In Her Times

1797-1800

1797 end of George Washington's second term as president

1800 seat of federal government moves to Washington, DC

• Library of Congress established

• first recorded camp meeting at a religious revival

1801-1810

1802 military academy founded at West Point, New York

1803 Louisiana Purchase

1803 - 1806 Lewis and Clark expedition

1807 Aaron Burr charged with treason

1808 Congress halts the slave traffic, but does not outlaw slavery

1807 first school for blacks established in Washington, DC

• Robert Fulton's steamboat, Clermont, steams between New York and Albany

1811-1820

1812-1814 War of 1812

1816 African Methodist Episcopal Church established

1818 Boston establishes public elementary schools

1820 Missouri Compromise, settling extension of slavery into
states created from Louisiana Purchase

• only 6% of Americans live in cities --over half of city dwellers live in New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston

1821-1830

1821 Saturday Evening Post, first periodical designed for a mass audience, published

1823 Monroe Doctrine, American policy on colonization, declared

1825 Erie Canal opens, making westward migration easier

1827 John James Audubon begins publishes Birds of America

1830 Indian Removal Act begins resettlement of southeastern Indians into Indian Territory

• Godey's Lady Book, first periodical for women, features light fiction, poetry, essays and current fashion

• Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. at Fayette, New York

1831-1840

1831 Samuel Guthrie discovers chloroform

• William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing the abolitionist paper, The Liberator

• Nat Turner's slave rebellion in Virginia is unsuccessful, but terrifies slave owners

1832 New York's first horse-drawn streetcar put in service

1833 Oberlin College, Ohio, opens first coeducational college -- after 1835, also admits blacks

• American Anti-Slavery Society founded in New York

1834 Cyrus McCormick patents reaper

1836 "Remember the Alamo" becomes popular slogan after Texas declares independence

• first McGuffey's Readers published

• Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes Nature and Transcendental Club meets for first time in Boston

1839 Charles Goodyear discovers vulcanized rubber

• slaves aboard the ship L'Amistad mutiny

1841-50

1841 Horace Greeley begins publishing the New York Tribune

1842 New York Philharmonic Orchestra founded

1843 Edgar Allan Poe writes Murders in the Rue Morgue, creating modern
detective story genre

• Virginia Minstrels give first public performance of a minstrel show

1844 Samuel Morse sends first long-distance telegraph message, "What Hath God Wrought!," from Washington, DC to Baltimore, Maryland

1845-1848 Mexican War

1845 Naval Academy founded at Annapolis, Maryland

• New York City has a permanent professional police force

1846 Congress establishes the Smithsonian Institution

1847 Mormons migrate to Salt Lake City under leadership of Brigham Young

1848 first Women's Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, New York

• first chewing gum manufactured in Bangor, Maine

• spiritualism begins when Fox sisters hear mysterious "rappings" in Hydesville, New York

1849 Elizabeth Blackwell (shown at right) is first American woman to receive a medical degree, from Geneva Medical College, Syracuse, New York

• California gold rush

1850 Escaped slave, Harriet Tubman, (shown below) returns south to lead her family to freedom -- she rescues more than 300 from slavery before the Civil War begins

1851-1860

1851 Western Union founded

• New York Times publishes first issue

• Herman Melville writes Moby Dick

1852 serialized version of Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (shown at right) first appears

1852 Elisha Otis invents safety elevator -- first passenger elevator installed in a building in 1857 in New York City

1853-1854 Matthew Perry opens Japan to western trade

1854 Republican party founded

1857 Dred Scott decision by Supreme Court, declaring that slaves are property and have no legal standing

1858 Central Park opens in New York City

• Mount Vernon Ladies Association buys Washington's home to save it from neglect

• Lincoln and Douglas debate during Illinois senatorial campaign

1859 John Brown seizes Harper's Ferry, Virginia, arsenal, trying to incite a slave rebellion

• Charles Darwin publishes Origins of the Species

1860 South Carolina secedes from the Union

• 20% of the nation's population lives in cities -- New York City is the largest

• pony express begins overland service from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California

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