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Jamestown Settlement
The Virginia Company of London dispatched an all-male group with no way of supporting itself to establish a colony in North America. They struggled in the swampy environment, and only 38 of the 120 colonists survived after 9 months. The Virginia Company sent 1,200 more colonists to Jamestown in 1611, and they learned to survive after being taught by the local Indians. The colony became the first permanent English settlement in North America. -
The Mayflower
The Pilgrims were religious separatists who had left the Church of England and came to America aboard the Mayflower. Lacking a royal charter, they created the Mayflower Compact, which used the Pilgrim's religious congregation as a political structure. The Mayflower Compact created the first self-governed European community in the New World. -
Bacon's Rebellion
Vigilante colonists in Virginia started a war with neighboring Indians, which Governor Berkeley refused to support. The rebels, led by Nathaniel Bacon, forced the governor to make reforms and hold legislative elections, and when the reforms came too late, they burned Jamestown to the ground and plundered the plantations of Berkeley's allies. When Bacon suddenly died of dysentery, Berkeley quickly dispersed the rebel army. -
Stono Rebellion
The Catholic governor of Spanish Florida instigated the revolt by promising freedom to fugitive slaves. When war erupted between England and Spain, a group of 75 Africans armed themselves and killed a number of whites along the Stono River. They were well armed and organized, but the rebellion was quickly suppressed by the South Carolina militia. -
The Albany Congress
Following the start of the French and Indian War, the British Board of Trade called a meeting at Albany to mend relations with the Iroquois. At the meeting, Benjamin Franklin proposed a "Plan of Union" among the British colonies to counter French expansion. The plan would have created one general government and a continental assembly, which would manage trade, Indian policy, and the colonies' defense. The plan did not receive serious consideration. -
The Stamp Act
British law imposing a tax on all paper used in the colonies. Benjamin Franklin responded by proposing American representation in Parliament, reasoning that the British should not be able to tax them if they were not represented. Franklin's idea was considered too radical, and the House of Commons went along and passed the Act. However, widespread resistance led to its repeal in 1766. -
The Quartering Act
British Law passed by Parliament at the request of General Thomas Gage, the British military commander in America. The Quartering Act ensured that British troops could not be boarded in private homes, but required colonial governments to provide barracks and food for them. The colonies saw this as yet another unfair tax, and it implied that British troops were being stationed in the colonies to enforce these increasingly unfair taxes. -
The Stamp Act Congress
A congress of nine assemblies that met in New York to discuss the loss of American "rights and liberties." It challenged the constitutionality of the Stamp and Sugar Acts by declaring that only the colonies' elected representatives could tax them. Many delegates hoped for compromise, rather than confrontation, and they petitioned Parliament for a repeal of the Stamp Act. -
The NonImportation Movement
The effort to protest parliamentary legislation by boycotting British goods. New England ministers and public figures promoted the domestic manufacture of cloth and other necessities to help fill the gap left by boycotted textiles. American women became crucial to the movement, reducing the household consumption of foreign goods by producing large quantities of homespun cloth. -
The Boston Massacre
With tension running high due to the large number of troops in Boston, nine British redcoats opened fire on a crowd of three or four hundred who were harassing them and throwing snowballs, oysters, and rocks. Five townspeople were killed during the confrontation. The soldiers were exonerated at a subsequent trial, but Boston's Radical Whigs labeled the incident a "massacre" and used it to rally sentiment against imperial power. -
The Boston Tea Party
The Tea Act of May 1773 lowered taxes on tea and granted exemptions to the East India Company to make their tea cheaper and entice boycotting Americans to buy it. Seeing this as a bribe, the Sons of Liberty prevented East India Company ships from delivering their cargoes in New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. When shipments of tea landed in Massachusetts, artisans and laborers disguised themselves as Indians, boarded three vessels, and threw 342 crates of tea into the harbor. -
First Continental Congress
Twelve mainland colonies sent representatives to Philadelphia to discuss the crisis caused by the Coercive Acts. The delegates demanded the repeal of the Coercive Acts and specified that British control be limited to matters of trade. They vowed to cut off all British exports in December of 1774, and said that if the Coercive Acts were not repealed by September 1775, they would cut off all colonial exports to Britain, Ireland, and the British West Indies. -
Thomas Paine's Common Sense
A 47 page pamphlet advocating separation from Great Britain and the creation of a new republican form of government. Paine used stirring language that could be understood by the common man to sway the people away from compromise with Britain. Over 120,000 copies were sold in the first three months of its publication. -
The Declaration of Independence
Adopted by the Second Continental Congress, the document contained philosophical ideas and a list of grievances that declared separation from Britain. The main author of the text, Thomas Jefferson, proclaimed that "all men are created equal" and possess the unalienable rights of "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." Justifying rebellion against a corrupt government, the document ended a period of intense debate with moderates that still wished for reconciliation with Britain. -
The Battle of Saratoga
British general John Burgoyne's army was advancing on Albany, New York, but became stuck near Saratoga and was beaten back by 2,000 militiamen during a raid on Bennington. British reinforcements for Albany were also redirected to bolster General Howe's force, leaving Burgoyne to eventually be defeated by patriot general Horatio Gates. The victory at Saratoga ensured the success of American diplomats in Paris, who won military support from France. -
The Battle of Yorktown
General George Washington feigned an assault on New York City and secretly marched General Rochambeau's army to Yorktown, Virginia, to face General Cornwallis. At the same time, the French fleet took control of the Chesapeake bay. French and American troops outnumbered Cornwallis's men 2 to 1 on land, and he was cut off from reinforcement or retreat by sea. The Franco American victory at Yorktown broke British resolve and led to peace negotiations. -
Shay's Rebellion
Following the Revolution, the Massachusetts legislature increased taxes five-fold to pay off wartime debts. Angry farmers, many of them Revolutionary War veterans, rose up in protest of these taxation policies, linking themselves to the Patriot movement and comparing the new American government to British tyranny. Although Shay's Rebellion failed, it highlighted the flaws of the Articles of Confederation. -
The Constitution of 1787
Delegates in Philadelphia sought to address the problems created by the Articles of Confederation, debating whether to replace them with the Virginia Plan, which was favored by large states, or the New Jersey Plan, which was favored by small states. A compromise was met with the creation of the Senate and House of Representatives, and a powerful national government was created. The Constitution was ratified in 1788, and a Bill of Rights was made to appease the Antifederalists. -
Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
To silence his critics, President Adams enacted the Naturalization, Alien, and Sedition Acts. Under the Sedition Act, the publication of insults on the president or members of Congress was prohibited, and Federalists used the act to arrest more than 20 Republican newspaper editors and politicians. At the urging of Madison and Jefferson, the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures issued resolutions declaring the Alien and Sedition Acts to be null and void. -
Marbury v. Madison
With the Adams presidency ending, the Federalist Congress passed the Judiciary Act of 1801, which created new positions that Adams filled with "midnight appointees." In Marbury v. Madison, Chief Justice John Marshall found that the Judiciary Act of 1789 conflicted with Article III, Section 2, of the Constitution. By finding the Judiciary Act unconstitutional, Marshall established the Court's authority to interpret the Constitution. -
The Louisiana Purchase
Seeking to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans from France, American diplomacy in Paris resulted in the purchase of the entire Louisiana territory. The purchase nearly doubled the size of the United States. The purchase forced President Thomas Jefferson to use powers not explicitly given to him by the Constitution. -
Embargo Act of 1807
The act prohibited U.S. ships from traveling to foreign ports until Britain and France stopped restricting U.S. trade. However, the embargo overestimated the reliance of Britain and France on American shipping and weakened the entire U.S. economy. The failure of the Embargo Act made President Thomas Jefferson extremely unpopular as he left office. -
Battle of Tippecanoe
The Shawnee war chief Tecumseh, bolstered by British guns and supplies, revived the Western Confederacy in 1809 and urged Indian peoples to shun Americans and return to traditional ways. Deciding on a preemptive strike, American forces headed by William Henry Henry Harrison attacked the Shawnee Indians and their allies at their holy village of Prophetstown. The governor's troops traded heavy casualties with the Indians and then destroyed the village. -
Bombardment of Fort McHenry
During the Battle of Baltimore, nineteen British ships began bombarding Fort McHenry with rockets and mortar shells. This continued for around 27 hours. Francis Scott Key, a prisoner on a British barge, witnessed the bombardment. Observing that the American flag still flew over the fort the next morning, he wrote a poem called "The Defense of Fort McHenry"; it was adapted into a song "The Star Spangled Banner", which became the U.S. national anthem. -
Treaty of Ghent
The War of 1812 had been disastrous for the United States, and by 1815 Britain was ready for peace. The Treaty of Ghent ended the war and retained the prewar borders of the United States. The War of 1812 was technically a stalemate, but before news of the treaty reached the United States, a final military victory at the Battle of New Orleans raised American spirits. -
Panic of 1819
The first major economic crisis of the United States, brought on by bad banking policies and an abrupt drop in world agriculture prices. As farmers' Income declined, they could not pay debts owed to stores and banks, many of which went bankrupt. The panic gave Americans their first taste of a business cycle, the periodic boom and bust inherent to a modern market economy. -
Missouri Compromise
A series of political agreements devised by Speaker of the House Henry Clay. Maine entered the Union as a free state and Missouri followed as a slave state, preserving a balance in the Senate between North and South. Farther west, it set the northern boundary of slavery at the southern boundary of Missouri. -
Monroe Doctrine
The declaration by President James Monroe that the Western Hemisphere was closed to any further colonization or interference by European powers. In exchange, Monroe pledged that the United States would not become involved in European struggles. The declaration asserted the diplomatic leadership of the U.S. in the Western Hemisphere and won it international recognition of its northern and western boundaries. -
The Corrupt Bargain of 1824
When no candidate received an absolute majority in the election of 1824, it was decided that the House of Representatives would choose the president. As Speaker of the House, Henry Clay used his influence to elect John Quincy Adams, and then Adams appointed Clay as his secretary of state, the traditional stepping-stone to the presidency. Andrew Jackson's supporters accused Clay and Adams of making a corrupt bargain, vowing to oppose Adams's policies and prevent Clay's rise to the presidency. -
Indian Removal Act of 1830
Act that directed the mandatory relocation of eastern tribes to territory west of the Mississippi. Jackson insisted that his goal was to save the Indians and their culture. Indians resisted the controversial act, but in the end most were forced to comply. -
The Bank War
When Henry Clay and Daniel Webster sought an early extension to the charter of the Second Bank of the United States, President Jackson vetoed the bill. He reasoned that Congress had no constitutional authority to charter a national bank, and that the bank was dangerous to the liberties of the people. Jackson then transferred the federal government's gold and silver reserves to various state banks. When the Second Bank's national charter expired in 1836, Jackson prevented its renewal. -
Nullification Crisis
In response to the reenactment of the Tariff of Abominations, South Carolina adopted an Ordinance of Nullification declaring the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 to be null and void. President Jackson responded with a military Force Bill to compel South Carolina's obedience to national laws. He also addressed South Carolina's objection to high tariffs with a new tariff act that would gradually reduce rates to those seen in 1816. South Carolina did not press its constitutional stance on nullification. -
The Alamo
Following the creation of a new Mexican constitution that created a stronger central government, Americans started a rebellion and proclaimed the independence of Texas. To put down the rebellion, President Santa Anna led an army that wiped out the Texan garrison defending the Alamo in San Antonio. Newspapers urged Americans to "Remember the Alamo," and American adventurers, lured by offers of land grants, flocked to Texas to join the rebel forces. -
Mexican-American War Begins
Following the annexation of Texas, President Polk moved quickly to acquire Mexico's other northern provinces. Hoping to provoke war with Mexico, Polk sent an army of 2,000 soldiers to occupy disputed lands between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. When Mexican forces killed a group of U.S. soldiers on this disputed land, Polk convinced Congress to declare war on Mexico. -
Compromise of 1850
The annexation of California prompted Henry Clay to help create a series of laws that were meant to resolve the dispute over the status of slavery in the states. To satisfy groups of northerners, California was admitted as a free state, and the slave trade, but not slavery, was abolished in the District of Columbia. To appease southern planters, the compromise included a Fugitive Slave Act strengthening federal aid to slave catchers. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The controversial act divided Indian Territory into Kansas and Nebraska, repealed the Missouri Compromise, and left the new territories to decide the issue of slavery on the basis of popular sovereignty. Despite petitions opposed to the bill flooding the House of Representatives, Congress still passed it. The act would lead to violent conflicts in "Bleeding Kansas." -
Dred Scott Decision
The Supreme Court decision that ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional. The Court ruled against slave Dred Scott, who claimed that travels with his master into free states and territories made him and his family free. The decision also denied the federal government the right to exclude slavery from the territories and declared that African Americans were not citizens. -
South Carolina Secession
The victory of Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election triggered a wave of secessionist fervor in the Deep South. Frightened by the prospect of their enemies taking control of the government, South Carolina Democrats held a state convention and voted unanimously to dissolve the union between them and the other states. South Carolina was quickly followed by Mississippi, Florida, and Louisiana. When the smoke cleared, the Deep South states had all seceded. -
Battle of Fort Sumter
When Lincoln dispatched an unarmed ship to resupply Fort Sumter, Confederate forces decided to seize the fort. The Confederates bombarded the fort from artillery batteries surrounding the harbor, forcing the Union soldiers to evacuate after 34 hours. The Battle prompted Lincoln to call 75,000 state militiamen into federal service to put down the insurrection. -
Homestead Act
The act gave 160 acres of free western land to any applicant who occupied and improved the property. This policy led to the rapid development of the American west after the Civil War. However, many homesteaders found themselves unable to live on their land due to arid conditions in the West. -
Emancipation Proclamation
Following the Union victory at the Battle of Antietam, Abraham Lincoln issued a preliminary proclamation of emancipation, basing its legal authority on his duty as commander in chief to suppress rebellion. The proclamation warned that slavery would be abolished in all states that remained out of the Union on January 1, 1863. Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not initially free any slaves, it signaled an end to the institution of slavery. -
Gettysburg Address
Following the Battle of Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech dedicating a national cemetery at the Gettysburg battlefield. Despite heavy Union casualties, about one-third of Lee's army of North Virginia was killed, marking a turning point in the war. Lincoln declared the nation's founding ideal to be that "all men are created equal," and suggested that Americans could draw "from these honored dead" the determination to preserve the Union. -
Battle of Appomattox Court House
In April 1865, General Grant gained control of a crucial railroad junction at Petersburg and forced Lee to abandon Richmond. Grant then cut off Lee's escape route to North Carolina and trapped him at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, where he surrendered. In exchange for their surrender, Grant allowed Confederate officers and men to take their horses and personal weapons and go home. By late May, all the secessionist armies and governments had surrendered or melted away. -
Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Just days after receiving news that the Union had won, Lincoln was assassinated by a pro-Confederate actor named John Wilkes Booth as he was attending a play. Lincoln's murder plunged the Union into mourning and opened disturbing questions about the postwar political crisis. Andrew Johnson became president following Lincoln's death, which placed the responsibility of reconstruction following the Civil War on him. -
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
When President Johnson attempted to suspend Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, a Radical Republican, the Senate overruled him. However, Johnson went against the Senate and formally dismissed Stanton, which prompted the House of Representatives to introduce articles of impeachment against the president for the first time in American history. After an eleven week trial in the Senate, thirty-five senators voted for conviction, which was one vote short of the two-thirds majority required. -
Fourteenth Amendment
When Congress voted to extend the Freedmen's Bureau and create the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which affirmed that African Americans had equal protection under the law, President Johnson vetoed both bills. However, Republicans in Congress gathered a two-thirds majority and overrode both vetoes. Congress took further measures to sustain civil rights through the Fourteenth Amendment, which declared that all people born or naturalized in the United States were citizens. -
Transcontinental Railroad Completion
Signed into law by Abraham Lincoln, the Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 commissioned the construction of a transcontinental railroad connecting the east and west coasts of the United States. The federal government chose to promote construction by private companies, providing railroad companies with essential loans, subsidies, and grants of public land. The completion of the railroad was a major accomplishment that stimulated the American economy and facilitated settlement of the West. -
Establishment of Yellowstone
The rapid incorporation of the West into the national marketplace led to concerns about rampant overdevelopment, so Congress began to preserve sites of unusual natural splendor. In 1872, Congress set aside 2 million acres of Wyoming's Yellowstone Valley as the world's first national park. Since it was still unclear exactly what a national park was, the U.S. Army was dispatched to take charge. Consistent management policies only emerged in the 20th century. -
Civil Rights Cases of 1883
A series of Supreme Court decisions that struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875, rolling back key Reconstruction laws and paving the way for later decisions that sanctioned segregation. This was preceded by the Slaughter-House Cases, in which the Court began to undercut the power of the Fourteenth Amendment. The impact of this rejection of Reconstruction amendments endured well into the twentieth century. -
The Dawes Act
The law gave Native Americans individual ownership of land by dividing reservations into homesteads. Many supporters believed that it would be beneficial for Native Americans, encouraging them to assimilate. However, the law was a disaster, resulting over several decades in the loss of 66 percent of lands held by Indians at the time of the law's passage.