1754: The British Crown charters King's College in New York City; renamed Columbia College in 1784. New York Society Library established. French and Indian War begins when Virginia sends militia under Major George Washington to challenge French expansion in the Ohio valley; Washington surrenders after being surrounded by the French. Benjamin Franklin helps organize the Albany Congress to consider how colonists should respond to growing crisis in America between the English and the French. Franklin proposes coordinated efforts of the colonies through the Albany Plan of Union, which is rejected. Thomas Chippendale's pattern book for furniture, The Gentleman and CabinetMaker's Director, is published in London.
1755: French-speaking Acadians are deported from Acadia by the British; many migrate to Louisiana. The painter Gilbert Charles Stuart is born in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Philadelphia Academy (later University of Pennsylvania) is chartered. General Braddock is defeated and killed in western Pennsylvania; Colonel George Washington leads defeated troops back to Virginia.
1756: War spreads to Europe. The Great Awakening in America ends.
1757: William Pitt becomes the first minister of Parliament in England. He decides to focus war efforts on America, ultimately sending twenty-four thousand troops to America. This is probably the largest European army created since the fall of the Roman Empire.
1758: Treaty of Easton; Cherokees attack colonists on the Virginia frontier. The British fail to capture Fort Ticonderoga. General James Wolfe, with nine thousand British troops, takes Louisbourg, Canada. In Pennsylvania, the French evacuate Fort Duquesne, blowing it up; the British rebuild, calling it Fort Pitt, which eventually leads to settlement at Pittsburgh.
1759: The French are defeated in upstate New York at Fort Niagara and Fort Ticonderoga; at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, British General Wolfe captures Quebec City; the French are effectively defeated in America. Wolfe dies in battle. Indian clergyman and missionary Samson Occom becomes a fully ordained Presbyterian minister.
1760: French forces capitulate at Montreal, surrendering Canada and its dependencies to Britain. Charles III becomes King of Spain; George III becomes king of Great Britain.
1761: Ottawa chief Pontiac rebels against the British.
1762: Spain declares war on Great Britain.
1763: Treaty of Paris; Spain cedes Florida to Great Britain; France cedes Louisiana to Spain and Acadia, Canada, and Cape Breton to Great Britain. George Grenville becomes Prime Minister; Britain issues Proclamation of 1763 forbidding colonists to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains until further land can be acquired from the Indians. Pontiac initiates pan-Indian rebellion against the British in the Ohio valley and the Great Lakes region. The Touro Synagogue opens in Newport, Rhode Island.
1763-1764: Pennsylvania frontiersmen, known as the Paxton Boys, massacre Conestoga Indians and march toward Philadelphia to attack Indians in protective custody there; they are dissuaded by Benjamin Franklin and others.
1764: Rhode Island College (later Brown University) is founded. Widespread colonial protest erupts when the British Parliament passes the Sugar Act, which in effect gives Great Britain a monopoly on the Anglo-American sugar market; the duty is lowered two years later, ending the protest. Britain imposes the Currency Act on colonies; the first boycotts are held against English products in the colonies.
1765: The first American medical school is founded in Philadelphia. Britain passes Quartering Act in May. The Stamp Act generates outrage in the colonies and is repealed in response to widespread colonial protest, including first colony-wide meeting, known as the Stamp Act Congress, in October. Sons of Liberty established to organize opposition to British colonial policy.
1766: In the Declaratory Act, Parliament asserts its "full power and authority over the colonies." The Stamp Act is repealed. The Daughters of Liberty established. New York to Philadelphia stagecoach route is established; the journey takes two days. Queens College (later Rutgers University) is founded. Pontiac signs peace treaty with the British.
1767: The New York Assembly is suspended for refusing to provide quarters for troops, as required by the 1765 Quartering Act. The Jesuits are expelled from Spanish territories; Franciscans take over the western missions. Daniel Boone explores the land west of the Cumberland Gap, in violation of the Proclamation of 1763. The Townshend Duties Act places customs duties on a number of items imported from England.
1768: The Massachusetts Assembly is dissolved for refusing to assist in the collection of taxes. The colonial General Court issued a circular letter to the other colonies calling the Townshend Duties unconstitutional. John Hancock's ship, Liberty, is seized by the British for violating navigation acts. Additional British regiments arrive. The Cherokees agree to a new border, and the Iroquois relinquish some land claims in New York.
1769: Junipero Serra founds the first Spanish mission in California at San Diego. Spain colonizes Alta, California. Pontiac killed. George Washington introduces Virginia Resolves in colonial legislature (House of Burgesses). Written by George Mason, the resolves assert that only the colonists can impose taxes in the colonies. Virginia leaders adopt the Virginia Association, a nonimportation agreement. Various colonists, and ultimately merchants, in Philadelphia, New York, Charleston, and Boston join in the boycott of British goods; for the entire year, the value of imports from England drops by 40 percent to 50 percent throughout the colonies.
1770: Most import boycotts end as the Townshend duties are repealed for everything but tea; Bostonians boycott tea, but the movement does not spread to the other colonies. Riots in New York City between the Sons of Liberty and British troops; Boston Massacre leads to the death of five civilians.
1771: North Carolina "regulators" fight government forces at the Battle of Alamance, near Hillsboro; a few of the regulator leaders are executed. Permanent Moravian missions for Labrador Eskimos are founded. Conflicts between England and the colonies die down; trade resumes.
1772: British revenue cutter Gaspe burns off the coast of Rhode Island; committees of correspondence established. In Massachusetts, Governor Thomas Hutchinson arranges to have his salary paid by Britain, thus eliminating part of the colonial home rule. In Somerset v. Stewart, Britain's highest court declares that any slave brought to England can claim his or her freedom because slavery can only exist if there is a positive law to support it, which England does not have.
1773: The Boston Tea Party occurs; the colonists protest the duty on tea by dumping a shipload into Boston Harbor. A hospital for the insane is built in Williamsburg. Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral by Phillis Wheatley of Boston, a slave taken from Senegal, is published in London; Wheatley is manumitted by her Boston master in the summer of 1773.
1774: The British government fires Benjamin Franklin as deputy postmaster for the colonies because of his open hostility to English policies. The first Continental Congress meets at Philadelphia, with representatives from all of the colonies, except Georgia; Lord Dunmore's War forces the Shawnee Indians into a peace that facilitates the British settlement of Kentucky. "Mother Ann Lee," founder of the Shakers, arrives in America from England. The Coercive Acts close the port of Boston. The Quebec Act threatens the colonies by providing a permanent civil government and granting religious toleration to Catholics in Canada. The Quartering Act legalizes the use of private homes for quartering British troops. The colonies begin to prepare for armed resistance.
1774-1793: Louis XIV reigns in France.
1775: The Second Continental Congress assembles in Philadelphia, again without Georgia. British troops and American militia battle at Lexington and Concord, in Massachusetts. The American Revolution beings; George Washington is made commander in chief of the American army. The Americans capture Fort Ticonderoga. The Battle of Bunker Hill forces Americans out of Boston, but due to the high number of casualties British troops are unable to remain in city. King George III refuses the Olive Branch Petition. The Continental Congress establishes a navy and later the Marine Corps. In Virginia, Lord Dunmore offers freedom to slaves who will join the British army and fight against their masters. Americans invade Canada and are forced to retreat in 1776. CasimirPulaski arrives from Poland to fight for Patriot cause.
1776: Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations is published in London; Thomas Paine's Common Sense is published in Philadelphia. The British evacuate Boston; the British army invades the South. In July, Congress adopts the Declaration of Independence. The British force Washington out of New York in a series of battles in and around New York City. Washington retreats to Pennsylvania after a series of defeats; on Christmas Eve he moves into New Jersey after the dangerous nighttime crossing of the Delaware River, surprises the British, and wins battles at Trenton and Princeton in early 1777.
1777: Bowing to military force, the Cherokee Indians cede lands to North and South Carolina. Vermont declares its independence from New York. New Hampshire adopts a constitution that prohibits slavery and allows all adult men to vote. European trained officers begin to arrive in America to fight on the Patriot side, including the Marquis de Lafayette, Johann De Kalb, and, Thaddeus Koscuiusko. Congress decides on a flag. The Americans are defeated at Brandywine, allowing the British to occupy Philadelphia and forcing Congress to flee in September. The Americans are defeated at Germantown; Washington retreats to Valley Forge for the winter. In the north, British General "Gentleman" Johnny Burgoyne invades New York state from Canada; the Battle of Oriskany stops the force of Indians under Chief Joseph and Loyalists in central New York; the British are defeated at the Battle of Bennington. In October, Burgoyne's army is defeated and captured at Saratoga, which is often seen as the turning point of the war. Congress adopts the Articles of Confederation and sends them to the states for ratification.
1778: Captain James Cook explores the Northwest coast. Washington winters in Valley Forge. France approves alliance with America. Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Stueben arrives to join Washington's army and to train troops. General Henry Clinton assumes command of the British forces in America, and in June the British evacuate Philadelphia. The Battle of Monmouth is effectively a draw, but shows that American troops are far better trained after working with von Steuben. General George Rogers Clark captures Kankaskia in the West; the British move south, and capture Savannah.
1779: In January, the British capture Augusta, which the Americans retake in May; Benedict Arnold begins to secretly work for the British; Spain declares war against Great Britain. General John Sullivan destroys Indians in Pennsylvania and New York who are supporting the British, and eliminates the Iroquois as a significant military threat. John Paul Jones defeats and captures the British ship Serapis off the coast of England; he returns a hero. The Americans fail to retake Savannah; Count Pulaski is killed in battle; French admiral, Comte Jean Baptiste d'Estaing is wounded. The British evacuate Rhode Island in an attempt to shift strategy to holding the South for the empire. Washington winters in Morristown, New Jersey.
1780: The British capture Charleston, taking about 5,500 Americans prisoner. French Comte de Rochambeau arrives with five thousand troops, landing at Newport, Rhode Island. The Americans aredefeated at Camden, South Carolina, with about two thousand Americans killed or captured; Americans later defeat combined British and Loyalist forces at Kings Mountain, in North Carolina, forcing British troops under Cornwallis back to South Carolina. General Nathaniel Greene replaces Horatio Gates as the commander of the American troops in the South. The Benedict Arnold conspiracy is exposed; British courier Major John Andre is captured and hanged outside of New York City. Pennsylvania passes the first gradual abolition act in the country; the Massachusetts Constitution indirectly prohibits slavery in the state with a clause declaring that all people are born "free and equal."
1781: General George Washington defeats British troops led by General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, effectively ending any British hope of winning the war. The Articles of Confederation are ratified.
1782: Lord North's ministry falls in Britain; peace talks begin in France, with Benjamin Franklin joined by John Adams and John Jay; preliminary peace pact, the Treaty of Versailles, signed in November. Great Britain recognizes the independence of the United States of America. Florida is returned to Spain. Britain begins to evacuate former colonies as war dies down; some fighting between Indians loyal to Britain and the United States continues.
1783: The war officially ends; British troops evacuate New York City, taking about four thousand former slaves with them; British troops leaving the Deep South evacuate about another ten thousand former slaves; more than one hundred thousand white loyalists also leave. The Continental Army disbands; Washington resigns as commander in chief and retires to Virginia declaring that he will never again seek public office. The New Hampshire Constitution contains the words "free and equal clause" which soon ends slavery there.
1784: The province of New Brunswick is established in British North America to accommodate Loyalists. Connecticut and Rhode Island pass gradual abolition laws. The first U.S. ships reach China, expanding American commerce to Asia. The U.S. capital is moved temporarily to New York City.
1785: Congress (under the Articles of Confederation) passes the Land Ordinance for the Northwest Territory; the United States and Spain begin negotiations, which ultimately fail, on the Florida boundary and navigation on the Mississippi River. John Adams becomes the U.S. ambassador for Britain; Thomas Jefferson becomes the U.S. ambassador to France. James Madison's "Memorian and Remonstrance" on religious freedom undermines the concept of an established church in Virginia and elsewhere.
1786: Jean-Francois de Galaup, Comte de La Pesrouse, leads an expedition to the Pacific, exploring the coasts of Alaska and California before continuing west. Virginia effectively disestablishes its official church with the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. Delegates from five states meet at the Annapolis Convention to discuss revising the Articles of Confederation; the convention fails but sets the stage for the Constitutional Convention. Shays's Rebellion in western Massachusetts closes courthouses and frightens elites in the United States before being suppressed.
1787: Delegates from 12 of 13 states (Rhode Island never sends a delegation) meet in Philadelphia, and throughout the summer, write the U.S. Constitution. Congress meets in New York and passes the Northwest Ordinance to regulate settlement north of Ohio; the ordinance includes a ban on slavery in the territory. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay begin to publish the Federalist Papers to gain support for the Constitution. Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey ratify the new Constitution.
1788: Bread riots occur in France.
1788-1808: Charles IV reigns in Spain. By 11 July thirteen states have ratified the new Constitution; the tenth and eleventh states, Virginia and New York, are crucial for success of the new government, which goes into effect by September. Elections are held for a new Congress and the first president.
1789: The French Revolution begins. Presidential electors unanimously choose George Washington as the nation's first president; John Adams becomes vice president; both are sworn-in at Federal Hall, in New York City, the temporary location for the national capital. Congress writes the Bill of Rights and sends it to the states for ratification. Congress creates various government departments. North Carolina becomes the twelfth state to ratify the Constitution. A Spanish expedition under Alejandro Malaspina explores the West Coast from Prince William Sound (Alaska) to Monterey (California); Alexander Mackenzie reaches the mouth of the Mackenzie River and then the Pacific Coast in two overland journeys from the East.
1790: The U.S. government continues to be organized. Congress accepts Hamilton's proposal to fund all of the state and national debts from the Revolution. Congress agrees to move capital back to Philadelphia, but only for ten years, and then to locate permanent national capital further south, along the Potomac River. The first national census is compiled. Rhode Island becomes the last of original states to ratify the Constitution.
1791: The Bank of the United States is established over the objections of Madison and Jefferson. Congress passes the Whiskey Tax, which adversely affects Western farmers. Vermont enters the Union as the first new state. Arthur St. Clair is defeated by Indians in Ohio. The Constitution Act is passed; Britain divides the province of Quebec into Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario).
1792: General "Mad" Anthony Wayne commissioned to suppress Indians in Ohio. Jefferson and Hamilton openly feud; political parties begin to emerge. Washington re-elected for second term. Kentucky becomes the fifteenth state. Captain George Vancouver explores the west coast of Canada. Following slave revolts in the French Antilles, Louisiana prohibits the importation of slaves from the French Caribbean colonies. The Parliament of Upper Canada votes for the gradual abolition of slavery.
1793: Congress passes the first fugitive slave law. Hamilton and Madison engage in newspaper debate over presidential power, Madison writing as "Helvidius" and Hamilton as "Pacificus." Ely Whitney invents the cotton gin. Washington issues proclamation of neutrality in the war between France and England. The French envoy to the U.S., Citizen Genet, hints that there is a "French party" in the United States, which leads to a backlash against France; the United States plans to expel Genet, but does not when the "reign of terror" begins in France and he is subject to execution. The Supreme Court decision in Chisolm v. Georgia leads to a huge backlash and a proposed constitutional amendment. Jefferson resigns from cabinet.
1794: The Eleventh Amendment is ratified; the Neutrality Act is passed, which forbids United States' citizens from serving in foreign armies. The Whiskey Rebellion is suppressed, showing the power of the U.S. government to enforce its own laws. Jay's Treaty settles the remaining issues between England and the United States. The British finally evacuate forts in the Great Lakes basin. Slavery is abolished in the French colonies.
1795: Washington's cabinet is reorganized; Hamilton resigns. General Anthony Wayne defeats Indians in the Northwest, forcing them to sign treaties; the Cherokees sign a treaty in the South, ceding lands. Hearing rumors of Haitian independence and abolition in the French colonies, slaves in Pointe-Coupee (Spanish Louisiana) plan a revolt. Treaty of San Lorenzo (Pinckney's Treaty) finally settles boundary with Florida and the United States, but fails to resolve questions of U.S. navigation rights on the Mississippi River.
1796: Washington refuses to seek a third term, setting a precedent for the next century and a half. Washington issues his farewell address, warning of foreign entanglements. The first contested presidential election occurs; John Adams wins, but his rival, Thomas Jefferson, becomes vice president.
1797: Adams inaugurated as the second president. The XYZ affair brings France and the United States to the brink of war.
1798: An undeclared naval war with France begins. Congress passes the Alien and Sedition Acts; the Alien Enemies Act is aimed at possible war with France; other Alien Acts and Sedition Act are aimed at suppressing support for Jefferson in upcoming election; Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions attack the legitimacy of the Sedition Act. Tennessee enters the Union.
1799: The Logan Act prohibits U.S. citizens not authorized by national government from conducting diplomatic negotiations with foreign powers. Fries's Rebellion suppressed. Fries convicted of treason, sentenced to death, but sentence commuted by President Adams. The Russian-American Company is chartered and given a monopoly to conduct trade in Alaska.
1800: The United States population is 5.3 million, 1 million of whom are African American. Approximately 75 percent of the U.S. labor force is engaged in agriculture. The federal government moves to Washington, D.C. The Harrison Land Act offers sale of lands in the public domain at two dollars per acre for 320-acre tracts. In May, Congress divides the original Northwest Territory, creating the Indiana Territory to the West, as a response to the swift migration of Americans to take up settlements under the Land Act. Gabriel Prosser plans a large-scale slave uprising in Virginia, but slave informants and torrential rains avert the rebellion. Southern farmers produce seventy-three thousand bales of cotton.
1801: Thomas Jefferson is inaugurated as the third president of the United States; it is the first time in the history of the modern world that an opposition party replaces an existing government in a peaceful transition. The first Barbary War, a four-year conflict between the United States and Tripoli, begins when President Jefferson refuses to pay increased demands for tribute to pirates. The Cane Ridge Revival in Bourbon County, Kentucky, draws thousands of participants and marks the beginning of the religious revivalist movement known as the Second Great Awakening.
1802: President Jefferson oversees acts of Congress establishing the Library of Congress and formally establishing the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. Washington, D.C., is incorporated as a city. Nathaniel Bowditch publishes The New American Practical Navigator. Tlingit Indians capture and destroy the Russian town of New Archangel (Sitka) on Baranof Island.
1803: Ohio is admitted as the seventeenth state in the Union (the first state carved out of the Northwest Territory). The United States takes possession of the Louisiana Territories (828,000 square miles), purchased for $15 million from France, doubling the area of the United States. Marbury v. Madison establishes the Supreme Court's power to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional.
1804: Ratification of the Twelfth Amendment institutes separate ballots for president and vice president. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark leave St. Louis in May on a federally funded expedition to explore the lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase and find a water route to the Pacific Ocean. Alexander Hamilton is killed by Aaron Burr in a duel.
1805: The Essex decision by the British admiralty rules that neutral ships with enemy cargo aboard are liable to capture even if the cargo is being transshipped via U.S. ports; British warships and privateers begin patrolling the U.S. coast to seize American ships carrying French and Spanish goods; Britain increases impressment of U.S. sailors (alleging them deserters from the Royal Navy). Unitarianism, the theological "left wing" of Congregationalism, becomes the official religious position at Harvard College when the liberal Henry Ware is appointed to the Hollis Professorship of Divinity. Thousands attend a Methodist camp meeting at Smyrna, Delaware. The Free Public School Society of New York is established.
1806: Congress passes the Non-Importation Act (effective in December 1807) prohibiting the importation from Britain of items that can be produced in the United States or imported from other countries. The Lewis and Clark expedition returns in September, having demonstrated the feasibility of traveling overland from the East to the Pacific Ocean. Zebulon Pike leads an expedition to the headwaters of the Arkansas and Red Rivers (sighting Pike's Peak in Colorado along the way) that lasts into 1807 and results in a report that stimulates expansion into Texas. Asher Benjamin's American Builder's Companion is published.
1807: The U.S.S. Chesapeake is sunk by British ships in American water. American trade with Britain is prohibited by the Embargo Act, which forbids U.S. ships from sailing to foreign ports. Former vice president Aaron Burr, who in 1806 was charged with conspiring to raise troops and build a personal empire from disputed Spanish territories in the West, is acquitted after a sensational trial; Supreme Court Justice John Marshall leads the decision that Burr's actions did not meet the strict constitutional definition for treason. Robert Fulton's Clermont inaugurates commercial steamboat navigation with a round trip on the Hudson River between New York and Albany.
1808: The slave population reaches one million. Congress formally abolishes the Atlantic slave trade. Jefferson increases the size of the U.S. Army to control smuggling into Canada. A massive internal improvements plan proposed by Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin calls for $30 million in federal financing to construct a turnpike from present-day Maine to Georgia, an intercoastal waterway running roughly parallel to the turnpike, and a system of roads crossing the Appalachian Mountains at several key places; the plan aims to make major improvements to the navigability of the major east-west river systems of the Appalachians and to develop a system of canals linking these rivers to the Great Lakes. Congress grants a monopoly on trade throughout Minnesota to John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. The Bible Society of Philadelphia, the first Bible society in the United States, is founded. Andover Seminary, America's first postgraduate theological school, opens to safeguard conservative Calvinist theology in response to Harvard's Unitarianism.
1809: James Madison is inaugurated as the fourth president of the United States. The NonIntercourse Act bans trade with Great Britain and France; the economically disastrous Embargo Act is repealed. U.S. parochial school education is introduced with the founding by Elizabeth Ann Seton of a free Catholic elementary school in Baltimore.
1810: The United States population is 7.2 million. Western Florida declares independence and is annexed by the United States. The Supreme Court in Fletcher v. Peck invalidates a state law as unconstitutional for the first time. Dissident Presbyterians form the evangelical, prorevivalist Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The tradition of the American agricultural fair is initiated with the opening of the Berkshire Cattle Show in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
1811: The First Bank of the United States (created by Congress in 1791) is allowed to expire. Congress meets secretly to make plans to annex Spanish East Florida. An uprising of more than four hundred slaves is put down in New Orleans; sixty-six blacks are killed. The Cumberland Road from Maryland to Wheeling, Virginia, is started as part of the federal program to improve canals, roads, and bridges, but the rest of the 1808 Gallatin Plan is tabled. General William Henry Harrison defeats Shawnees in Indiana at the Battle of Tippecanoe. The fur baron John Jacob Astor and a group of settlers found the first white community in the Pacific Northwest, at Astoria, Oregon; another group of colonists settles at Cape Disappointment, Washington.
1812: In April, the United States burns Toronto and takes control of the Great Lakes at the Battle of York. At the urging of the president and a small number of "war hawks," but with all Federalists in opposition, the United States declares war ("Mr. Madison's War") on Great Britain (18 June). The first war bonds are issued, and the first interest-bearing Treasury notes are authorized. Louisiana is admitted as the eighteenth state in the Union (the first state created from the lands of the Louisiana Purchase). The Russian-American Company maintains a base at Fort Ross, in northern California.
1813: The American Indian chief Tecumseh is killed, leading to the fall of the Native American federation and the end of Indian support for the British in the war with the United States. Simeon North is awarded a U.S. government contract for twenty thousand pistols, to be made with interchangeable parts. The first ironclad ship is built by John Stevens, in Hoboken, New Jersey.
1814: The British capture Washington, D.C., burning the White House and the Capitol building and forcing President Madison to flee the city. New England Federalists opposed to the War of 1812 assemble at the Hartford Convention and reverse the party's earlier nationalist position by calling for states' rights and a weak central government. The Treaty of Ghent on 24 December ends the stalemated war between the United States and Great Britain, restoring prewar territorial conditions. Emma Hart Willard opens Middlebury Female Seminary in Vermont to offer young women classical and scientific studies at a collegiate level. Ferdinand VII becomes King of Spain.
1815: Unaware that a peace treaty has ended the War of 1812, General Andrew Jackson's troops defeat British forces at the Battle of New Orleans and Jackson becomes a national hero. Stephen Decatur leads a successful expedition to end the Second Barbary War, a conflict between the United States and Algeria that began during the War of 1812 when the dey of Algiers plundered American commerce in the Mediterranean. The United States has a total of thirty miles of railroad track.
1816: The Second Bank of the United States is chartered by Congress and creates a uniform national currency. Indiana (formerly part of the Northwest Territory) is admitted as the nineteenth state in the Union. Congress passes a tariff bill that imposes a high import duty on foreign manufactures in order to give American industries a competitive advantage in the domestic market. The Supreme Court case Martin v. Hunter's Lessee establishes the Court's power to review the constitutionality of state civil court decisions. The American Colonization Society is established with the aim of returning free blacks to Africa. The African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) is organized in Philadelphia. The American Bible Society is established.
1817: James Monroe is inaugurated as the fifth president of the United States. Mississippi is admitted as the twentieth state in the Union. The Rush-Bagot Agreement between the United States and Great Britain sets limits on naval power on the Great Lakes. The First Seminole War begins, with Seminole Indians battling American settlers along the border of Georgia and Spanish Florida. The New York Stock and Exchange Board (renamed the New York Stock Exchange in 1863) is created.
1818: Illinois (formerly part of the Northwest Territory) is admitted as the twenty-first state in the Union. The Convention of 1818 establishes the forty-ninth parallel as the northwest boundary between American and the British territory from Lake of the Woods (on the Minnesota-Ontario border) to the Rocky Mountains. The U.S. flag is adopted, with thirteen red and white alternating stripes and a star for each state.
1819: Alabama is admitted as the twenty-second state in the Union. Spain cedes Florida to the United States as a result of the Adams-Onis Treaty. The Civilization Act formalizes federal policy to assimilate Indians into American society. The Supreme Court case of Dartmouth College v. Woodward establishes constitutional protection for corporations. Financial panic sets off an economic depression that lasts into 1822. The Savannah, sailing from Savannah, Georgia, to Liverpool, England, becomes the first steamship to cross the Atlantic. Jethro Wood patents a cast-iron plow that features replaceable parts at points of greatest wear.
1820: The United States population is 9.6 million; the U.S. Bureau of Census begins recording immigration statistics. The Missouri Compromise admits Maine (formerly a district of Massachusetts) to the Union as a nonslave state (the twenty-third state in the Union), balanced by agreement that Missouri will enter the Union (in 1821) as a state with no restrictions on slavery. The federal Land Act sets the price for public lands at $1.25 per acre and the number of acres for purchase at eighty. Southern farmers produce 334,000 bales of cotton. The first African Americans from the United States to be recolonized in Africa arrive in Liberia. Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" introduces a new literary form, the short story. George IV becomes King of England.
1821: Missouri is admitted as the twenty-fourth state in the Union. Spain sells eastern Florida to the United States for $5 million. The Santa Fe Trail, blazed by William Becknell, opens the Southwest to trade. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church is organized in New York City. The first public high school in the United States is established by vote at a special town meeting in Boston. Mexican independence is proclaimed by the Mexican Assembly.
1822: Denmark Vesey, a free black, and thirty-four other blacks, mostly slaves, are hung in Charleston, South Carolina, for an alleged conspiracy to start a slave rebellion. Stephen Austin founds the first settlement of Americans in Texas ("the Old Three Hundred") with the legal sanction of the Mexican government. The first section of the Erie Canal, stretching from Rochester to Albany, opens in New York State.
1823: President Monroe gives an address (the Monroe Doctrine) warning European powers to stay out of the Western Hemisphere and advising that colonization or interference by European governments in the internal affairs of North and South America would be considered an act of aggression against the United States. Clement Moore's Christmas poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" appears anonymously in a Troy, New York, newspaper and becomes an overnight sensation that launches the American idea of "Santa Claus."
1824: No contender in the presidential election (among candidates Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, William H. Crawford, and Henry Clay) gains a majority of the vote; the election is decided by the House of Representatives. Congress passes the Tariff Act to protect American industry from foreign competition. Thomas L. Kenney is appointed to head the newly created Bureau of Indian Affairs, an administrational entity within the U.S. War Department. The American Sunday School Union is formed. Russia relinquishes claims to territory in the Pacific Northwest.
1825: John Quincy Adams is inaugurated as the sixth president of the United States. Completion of the Erie Canal, 363 miles from the Hudson River to Lake Erie, gives farmers near the Great Lakes access to New York City. The first woman's labor organization is formed by women working in New York City's garment industry. The American Unitarian Association is founded in Boston as an institution separate from the Congregational Church. Stephen F. Austin begins migration of Americans to Texas. Father Ivan Veniaminov builds the first church in the Aleutian Islands.
1826: Founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die on the same day, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Light sentencing for the murderers of a renegade Freemason who had threatened to reveal fraternity rituals creates an anti-Masonic backlash; the first national third party, the Anti-Masonic Party, is formed in Batavia, New York. The American Temperance Society is founded.
1827: The Supreme Court rules in Martin v. Mott that the president has sole authority to call out the militia. John James Audubon publishes the first volume of his five-volume Birds of North America.
1828: Congress passes the Tariff Act, which is called the "Tariff of Abominations" by its southern opponents. Construction of the first passenger railroad in America, from Baltimore to Ohio, begins. Noah Webster publishes his American Dictionary of the English Language.
1829: Andrew Jackson is inaugurated as the seventh president of the United States; an unruly crowd of celebrants mobs the White House at his reception. The postmaster general is elevated to cabinet rank. Congress authorizes construction of the first post office building, in Newport, Rhode Island. America's first true locomotive runs on the Delaware and Hudson Railroad.