America: from new nation to divided union, 1783–1877 — timeline

Key topic 1 · Building a new nation, 1783–1809

Large states, small states and the clash over slavery

1787

The Convention agrees the three-fifths clause and a twenty-year protection for the slave trade. Why this date: It writes slavery's protections into the founding document and gives the South a permanent representational bonus.

1808

Congress prohibits the importation of enslaved people, at the first moment the Constitution allows. Why this date: The prohibition arriving in the earliest permitted year shows how much the twenty-year guarantee had constrained.

1820

The Missouri crisis is the first great argument about how the 1787 settlement applies to new territory. Why this date: It begins the sequence of compromises that runs to 1857 and ends in secession.

Shays' Rebellion and the Constitutional Convention

1781

The Articles of Confederation take effect, with no power to tax or regulate trade. Why this date: It establishes the weakness every later event in this strand is a response to.

1786–87

Shays' Rebellion closes courts in western Massachusetts and attacks the Springfield arsenal. Why this date: It persuaded doubters that a stronger central government was needed, and it was suppressed by privately funded militia because Congress had no money.

May–September 1787

The Convention exceeds its mandate and writes a new constitution; the Connecticut Compromise resolves the representation deadlock. Why this date: The bicameral structure agreed to save the Convention is still the structure of Congress.

Federalists, Anti-federalists and the Bill of Rights

1787–88

The ratification contest; several states ratify narrowly on an undertaking that amendments will follow. Why this date: The Bill of Rights was extracted as a condition, not offered as a gift.

1791

The first ten amendments are ratified. Why this date: They include the tenth amendment, which supplies the states'-rights argument with a constitutional text.

1868

The fourteenth amendment applies limits to the states and gives Congress power to enforce them. Why this date: It is the answer to the tenth amendment, and the argument between them runs through the whole option.

Strict and loose construction, and Jefferson's presidency

1791

The dispute over Hamilton's national bank establishes strict and loose construction. Why this date: It creates the constitutional language in which the sectional argument would later be conducted.

1800

Jefferson is elected in the first transfer of power between opposing parties. Why this date: An incumbent party lost and left office peacefully, which is the test most new republics fail.

1803

The Louisiana Purchase doubles the size of the United States for about fifteen million dollars. Why this date: A strict constructionist acquired territory his own theory did not authorise, and the land's status regarding slavery caused the crisis of 1820.

Key topic 2 · Westward expansion and Native American removal, 1803–49

Opposition to westward expansion

1811

American forces attack Tecumseh's confederacy at Tippecanoe while he is recruiting in the south. Why this date: It damaged the most organised Native political alliance east of the Mississippi before it was complete.

1813

Tecumseh is killed at the Battle of the Thames and the confederacy breaks up. Why this date: After 1813 no comparable pan-Native organisation existed in the east, which is part of why removal was possible in the 1830s.

1818–19

The convention with Britain and the Transcontinental Treaty with Spain settle northern and southern boundaries. Why this date: It shows opposition by recognised states being settled by negotiation, unlike Native opposition.

Louisiana, the Transcontinental Treaty and Texas

1803

The Louisiana Purchase roughly doubles the territory of the United States. Why this date: It creates the land whose status produced the Missouri crisis seventeen years later.

1819

The Transcontinental Treaty transfers Florida and renounces American claims to Texas. Why this date: The renunciation is why Texas became a separate and contentious question in the 1840s.

1845

Texas is annexed after nine years as an independent republic. Why this date: Delay had been caused by the sectional consequence, so the effects were foreseen rather than discovered.

1846–48

War with Mexico ends with the cession of California and the south-west. Why this date: It produces the territory whose status becomes the Compromise of 1850 within two years.

The Missouri Compromise and sectional conflict

1819

Missouri applies for admission as a slave state and the Tallmadge amendment divides Congress on sectional lines. Why this date: It is the first great sectional vote and it alarmed the founding generation because the division was geographical.

1820

The compromise admits Missouri and Maine and bars slavery north of 36°30′ in the Purchase. Why this date: It establishes that Congress may determine the status of slavery in federal territory.

1854

The Kansas–Nebraska Act repeals the 36°30′ line in favour of popular sovereignty. Why this date: The compromise is abandoned by legislation thirty-four years after it was made.

1857

Dred Scott holds that Congress never had power to exclude slavery from a territory. Why this date: It declares the principle behind the 1820 settlement unconstitutional, leaving no compromise available.

The Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears

1827–29

The Cherokee adopt a written constitution; gold is discovered on their land in Georgia. Why this date: Adaptation and land pressure arrive together, which disposes of the argument that removal was about capacity to adapt.

1830

The Indian Removal Act passes narrowly and is signed by Jackson. Why this date: It authorises exchanges framed as voluntary and administered as compulsion.

1832

Worcester v Georgia holds that Georgia's laws have no force in Cherokee territory. Why this date: The Cherokee won in the Supreme Court and removal proceeded anyway, which is the strand's central fact.

1838–39

The army removes the Cherokee west; around four thousand of some sixteen thousand die. Why this date: It is the outcome the ruling had held to be unlawful, carried out six years later.

Manifest Destiny, migration and the Gold Rush

1845

John O'Sullivan coins the phrase manifest destiny. Why this date: It names a justification already in use and becomes the standard language of expansion.

January 1848

Gold is discovered at Sutter's Mill, nine days before the treaty transferring California. Why this date: The timing is a historical accident with enormous political consequences.

1849

Around three hundred thousand people arrive in California over the following four years. Why this date: Population growth on that scale produced an immediate demand for statehood.

1850

California is admitted as a free state under the Compromise of 1850. Why this date: It breaks the Senate balance and is the direct political consequence of the gold strike.

Key topic 3 · Slavery, the South and the causes of secession, 1850–61

Compromise of 1850, Kansas–Nebraska, Bleeding Kansas and Dred Scott

1850

Clay's compromise admits California free and enacts a strengthened Fugitive Slave Act. Why this date: The Act brought the enforcement of slavery into northern towns and made every citizen potentially a participant.

1854

The Kansas–Nebraska Act repeals the Missouri line in favour of popular sovereignty. Why this date: It destroyed the Whigs, split the Democrats and created the Republican party.

1855–59

Around two hundred people are killed in Kansas; Sumner is beaten on the Senate floor in 1856. Why this date: It demonstrated that the mechanism of ordinary politics was failing.

1857

Dred Scott holds that Congress never had power to bar slavery from a territory. Why this date: It removed the principle every compromise had rested on, so after 1857 no legislative settlement was available.

The economic origins of the division

1793 onwards

The cotton gin makes short-staple cotton profitable and slavery expands westwards. Why this date: The institution the founders expected to decline instead became the country's largest form of wealth.

1860

The South produces around two thirds of the world's cotton; the North holds roughly ninety per cent of manufacturing. Why this date: Two economies produced conflicting demands on tariffs, spending and territory.

1860

Enslaved people are valued at around three billion dollars, more than all railroads and factories combined. Why this date: It explains why compensated emancipation was unavailable and why the conflict could not be negotiated.

John Brown, Lincoln, Fort Sumter and secession

October 1859

John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry fails within two days. Why this date: It made Brown a martyr in the North and convinced the South that insurrection was intended.

November 1860

Lincoln is elected with under forty per cent of the popular vote and no southern electoral votes. Why this date: A section had been outvoted by a party that did not compete in it.

December 1860 – February 1861

South Carolina and six other states secede and form the Confederacy. Why this date: Their published declarations state their reasons, which makes the causes documentary rather than inferred.

12 April 1861

Confederate batteries fire on Fort Sumter; the upper South secedes after Lincoln calls for troops. Why this date: Lincoln's provisions-only resupply placed the choice of firing first on the Confederacy.

Key topic 4 · Civil War and the end of slavery, 1861–65

Reasons for Union victory and military leadership

1861–65

The Union blockade progressively closes southern ports and cotton exports collapse. Why this date: It converted the North's industrial advantage into a Confederate shortage of everything.

1862–63

Lee wins repeatedly against larger forces but both invasions of the North are defeated. Why this date: Operational skill delayed a decision it could not reverse.

1864

Grant accepts attrition in Virginia while Sherman marches through Georgia. Why this date: Both were fighting the war their side's resources permitted, and Atlanta secured Lincoln's re-election.

Lincoln, Davis, the Emancipation Proclamation and Gettysburg

September 1862

Lincoln issues the preliminary proclamation after Antietam. Why this date: He had waited for a victory so that it would not appear an act of desperation.

1 January 1863

The Proclamation takes effect in the rebelling states only. Why this date: It converted a war for the Union into a war against slavery and ended the prospect of European recognition.

November 1863

The Gettysburg Address dates the nation to 1776 and to the proposition of equality. Why this date: It placed the Declaration above the constitutional compromise, which the fourteenth amendment later enacted.

By 1865

About 180,000 black soldiers have served in the Union army. Why this date: Emancipation was a manpower policy as well as a moral act.

Gettysburg, Vicksburg, the March and the Southern economy

1–3 July 1863

Lee's invasion is defeated at Gettysburg; he never mounts another strategic offensive. Why this date: It ended the Confederacy's capacity to threaten the North.

4 July 1863

Vicksburg surrenders, giving the Union the whole Mississippi. Why this date: It divided the Confederacy permanently and is usually rated the more strategically important victory.

September 1864

Sherman takes Atlanta, securing Lincoln's re-election. Why this date: The Union's political survival was the necessary condition for its material advantage to tell.

November–December 1864

Sherman marches about three hundred miles to Savannah, destroying the region's capacity to supply the war. Why this date: It attacked an economy and a population's will rather than an army.

Key topic 5 · A More Perfect Union? 1865–77

Johnson, the Reconstruction Act and Black Reconstruction

1865–66

Black Codes restrict the movement, employment and occupations of the freed people. Why this date: They recreated compulsory labour by legal means after ownership had been abolished.

1867

The Reconstruction Act imposes military districts and requires black male suffrage for readmission. Why this date: Congress took Reconstruction out of the president's hands and made suffrage a condition.

1870

Hiram Revels takes a Senate seat; sixteen black men serve in Congress during Reconstruction. Why this date: It is the largest extension of political participation in nineteenth-century America.

1877–1901

Federal protection is withdrawn and disenfranchisement follows; no black American sits in Congress from 1901 to 1929. Why this date: The reversal is the key topic's central lesson: a gain can be undone.

The Civil Rights Acts and the Reconstruction Amendments

1865

The thirteenth amendment abolishes slavery, with an exception for punishment for crime. Why this date: The exception was used extensively by southern convict-leasing systems.

1868

The fourteenth amendment establishes birthright citizenship, due process and equal protection. Why this date: It reversed Dred Scott and became the basis of the civil rights litigation of the twentieth century.

1870

The fifteenth amendment forbids denial of the vote on grounds of race. Why this date: It prohibits a ground rather than guaranteeing a right, which the devices of the 1890s exploited.

1883

The Civil Rights Cases strike down the 1875 Act, holding the fourteenth amendment reaches state action only. Why this date: It drained the legislation of effect while leaving the constitutional text intact.

Grant's Peace Policy, Custer and its aftermath

1868–69

The Fort Laramie treaty recognises the Black Hills; Grant announces the Peace Policy. Why this date: It establishes both the guarantee and the policy that the gold discovery would override.

1874

An expedition under Custer confirms gold in the Black Hills and prospectors enter. Why this date: A treaty guarantee gave way to a mineral discovery, exactly as in Georgia in 1829.

June 1876

Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho destroy five companies of the Seventh Cavalry at the Little Bighorn. Why this date: The most complete Native victory of the plains wars produced a far harsher federal response.

1877–90

The Black Hills are taken by Congress; allotment follows in 1887 and Wounded Knee in 1890. Why this date: It is the aftermath the victory accelerated.