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THE START
December 3. Electors meet in their states and cast votes for the next president of the United States. A tie vote between Jefferson and Aaron Burr does not become known till the end of the month. This throws the election into the House of Representatives which addresses the matter on February 11, 1801. -
second part
February 11. The electors' votes for president are officially opened and counted in Congress, which already knows that the vote is tied between Jefferson and Aaron Burr. The House of Representatives meets separately and continues balloting for six days. On February 17, on the thirty-sixth ballot, Jefferson is elected president and Aaron Burr becomes vice president -
third part
Ohio outlaws slavery -- September. James Callender makes the accusation that Thomas Jefferson has "for many years past kept, as his concubine, one of his own slaves," Sally Hemings. It is published in the Richmond Recorder that month, and the story is soon picked up by Federalist presses around the country. Callender, a Republican, has previously been an avid investigator of Federalist scandals. In 1798, Jefferson had helped pay for the publication of Callender's pamphlet The Prospect Before Us -
the forth part
Louisiana Purchase January 18. Jefferson asks Congress for funds for an expedition to explore the Mississippi River and beyond in search of a route to the Pacific. Meriwether Lewis, Jefferson's private secretary, begins planning the expedition, which forms late in 1803. -
the fith parts
Louisiana Purchase January 18. Jefferson asks Congress for funds for an expedition to explore the Mississippi River and beyond in search of a route to the Pacific. Meriwether Lewis, Jefferson's private secretary, begins planning the expedition, which forms late in 1803. -
the sixth part
April 19. Jefferson nominates James Monroe and William Pinckney as joint commissioners to Great Britain. British warships have been boarding and searching American ships and seizing American as well as British seamen, claiming that they are British deserters. Jefferson hopes to resolve the issue and maintain American neutrality in the conflict between Great Britain and France -
the seventh part
January 17. Aaron Burr is captured near New Orleans. He escapes but is recaptured and imprisoned. In April, Burr is charged with treason and tried in Richmond in a federal circuit court presided over by John Marshall.* Burr is acquitted. Later, with other charges pending, Burr escapes to England. (*Winfield Scott, then a young lawyer, attends the trial as a spectator.) -
the eghted part
November - James Madison is elected President – tensions continue to build with Britain. As Jefferson's successor, Madison won the 1808 presidential election handily, despite a challenge from his estranged friend, James Monroe. Throughout his first term Madison was preoccupied by disputes with France, Great Britain, and Spain. By 1810 France had repealed its commercial restrictions, at least nominally, and in the same year Madison seized the province of West Florida from Spain, thereby consolid -
the 9th part
War of 1812 with Britain (15% sailors Black) -
the 10th part
British burn Capitol building in Washington -
the 11th part
Napoleon finally, finally defeated at Waterloo. -
the 13th part
Alabama admitted as slave state, bringing the number of slave states and free states to equal numbers. -
the 14yh part
Missouri Compromise, admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. Maine immediately gives right to vote and education to all male citizens. The compromise also prohibited slavery in the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase north of 36°30'N lat. (southern boundary of Missouri). The 36°30' proviso held until 1854, when the Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise. See map. -
the 16th part
Mexico becomes a republic – outlaws slavery -
the 17th part
completed – major transportation achievement which made New York and New York City ascend commercially. -
the 19th part
Nat Turner, a Baptist slave preacher, leads a revolt in Southampton County, Virginia, killing at least 57 whites. Alabama makes it illegal for Blacks to preach -
the 2oth part
Texas declares independence from Mexico -
the 21st part
Depression begins with "Panic of 1837 -
the 18th part
July 4. Jefferson dies shortly after 12 noon, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. He is eighty-three years old. Several hours later John Adams, aged 90, dies in Massachusetts, and the nation is struck by this remarkable coincidence. The last letter Jefferson wrote to Adams was on March 23 requesting that Adams see his grandson, which Adams did. Just before he died, Jefferson wrote the following to be read at the July 4 celebration in Virginia: -
the 15th part
New York gives free Blacks the right to vote -
the 12th part
Georgia prohibits Manumission -- Karl Marx born in Germany