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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. -
Second Great Awakening Began
A Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States. Membership rose rapidly among Baptist and Methodist congregations whose preachers led the movement. -
Gabriel Prosser Slave Revolt
Gabriel Prosser, an enslaved blacksmith from a Virginia tobacco plantation, organized a group of about 25 slaves to violently rise up against their masters–and then build an army. -
Thomas Jefferson Elected President
Thomas Jefferson is elected the third president of the United States. The election constitutes the first peaceful transfer of power from one political party to another in the United States. -
Louisiana Purchase
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
A U.S. Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review in the United States, meaning that American courts have the power to strike down laws, statutes, and some government actions that contravene the U.S. Constitution. -
Beginning of Lewis and Clark Expedition
A mission to explore the Northwest from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Their mission was to explore the unknown territory, establish trade with the Natives and affirm the sovereignty of the United States in the region. -
Embargo Act
It prohibited American ships from trading in all foreign ports. Thomas Jefferson’s nonviolent resistance to British and French molestation of U.S. merchant ships. -
Chesapeake-Leopard Affair
A controversial incident in American history and a contributing factor to the start of the War of 1812. The British ship Leopard pursued the USS Chesapeake, demanding to search the Chesapeake for British naval deserters but was refused. The Leopard opened fire, forcing the Chesapeake to surrender and wounding and killing several crew members. -
James Madison Elected President
The Democratic-Republican candidate James Madison defeated Federalist candidate Charles Cotesworth Pinckney decisively. -
Non-Intercourse Act
This Act lifted all embargoes on American shipping except for those bound for British or French ports. -
Beginning of Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny was the idea that Americans were destined, by God, to govern the North American continent. This idea, with all the accompanying transformations of landscape, culture, and religious belief it implied, had deep roots in American culture. -
Death of Tecumseh
This marked the end of Indian resistance east of the Mississippi River, and soon after most of the depleted tribes were forced west. -
The British Burn Washington DC
British troops enter Washington, D.C. and burn the White House in retaliation for the American attack on the city of York in Ontario, Canada where American troops set fire to the Parliament, Government House, and several other public buildings. -
Robert Owen Founded the New Harmony Community
He established the village as his preliminary model for a utopian community. -
Treaty of Ghent Ratified
It ended the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. By terms of the treaty, all conquered territory was to be returned, and commissions were planned to settle the boundary of the United States and Canada. -
Hartford Convention
A secret meeting of Federalist delegates who were dissatisfied with Pres. James Madison’s mercantile policies and the progress of the War of 1812, and were also resentful over the balance of political power that gave the South effective control of the national government. -
Francis Cabot Lowell Smuggled Memorized Textile Mill Plans From Manchester, England
Lowell had seen firsthand how international conflict jeopardized the American economy with its dependence on foreign goods. The only way to neutralize this threat was for America to develop a domestic textile industry of its own that was capable of mass production. During a visit to Great Britain in 1811, he spied on the new British textile industry and committed the power loom design to memory. -
End of the War of 1812
The War of 1812 ended in a stalemate. It ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, returning all territorial conquests made by the two sides. It did not address the issue of impressment, one of the major causes of the war. -
Battle of New Orleans
Under the command of General Andrew Jackson, American forces successfully repelled the invading British army, propelling Andrew Jackson to fame as a war hero. -
Era of Good Feelings Began
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. -
James Monroe Elected President
Facing little opposition from the fractured Federalist Party, Monroe was easily elected president, winning over eighty percent of the electoral vote and becoming the last president during the First Party System era of American politics. -
Rush-Bagot Treaty
A treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom limiting naval armaments on the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain. It eased tensions between the United States and Britain and created a sustainable relationship between them. -
Anglo-American Convention
Set the western boundary between the United States and British North America (later Canada) at the forty-ninth parallel up to the Rocky Mountains. It served as the last major loss of a U.S. territory for the United Kingdom, and the only significant cession made by the U.S. to a foreign power. -
Adams-Onis Treaty
A treaty between the United States and Spain that ceded Florida to the U.S. and defined the boundary between the U.S. and New Spain. -
Dartmouth College V. Woodward
The Supreme Court held that the charter of Dartmouth College granted in 1769 by King George III of England was a contract and, as such, could not be impaired by the New Hampshire legislature. -
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. -
Panic of 1819
The first major peacetime financial crisis in the United States. Banks throughout the country failed; mortgages were foreclosed, forcing people out of their homes and off their farms. Falling prices impaired agriculture and manufacturing, triggering widespread unemployment. -
Missouri Compromise
It was to keep a balance between the number of slave states and the number of free states in the Union. It allowed Missouri to enter as a slave state at the same time Maine entered as a free state. -
Denmark Vesey Slave Revolt
An attempted slave revolt led by Denmark Vesey in Charleston, South Carolina. This revolt failed because a participant told authorities about the plan. -
Monroe Doctrine
A policy opposing European colonialism in the Americas. -
Gibbons v. Ogden
U.S. Supreme Court case establishing the principle that states cannot, by legislative enactment, interfere with the power of Congress to regulate commerce. -
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." Many assumed Clay sold his influence to Adams so he could be secretary of state and thus increase his own chance of being president someday. -
Erie Canal Completed
Connecting Lake Erie with the Hudson River, it greatly facilitated the transportation of passengers and freight between the eastern seaboard and Michigan ports. -
Lyman Beecher Delivered His “Six Sermons on Intemperance”
He helped establish missionary organizations, pressured influential men to keep their businesses closed on Sundays, and became a leading voice in the temperance movement, publishing his Six Sermons on Intemperance. -
Tariff of Abominations
The protective tariffs taxed all foreign goods, to boost the sales of US products and protect Northern manufacturers from cheap British goods. -
Andrew Jackson Elected President
The first was the question of political integrity. Jackson and the Democratic Party accused John Quincy Adams of engaging in disgraceful politics in order to ensure his victory in the election of 1824. President Adams responded with a campaign that focused on Andrew Jackson's military career and personal life. -
Catherine Beecher Published Essays on the Education of Female Teachers
She promoted women as natural teachers and advocated for the development of teacher training programs, claiming that the work of a teacher was more important to society than that of a lawyer or doctor. -
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
Joseph Smith organized a few dozen believers into a church. From then on, his great project was to gather people into settlements, called “cities of Zion,” where they would find refuge from the calamities of the last days. -
Charles B. Finney Lead Religious Revivals in Western New York
He led a revival in Rochester, New York that has been noted as inspiring other revivals of the Second Great Awakening. -
Worcester v. Georgia
The Supreme Court ruled that because the Cherokee Nation was a separate political entity that could not be regulated by the state, Georgia's license law was unconstitutional and Worcester's conviction should be overturned. -
Andrew Jackson Vetoed the Re-Charter of the Second Bank of the United States
Andrew Jackson vetoed the bill re-chartering the Second Bank by arguing that in the form presented to him it was incompatible with “justice,” “sound policy” and the Constitution. -
Black Hawk War
A brief conflict between the United States and Native Americans led by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader, who was determined to resist the growing presence of Anglo settlers on traditional tribal lands. -
Nullification Crisis Began
The convention declared that the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 were unconstitutional and unenforceable within the state of South Carolina. They said that attempts to use force to collect the taxes would lead to the state's secession. -
Creation of the Whig Party in the U.S.
An American political party formed to oppose President Andrew Jackson and the Democrats. Whigs stood for protective tariffs, national banking, and federal aid for internal improvements. -
Treaty of New Echota
It ceded to the United States all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi River for $5 million. The overwhelming majority of tribal members repudiated the treaty and took their case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court rendered a decision favourable to the tribe, declaring that Georgia had no jurisdiction over the Cherokee and no claim to their land. -
First McGuffey Reader Published
The McGuffey's Reader contained religious messages and sought to instill morality in its readers. -
Texas Declared Independence from Mexico
The formal declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico in the Texas Revolution. -
Battle of the Alamo
A 13 day siege fought between a handful of 180 American rebels, fighting for Texan independence from Mexico, who were in the Alamo against Mexican forces of about 4000, under President General Santa Anna. -
Andrew Jackson Issued Specie Circular
A United States presidential executive order that required payment for government land to be in gold and silver. -
Transcendental Club’s First Meeting
It was during the meetings of the Club that many of the important Transcendentalist ideas were developed. -
Martin Van Buren Elected President
The election of 1836 marked an important turning point in American political history because of the part it played in establishing the Second Party System. -
Horace Mann Elected Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education
He overhauled the state's public-education system and established a series of schools to train teachers. -
Panic of 1837
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”
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Divinity School Address” represented a turning point for Unitarianism, beginning its transformation from a liberal form of Christianity to a type of religious liberalism independent of specific historic traditions. -
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." -
Webster-Ashburton Treaty
A treaty that resolved several border issues between the United States and the British North American colonies. -
Treaty of Wanghia with China
Under the terms of this treaty, the United States gained the right to trade in Chinese ports, as well as gaining additional legal rights inside China. -
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. -
U.S. Annexation of Texas
The annexation 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, waged between the United States and Mexico, helped to fulfill America's "manifest destiny" to expand its territory across the entire North American continent. -
Bear Flag Revolt
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 was a perfectionist religious communal society. They practiced communalism (in the sense of communal property and possessions), complex marriage, male sexual continence, and mutual criticism. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The war officially ended with 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 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
Henry David Thoreau argues that citizens must disobey the rule of law if those laws prove to be unjust. He draws on his own experiences and explains why he refused to pay taxes in protest of slavery and the Mexican War. -
Commodore Matthew Perry Entered Tokyo Harbor Opening Japan to the U.S.
Matthew Perry was seeking to re-establish, for the first time in over 200 years, regular trade and discourse between Japan and the western world. -
Kanagawa Treaty
Opened the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade and permitting the establishment of a U.S. consulate in Japan. -
Gadsden Purchase
An agreement between the United States and Mexico in which the United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico.
