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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. -
Gabriel Prosser Slave Revolt
Gabriel, today commonly—if incorrectly—known as Gabriel Prosser, was a literate enslaved blacksmith who planned a large slave rebellion in the Richmond area in the summer of 1800. -
Thomas Jefferson Elected President
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Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the Louisiana territory by the United States from France in 1803. The U.S. paid fifty million francs and a cancellation of debts worth eighteen million francs for a total of sixty-eight million francs. -
Marbury v. Madison
Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803), is 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 Lewis and Clark Expedition from May 1804 to September 1806, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the first American expedition to cross what is now the western portion of the United States. -
Embargo Act
It prohibited American ships from trading in all foreign ports. -
Chesapeake-Leopard Affair
The Chesapeake–Leopard affair was a naval engagement that occurred off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia, on 22 June 1807, between the British warship HMS Leopard and the American frigate USS Chesapeake. -
Eli Whitney Patented the Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney (1765–1825) applied for a patent of his cotton gin on October 28, 1793; the patent was granted on March 14, 1794, but was not validated until 1807. -
James Madison Elected President
The United States presidential election of 1808 was the sixth quadrennial presidential election, held from Friday, November 4, to Wednesday, December 7, 1808. 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. -
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". -
Death of Tecumseh
On October 5, 1813, the Americans attacked and won a victory over the British and Native Americans at the Battle of the Thames, near Moravian town. Tecumseh was killed. After the battle, most of the Indian confederacy surrendered to Harrison at Detroit and returned to their homes. -
Battle of New Orleans
The Battle of New Orleans was a series of engagements fought between December 14, 1814 and January 18, 1815, constituting the last major battle of the War of 1812 American combatants -
The British Burn Washington DC
The Burning of Washington was a British attack against Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, during the War of 1812. -
End of the war of 1812
The War of 1812 was a conflict fought between the United States, the United Kingdom, and their respective allies. -
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. -
Hartford Convention
The Hartford Convention was a series of meetings from December 15, 1814 – January 5, 1815, in Hartford, Connecticut, United States, in which the New England Federalist Party met to discuss their grievances concerning the ongoing War of 1812 and the political problems. -
Francis Cabot Lowell Smuggled Memorized Textile Mill Plans From Manchester, England
The Waltham-Lowell System, pioneered by Lowell and first introduced at the Waltham mill, was expanded to the new industrial city of Lowell and soon spread to the Midwest and the South. -
Era of Good Feeling Began
The “Era of Good Feelings” began in 1815 in the mood of victory that swept the nation at the end of the War of 1812. Exaltation replaced the bitter political divisions between Federalists and Republicans, between northern and southern states, and between east-coast cities and settlers on the western frontier. -
Rush-Bagot Treaty
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, also known as the London Convention, Anglo-American Convention of 1818 -
Adams-Onis 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. -
Panic of 1819
The Panic of 1819 was 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, 17 U.S. 518, was a landmark decision in United States corporate law from the United States Supreme Court dealing with the application of the Contract Clause -
McCulloch v. Maryland
McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. (4 Wheat.) 316 (1819), was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. 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
In an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, the Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. ... In 1854, the Missouri Compromise was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. -
Denmark Vesey Slave Revolt
That's a question that confronts historians who study the story of Denmark Vesey, a black carpenter who bought his freedom after winning the lottery and then secretly plotted a slave rebellion in Charleston, S.C., in 1822. -
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was a United States policy of opposing European colonialism in The Americas beginning in 1823. -
James Monroe Elected President
The fifth U.S. president, oversaw major westward expansion of the U.S. and strengthened American foreign policy in 1823 with the Monroe Doctrine, a warning to European countries against further colonization and intervention in the Western Hemisphere. -
John Quincy Adams Elected President (Corrupt Bargain)
After the votes were counted in the U.S. presidential election of 1824, no candidate had received a majority of the Presidential Electoral votes, thereby putting the outcome in the hands of the House of Representatives. ... To the surprise of many, the House elected John Quincy Adams over rival Andrew Jackson. -
Gibbons v. Ogden
Gibbons v. Ogden, 22 U.S. 1 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 -
Robert Owen Founded the New Harmony Community
The Harmonists built a new town in the wilderness, but in 1824 they decided to sell their property and return to Pennsylvania. Robert Owen, a Welsh industrialist and social reformer, purchased the town in 1825 with the intention of creating a new utopian community and renamed it New Harmony. -
Charles B. Finney Lead Religious Revivals in Western New York
Charles Grandison Finney is credited with being one of the most forceful American evangelists, one who was greatly responsible for the rise of religious fervor in .... In late 1825 a major revival ignited Rome, New York, and Finney not only took part in the revival but then proceeded to lead revivals throughout New York State -
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. -
Lyman Beecher Delivered His “Six Sermons on Intemperance”
intemperance is a state of internal sensation, and the indications may exist long, and multiply, and the subject of them not be ... It is proposed in this and the subsequent discourses, to consider the nature, the occasions, the signs, the evils, and the remedy of intemperance. -
Horace Mann Elected Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education
Horace Mann (May 4, 1796 – August 2, 1859) was an American educational reformer and Whig politician dedicated to promoting public education. He served in the Massachusetts State legislature (1827–1837). -
Tariff of Abominations
The "Tariff of Abominations" 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 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. -
Creation of the Whig Party in the U.S.
It originally formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson (in office 1829–37) and his Democratic Party. In particular, the Whigs supported the supremacy of the US Congress over the Presidency and favored a program of modernization, banking, and economic protectionism to stimulate manufacturing. -
Catherine Beecher Published Essays on the Education of Female Teachers
Catharine Beecher managed to get an education primarily through independent study, and she became a schoolteacher in 1821. In 1823, she co-founded the innovative Hartford Female Seminary, whose purpose was to train women to be mothers and teachers. In 1829, she published a seminal essay on the importance -
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 completed work, titled the Book of Mormon, was published in Palmyra on March 26, 1830, by printer E. B. Grandin. Soon after, on April 6, 1830, Smith and his followers formally organized the Church of Christ, and small branches were established in Palmyra, Fayette, and Colesville, New York. -
Worcester v. Georgia
Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. 515, was a case in which the United States Supreme Court vacated the conviction of Samuel Worcester and held that the Georgia criminal statute. -
Andrew Jackson Vetoed the Re-Charter of the Second Bank of the United States
Andrew Jackson vetoed the bill re-chartering the Second Bank in July 1832 by arguing that in the form presented to him it was incompatible with “justice,” “sound policy” and the Constitution. The bank's charter was unfair, Jackson argued in his veto message. -
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. -
Treaty of New Echota
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. -
First McGuffey Reader Published
Most schools of the 19th century used only the first two in the series of McGuffey's four readers. The first Reader taught reading by using the phonics method, the identification of letters and their arrangement into words, and aided with slate work. -
Battle of the Alamo
The Battle of the Alamo was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission -
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. -
Transcendental Club’s First Meeting
Overview. Frederic Henry Hedge, Ralph Waldo Emerson, George Ripley, and George Putnam (1807–1878; the Unitarian minister in Roxbury) 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. -
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. -
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 (born Maarten van Buren; December 5, 1782 – July 24, 1862) was an American statesman who served as the eighth President of the United States from 1837 to 1841. -
Ralph Waldo Emerson gave the “Divinity School Address”
Emerson delivered "The Divinity School Address" at Harvard on July 15, 1838, by invitation. The address was first published in August 1838, by James Munroe, in an edition of 1,000 copies, which sold quickly. It first appeared in England as part of the collection Orations, Lectures, and Addresses -
Trail of Tears Began
In 1838 and 1839, 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, signed August 9, 1842, was a treaty resolving several border issues between the United States and the British North American colonies (i.e. the region that became Canada). -
James Polk Elected President
The United States presidential election of 1844 was the 15th quadrennial presidential election, held from November 1, to December 4, 1844. 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 China
The Treaty of Wanghia (also Treaty of Wangxia, Treaty of Peace, Amity, and Commerce, with tariff of duties, traditional Chinese: 望廈條約; simplified Chinese: 望厦条约; pinyin: Wàngxià tiáoyuē; Cantonese Yale: Mohng Hah) was a diplomatic agreement between Qing-dynasty China and the United States, signed on July 3, 1844 -
U.S. Annexation of Texas
The Annexation of Texas, the Mexican-American War, and the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, 1845–1848. During his tenure, U.S. President James K. Polk oversaw the greatest territorial expansion of the United States to date. -
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
Bear Flag Revolt. Bear Flag Revolt, (June–July 1846), short-lived independence rebellion precipitated by American settlers in California's Sacramento Valley against Mexican authorities. In 1846 approximately 500 Americans were living in California, compared with between 8,000 and 12,000 Mexicans. -
John Humphrey Noyes Founded the Oneida Community
John Humphrey Noyes. John Humphrey Noyes (September 3, 1811 – April 13, 1886) was an American preacher, radical religious philosopher, and utopian socialist. He founded the Putney, Oneida, and Wallingford Communities, and is credited with coining the term "complex marriage". -
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. -
Gold Rush Began in California
The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. -
Henry David Thoreau Published Civil Disobedience
Resistance to Civil Government is an essay by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau that was first published in 1849. -
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. -
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. -
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.
