourse. This Act lifted all embargoes on American shipping except for those bound for British or French ports. -
Beginning of Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny, in U.S. history, the supposed inevitability of the continued territorial expansion of the boundaries of the United States westward to the Pacific and beyond. Thus resulting in many expansion movements in the years to come. -
Death of Tecumesh
Tecumseh and the Indian resistance movement allied with the British against the Americans during the War of 1812, but his death at the Battle of the Thames in 1813 and the end of War of 1812 led to the collapse of the alliance. -
Francis Cabot Lowell smuggled memorized Textile Mill Plans from Manchester, England
Lowell and several partners formed the Boston Manufacturing Company. Lowell led them in both technical and business decisions. They introduced a power loom, based on the British model, with significant technological improvements. -
The British Burn Washington
The British strengthened their forces in the Chesapeake in an attempt to divert the US forces from the frontiers of Upper and Lower Canada during the War of 1812 -
Treaty of Ghent ratified
Treaty of Ghent was an agreement in Belgium between Great Britain and the United States to end the War of 1812 on the general basis of the status quo antebellum. -
Hartford Convention
The Secret Journal of the Hartford Convention, published 1823.
The Hartford Convention was a series of meetings in Hartford, Connecticut, in which the New England Federalist Party met to discuss their grievances concerning the ongoing War of 1812 and the political problems arising from the federal government's increasing power. -
Era of Good Feeling began
The Era of Good Feelings marked a period in the political history of the United States that reflected a sense of national purpose and a desire for unity among Americans in the aftermath of the War of 1812. -
End of War of 1812
British forces under Edward Pakenham assaulted New Orleans on January 8, 1815, and were soundly defeated by Andrew Jackson’s ragtag army, an event that contributed to the notion of a U.S. triumph. The unanimous ratification by the U.S. Senate of the Treaty of Ghent and the celebrations that followed cloaked the fact that the United States had achieved none of its objectives. -
James Monroe elected President
In 1816 Monroe was elected president of the United States as the Republican candidate, defeating Rufus King, the Federalist candidate; Monroe received 183 electoral votes and King 34. By 1820, when he was reelected, receiving all the electoral votes but one, the Federalists had ceased to function as a party -
Rush-Bagot Treaty
The Rush–Bagot Treaty or Rush–Bagot Disarmament was a treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom limiting naval armaments on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain, following the War of 1812 -
Anglo-American Convention
The Convention respecting fisheries, boundary and the restoration of slaves between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland -
Adams-Onis Treaty
The Adams-Onís Treaty, also known as the Transcontinental Treaty, the Florida Purchase Treaty, or the Florida Treaty, was a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to the U.S. and defined the boundary between the U.S. and New Spain. -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted. -
Panic of 1819
The Panic of 1819 was the first major peacetime financial crisis in the United States. It was followed by a general collapse of the American economy that persisted through 1821. -
Dartmouth College v. Woodward
Trustees of Dartmouth College v. Woodward was a landmark decision in United States corporate law from the United States Supreme Court dealing with the application of the Contracts Clause of the United States Constitution to private corporations. -
McCulloch v. Maryland
In McCulloch v. Maryland the Supreme Court ruled that Congress had implied powers under the Necessary and Proper Clause of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution to create the Second Bank of the United States and that the state of Maryland lacked the power to tax the Bank. -
Denmark Vesey Slave Revolt
A secretly uprising planned by Denmark Vesey that never cam to fruition, and ended in 34 slaves being executed and 4 white men being charged will racial crimes. -
Monroe Doctrine
Monroe Doctrine, cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy enunciated by Pres. James Monroe in his annual message to Congress. Declaring that the Old World and New World had different systems and must remain distinct spheres. -
Gibbons v. Ogden
Gibbons v. Ogden was a landmark decision in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the power to regulate interstate commerce, granted to Congress by the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution, encompassed the power to regulate navigation. -
John Quincy Adams elected President (corrupt bargain)
When John Quincy Adams named Henry Clay to be his secretary of state, Jackson denounced the election as "the corrupt bargain." As for John Quincy Adams, he served four years as president. -
Erie Canal completed
This was the first canal in the United States to connect western waterways with the Atlantic Ocean. Its success propelled New York City into a major commercial center and encouraged canal construction throughout the United States. -
Robert Owen founded the New Harmony Community
Owen was a Welsh reformer who first went to the United States to found a cooperative community based on plans for humanity’s salvation through “rational” thinking, cooperation, and free education. -
Tariff of Abominations
The tariff was a protective tariff passed by the Congress of the United States on May 19, 1828, designed to protect industry in the northern United States. -
Andrew Jackson elected President
The election of 1828 was arguably one of the most significant in United States history, ushering in the era of political campaigns and paving the way for the solidification of political parties. -
Indian Removal Act
The law authorized the president to negotiate with southern Native American tribes for their removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River in exchange for their lands. -
Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints
Smith founded the Church of Christ–later known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints–in Fayette Township. The religion rapidly gained converts, and Smith set up Mormon communities in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. However, the Christian sect was also heavily criticized for its unorthodox practices, such as polygamy. -
Worcester v. Georgia
Worcester v. Georgia was a case in which the United States Supreme Court vacated the conviction of Samuel Worcester and held that the Georgia criminal statute that prohibited non-Native Americans from being present on Native American lands without a license from the state was unconstitutional. -
Charles B. Finney lead religious revivals in western New York
His revivals achieved spectacular success in large cities, and in 1832 he began an almost continuous revival in New York City as minister of the Second Free Presbyterian Church. His disaffection with Presbyterian theology and discipline, however, led his supporters to build for him the Broadway Tabernacle in 1834. -
Nullification Crisis began
Nullification crisis confrontation between the state of South Carolina and the federal government over the former’s attempt to declare null and void within the state the federal Tariffs of 1828 and 1832. The nullification crisis made President Jackson a hero to nationalists. But Southerners were made more conscious of their minority position and more aware of their vulnerability to a Northern majority as long as they remained in the union. -
Black Hawk War
Casualties in the 15-week war were grossly one-sided. An estimated 70 settlers or soldiers lost their lives; estimates for the number of Indians killed are between 442 and 592. Thus worsening the tensions between Natives and Americans. -
A. Jackson vetoed the re-charter of the Second Bank of the United States
Jackson issued a potent veto message. The fate of the bank then became the central issue of the presidential election of 1832 between Jackson and Clay. Jackson concluded from his victory in that election that he had a mandate not only to refuse the bank a new charter but to destroy as soon as possible what he called a “hydra of corruption.” -
Creation of the Whig Party in the U.S.
The Whig Party was formally organized in 1834, bringing together a loose coalition of groups united in their opposition to what party members viewed as the executive tyranny of “King Andrew” Jackson. They borrowed the name Whig from the British party opposed to royal prerogatives. -
Treaty of New Echota
It cost three men their lives and provided the legal basis for the Trail of Tears, the forcible removal of the Cherokee Nation from Georgia. The Treaty of New Echota was signed on this day in 1835, ceding Cherokee land to the U.S. in exchange for compensation. -
Catherine Beecher published "Essays on the Education of Female Teachers"
Written at the Request of the American Lyceum and Communicated at Their Annual Meeting, New York, May 8th, 1835 -
First McGuffey reader published
Compiled by educator William Holmes McGuffey, the McGuffey Readers helped to standardize English language usage in the United States and not only reflected the moral values of the country in the 19th century but also shaped them. -
Texas declared independence from Mexico
The Texas Declaration of Independence was the formal declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico in the Texas Revolution. It was adopted at the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836, and formally signed the next day after mistakes were noted in the text. This opened Texas to U.S. claim. -
Battle of the Alamo
The Alamo was an 18th century Franciscan Mission in San Antonio, Texas, which was the location of an important battle for Texans fighting for independence from Mexico. In 1836, a small group of Texans was defeated by Mexican General Santa Anna. -
Martin Van Buren elected President
Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A founder of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the ninth Governor of New York, the tenth U.S. Secretary of State, and the eighth Vice President of the United States -
Andrew Jackson issued Specie Circular
The Specie Circular is a United States presidential executive order issued by President Andrew Jackson in 1836 pursuant to the Coinage Act and carried out by his successor, President Martin Van Buren. It required payment for government land to be in gold and silver. -
Andrew Jackson issues Specie Circular
The Specie Circular is a United States presidential executive order issued by President Andrew Jackson in 1836 pursuant to the Coinage Act and carried out by his successor, President Martin Van Buren. It required payment for government land to be in gold and silver. -
Horace Mann elected Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education
The result was the establishment of a state board of education, charged with collecting and publicizing school information throughout the state. Mann accepted the first secretaryship of this board.Endowed with little direct power, the new office demanded moral leadership of the highest order and this Mann supplied for 11 years. He started a biweekly Common School Journal in 1838 for teachers and lectured widely to interested groups of citizens. -
Martin Van Buren elected President
Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States from 1837 to 1841. A founder of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the ninth Governor of New York, the tenth U.S. Secretary of State, and the eighth Vice President of the United States. -
Panic of 1837
The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that touched off a major recession that lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages went down while unemployment went up. Pessimism abounded during the time -
Ralph Waldo Emerson gave the "Divinity School Address"
The address has come to be seen as a significant essay, both in American literature and American history, and is simply known as the “Divinity School Address.” Emerson sets about dismantling every single doctrine of orthodox Christianity. -
Trail of Tears began
As part of Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present-day Oklahoma. The Cherokee people called this journey the "Trail of Tears," because of its devastating effects. -
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
The Webster–Ashburton Treaty was a treaty that resolved several border issues between the United States and the British North American colonies (the region that became Canada). -
James Polk elected President
Democrat James K. Polk defeated Whig Henry Clay in a close contest that turned on the controversial issues of slavery and the annexation of the Republic of Texas. -
Treaty of Wanghia with Chine
The Treaty of Wanghia was a diplomatic agreement between Qing-dynasty China and the United States. Its official title name is the Treaty of peace, amity, and commerce, between the United States of America and the Chinese Empire -
U.S. Annexation of Texas
Long term benefits to the United States for Texas annexation were significant. The annexation led quickly to war with Mexico in 1846. The victorious United States came away with control of the American Southwest and California through the Treaty of Guadalupe in 1848. -
U.S. annexation of Texas
Long term benefits to the United States for Texas annexation were significant. The annexation led quickly to war with Mexico in 1846. The victorious United States came away with control of the American Southwest and California through the Treaty of Guadalupe in 1848. -
Start of the Mexican War
The war—in which U.S. forces were consistently victorious—resulted in the United States’ acquisition of more than 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 square km) of Mexican territory extending westward from the Rio Grande to the Pacific Ocean. -
Bear Flag Revolt
During the Bear Flag Revolt a small group of American settlers in California rebelled against the Mexican government and proclaimed California an independent republic. -
Bear Flag Revolt
During the Bear Flag Revolt, from June to July 1846, a small group of American settlers in California rebelled against the Mexican government and proclaimed California an independent republic. -
John Humphrey Noyes founded the Oneida Community
The Oneida Community practiced communalism (in the sense of communal property and possessions), complex marriage, male sexual continence, and mutual criticism. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially titled the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits and Settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic. -
Gold Rush began in California
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. -
Henry David Thoreau published Civil Disobedience
Thoreau's Civil Disobedience espouses the need to prioritize one's conscience over the dictates of laws. It criticizes American social institutions and policies, most prominently slavery and the Mexican-American War. -
Gadsden Purchase
Gadsden Purchase, also called Treaty of La Mesilla, transaction that followed the conquest of much of northern Mexico by the United States in 1848. -
Gadsden Purchase
Gadsden Purchase, also called Treaty of La Mesilla, transaction that followed the conquest of much of northern Mexico by the United States in 1848. -
Commodore Matthew Perry entered Tokyo Harbor, opening Japan to the U.S.
Perry's show of military strength forced Japan to open its ports to trade with the West for the first time in more than 200 years. -
Kanagawa Treaty
In Tokyo, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, representing the U.S. government, signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade and permitting the establishment of a U.S. consulate in Japan. -
Kanagawa Treaty
In Tokyo, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, representing the U.S. government, signs the Treaty of Kanagawa with the Japanese government, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade and permitting the establishment of a U.S. consulate in Japan. -
Battle of New Orleans
Because the decisive victory was followed shortly afterward by news of a peace treaty, many Americans at the time mistakenly believed the Battle of New Orleans had won the war. The Battle of New Orleans is also important because it propelled Andrew Jackson to fame as a war hero. -
Lyman Beecher delivered his "Six Sermons on Intemperance"
In 1826 he delivered and published six sermons on intemperance. They were sent throughout the United States, ran rapidly through many editions in England, and were translated into several languages on the European continent, and had a large sale even after the lapse of 50 years.
