Early American History: Key Events and Figures

Key Events in Early American History (1784-1865)

Late 18th Century

• State of Franklin (John Sevier) - 1784-1790
• Shay's Rebellion - 1786-1787
• Federalists (Favor ratifying Constitution, strong central government)
• North Carolina Ratification Conventions (1 & 2) - 1788/1789
• Federalist/Democratic (Alexander Hamilton) - 1788 (Federalist Papers)
• Republicans (Thomas Jefferson) - 1790 (American political party)

Early 19th Century

• Dismal Swamp Canal - 1805 (Important route of commerce)
• Whiskey Rebellion - 1791 (Tax protest in US)
• Treaty of Greenville (Fallen Timbers) - 1814 (Treaty of Paris/Friendship US/Natives)
• Jay Treaty - 1794-1795 (Settle issues between US and Great Britain)
• Revolution of 1800 (Adams vs. Jefferson)
• Embargo Act - 1807
• War of 1812 (US and Great Britain naval conflict)
• Lowell Mills (Girls) - 1760-1840 (Textile corporations)
• Corrupt Bargain - 1824 (John Quincy Adams)
• American Anti-Slavery Society - 1833-1870 (Abolitionist society)
• American Colonization Society - 1816-1865 (Assist blacks to Africa)
• William Lloyd Garrison (The Liberator) - 1831 (Voice of abolitionists)
• Andrew Jackson - 1829-1837 (Created Democratic Party)
• Indian Removal Act (Trail of Tears/Eastern Band of Cherokee) - 1830
• Missouri Compromise - 1820 (Pro/Anti-slavery)
• Nullification Crisis (Tariff of 1828) - 1832-1833 (Andrew Jackson)
• Second National Bank - 1816-1836 (Debt suffrage)
• Nat Turner - 1831 (Led slave rebellion)
• David Walker - 1829 (An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World)
• Charles Grandison Finney (Second Great Awakening) - 1825-1835 (Father of Modern Revivalism)
• American Bible Society - 1816 (Benevolent society to end slavery)
• Internal Slave Trade - 1789-1849
• Thomas Ruffin (State v. Mann) - 1830 (Slave owner's authority)
• Harriet Jacobs - 1861 (Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl)
• Whig Party (Henry Clay + Graham) - 19th Century (Modernization)
• North Carolina Railroad - 1858 (Connects eastern state with the Piedmont)
• Seneca Falls Convention - 1848 (First women's rights convention)
• Know-Nothing (American Party) - 1840-1850 (Opposed immigration/Catholics)
• Mexican War (Texas Independence) - 1846-1847

Mid 19th Century & Civil War

• Kansas-Nebraska Act (Border Ruffians/Douglas) - 1854
• Republican Party - 1854 (American conservatism, free market)
• General Robert E. Lee - 1861-1865 (Confederate)
• Forts Henry and Donelson - 1862 (Ulysses S. Grant, ensured Kentucky stayed in the Union)
• Antietam - 1862 (First major battle of the Civil War on Union soil)
• Gettysburg - 1863 (Largest deaths, "turning point")
• Abraham Galloway (Slave rebel, abolitionist, Union spy)
• Fort Fisher - 1863 (Confederate fort, protected trade routes)
• Election of 1864 (Copperheads) - Lincoln vs. McClellan
• March to the Sea - 1864 (Disrupted Confederate economy)
• Special Field Order 15 - 1865 (Orders issued by Sherman)
• Bentonville - 1836 (Cherokee passed through on Trail of Tears)
• Presidential vs. Congressional Reconstruction (Jackson ignored black reports)
• Republican Reconstruction (Passed 14th Amendment, Military Reconstruction Act, Freedmen's Bureau Bill)
• Lost Cause (United Daughters of the Confederacy) - 1894
• Wyatt Outlaw - 1820-1870
• Border States - 1860
• John Brown - 1856
• North Carolina Freedmen's Convention - 1865
• Appomattox - 1865
• New York City Draft - 1863
• Emancipation Proclamation - 1863
• Beaufort - 1861-1893
• First Manassas - 1861
• Stonewall - 1862
• Fort Sumter - 1861
• Thomas Clingman - 1848-1861
• Dred Scott Decision - 1857
• John Tyler - 1840