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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.The numerical strength of the Baptists and Methodists rose relative to that of the denominations dominant in the colonial period, such as the Anglicans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Reformed. -
Eli Whitney patented the Cotton Gin
U.S.-born inventor Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin, a machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber. Despite its success, the gin made little money for Whitney due to patent-infringement issues. -
Thomas Jefferson was elected president
Revolution of 1800 -
Gabriel Prosser Slave Revolt
A literate enslaved blacksmith who planned a large slave rebellion in the Richmond area in the summer of 1800. -
Louisiana Purchase
Double the size of the United States. -
Marbury v Madison
A landmark case by the United States Supreme Court which forms the basis for the exercise of judicial review in the United States under Article III of the Constitution -
Beginning of Lewis and Clark Expedition
The first American expedition to cross what is now the western portion of the United States. -
Chesapeake-Leopard Affair
A naval engagement that occurred off the coast of Norfolk, VA between the British warship HMS Leopard and the American frigate USS Chesapeake -
Embargo Act
A law passed by the United States congress and signed by President Thomas Jefferson on December 22. It prohibited American ships from trading in all foreign ports. -
James Madison elected president
The Democratic-Republican candidate James Madison defeated Federalist candidate Charles Cotesworth Pinckney decisively. -
Non-intercourse Act
In the last sixteen days of President Thomas Jefferson's presidency, the Congress replaced the Embargo Act of 1807 with the almost unenforceable Non-Intercourse Act of March 1809. This Act lifted all embargoes on American shipping except for those bound for British or French ports. -
Francis Cabot Lowell Smuggled Memorized Textile Mill Plans from Manchester, England
A Boston merchant who, after examining the textile machinery in England, developed a power loom better than its English counterpart. Also in 1813, in Waltham, Massachusetts, he founded the first mill in America to carry on the process of spinning and weaving under a single roof. -
Death of Tecumseh
He was killed by American forces in the Battle of Thames. marked the end of Indian resistance east of the Mississippi. -
Battle of New Orleans
A series of engagements fought constituting the last major battle of War of 1812 American combatants -
Hartford Convention
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. -
Lyman Beecher Delivered His "Six Sermons on Intemperance"
But of all the ways to hell, which the feet of deluded mortals tread, that of the intemperate is the most dreary and terrific -
The British burn Washington D.C
The Burning of Washington was a British attack against Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, during the War of 1812 -
Treaty of Ghent Ratified
The Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. Peace negotiations began in Ghent, Belgium, starting in August of 1814. After four months of talks, the treaty was signed on December 24, 1814. The Senate unanimously ratified the Treaty of Ghent on February 16, 1815. -
End of the War of 1812
Two centuries of peace between the United States and Britain. -
Era of Good Feelings
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. -
James Monroe Elected President
Facing little opposition from the fractured Federalist Party, Monroe was easily elected president in 1816, winning over 80 percent of the electoral vote and becoming the last president during the First Party System era of American politics. -
Andrew Jackson Vetoed the Re-Charter of the Second Bank of the United States
The Bank War refers to the political struggle that developed over the issue of rechartering the Second Bank of the United States during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. When Congress voted to reauthorize the Bank, Jackson, as incumbent and candidate in the race, promptly vetoed the bill. -
Rush-Bagot Treaty
Treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom limiting naval arrangements on the Great Lakes and Great Champlain -
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, was an international treaty signed in 1818 between those parties. Signed during the presidency of James Monroe, it resolved standing boundary issues between the two nations. It set a boundary between the Missouri Territory in the U.S and British North America (later Canada). -
Adams-Onis Treaty
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. -
Mcculloch v. Maryland
A landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court held that Congress has implied powers derived from those listed in Article I Section 8, The “Necessary and Proper” Clause gave Congress the power to establish a national bank. In a unanimous opinion written by Chief Justice Marshall, the Court ruled that the Bank of the United States was constitutional and that the Maryland tax was unconstitutional. -
Panic of 1819
The first major peacetime financial crisis in the United States followed by a general collapse of the American economy persisting 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 Contract Clause of the United States Constitution to private corporations. -
Missouri Compromise
Passed in an effort to to preserve the balance of powers in Congress between slave an fee states. -
Denmark Vesey Slave Revolt
A literate, skilled carpenter, and leader among African Americans in Charleston, South Carolina who planned the most extensive slave revolt in U.S. history -
Monroe Doctrine
A United States policy of opposing European colonialism in the Americas. -
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)
John Quincy Adams was elected President on February 9, 1825. Only election in history to be decided by the House of Representatives after no candidate secured a majority of the electoral vote. The House elected John Quincy Adams over rival Andrew Jackson. Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House at the time, convinced Congress to elect Adams, who then made Clay his Secretary of State. Jackson's supporters denounced this as a "corrupt bargain." -
Erie Canal Completed
The Erie Canal is a canal in New York that is part of the east–west, cross-state route of the New York State Canal System. Originally, it ran 363 miles from Albany, on the Hudson River, to Buffalo, at Lake Erie -
Robert Owen Founded the New Harmony Committee
Welsh industrialist and reformer who created New Harmony (type of utopia); community (experiment) failed. A (secular, nonreligious) Utopian settlement in Indiana lasting from 1825 to 1827; It had 1,000 settlers, but a lack of authority caused it to break up; formed by Robert Owen. -
Horace Mann Elected Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education
Horace Mann was an American educational reformer and Whig politician dedicated to promoting public education. He served in the Massachusetts State legislature. -
Tariff of Abominations
A protective tariff passed by the Congress that increased the tax on imported manufactured goods. The law economically benefited the North—New England in particular favored high tariffs—and injured the South, which believed that the tariff was unconstitutional. -
Andrew Jackson Elected President
The United States presidential election of 1828 was the 11th quadrennial presidential election, held from Friday, October 31, to Tuesday, December 2, 1828. It featured a re-match between incumbent President John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson, who won a plurality of the electoral college vote in the 1824 election. -
Catherine Beecher Published Essays on the Education of Female Teachers
Catherine Esther Beecher was an American educator known for her forthright opinions on female education as well as her vehement support of the many benefits of the incorporation of kindergarten into children's education. -
Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act was signed by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830. The law authorized the president to negotiate with southern Indian 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
The LDS Church was formally organized by Joseph Smith on April 6, 1830, in western New York. Initial converts were drawn to the church in part because of the newly published Book of Mormon, a self-described chronicle of indigenous American prophets that Smith said he had translated from golden plates. -
Charles B. Finney Lead Religious Revivals in Western New York
Known as the "father of modern revivalism," he was a pioneer of cooperation among Protestant denominations. He believed that conversions were human creations instead of the divine works of God, and that people's destinies were in their own hands. His "Social Gospel" offered salvation to all. -
Worcester v. Georgia
When the court invalidated a Georgia law that attempted to regulate access by U.S. citizens to Cherokee country. Marshall claimed only the federal govt. could do that. He explained that the tribes were sovereign entities in much the same way Georgia was a sovereign entity. In defending the power of the federal government, he was also affirming and explaining the rights of the tribes to remain free from the authority of state governments. -
Nullification Crisis Began
In November 1832 the Nullification Convention met. The convention declared that the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and unenforceable within the state of South Carolina after February 1, 1833. They said that attempts to use force to collect the taxes would lead to the state's secession. -
Black Hawk War
The Black Hawk War was a brief conflict between the United States and Native Americans led by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. -
Creation of the Whig Party in the U.S.
It originally formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and his Democratic Party. The underlying political philosophy of the American Whig Party was not directly related to the British Whig party. -
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. -
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. -
Battle of the Alamo
Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar (modern-day San Antonio, Texas, United States), killing all of the Texian defenders. -
Andrew Jackson Issue 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. -
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. -
First McGuffey Reader Publsuhed
He compiled the first four readers while the fifth and sixth were created by his brother Alexander during the 1840s. Most schools of the 19th century used only the first two in the series of McGuffey's four readers. -
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. -
Martin Van Buren Elected President
Martin Van Buren was an American statesman who served as the eighth President of the United States from 1837 to 1841. -
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. -
Ralph Waldo Emerson gave the "Divinity School Address"
The "Divinity School Address" is the common name for the speech Ralph Waldo Emerson gave to the graduating class of Harvard Divinity School on July 15, 1838. -
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
The Webster–Ashburton Treaty was a treaty resolving several border issues between the United States and the British North American colonies (i.e. the region that became Canada). -
Treaty of Wanghia with China
Signed by the U.S. and China, it assured the United States the same trading concessions granted to other powers, greatly expanding America's trade with the Chinese. -
Beginning of Manifest Destiny
The phrase "manifest destiny" is most often associated with the territorial expansion of the United States from 1812 to 1860. This era, from the end of the War of 1812 to the beginning of the American Civil War, has been called the "age of manifest destiny". -
James Polk Elected President
The presidency of James K. Polk began on March 4, 1845, when he was inaugurated as the 11th President of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1849. James K. Polk, a Democrat, assumed office after defeating Whig Henry Clay in the 1844 presidential election. -
U.S. Annexation of Texas
The Texas annexation was the 1845 incorporation of the Republic of Texas into the United States of America, which was admitted to the Union as the 28th state on December 29, 1845. -
Start of the Mexican War
The Mexican–American War, also known as the Mexican War and in Mexico the American intervention in Mexico, was an armed conflict between the United States of America and the United Mexican States from 1846 to 1848. -
Bear Flag Revolt
The California Republic was an unrecognized breakaway state that, for twenty-five days in 1846, militarily controlled an area north of San Francisco, in and around what is now Sonoma County State of California. -
John Humphrey Noyes Founded the Oneida Community
A group of socio-religious perfectionists who lived in New York. Practiced polygamy, communal property, and communal raising of children after undergoing a religious conversion. By John Humphrey Noyes, called a "free love" community; more radical experiment -
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. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The war officially ended with the February 2, 1848, signing in Mexico of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty added an additional 525,000 square miles to United States territory, including the land that makes up all or parts of present-day Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. -
Henry David Thoreau Published Civil Disobedience
Essay about Resistance to Civil Government -
Commodore Matthew Perry Entered Tokyo Harbor Opening Japan to the U.S.
The United States and the Opening to Japan, 1853. On July 8, 1853, American Commodore Matthew Perry led his four ships into the harbor at Tokyo Bay, seeking to re-establish for the first time in over 200 years regular trade and discourse between Japan and the western world. -
Gadsden Purchase
The Gadsden Purchase is a 29,670-square-mile region of present-day southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico that the United States purchased via a treaty signed on December 30, 1853, by James Gadsden, U.S. ambassador to Mexico at that time. -
Kanagawa Treaty
On March 31, 1854, the Convention of Kanagawa or Kanagawa Treaty was the first treaty between the United States of America and the Tokugawa Shogunate.
