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The Birth of Nat Turner
Nathaniel “Nat” Turner was born in Southampton County, Virginia on October 2, 1800, the son of slaves owned by Benjamin Turner, a prosperous farmer. Taught to read by the son of his owner, Turner studied Christianity which he interpreted as condemning slavery. Turner also began to believe that God had chosen him to free his people from slavery. He soon became known among fellow slaves as “The Prophet.” -
Thomas Jefferson becomes 3rd President of the United States
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Marbury v. Madison Case
Landmark Supreme Court decision greatly expands the power of the Court by establishing its right to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional. -
The Louisiana Purchase Treaty
The United States bought the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803. After the U.S. gained independence, many Americans believed that the country should expand. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory for $15 million. This land doubled the size of the United States. American Indians and European settlers lived on this land. After the United States bought the Louisiana Territory, many more settlers moved west. -
Lewis and Clark meets Sacagawea
On November 11, Clark makes a hasty scribble in his journal about the arrival of "two Squars of the Rock Mountain, purchased from the Indians by...a frenchmen."Sacagawea, the daughter of a Shoshone chief, was captured by an enemy tribe and sold to a French Canadian trapper who made her his wife around age 12. In November 1804, she was invited to join the Lewis and Clark expedition as a Shoshone interpreter. -
Birth of Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith Jr. was born 23 December 1805 in Sharon, Vermont, to Joseph and Lucy Mack Smith. Born into a poor farming family, he was the fifth child of 11, nine of whom survived childhood. Because his family could not afford the luxury of public education, Joseph received only three years of formal schooling. -
Noah Webster publishes the first dictionary
Webster published A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, the first truly American dictionary. -
James Madison becomes 4th President of the U.S.
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Abraham Lincoln is born
Abraham Lincoln, a self-taught lawyer, legislator and vocal opponent of slavery, was elected 16th president of the United States in November 1860, shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War. -
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions is formed
Presbyterian and Congregationalist leaders established the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to evangelize in India, Africa, East Asia, and the Pacific. -
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The War of 1812
Conflict fought between the United States and Great Britain over British violations of U.S. maritime rights. It ended with the exchange of ratifications of the Treaty of Ghent. -
Francis Scott Key writes the Star Spangled Banner
The sight of those “broad stripes and bright stars” inspired Francis Scott Key to write a song that eventually became the United States national anthem. Key’s words gave new significance to a national symbol and started a tradition through which generations of Americans have invested the flag with their own meanings and memories. -
The Treaty of Ghent is signed
The treaty is the agreement in Belgium between Great Britain and the United States to end the War of 1812 on the general basis of the status quo antebellum (maintaining the prewar conditions). -
James Monroe becomes 5th U.S. President
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John Quincy Adams becomes 6th U.S. President
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Frederick Douglass is born
Abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass was born into slavery sometime around 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland. He became one of the most famous intellectuals of his time, advising presidents and lecturing to thousands on a range of causes, including women’s rights and Irish home rule. -
James Monroe signs The Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine address to Congress. He made four basic statements: 1) The United States would not get involved in European affairs. 2) The United States would not interfere with existing European colonies in the Western Hemisphere. 3) No other nation could form a new colony in the Western Hemisphere. 4) If a European nation tried to control or interfere with a nation in the Western Hemisphere, the United States would view it as a hostile act against this nation. -
Andrew Jackson becomes 7th U.S. President
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Smith publishes the Book of Mormon
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Joseph Smith organizes The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Joseph Smith was the founder and first president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He and five associates formally organized the Church at Fayette, New York, on 6 April 1830. He presided over the Church until 27 June 1844, when he was martyred. Under his leadership, Church membership grew from six to over 26,000. -
President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, authorizing the president to grant lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders. A few tribes went peacefully, but many resisted the relocation policy. -
Cherokee Nation v. Georgia
Declared Indian peoples: “domestic dependent nations” -
William Garrison establishes The Liberator
Garrison established a newspaper called The Liberator, through which he organized and spearheaded an unprecedented interracial crusade dedicated to promoting immediate emancipation and Black citizenship. In 1833, Garrison presided as reformers from ten states came together to create the American Anti-Slavery Society. -
Nat Turner's Rebellion
On the morning of August 22, 1831, in Southampton County, Virginia, Nat Turner and six collaborators attempted to free the region’s enslaved population. Turner initiated the violence by killing his enslaver with an ax blow to the head. By the end of the day, Turner and his band, which had grown to over fifty men, killed fifty-seven white men, women, and children on eleven farms. -
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Black Hawk War
The brief conflict that was fought in 1832 was given the name the Black Hawk War and was between the United States and Native Americans. It was led on the Native American side by the Sauk leader Black Hawk. The trigger point for the war was when Black Hawk and warriors from the Kickapoos, Meskwakis and Sauks crossed the Mississippi River into the territory of Illinois. -
Theodore Weld publishes The Bible Against Slavery
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Martin Van Buren becomes 8th U.S. President
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The Liberty Party is formed
Political abolitionists formed the Liberty Party under the leadership of James G. Birney. This new abolitionist society was predicated on the belief that the U.S. Constitution was actually an antislavery document that could be used to abolish the stain of slavery through the national political system. -
William Henry Harrison becomes 9th U.S. President
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John Tyler become 10th U.S. President
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John O'Sullivan coins the phrase Manifest Destiny
John Louis O’Sullivan, a popular editor and columnist, articulated the long-standing American belief in the God-given mission of the United States to lead the world in the peaceful transition to democracy. Manifest destiny was grounded in the belief that a democratic, agrarian republic would save the world. -
James K. Polk becomes 11th U.S. President
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U.S.- Mexican War
The Mexican-American War was a conflict between the United States and Mexico, fought from April 1846 to February 1848. ... It stemmed from the annexation of the Republic of Texas by the U.S. in 1845 and from a dispute over whether Texas ended at the Nueces River (the Mexican claim) or the Rio Grande (the U.S. claim) -
The First Women's Rights Convention
In the first women’s rights convention organized by women, the Seneca Falls Convention is held in New York, with 300 attendees, including organizers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. Sixty-eight women and 32 men (including Frederick Douglass) sign the Declaration of Sentiments, which sparked decades of activism, eventually leading to the passage of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote. -
Zachary Taylor becomes 12th U.S. President
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Henry Clay passes The Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 consists of five laws passed in September of 1850 that dealt with the issue of slavery and territorial expansion. Senator Henry Clay introduced a series of resolutions on January 29, 1850, in an attempt to seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North and South. As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished. -
Millard Filmore becomes 13th U.S. President
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Franklin Pierce becomes 14th U.S. President
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James Buchanan becomes 15th U.S. President
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Abraham Lincoln becomes 16th U.S. President
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The American Civil War
Southern states disagreed with the North over slavery and other issues. They did not want to be part of the United States. They formed their own country called the Confederate States of America, or the Confederacy. States in the North wanted to keep the United States together. They were the Union. The North won the war. The Confederacy became part of the United States again. The final battle of the Civil War takes place at Palmito Ranch, Texas. It is a Confederate victory. -
Lincoln Issues the Emancipation Proclamation
President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation declaring “all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” Nonetheless, the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation. -
Andrew Johnson becomes 17th U.S. President
He assumed the presidency as he was vice president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln -
Congress passes the 13th Amendment
On February 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress submitting the proposed amendment to the state legislatures. The necessary number of states ratified it by December 6, 1865. The 13th amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." -
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Reconstruction Era
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Abraham Lincoln is assassinated
On the evening of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. The attack came only five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, effectively ending the American Civil War. Lincoln was pronounced dead at 7:22 a.m. on April 15, 1865, at the age of 56. -
Ulysses S. Grant becomes 18th U.S. President
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The Battle of Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, fought on June 25, 1876, near the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory, pitted federal troops led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer (1839-76) against a band of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors.