Timeline of Events

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Timeline of Events
(Five years before Harriet Jacobs' birth
to the beginning of the Civil War: 1808-1861)

blue - Harriet Jacobs' events ..... green - events related to slavery

Year	Historical Events
1808	Five years before Harriet Jacobs' birth in 1813 U.S. abolishes the slave trade. Beethoven composes Symphonies No. 5 and 6 ("Pastoral").
1809	James Madison becomes 4th President of the U.S. Abraham Lincoln is born. Thomas Jefferson retires to private life at Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia. Charles Darwin is born (English naturalist; created theory of evolution). Edgar Allan Poe is born (American author). Louis Braille is born (French inventor of printing and writing system for the blind).
1810	U.S. population: 7,239,881. P. T. Barnum is born (American showman; created "Greatest Show on Earth").
1811	Jane Austen writes Sense and Sensibility. Harriet Beecher Stowe is born (American author; wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin). Ludwig Berblinger, a German tailor, unsuccessfully attempts to fly.
1812	Louisiana becomes a (slave) state. U.S. declares war on Britain (War of 1812). Charles Dickens is born (English novelist). Beethoven composes Symphonies No. 7 and 8.
1813	Harriet Jacobs is born. Jane Austen writes Pride and Prejudice.
1814	Napoleon is overthrown and banished to Elba. Louis XVIII assumes the throne of France. British forces burn Washington, D.C. Pope Pius VII restores the Inquisition. Frances Scott Key writes the poem that is eventually set to music to become the U.S. national anthem ("The Star Spangled Banner").
1815	The War of 1812 ends. Napoleon leaves Elba and lands in France; Louis XVIII flees; the "Hundred Days" begin. Napoleon is defeated at Waterloo by Wellington and Blucher. The U.S.S. Fulton (38 tons) is the first warship powered by steam.
1816	Indiana becomes the 19th (free) state. The Washington (D.C.) American Colonization Society is founded to resettle freed Blacks in Africa. Jane Austen writes Emma. Charlotte Bronte is born (British novelist). R.T. Laennec invents the stethoscope.
1817	Mississippi becomes the 20th (slave) state. James Monroe is inaugurated 5th President of the U.S. Henry David Thoreau is born (American author). U.S begins construction of Erie Canal between Buffalo and Albany.
1818	Illinois becomes the 21st (free) state. The border between Canada and U.S. is settled (the 49th parallel). Congress adopts U.S. flag with 13 red and white stripes and white star on blue for each state. Karl Marx is born (German political philosopher and socialist). The first professional horse racing takes place in the U.S. "Savannah" becomes the first steamship to cross the Atlantic (26 days).
1819	Harriet Jacobs' mother dies and Harriet realizes that she is a slave. Alabama becomes the 22nd (slave) state. Florida is purchased by the U.S. from Spain. The future Queen Victoria is born. The University of Virginia is founded by Thomas Jefferson. Danish physicist Hans C. Oersted discovers electromagnetism. England sets a maximum 12-hour working day for juveniles.
1820	The Missouri Compromise permits the admission of Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. Maine becomes the 23rd (free) state. The African country of Liberia is founded for the repatriation of Negroes. U.S. Land Law fixes land price at a minimum of $1.25 per acre. The Venus de Milo statue is discovered. Florence Nightingale is born (English nurse).
1821	Missouri becomes the 24th (slave) state. James Monroe begins 2nd term as President Emma Willard establishes the first women's college in Waterford, New York. Mary Baker Eddy is born (U.S. founder of Christian Science). Faraday discovers the fundamentals of electromagnetic rotation. Population of European countries (in millions): France - 30.4; Great Britain - 20.8; Italy - 18.0; Austria - 12.0; Germany - 26.0.
1822	Ulysses S. Grant is born (American general and president). Schubert composes Symphony No. 8 in B minor ("The Unfinished"). Daguerre and Bouton invent the diorama, paintings illuminated in dark room to give illusion of reality. Gregor Mendel is born (the founder of genetics). Louis Pasteur is born (French microbiologist - "pasteurization"). The streets of Boston, Massachusetts are lit by gas.
1823	The Monroe Doctrine prohibits colonial settlements in America by European powers. Charles Macintosh invents a waterproof fabric.
1824	U.S. House of Rep. elects John Quincy Adams as president when none of the four candidates wins a majority in the national election. Beethoven write his Symphony No. 9 in D major ("Choral"). J. L. Prevost and J. B. Dumas prove that the sperm is essential to fertilization.
1825	Harriet Jacobs' mistress dies, and Harriet becomes the property of Dr. Flint's little daughter. The Erie Canal is completed, connecting New York City with the Great Lakes. Johann Strauss is born (the "Waltz King").
1826	Harriet Jacobs' grandmother is given her freedom (1825?). Harriet's father dies. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams die on July 4th on the 50th anniversary the Declaration of Independence. James Fenimore Cooper writes The Last of the Mohicans.
1827	Harriet Jacobs' uncle Benjamin tries to escape by boat to New York but is captured and returned to his master (1828?). Benjamin eventually escapes to Baltimore and then to New York. Beethoven dies. John James Audubon's Birds of North America is published. Joseph Niepce produces photographs on a metal place. John Walker creates sulfur friction matches.
1828	Dr. Flint begins to harass Harriet Jacobs and tries to sexually exploit her. In U.S. presidential election, Andrew Jackson defeats John Quincy Adams. Alexandre Dumas' Three Musketeers is published. Count Leo Tolstoi is born (Russian novelist). Jules Verne is born (French author of Utopian novels). Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language is published. Charles Carroll, the richest American of his time, inaugurates construction of the Baltimore and Ohio, first railroad built in U.S. for transport of passengers and freight.
1829	Harriet Jacobs' son by "Mr. Sands" is born, and she and the baby move in with her grandmother. Andrew Jackson is inaugurated as seventh President. Chopin (Polish composer and pianist) has his debut in Vienna. Anton Rubinstein is born (Russian pianist and composer). James Smithson bequeaths 100,000 pounds to found Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The first U.S. patent on a typewriter is granted to William B. Burt of Detroit.
1830	Harriet Jacobs' grandmother becomes the owner of the house that Harriet eventually hid in. "Jim Crow," an early American popular song, is sung by Thomas "Daddy" Rice (thought to be the origin of the term "Jim Crow"). Emily Dickinson is born (American poet). The first covered wagon train goes from the Missouri River to the Rockies. The Sioux, Sauk, Fox and other Indian tribes sign a treaty giving up most of what will become Iowa, Missouri and Minnesota. The Choctaw Indians sign a treaty giving up nearly 8 million acres of their land east of the Mississippi for land in what is now Oklahoma. Joseph Smith founds the religious society of Mormons (Latter-day Saints). Scottish botanist Robert Brown discovers the cell nucleus in plants. Belva Lockwood is first female lawyer to practice before the Supreme Court and to be nominated for the presidency. Barthelemy Thimmonier (a French tailor) devises a machine for utilitarian stitching (beginning of the sewing machine).
1831	Harriet Jacobs' daughter by "Mr. Sands" is born. Nat Turner, a Virginia slave, leads revolt in which 55 Whites die. *William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing the abolitionist periodical The Liberator* in Boston.** Charles Darwin (naturalist) sails on "H.M.S. Beagle" to South America, New Zealand, and Australia (he originated the theory of evolution). The first horse-drawn buses appear in New York. Population of Great Britain - 13.9 million; America - 12.8 million. Samuel Smith writes the words "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" to the tune of "God Save the King" (until 1931, "America" is one of the U.S. national anthems).
1832	New England Anti-Slavery Society is founded in Boston. Andrew Jackson, nominated by the new Democratic Party, is reelected President. The source of the Mississippi River is discovered at what is now Lake Itasca, Minnesota. The Oregon Trail becomes the main route for settlers to Oregon country. Louisa May Alcott is born (author of Little Women). Lewis Carroll is born (author of Alice in Wonderland). Edouard Manet is born (French impressionist painter). First horse-drawn trolleys appear in New York.
1833	Bestseller is Davy Crockett's autobiography. New York Sun is founded (the first successful penny daily newspaper). Oberlin, the first coeducational college, opens in Ohio and admits Blacks. Slavery is abolished in the British Empire.
1834	The Seminole Indians are forced to leave Florida. The Spanish Inquisition, begun during the 13th century, finally ends. Abraham Lincoln (at 25) enters politics in the Illinois legislature. Bestseller is Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Steamboat service between Buffalo, New York, and Chicago, Illinois, begins on a weekly basis. American Cyrus McCormick invents the reaping machine.
1835	Harriet Jacobs goes into hiding in the garret of her grandmother's house. Texas secedes from Mexico. The Liberty Bell cracks while tolling the death of Chief Justice John Marshall. Hans Christian Andersen begins publishing his children's tales. Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) is born (American novelist). Halley's Comet reappears. U.S. showman P. T. Barnum begins his career with the exhibition of Joyce Heth, a Black woman, alleged to be George Washington's nurse and over 160 years old. Samuel Morse invents the telegraph. Samuel Colt takes out an English patent for his single-barreled pistol and rifle. 1098 miles of railroad are in use in America.
1836	Second year of Harriet Jacobs' self-imposed hiding. Arkansas becomes the 25th (slave) state. Davy Crockett is killed at the Alamo. Texas wins independence from Mexico and becomes a republic with General Sam Houston as first president. A wagon train of missionaries led by Dr. Marcus Whitman reach Washington at the Columbia and Snake Rivers; their wives are the first white women to cross the Rockies. Betsy Ross, maker of the first American flag, dies. Ernestine Rose presents a petition to the New York Legislature requesting married women's right to own property.
1837	Third year of Harriet Jacobs' self-imposed hiding. The Gag Law, aimed at suppressing debate on slavery, is passed by U.S. Congress. E. P. Lovejoy, editor of an abolitionist paper, is murdered by mob in Alton, Illinois. Michigan becomes the 26th (free) state. Martin Van Buren is inaugurated as the eighth President. The Massachusetts Senate creates the first state board of education (with Horace Mann as its first secretary). Victoria becomes Queen of Great Britain. Sitting Bull (American Indian chief) is killed. Horace Mann begins educational reforms in Massachusetts. England initiates official birth registration.
1838	Fourth year of Harriet Jacobs' self-imposed hiding. The Underground Railroad is organized by abolitionists to help slaves escape to the North. Federal troops expel 14,000 Cherokee Indians from Georgia and force them to travel westward to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) on the "Trail of Tears" (so called because a quarter of the Cherokee nation died on the journey). Bestsellers are Dickens' Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby. French philosopher Auguste Comte gives sociology its name. The New York Herald is the first U.S. newspaper to employ European correspondents.
1839	Fifth year of Harriet Jacobs' self-imposed hiding. Slaves mutineered on the slave-ship the Amistad, killing the crew. Former President, John Quincy Adams, successfully defended them before the Southerner-dominated Supreme Court, and they were allowed to return Africa. *George D. Weed's anti-slavery book, Slavery As It Is, is published.* Mississippi becomes the first state to permit women to control their own property. Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher is published. Charles Goodyear discovers the process of "vulcanization" which leads to the commercial use of rubber. Abner Doubleday lays out the first baseball field and conducts the first baseball game ever played (Cooperstown, New York).
1840	Sixth year of Harriet Jacobs' self-imposed hiding. The Worldwide Anti-Slavery Convention is held in London. American women walk out in protest when they are not permitted to take their seats as delegates. As a result, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others organize women's rights conferences. Queen Victoria of Great Britain marries Prince Albert. Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky is born (Russian composer). Claude Monet (French painter), Pierre Auguste Renoir (French impressionist painter), and Auguste Rodin (French sculptor) are born. Ninepins becomes a very popular game in America. 2816 miles of railroad in operation in U.S.; 1331 in England.
1841	Seventh (and final) year of Harriet Jacobs' self-imposed hiding. The U.S.S. "Creole," carrying slaves from Virginia to Louisiana, is seized by the slaves and sails into Nassau where they become free. Britain's assumes control of Hong Kong. William Henry Harrison is inaugurated as 9th president. President Harrison dies of pneumonia. John Tyler becomes the 10th president. James Fenimore Cooper writes The Deerslayer. Scottish surgeon James Braid discovers hypnosis. English mechanical engineer Sir Joseph Whitworth proposes standard screw threads. P. T. Barnum opens the "American Museum," an exhibition of freaks, curios, etc. in New York City. American boxer Tom Hyer becomes the first recognized champion. Population statistics: Great Britain - 18.5 million; America 17 million; Ireland 8 million. The first university degrees are granted to women in America.
1842	Harriet Jacobs escapes to the North. Massachusetts act establishes that children under 12 years old may work no longer than 10 hours per day in factory labor. Poe writes The Masque of the Red Death. Austrian physicist C. J. Doppler publishes a paper on the Doppler effect. American physician Crawford W. Long uses ether as an anesthesia for surgery. The polka (a Czech dance) comes into fashion. Boston and Albany are connected by railroad.
1843	Jefferson Davis (future President of the Confederacy) begins his political career as delegate to the Democratic Convention in Alabama. Charles Dickens writes A Christmas Carol and Martin Chuzzlewit. Dorothea Dix reports on the horrible conditions of prisons and asylums in Massachusetts. Samuel Morse receives a $30,000 grant from Congress to build the first telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore. Siamese twins Chang and Eng marry Sarah and Adelaide Yates. Skiing becomes a sport (Norway).
1844	Harriet Jacobs has both of her children living with her in Boston during the winter of 1844-1845 (the first time the three are together since she went into hiding nine years before). The Baptist Church splits into the Northern and Southern conventions as a result of the slavery issue. Alexandre Dumas writes The Count of Monte Cristo. Morse's telegraph is used for first time between Baltimore and Washington. The gasoline engine is patented by Stuart Perry. Paper made from wood pulp is invented by Friedrich Keller. The YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) is founded in England by George Williams.
1845	Florida becomes the 27th (slave) state. Texas becomes the 28th (slave) state. James K. Polk is inaugurated as 11th President. The Knickerbocker Baseball Club codifies the rules of baseball. The U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland is opened.
1846	Iowa becomes the 29th (free) state. Congress declares war on Mexico. Brigham Young leads the Mormons from Nauvoo, Illinois to Utah. The Opera in Paris has electric arc lighting. John Deere creates a plow with a steel moldboard. Elias Howe patents his sewing machine. In the first match baseball game, the New Yorks beat the Knickerbockers 23-1 in New Jersey. American dentist W. T. Morton uses ether as an anesthetic. Ireland suffers from famine caused by the potato crop failure (leads to increased U.S. immigration). The Smithsonian Institution opens in Washington, D.C.
1847	Liberia (African country founded by freed U.S. slaves) is proclaimed an independent republic. The first official postage stamp is issued by the U.S. government (5-cent and 10-cent stamps). Abraham Lincoln becomes a Congressman. New Hampshire passes a law limiting the work day to 10 hours. Vermont passes a law allowing a wife full ownership of real estate; she needs her husband's consent to sell. Charlotte Bronte writes Jane Eyre. Emily Bronte writes Wuthering Heights. William Makepeace Thackeray writes Vanity Fair. The Mormons found Salt Lake City. Thomas Alva Edison is born (American inventor of the lightbulb and phonograph, to name a few). Alexander Graham Bell is born (Scottish-American inventor of the telephone). Gold is first discovered in California.
1848	Wisconsin becomes the 30th (free) state. The Mexican-American war ends; U.S. gets Texas, New Mexico, California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The first medical school for women opens in Boston with 12 women enrolled. New York State allows women equal rights to property. The telegraph links New York City and Chicago. Marx and Engels publish their Communist Manifesto.
1849	Harriet Jacobs moves to Rochester, New York. Her owner, "Dr. Flint's" daughter, continues to look for her. Zachary Taylor is inaugurated the 12th President. A stagecoach line carrying mail opens between Independence, Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dickens writes David Copperfield. Thoreau writes Civil Disobedience. Edgar Allan Poe dies in Baltimore (American author). Who's Who is first published. French physicist Armand Fizeau measures the speed of light. The safety pin is invented by Walter Hunt. Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first American female physician. Amelia Bloomer (temperance and women's rights advocate) creates her scandalous "bloomers" (a baggy pant-like garment) and publishes The Lily (a rights magazine). A cholera epidemic begins in the South.
1850	Harriet Jacobs moves to New York City. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 causes her great anguish. Population of the U.S. is 23 million with 3.2 million Black slaves. Henry Clay presents the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Senate to defuse the slavery issue. A part of the Compromise, the Fugitive Slave Law makes aiding a runaway slave a federal crime. The slave trade is abolished in Washington, D.C. California becomes the 31st (free) state. President Zachary Taylor dies of cholera in office; Millard Fillmore becomes 13th President. The first national women's rights convention is held in Massachusetts with representatives from 9 states. Nathaniel Hawthorne writes The Scarlet Letter. R. W. Bunsen invents the gas burner.
1851	The Sioux Indians give up their land in what is now Iowa and Minnesota. Hawthorne writes The House of Seven Gables. Herman Melville writes Moby Dick. Singer invents the continuous stitch sewing machine. Maine and Illinois begin to enforce prohibition against liquor. Population statistics (in millions): China - 430; Germany - 34; France - 33; Great Britain - 20.8; U.S. 23.
1852	Harriet Jacobs learns that her owner is in New York so she plans to flee to California to join her brother. Before this happens, Harriet becomes free when Cornelia Willis, her employer and friend, buys her freedom for $300. *Harriet Beecher Stowe writes Uncle Tom's Cabin.* Massachusetts passes the first compulsory school attendance law in the U.S. The first train reaches Chicago from the East (the Michigan Southern Railway). David Livingstone explores the Zambezi River.
1853	Harriet Jacobs' grandmother dies. Harriet begins to write about her experiences in anonymous letters to a New York newspaper. Later she begins to write her book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Vincent Van Gogh is born (Dutch painter). Henry Steinway begins his piano company in New York with his three sons. Alexander Wood uses a hypodermic syringe for injections. Queen Victoria receives chloroform during the birth of her 7th child. Vaccination against smallpox is made compulsory in Britain.
1854	The Kansas-Nebraska Act allows settlers in the Kansas and Nebraska territories to decide whether to allow slavery or not. Commodore Perry negotiates the first American treaty with Japan. The Republican Party is formed. George Boole writes An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, on Which Are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities. Henry David Thoreau writes Walden, or Life in the Woods. German watchmaker Heinrich Goebel invents the first form of the electric light bulb.
1855	Henry Wadsworth Longfellow writes The Song of Hiawatha. Walt Whitman writes Leaves of Grass. The first American kindergarten is established by Mrs. Carl Schurz. The first iron Cunard steamer crosses the Atlantic in 9 1/2 days. Florence Nightingale introduces hygienic standards into military hospitals during the Crimean War.
1856	In Kansas, five pro-slavers are murdered at Potawatomie Creek by John Brown and his anti-slavery followers . Gustave Flaubert writes Madame Bovary. Neanderthal skull is found near Dusseldorf, Germany.
1857	James Buchanan is inaugurated as the 15th President. The Supreme Court refuses to grant freedom to Dred Scott, a slave living on free soil in Missouri Territory. Czar Alexander II begins the emancipation of the serfs in Russia. Pasteur proves that fermentation is caused by living organisms. E. G. Otis installs the first safety elevator.
1858	*Harriet Jacobs finishes her book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. She travels to England to try to sell her book manuscript.* Minnesota becomes the 32nd (free) state. The New York Symphony Orchestra gives its first public concert. Joseph Lister (English surgeon) studies the coagulation of blood. The first transatlantic cable is completed. Mail is carried by stage from coast to coast for the first time (the time from St. Louis to San Francisco is 23 days). The Suez Canal Company is formed. The National Association of Baseball Players is organized.
1859	Anti-slavery zealot, John Brown, and 21 followers seize the federal armory at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (October 16th); Colonel Robert E. Lee captures John Brown (October 18th); John Brown is hanged for treason in Charleston (December 2nd). The Supreme Court declares the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 constitutional (prohibiting people from helping escaped slaves). Oregon becomes the 33rd (free) state. Dickens writes A Tale of Two Cities. Arthur Conan Doyle is born (wrote Sherlock Holmes mysteries). Edward Fitzgerald writes the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection is published. The first oil well is drilled at Titusville, Pennsylvania, beginning the modern oil industry. The steamroller is invented. The Baseball Club of Washington, D.C. is organized. Charles Blondin (Frenchman) crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope. Work on the Suez Canal is begun.
1860	Abraham Lincoln is elected the 16th President. South Carolina secedes from the Union on December 20. The Pony Express begins mail service between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. Lenoir constructs the first practical internal-combustion engine. Baseball becomes popular in New York and Boston; first recorded game in San Francisco is played. The British Open Golf Championship is started. Skiing becomes a competitive sport.
1861	*Harriet Jacobs' book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl* is published (January). She uses the pseudonym Linda Brent. Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the President of the Confederacy (February 18). Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as 16th President (March 4). Confederate soldiers fire on Fort Sumter (April 12). The Civil War begins. Congress passes the first income tax law to help pay for the war. Kansas becomes the 34th (free) state.** Russian serfs are emancipated. Elizabeth Barrett Browning dies (English poet). Dickens writes Great Expectations. George Eliot writes Silas Marner. A skeletal link between birds and reptiles is discovered in Germany. T. S. Mort builds the first machine-chilled cold storage unit. The U.S. introduces the passport system. The telegraphs connects New York to San Francisco. Population figures (in millions): Russia - 76; U.S. - 32; Great Britain - 23; Italy - 25.
1897	Harriet Jacobs died on March 7, 1897, in Washington, D.C.

With help from: The Timetables of History: A Horizontal Linkage of People and Events by Bernard Grun (based uponWerner Stein's Kulturfahrplan). New York: Simon and Schuster (A Touchstone Book), 1982. AND The U.S.A.: A Chronicle in Pictures by Neil Wenborn. New York: SMITHMARK Publishers Inc., 1991.

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