-
1492
o Christopher Columbus “Founds” New World
On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta and the Nina. -
1492
Columbian Exchange Begins
The Columbian exchange was the creation of colonies in the Americas that led to the exchange of new types of food, plants, and animals. -
Period: 1492 to
European Exploration Era
European ships were traveled around the world to search for new trading routes and partners to feed burgeoning capitalism in Europe. -
1500
Spanish Casta System Begins
The Spanish Empire adopted a Casta System to classify all of the Americas' various races and racial combinations, as well as where Spaniards were born. -
1500
Spanish Encomienda System Begins
Spain began the encomienda system in the New World at the beginning of the 16th century. The encomienda system granted a Spanish leader a number of Native American laborers. -
1520
Small Pox Begins Spreading to Native Americans
During the 18th century the disease killed an estimated 400,000 Europeans each year, including five reigning monarchs, and was responsible for a third of all blindness. -
1521
Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortez Conquers the Aztec Empire
Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, 1st Marquess of the Valley of Oaxaca was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. -
1534
England Splits from the Catholic Church
Parliament's passage of the Act of Supremacy in 1534 solidified the break from the Catholic Church and made the king the Supreme Head of the Church of England. -
London Company Gains Charter for Set Up English Colony
an English joint-stock company established in 1606 by royal charter by King James I with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America. -
Period: to
The Industrial Revolution
also known as the First Industrial Revolution, was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Europe and the United States -
Adam Smith Publishes "The Wealth of Nations"
Smith published The Theory of Moral Sentiments. His book looked at human nature and ethics. At the beginning of the book, he stated that all people had the capacity to care about others. -
Articles of Confederation
an agreement among the 13 original states of the United States of America that served as its first constitution. It was approved, after much debate, by the Second Continental Congress on November 15, 1777, and sent to the states for ratification. -
Period: to
Abolition Movement (1780- 1860)
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, was the movement to end slavery. ... After the American Revolution established the United States, northern states, beginning with Pennsylvania in 1780, passed legislation during the next two decades abolishing slavery, sometimes by gradual emancipation. -
Shays Rebellion
an armed uprising in Western Massachusetts and Worcester in response to a debt crisis among the citizenry and in opposition to the state government's increased efforts to collect taxes both on individuals and their trades; the fight took place mostly in and around Springfield during 1786 and 1787. -
Federalist Papers
The Federalist Papers is a collection of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the collective pseudonym "Publius" to promote the ratification of the United States Constitution. -
Constitutional Convention/ Philadelphia Convention
The Constitutional Convention took place from May 14 to September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The point of the event was decide how America was going to be governed. Although the Convention had been officially called to revise the existing Articles of Confederation, many delegates had much bigger plans. -
U.S. Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. The Constitution, originally comprising seven articles, delineates the national frame of government. -
The Great Compromise
an agreement that large and small states reached during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that in part defined the legislative structure and representation that each state would have under the United States Constitution. -
The 3/5ths Compromise
Three-fifths compromise, compromise agreement between delegates from the Northern and the Southern states at the United States Constitutional Convention (1787) that three-fifths of the slave population would be counted for determining direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives. -
Washington Creates Presidential Cabinet
Washington held his first full cabinet meeting on November 26, 1791, with Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox, and Attorney General Edmund Randolph. One prominent individual who did not attend cabinet meetings was Vice President John Adams. -
Bill of Rights Added to U.S. Constitution
The first 10 amendments to the Constitution make up the Bill of Rights. James Madison wrote the amendments, which list specific prohibitions on governmental power, in response to calls from several states for greater constitutional protection for individual liberties. -
The French Revolution Begins
A popular insurgency culminated on July 14 when rioters stormed the Bastille fortress in an attempt to secure gunpowder and weapons; many consider this event, now commemorated in France as a national holiday, as the start of the French Revolution. -
Washington Elected 1st President
In 1789, the first presidential election, George Washington was unanimously elected president of the United States. With 69 electoral votes, Washington won the support of each participating elector. No other president since has come into office with a universal mandate to lead. -
Washington D.C. Becomes New US Capital
On July 16, 1790, the young American Congress declares that a swampy, humid, muddy and mosquito-infested site on the Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia will be the nation's permanent capital. -
Period: to
The Second Great Awakening
Protestant religious revival in the United States. During this revival, meetings were held in small towns and large cities throughout the country, and the unique frontier institution known as the camp meeting began. -
Alexander Hamilton Gets Congress To Approve First National Bank
Hamilton believed that Article I Section 8 of the Constitution, permitting the Congress to make laws that are necessary and proper for the government, empowered lawmakers to create a national bank. -
Whiskey Rebellion
The Whiskey Rebellion was a tax protest in the United States beginning in 1791 and ending in 1794 during the presidency of George Washington, ultimately under the command of American Revolutionary war veteran Major James McFarlane. -
Cotton Gin and Interchangeable Parts Invented by Eli Whitney
He invented the cotton gin, a machine used to separate cotton seeds from cotton fiber. In 1798, Whitney's armory pioneered the use of interchangeable parts, which are nearly identical parts that can be easily mass produced and replaced. The armory was called the Eli Whitney Armory or the Whitneyville Armory. -
Washington's Farewell Address
In his farewell Presidential address, George Washington advised American citizens to view themselves as a cohesive unit and avoid political parties and issued a special warning to be wary of attachments and entanglements with other nations. -
John Adams (Federalist) Elected 2nd President
John Adams, a remarkable political philosopher, served as the second President of the United States (1797-1801), after serving as the first Vice President under President George Washington. -
XYZ Affair
The XYZ Affair was a diplomatic incident between French and United States diplomats that resulted in a limited, undeclared war known as the Quasi-War. U.S. and French negotiators restored peace with the Convention of 1800, also known as the Treaty of Mortefontaine. -
First Two-Party System Created (Dem-Rep vs Federalist)
The First Party System is a model of American politics used in history and political science to periodize the political party system that existed in the United States between roughly 1792 and 1824. It featured two national parties competing for control of the presidency, Congress, and the states. -
Alien and Sedition Acts
The Alien and Sedition Acts were a series of four laws passed by the U.S. Congress in 1798 amid widespread fear that war with France was imminent. The four laws–which remain controversial to this day–restricted the activities of foreign residents in the country and limited freedom of speech and of the press. -
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions
The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions were political statements drafted in 1798 and 1799 in which the Kentucky and Virginia legislatures took the position that the federal Alien and Sedition Acts were unconstitutional. -
Election of 1800 and the Start of the Jeffersonian Era
The ELECTION OF 1800 between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson was an emotional and hard-fought campaign. Each side believed that victory by the other would ruin the nation. -
The Market Revolution Begins
The Market Revolution, which occurred in 19th century United States, is a historical model which argues that there was a drastic change of the economy that disoriented and coordinated all aspects of the market economy in line with both nations and the world. -
Cult of Domesticity Begins
The period of 1820 to 1860 saw the rise in America of an ideology of feminine behavior and an ideal of womanliness that has come to be known as the “Cult of True Womanhood” or “Cult of Domesticity.” The features of this code, which provided social regulations for middle-class families with newly acquired wealth -
Period: to
Manifest Destiny
Manifest destiny was a widely held cultural belief in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America. -
Thomas Jefferson (Democratic Republican) Elected 3rd President
Vice President Thomas Jefferson of the Democratic-Republican Party defeated incumbent President John Adams of the Federalist Party. -
Steam Locomotive Invented in Great Britain
Steam locomotives were first developed in the United Kingdom during the early 19th century and used for railway transport until the middle of the 20th century. Richard Trevithick built the first steam locomotive in 1802. -
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from France in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or approximately eighteen dollars per square mile, the United States nominally acquired a total of 828,000 sq mi. -
Marbury vs Madison
Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, was a landmark 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 they find to violate the Constitution of the United States. -
James Madison (Democratic-Republican) Elected 4th President
The presidency of James Madison began on March 4, 1809, when James Madison was inaugurated as President of the United States, and ended on March 4, 1817. Madison, the fourth United States president, took office after defeating Federalist Charles Cotesworth Pinckney decisively in the 1808 presidential election. -
British Impressment of US Sailors
Impressment, or “press gang” as it was more commonly known, was recruitment by force. It was a practice that directly affected the U.S. and was even one of the causes of the War of 1812. The British navy consistently suffered manpower shortages due to the low pay and a lack of qualified seamen. -
War Hawks in Congress Support War Against British
The War Hawks were members of Congress who put pressure on President James Madison to declare war against Britain in 1812. The War Hawks tended to be younger congressmen from Southern and Western states. Their desire for war was prompted by expansionist tendencies. -
War of 1812 Begins
The War of 1812 was a conflict fought between the United States and its allies, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and its allies. -
Francis Scott Key Writes the Star Spangled Banner
On September 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key pens a poem which is later set to music and in 1931 becomes America's national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” -
Treaty of Ghent
The Treaty of Ghent was the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. It took effect in February 1815. Both sides signed it on December 24, 1814, in the city of Ghent, United Netherlands. -
Federalist Party Collapses
The Federalist Party was the first political party in the United States. It became a minority party while keeping its stronghold in New England and made a brief resurgence by opposing the War of 1812. It then collapsed with its last presidential candidate in 1816. -
Period: to
Era of Good Feelings
Era of Good Feelings, also called Era of Good Feeling, national mood of the United States from 1815 to 1825, as first described by the Boston Columbian Centinel on July 12, 1817. ... The “era” proved to be a temporary lull in personal and political leadership clashes while new issues were emerging. -
Tariff of 1816
The Tariff of 1816, also known as the Dallas Tariff, is notable as the first tariff passed by Congress with an explicit function of protecting U.S. manufactured items from overseas competition. Prior to the War of 1812, tariffs had primarily served to raise revenues to operate the national government. -
James Monroe (Democratic Republican) Elected 5th President
James Monroe was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. As a delegate to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, Monroe opposed the ratification of the United States Constitution. -
Adam- Onis Treaty/ Spain Ceded Florida to U.S.
The Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, also known as the Transcontinental Treaty, the Florida Purchase Treaty, or the Florida Treaty, was a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to the U.S. and defined the boundary between the U.S. and New Spain. -
Universal Male Suffrage Begins to Rise
Universal manhood suffrage is a form of voting rights in which all adult male citizens within a political system are allowed to vote, regardless of income, property, religion, race, or any other qualification. It is sometimes summarized by the slogan, "one man, one vote". -
Compromise of 1820
In an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, the Missouri Compromise was passed in 1820 admitting Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state. ... In 1854, the Missouri Compromise was repealed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. -
Monroe Doctrine
The Monroe Doctrine was a United States policy that opposed European colonialism in the Americas. It began in 1823; however, the term "Monroe Doctrine" itself was not coined until 1850. -
Henry Clays "American System"
This "System" consisted of three mutually reinforcing parts: a tariff to protect and promote American industry; a national bank to foster commerce; and federal subsidies for roads, canals, and other "internal improvements" to develop profitable markets for agriculture. -
John Quincy Adams (Democratic Republican) Elected 6th President
John Quincy Adams was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, and diarist who served as the sixth president of the United States, from 1825 to 1829. In 1809, Adams was appointed as the U.S. ambassador to Russia by President James Madison, a member of the Democratic-Republican Party. -
Erie Canal Built
The Erie Canal opened on October 26, 1825. A fleet of boats, led by Governor Dewitt Clinton aboard the Seneca Chief sailed from Buffalo to New York City in record time—just ten days. -
Lowell, Massachusetts Textile Mill Employs Women
Incorporated as the Town of Lowell in 1826, by 1840, the textile mills employed almost 8,000 workers — mostly women between the ages of 15 and 35. The "City of Spindles", as Lowell came to be known, quickly became the center of the Industrial Revolution in America. -
Andrew Jackson (Democrat) Elected 7th President
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837, seeking to act as the direct representative of the common man. -
Second Two-Party System Created (Democrats vs Whigs)
The Second Party System, consisting largely of the Democrats and Whigs, contributed to rising levels of voter investment and partisanship. -
Indian Removal Act
The Indian Removal Act was signed into law on May 28, 1830, by United States President Andrew Jackson. 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 white settlement of their ancestral lands. -
Abolition Movement Begins
The abolitionist movement began as a more organized, radical and immediate effort to end slavery than earlier campaigns. It officially emerged around 1830. Historians believe ideas set forth during the religious movement known as the Second Great Awakening inspired abolitionists to rise up against slavery. -
Congress Passes Preemption Acts
passed by the U.S. Congress in response to the demands of the Western states that squatters be allowed to preempt lands. Pioneers often settled on public lands before they could be surveyed and auctioned by the U.S. government. -
Trail of Tears Begins
As early as 1831, the army began to push the Choctaws off their lands to march to Oklahoma. In 1835, some Cherokee leaders agreed to accept western land and payment in exchange for relocation. About 20,000 Cherokees were marched westward at gunpoint on the infamous Trail of Tears. -
William Lloyd Garrison Publishes Abolitionist Newspaper “The Liberator”
The Liberator was a weekly abolitionist newspaper, printed and published in Boston by William Lloyd Garrison and, through 1839, by Isaac Knapp. Religious rather than political, it appealed to the moral conscience of its readers, urging them to demand immediate freeing of the slaves, -
Andrew Jackson Vetos National Bank
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
he nullification crisis was a conflict between the U.S. state of South Carolina and the federal government of the United States in 1832–33.Calhoun, who opposed the federal imposition of the tariffs of 1828 and 1832 and argued that the U.S. Constitution gave states the right to block the enforcement of a federal law. -
Texas Revolution and Independence from Mexico
The Texas Revolution was a rebellion of colonists from the United States and Tejanos in putting up armed resistance to the centralist government of Mexico. -
Increased Irish and German Immigration to the North
over seven and a half million immigrants came to the United States. Nearly all of them came from northern and western Europe about a third from Ireland and almost a third from Germany. -
Horace Mann Advocates for Public Schools
Horace Mann, the End of Free-Market Education, and the Rise of Government Schools. -
Support Given to Samuel Morse to Construct Telegraph Lines
Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After having established his reputation as a portrait painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system. -
Dorothea Dix Advocates for Mentally Ill and Prison Reform
Dorothea Dix played an instrumental role in the founding or expansion of more than 30 hospitals for the treatment of the mentally ill. She was a leading figure in those national and international movements that challenged the idea that people with mental disturbances could not be cured or helped. -
James K. Polk Elected US President (Democrat)
United States presidential election of 1844, American presidential election held in 1844 in which Democratic candidate James K. Polk defeated Whig candidate Henry Clay with 170 electoral votes to Clay’s 105. -
Irish Potato Famine Begins
The Famine began quite mysteriously in September 1845 as leaves on potato plants suddenly turned black and curled, then rotted, seemingly the result of a fog that had wafted across the fields of Ireland. Under ideal moist conditions, a single infected potato plant could infect thousands more in just a few days. -
Frederick Douglass writes autobiography “Narrative of the Life of an American Slave”
Following the Civil War, Douglass remained an active campaigner against slavery and wrote his last autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. First published in 1881 and revised in 1892, three years before his death, the book covers events both during and after the Civil War. -
Texas Annexation by the United States
During his tenure, U.S. President James K. ... With the support of President-elect Polk, Tyler managed to get the joint resolution passed on March 1, 1845, and Texas was admitted into the United States on December 29. -
Frederick Douglass Publishes Autobiography “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” (1845)
To spread his story and assist the abolitionist cause, as well as to counter early charges that someone so eloquent as he could not have been a slave, Douglass wrote and published his first autobiography, the Narrative. -
Mexican American War Begins
the United States and Mexico that set in motion the Civil War—and led to California, Texas, and eight other states joining the Union. On May 13, 1846, the United States Congress declared war on Mexico after a request from President James K. Polk. -
Wilmot Proviso
The Wilmot Proviso was an unsuccessful 1846 proposal in the United States Congress to ban slavery in territory acquired from Mexico in the Mexican–American War. The conflict over the Wilmot Proviso was one of the major events leading to the American Civil War. -
Oregon Territory Divided Between British and U.S.
Originally claimed by several countries (see Oregon Country), the region was divided between the UK and the US in 1846. When established, the territory encompassed an area that included the current states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, as well as parts of Wyoming and Montana. -
Seneca Falls Convention
The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women's rights convention in the United States. Held in July 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York, the meeting launched the women's suffrage movement, which more than seven decades later ensured women the right to vote. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Mexican American War Ends
This treaty, signed on February 2, 1848, ended the war between the United States and Mexico. ... By its terms, Mexico ceded 55 percent of its territory, including parts of present-day Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah, to the United States. -
Mexican Cession
This treaty, signed on February 2, 1848, ended the war between the United States and Mexico. By its terms, Mexico ceded 55 percent of its territory, including parts of present-day Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, and Utah, to the United States. -
Free Soil Movement Begins
The Free Soil Party was a short-lived coalition political party in the United States active from 1848 to 1854, when it merged into the Republican Party. The party was largely focused on the single issue of opposing the expansion of slavery into the western territories of the United States. -
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, 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. -
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. ... As part of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade in Washington, D.C., was abolished. -
Harriet Tubman Begins Using Underground Railroad
Harriet, Ben and Henry escaped their Maryland plantation. ... She soon returned to the south to lead her niece and her niece's children to Philadelphia via the Underground Railroad. -
Fugitive Slave Law Passed in Compromise of 1850
The Act was one of the most controversial elements of the 1850 compromise and heightened Northern fears of a "slave power conspiracy." It required that all escaped slaves, upon capture, be returned to their masters and that officials and citizens of free states had to cooperate. -
Harriet Beecher Stowe Publishes “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the U.S. and is said to have "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War". -
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 acquired from Mexico by the Treaty of Mesilla. -
Kansas-Nebraska Act
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was an 1854 bill that mandated “popular sovereignty”–allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state's borders. ... Kansas was admitted as a free state in January 1861 only weeks after eight Southern states seceded from the union. -
Bleeding Kansas Begins
Bleeding Kansas is the term used to describe the period of violence during the settling of the Kansas territory. ... The opening of the Kansas and Nebraska territories in 1854 under the principle of popular sovereignty provoked a protracted political crisis in both Kansas and the nation at large. -
Republican Party Created
The Republican Party emerged in 1854 to combat the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the expansion of slavery into American territories. The early Republican Party consisted of northern Protestants, factory workers, professionals, businessmen, prosperous farmers, and after 1866, former black slaves. -
Caning of Senator Sumner
The Caning of Charles Sumner, or the Brooks–Sumner Affair, occurred on May 22, 1856, in the United States Senate, when Representative Preston Brooks, a pro-slavery Democrat from South Carolina, used a walking cane to attack Senator Charles Sumner, an abolitionist Republican from Massachusetts -
Dred Scott v. Sandford
was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court in which the Court held that the US Constitution was not meant to include American citizenship for black people, regardless of whether they were enslaved or free, and so the rights and privileges that the Constitution confers upon American citizens could not apply to them. -
Republican Abraham Lincoln Wins Presidential Election of 1860
The Republican Party was relatively new; 1860 was only the second time the party had a candidate in the presidential race. The Constitutional Union Party was also new; 1860 was the first and only time the party ran a candidate for president. The results of the 1860 election pushed the nation into war. -
Seven Southern States Secede from the Union, Forming the Confederate States of America
On February 4 of that year, representatives from South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana met in Montgomery, Alabama, with representatives from Texas arriving later, to form the Confederate States of America. -
Democrat Jefferson Davis Elected President of the Confederacy
Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America. He ran without opposition, and the election simply confirmed the decision that had been made by the Confederate Congress earlier in the year. -
Battle of Fort Sumter (1861)
Confederate forces occupied Fort Sumter and used it to marshal a defense of Charleston Harbor. Once it was completed and better armed, Fort Sumter allowed the Confederates to create a valuable hole in the Union blockade of the Atlantic seaboard. -
Lincoln Suspends Habeas Corpus
Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus between Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia to give military authorities the necessary power to silence dissenters and rebels. Under this order, commanders could arrest and detain individuals who were deemed threatening to military operations. -
Period: to
The Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States from 1861 to 1865, fought between northern states loyal to the Union and southern states that had seceded to form the Confederate States of America. -
Emancipation Proclamation
President Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in the midst of the Civil War, announcing on September 22, 1862, that if the rebels did not end the fighting and rejoin the Union by January 1, 1863, all slaves in the rebellious states would be free. -
Homestead Act (1862)
President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act on May 20, 1862. On January 1, 1863, Daniel Freeman made the first claim under the Act, which gave citizens or future citizens up to 160 acres of public land provided they live on it, improve it, and pay a small registration fee. -
o Battle of Vicksburg
The Siege of Vicksburg (May 18 – July 4, 1863) was the final major military action in the Vicksburg campaign of the American Civil War. In a series of maneuvers, Union Maj. ... Pemberton, into the defensive lines surrounding the fortress city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. -
o Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg, fought from July 1 to July 3, 1863, is considered the most important engagement of the American Civil War. After a great victory over Union forces at Chancellorsville, General Robert E. Lee marched his Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania in late June 1863. -
Gettysburg Address
On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered remarks, which later became known as the Gettysburg Address, at the official dedication ceremony for the National Cemetery of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, on the site of one of the bloodiest and most decisive battles of the Civil War. -
o Black Codes First Passed in the South (1865)
The Southern “Black Codes” of 1865-66 The end of the Civil War marked the end of slavery for 4 million black Southerners. But the war also left them landless -
o Scalawags and Carpetbaggers”
"Carpetbagger" and "scalawag" were derogatory terms used to deride white Republicans from the North or southern-born radicals during Reconstruction. ... Carpetbagger referred to Republicans who had recently migrated from the North; scalawag referred to southern-born radicals. -
Gen. Lee Surrenders to Gen. Grant at Appomattox Court House
The Battle of Appomattox Court House was fought on April 9, 1865, near the town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia, and led to Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender of his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. -
President Abraham Lincoln Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth
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, -
President Andrew Johnson Becomes President
The presidency of Andrew Johnson began on April 15, 1865, when Andrew Johnson became President of the United States upon the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, and ended on March 4, 1869. He had been Vice President of the United States for only 42 days when he succeeded to the presidency. -
Radical Republicans Champion for Black Civil Rights in Congress
The Radical Republicans also overrode the Reconstruction Acts and Force Acts, which rewrote the election laws for the South and allowed blacks to vote. List the effects of the Civil War on the South. Slavery is ended in the U.S., While slavery ended, sharecropping became very popular. -
13th Amendment (1865)
The Thirteenth Amendment—passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864; by the House on January 31, 1865; and ratified by the states on December 6, 1865—abolished slavery “within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Congress required former Confederate states to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment -
Freedmens Bureau Created
The Freedmen's Bureau, formally known as the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, was established in 1865 by Congress to help millions of former black slaves and poor whites in the South in the aftermath of the Civil War. -
o Ku Klux Klan Formed
Founded in 1865, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) extended into almost every southern state by 1870 and became a vehicle for white southerners -
Johnson Pardons the South
Pardons for ex-Confederates were given by US Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson and was usually extended for those who had served in the military above the rank of colonel or civilians who had exercised political power under the Confederate government. The power to pardon offences to the US government was given to the chief executive in the US Constitution under Article II. -
Sharecropping Begins in the South
By the early 1870s, the system known as sharecropping had come to dominate agriculture across the cotton-planting South. Under this system, black families would rent small plots of land, or shares, to work themselves; in return, they would give a portion of their crop to the landowner at the end of the year. -
Period: to
Reconstruction Era
The Reconstruction era was the period after the American Civil War from 1865 to 1877, during which the United States grappled with the challenges of reintegrating into the Union the states that had seceded and determining the legal status of African Americans. -
14th Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment, amendment (1868) to the Constitution of the United States that granted citizenship and equal civil and legal rights to African Americans and slaves who had been emancipated after the American Civil War, including them under the umbrella phrase “all persons born or naturalized in the United States. -
Transcontinental Railroad Completed
On May 10, 1869, the presidents of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads meet in Promontory, Utah, and drive a ceremonial last spike into a rail line that connects their railroads. -
Industrialization Begins to Boom
The U.S. industrial revolution primarily began through textile mills in New England. The three early mills were the Beverly Cotton Manufactory (1787), the Slater Mill (1790), and the Waltham Mill (1813). Corporations became the dominant manufacturing business model by the mid-1840s. -
15th Amendment
The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." It was ratified on February 3, 1870, as the third and last of the Reconstruction Amendments. -
Nativism Spreads
Nativism is the political policy of promoting the interests of native inhabitants against those of ... Immigration restrictionist sentiment is typically justified with one or more of the following arguments against immigrants: ... The Ku Klux Klan spread in the mid-1920s from the U.S. to parts of Canada, especially Saskatchewan -
Standard Oil Company Founded by John D. Rockefeller
In 1870, Rockefeller formed the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, along with his younger brother William (1841-1922), Henry Flagler (1830-1913) and a group of other men. John Rockefeller was its president and largest shareholder. -
Hiram Rhode Revels Becomes First African American in Congress (Senate) (1870)
Born free in North Carolina, he later lived and worked in Ohio, where he voted before the Civil War. He became the first African American to serve in the U.S. Congress when he was appointed to the United States Senate as a Republican to represent Mississippi in 1870 and 1871 during the Reconstruction era. -
Social Darwinism Theory Gains Popularity
Social Darwinism refers to various theories that emerged in Western Europe and North America in the 1870s that applied biological concepts of natural selection and ... Social evolution theories in Germany gained large popularity in the 1860s and had a strong antiestablishment -
The “New South” wants Industrialization
Many southern leaders believed that their reliance on one crop had made ... Grady shared an optimistic view of the New South's potential—a strong core, ... of following the North's example and turning toward industrialization. ... Lumber camps grew exponentially in the south after 1870, and tree cutting rose to new heights. -
Jim Crow Laws Begin in South
Jim Crow law, any of the laws that enforced racial segregation in the U.S. South from the end of Reconstruction to the mid-20th century. -
Boss Tweed rise at Tammany Hall
William Magear Tweed (April 3, 1823 – April 12, 1878), often erroneously referred to as "William Marcy Tweed" (see below), and widely known as "Boss" Tweed, was an American politician most notable for being the "boss" of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party political machine that ... Tweed then took steps to increase his income -
Telephone Invented by Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell's sketch of a telephone. He filed the patent for his telephone at the U.S. Patent Office on February 14, 1876—just two hours before a rival, Elisha Gray, filed a declaration of intent to file a patent for a similar device. -
Reconstruction Ends
The Compromise of 1877 was an agreement that resolved the disputed 1876 ... included seven Democrats, seven Republicans and one independent, Justice David Davis. ... Compromise of 1877: The End of Reconstruction. -
Period: to
Gilded Age
Its beginning, in the years after the American Civil War, overlaps the Reconstruction Era (which ended in 1877). It was followed in the 1890s by the Progressive Era -
Light Bulb Invented by Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison's serious incandescent light bulb research began in 1878, filing his first patent later that year…”Improvement In Electric Lights” in October 1878. His experiments involved the fabrication and testing of many different metal filaments, including platinum. -
3rd Wave of Immigration: “New Immigrants”
That period was followed by the third wave, which lasted about forty years ... entered North America in more than one location or they migrated widely after arriving. ... During the 1880's, American states seeking to increase their populations and ... of the previous wave, many of the new immigrants from southern and eastern ... -
Chinese Exclusion Act
SEC. 12. That no Chinese person shall be permitted to enter the United States by land without producing to the proper officer of customs the certificate in this act required of Chinese persons seeking to land from a vessel. -
Pendleton Act
The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act is a United States federal law passed by the 47th United States Congress and signed into law by President Chester A. ... The act mandates that most positions within the federal government should be awarded on the basis of merit instead of political patronage. -
Haymarket Massacre
The Haymarket massacre was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago. It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour work day, the day after police killed one and injured several workers. -
Interstate Commerce Act
The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 is a United States federal law that was designed to regulate the railroad industry, particularly its monopolistic practices. The Act required that railroad rates be "reasonable and just," but did not empower the government to fix specific rates. -
Dawes Act
The Dawes Act of 1887 authorized the federal government to break up tribal lands by partitioning them into individual plots. ... As a result of the Dawes Act, over ninety million acres of tribal land were stripped from Native Americans and sold to non-natives. -
Dawes Act
The Dawes Act of 1887 authorized the federal government to break up tribal lands by partitioning them into individual plots. ... As a result of the Dawes Act, over ninety million acres of tribal land were stripped from Native Americans and sold to non-natives. -
Andrew Carnegie’s Book “Gospel of Wealth”
"Wealth", more commonly known as "The Gospel of Wealth", is an article written by Andrew Carnegie in June of 1889 that describes the responsibility of philanthropy by the new upper class of self-made rich. The article was published in the North American Review, an opinion magazine for America's establishment. -
Sherman Anti-Trust Act
Approved July 2, 1890, The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was the first Federal act that outlawed monopolistic business practices. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was the first measure passed by the U.S. Congress to prohibit trusts. -
Carnegie Steel Company Founded by Andrew Carnegie
State militia entering Homestead, Pa., to put down the strike of July 1892. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. In the 1880s and 1890s, Andrew Carnegie had built the Carnegie Steel Company into one of the largest and most-profitable steel companies in the United States. -
Homestead Steel Labor Strike
The Homestead strike, also known as the Homestead steel strike or Homestead massacre, was an industrial lockout and strike which began on July 1, 1892, culminating in a battle between strikers and private security agents on July 6, 1892. The battle was a pivotal event in U.S. labor history. -
Pullman Labor Strike
Pullman Strike, in U.S. history, railroad strike and boycott that severely disrupted ... then voted to strike, and Pullman workers walked off the job on May 11, 1894. ... One plan was to refuse to hitch Pullman cars to trains and to unhitch -
Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court Case
Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities as long as the segregated facilities were equal in quality, a doctrine that came to be known as "separate but equal".
