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Eli Whitney Patented the Cotton Gin
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
The Second Great Awakening reflected Romanticism characterized by enthusiasm, emotion, and an appeal to the supernatural. It rejected the skeptical rationalism and deism of the Enlightenment -
Gabriel Prosser Slave Revolt
A slave revolt that resulted in the hanging of many slaves and tighter slave restrictions -
Thomas Jefferson Elected President
Thomas Jefferson was elected the third president of the United States. This was the first peaceful transfer of power from one political party to another in the United Stares. -
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 brought into the United States about 828,000,000 square miles of territory from France. The acquisition of the Louisiana Territory for the bargain price of less than three cents an acre was among Jefferson’s most notable achievements as president. -
Marbury v. Madison
It was the first Supreme Court case to apply the principle of judicial review, the power of federal courts to void acts of Congress that were in conflict with the Constitution. -
Beginning of Lewis and Clark Expedition
One year after the United States doubled its territory with the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition leaves St. Louis, Missouri, on a mission to explore the Northwest from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. -
Embargo Act
The Embargo Act of 1807 was a law passed by the United State Congress and signed by President Thomas Jefferson. 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, between the British warship HMS Leopard and the American frigate USS Chesapeake. Chesapeake was caught unprepared and after a short battle, the commander of Chesapeake, James Barron, surrendered his vessel to the British. This caused an uproar among Americans. -
James Madison Elected President
Founding father James Madison became the 4th president of the United States -
Non-Intercourse Act
The Non-Intercourse Act of 1809 replaced the 1807 Embargo Act which had averted war with Britain and France but had backfired on the government by effectively strangling all American overseas trade -
Francis Cabot Lowell Smuggled Memorized Textile Mill Plans From Manchester, England
During a visit to Great Britain in 1811, Francis Cabot Lowell spied on the new British textile industry. Using his contacts, he visited a number of mills in England, sometimes in disguise. Unable to buy drawings or a model of a power loom, he committed the power loom design to memory. -
Death of Tecumseh
Tecumseh’s death marked the end of Indian resistance east of the Mississippi River, and soon after most of the depleted tribes were forced west. -
End of the War of 1812
The Treaty of Ghent is signed by British and American representatives at Ghent, Belgium, ending the War of 1812. 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. -
The British Burn Washington DC
British forces, under General Robert Ross, captured the nation's capital and ordered the burning of Washington in revenge of the crushing defeat for the British in the Battle of York. -
Harford Convention
The Hartford Convention was a series of meetings 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. -
Battle of New Orleans
In the Battle of New Orleans, future President Andrew Jackson and an assortment of militia fighters, frontiersmen, slaves, Indians and even pirates weathered a frontal assault by a superior British force. The victory vaulted Jackson to national stardom, and helped foil plans for a British invasion of the American frontier. -
Treaty of Ghent Ratified
The War of 1812 comes to an end -
Era of Good Feeling Began
national mood of the United States from 1815 to 1825, as first described by the Boston Columbian Centinel on July 12, 1817. The “era” generally is considered coextensive with President James Monroe’s two terms -
James Monroe Elected President
He was elected the fifth president of the United States in 1817. He is remembered for the Monroe Doctrine, as well as for expanding U.S territory via the acquisition of Florida from Spain. Monroe, who died in 1831, was the last of the Founding Fathers. -
Rush-Bagot Treaty
The Rush-Bagot Pact was an agreement between the United States and Great Britain to eliminate their fleets from the Great Lakes, excepting small patrol vessels. -
Anglo-American Convention
It resolved lingering boundary disputes between British North America and the United States of America -
Adams-Onis Treaty
The Adams-Onis Treaty between the United States and Spain concluded all controversies regarding Spain's claims to Florida. It settled a standing border dispute between the two countries and was considered a triumph of American diplomacy. -
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
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
McCulloch v. Maryland, was a U.S. Supreme Court decision that established that the "Necessary and Proper" Clause of the U.S. Constitution gives the federal U.S. government certain implied powers that are not explicitly enumerated in the Constitution -
Missouri Compromise
The Missouri Compromise was an effort by Congress to defuse the sectional and political rivalries triggered by the request of Missouri late in 1819 for admission as a state in which slavery would be permitted -
Charles B. Finney Lead Religious Revivals in Western New York
He was a leader in the 'Second Great Awakening' in the United States, serving as a Presbyterian, then Congregationalist, minister and religious writer. Finney's significance was in innovative preaching and service procedure -
Denmark Vesey Slave Revolt
Vesey planned and organized an uprising of city and plantation blacks. The plan reportedly called for the rebels to attack guardhouses and arsenals, seize their arms, kill all whites, burn and destroy the city, and free the slaves. During the ensuing two months, some 130 blacks were arrested. In the trials that followed, 67 were convicted of trying to raise an insurrection; of these, 35, including Vesey, were hanged, and 32 were condemned to exile -
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was a United States policy of opposing European colonialism in the Americas. It stated that further efforts by European nations to take control of any independent state in North or South America would be viewed as "the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States. -
Gibbons v. Ogden
a landmark decision in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the power to regulate interstate commerce, encompassed the power to regulate navigation -
Robert Owen Founded the New Harmony Community
Owen travelled to America, where he invested the bulk of his fortune in an experimental socialistic community at New Harmony, Indiana, the preliminary model for Owen's utopian society -
John Quincy Adams Elected President (Corrupt Bargain)
It was widely believed that Henry Clay, convinced Congress to elect John Quincy 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 manmade waterway that joins the Great Lakes with the Hudson River. -
Lyman Beecher Delivered His “Six Sermons on Intemperance”
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 -
Horace Mann Elected Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education
He was active in the interests of education, public charities, and laws for the suppression of intemperance and lotteries -
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
Andrew Jackson beat John Quincy Adams and became the seventh president of the United States -
Catherine Beecher Published Essays on the Education of Female Teachers
In this essay, she promoted women as natural teachers, but also advocated for an expansion and 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
he organized the Church of Christ, calling it a restoration of the early Christian church. Members of the church were later called "Latter Day Saints" or "Mormons" -
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 -
Nullification Crisis Began
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 -
Worcester v. Georgia
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 -
Creation of the Whig Party in the U.S.
It emerged in the 1830s as the leading opponent of Jacksonians, pulling together former members of the National Republican (one of the successors of the Democratic-Republican Party) and the Anti-Masonic 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. Ceding Cherokee land to the U.S. in exchange for compensation. -
Transcendental Club’s First Meeting
The club was a meeting-place for these young thinkers and an organizing ground for their idealist frustration with the general state of American culture and society at the time -
First McGuffey Reader Published
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 formal declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico in the Texas Revolution -
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 near San Antonio de Béxar, killing the Texian defenders -
Martin Van Buren Elected President
Martin Van Buren was the eighth President of the United States. 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
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 -
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”
He argued that moral intuition is a better guide to the moral sentiment than religious doctrine, and insisted upon the presence of true moral sentiment in each individual, while discounting the necessity of belief in the historical miracles of Jesus -
Trail of Tears Began
Native Americans were driven off of their land due to the Indian Removal Plan -
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, negotiated by Caleb Cushing, the United States gained the right to trade in Chinese ports, as well as gaining additional legal rights inside China -
James Polk Elected President
James Polk served as the 11th U.S. president from 1845 to 1849. As president, he reduced tariffs, reformed the national banking system and settled a boundary dispute with the British that secured the Oregon Territory for the United States -
Beginning of Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny held that the United States was destined—by God, its advocates believed—to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent -
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 -
Start of the Mexican War
helped to fulfill America's "manifest destiny" to expand its territory across the entire North American continent -
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 -
John Humphrey Noyes Founded the Oneida Community
The Oneida Community was a perfectionist religious communal society founded by John Humphrey Noyes in 1848 in Oneida, New York. The community believed that Jesus had already returned in AD 70, making it possible for them to bring about Jesus's millennial kingdom themselves, and be free of sin and perfect in this world, not just in Heaven -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
the peace treaty signed on February 2, 1848, in the Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo between the United States and Mexico that ended the Mexican–American War -
Gold Rush Began in California
The California Gold Rush began 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 argues that individuals should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that they have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice -
Commodore Matthew Perry Entered Tokyo Harbor Opening Japan to the U.S.
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 -
Kanagawa Treaty
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
