| Literary event | Date | Historical event |
| James Fenimore Cooper, Precaution Washington Irving, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. |
1820 | US population: 9 638 453 Missouri Compromise excludes slavery from all lands of the former Louisiana Territory north and west of Missouri James Monroe reelected President |
| William Cullen Bryant, Poems Cooper, The Spy Saturday Evening Post founded |
1821 | William Becknell pioneers the Santa Fe Trail Beginning of the Greek War of Independence (1821–1832) |
| Catharine Maria Sedgwick, A New‐England Tale | 1822 | Denmark Vesey charged with plotting a slave rebellion in Charleston, South Carolina |
| Cooper, The Pioneers | 1823 | President issues the Monroe Doctrine, opposing further European colonization of the Americas |
| Lydia Maria Child, Hobomok Irving, Tales of a Traveller |
1824 | John Quincy Adams elected President |
| 1825 | Completion of the 363‐mile Erie Canal between Albany and Buffalo, New York | |
| Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans | 1826 | Deaths of former Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams on 4 July |
| Sedgwick, Hope Leslie Freedom’s Journal, first African American periodical, founded |
1827 | |
| Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language Cherokee Phoenix, first Native American newspaper, founded |
1828 | Andrew Jackson elected President |
| William Apess, A Son of the Forest John Augustus Stone, Metamora; or, The Last of the Wampanoags David Walker, Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World |
1829 | Tremont House, the first modern luxury hotel in US, opens in Boston |
| Sedgwick, Clarence Godey’s Lady’s Book founded |
1830 | Indian Removal Act forces exchanges of Native lands in the East for land west of the Mississippi River Mormon Church organized |
| Edgar Allan Poe, PoemsWilliam Lloyd Garrison founds antislavery newspaper The Liberator | 1831 | Nat Turner leads a slave revolt in Virginia |
| Irving, Tales of the Alhambra | 1832 | Andrew Jackson reelected President New England Anti‐Slavery Society founded Black Hawk War in Illinois |
| Child, An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans New York Sun, first penny‐press newspaper, founded |
1833 | Parliament passes the Slavery Abolition Act, ending slavery in the British colonies of the West Indies as of August 1, 1834 American Anti‐Slavery Society founded |
| Lydia Sigourney, Sketches and Poems Southern Literary Messenger founded |
1834 | |
| Irving, A Tour on the Prairies | 1835 | Outbreak of the Second Seminole War (1835–1842) in Florida |
| Apess, “Eulogy on King Philip” Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature Richards Hildreth, The Slave Oliver Wendell Holmes, Poems |
1836 | Battle of the Alamo and establishment of the Republic of Texas Martin Van Buren elected President |
| Nathaniel Hawthorne, Twice‐Told Tales United States Magazine and Democratic Review is founded |
1837 | Financial crisis and economic downturn in US known as the Panic of 1837 Victoria becomes Queen of Great Britain |
| Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket | 1838 | “Trail of Tears” begins as Cherokees are forced from their ancestral lands and moved west to “Indian Territory” Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery in Maryland |
| Caroline Kirkland, A New Home, Who’ll Follow? | 1839 | Slaves aboard the Amistad rebel and capture the ship |
| Poe, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque The Dial founded |
1840 | William Henry Harrison elected President |
| Catherine Beecher, Treatise on Domestic Economy Emerson, Essays New‐York Tribune founded by Horace Greeley |
1841 | First wagon trains travel on the Oregon Trail John Tyler becomes President after the death of Harrison |
| Rufus Wilmot Griswold, The Poets and Poetry of America | 1842 | Treaty with Great Britain establishing US–Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains |
| Elizabeth Oakes Smith, The Sinless Child and Other PoemsHarriet Beecher Stowe, The Mayflower | 1843 | The Second Coming of Christ does not occur, contrary to the prediction of the American preacher William Miller |
| Emerson, Essays: Second Series | 1844 | James K. Polk elected President Samuel Morse invents telegraph |
| Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century George Lippard, The Quaker City Anna Cora Mowatt, Fashion Poe, The Raven and Other Poems |
1845 | The American editor John L. O’Sullivan declares that the US must be allowed to fulfill its “manifest destiny to overspread the continent” US annexes Texas, which enters Union as a slave state |
| Hawthorne, Mosses from an Old Manse Herman Melville, Typee La Patria founded in New Orleans |
1846 | Oregon Treaty with Great Britain sets the boundary between the US and Canada west of the Rocky MountainsUS declares war on Mexico |
| James Russell Lowell, Poems | 1848 | Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican–American War; California and the vast territory of “New Mexico” are ceded to US First Women’s Rights Convention in US held in Seneca Falls, New York Zachary Taylor elected President Democratic revolutions throughout Europe |
| Alice and Phoebe Cary, Poems Melville, Mardi Francis Parkman, The Oregon Trail Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers |
1849 | Following the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1848, hundreds of thousands of prospectors, called “forty niners,” begin to converge on California |
| Susan Fenimore Cooper, Rural Hours Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter Narrative of Sojourner TruthSusan Warner, The Wide, Wide World |
1850 | Compromise of 1850 admits California as a free state and enacts strict Fugitive Slave Law |
| Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables Melville, Moby‐Dick New York Times founded |
1851 | Western Union founded |
| Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin first published in book formGeorge L. Aiken’s adaptation of the novel first performed in Troy, New York | 1852 | Franklin Pierce elected President |
| George Henry Boker, Francesca da Rimini William Wells Brown, Clotel Douglass, The Heroic Slave Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave |
1853 | Fleet of US warships commanded by Commodore Matthew Perry arrives in Japan, forcing the opening of ports to American trade |
| Maria Susanna Cummins, The Lamplighter Frances E.W. Harper, Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects Thoreau, Walden |
1854 | Kansas–Nebraska Act provides for popular sovereignty to decide issue of slavery in these territories, repealing the Missouri Compromise |
| Fanny Fern, Ruth Hall Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha Mary Gove Nichols, Mary Lyndon Walt Whitman, first edition of Leaves of Grass |
1855 | Violence erupts between proslavery and antislavery forces in Kansas Territory First bridge over Mississippi River opens in Minnesota |
| Emerson, English TraitsMelville, The Piazza Tales Stowe, Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp |
1856 | James Buchanan elected President |
| George Fitzhugh, Cannibals All! Or Slaves Without Masters Melville, The Confidence‐Man Atlantic Monthly and Harper’s Weekly founded |
1857 | Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision declares that African Americans have no constitutional rights Economic depression follows downturn in financial markets |
| Brown, The Escape; or a Leap for Freedom Oliver Wendell Holmes, Autocrat of the Breakfast Table |
1858 | Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas stage a series of debates during Senate election campaign in Illinois |
| Martin Delany, Blake; or The Huts of America E.D.E.N. Southworth, The Hidden Hand Harriet Wilson, Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black |
1859 | John Brown executed for attempting to initiate a slave revolt by taking over the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia |
| Emily Dickinson writes several hundred poems over the next five years Harriet Prescott Spofford, “Circumstance” Ann S. Stephens, Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter, the first “dime novel” |
1860 | US population: 31 443 321 Abraham Lincoln elected President South Carolina is the first southern state to secede from the Union |
| Rose Terry Cooke, Poems Rebecca Harding Davis, “Life in the Iron‐Mills” Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl |
1861 | Confederate States of America formed in February Civil War begins with attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, in April |
| Julia Ward Howe, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard, The Morgesons |
1862 | Federal government forbids Union army officers from returning fugitive slaves, annulling Fugitive Slave Act |
| Louisa May Alcott, Hospital Sketches | 1863 | Emancipation Proclamation |
| Emma Edmonds, Unsexed; or, The Female Soldier | 1864 | Lincoln reelected President |
| Julia C. Collins, The Curse of Caste; or, The Slave Bride Mark Twain, “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog,” later entitled “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavaras County” Whitman, Drum‐Taps |
1865 | Thirteenth Amendment abolishes slavery in the US General Robert E. Lee surrenders at Appomattox, Virginia, ending the Civil War Andrew Johnson becomes President after the assassination of Lincoln |
| Brown, The Negro in the American Rebellion Melville, Battle‐Pieces and Aspects of the War John Greenleaf Whittier, Snow Bound: A Winter Idyll |
1866 | Founding of Ku Klux Klan, a terrorist organization whose primary goal is the reestablishment of white supremacy in the South |
| Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick Child, A Romance of the Republic John William De Forest, Miss Ravenel’s Conversion from Secession to Loyalty |
1867 | Purchase of Alaska from Russia |
| Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, Part One Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, The Gates Ajar |
1868 | Ulysses S. Grant elected President Fourteenth Amendment grants citizenship to all persons born in the US, including former slaves |
| Alcott, Little Women, Part Two Twain, The Innocents Abroad |
1869 | Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony establish the National Woman Suffrage Association Opening of the Suez Canal Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads are linked to form transcontinental rail system |
| Bret Harte, The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Sketches | 1870 | Fifteenth Amendment grants voting rights to all qualified men, regardless of race or previous condition of servitude |
| María Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Who Would Have Thought It? Twain, Roughing It |
1872 | |
| Alcott, Work: A Story of Experience | 1873 | Financial panic leads to economic depression in US |
| Julia Moore, The Sentimental Song Book Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Loreta Janeta Velazquez, The Woman in Battle |
1876 | Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the first World’s Fair in the US Lakota (Sioux) and Cheyenne defeat Colonel Custer and his troops at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana Territory Rutherford B. Hayes elected President |
| Henry James, The American Sarah Orne Jewett, Deephaven |
1877 | Withdrawal of federal troops from the South signals end of Reconstruction |
| James, Daisy Miller and The Europeans | 1878 | |
| Albion W. Tourgée, A Fool’s Errand | 1879 | |
| George Washington Cable, The Grandissimes José Martí, Impressions of America |
1880 | James A. Garfield elected President |
| Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor James, The Portrait of a Lady |
1881 | Chester A. Arthur becomes President after the assassination of Garfield Booker T. Washington founds Tuskegee Institute in Alabama |
| William Dean Howells, A Modern Instance Whitman, Specimen Days |
1882 | Chinese Exclusion Act suspends immigration from China for 10 years |
| Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, Life Among the Piutes Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus” James Whitcomb Riley, The Old Swimmin' Hole and 'Leven More Poems |
1883 | Supreme Court declares part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional, allowing individuals and corporations to discriminate on the basis of race Opening of Brooklyn Bridge, the first steel suspension bridge |
| Jackson, Ramona | 1884 | Grover Cleveland elected President |
| Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham Ruiz de Burton, The Squatter and the Don Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
1885 | Dedication of the Washington Monument First edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average |
| Jewett, A White Heron and Other Stories Constance Fenimore Woolson, East Angels |
1886 | Haymarket riot at a union protest meeting in Chicago Statue of Liberty dedicated in New York Harbor |
| Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward Thomas Nelson Page, In Ole Virginia, or Marse Chan and Other Stories |
1887 | Passage of Dawes Act leads to the loss of millions of acres of Indian tribal lands |
| Drude Krog Janson, A Saloonkeeper’s Daughter | 1888 | Benjamin Harrison elected President |
| Emily Dickinson, Poems Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York |
1890 | Massacre of Lakota (Sioux) by federal troops at Wounded Knee, South Dakota |
| Ambrose Bierce, Tales of Soldiers and Civilians Sophia Alice Callahan, Wynema: A Child of the Forest Cooke, Huckleberries Gathered from New England Hills Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun and Other Stories Hamlin Garland, Main‐Travelled Roads Martí, “Nuestra América” |
1891 | International Copyright Act passed by Congress |
| Anna Julia Cooper, A Voice from the South Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” Frances E.W. Harper, Iola Leroy Whitman, final edition of Leaves of Grass |
1892 | Grover Cleveland elected President Federal immigration center opens at Ellis Island in New York Harbor |
| Stephen Crane, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets Paul Laurence Dunbar, Oak and Ivy |
1893 | Economic downturn and depression Columbian Exposition in Chicago |
| Kate Chopin, Bayou Folk Sara Morgan Bryan Piatt, Poems Twain, The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson |
1894 | Nationwide railroad strike begins in the “company town” of Pullman, in Chicago |
| Crane, The Red Badge of Courage Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Woman’s Bible |
1895 | New York Public Library created |
| Abraham Cahan, Yekl, A Tale of the New York Ghetto Dunbar, Lyrics of Lowly Life William Gillette, Secret Service Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs |
1896 | William McKinley elected President Supreme Court’s ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson upholds constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine |
| Edwin Arlington Robinson, The Children of the Night | 1897 | Klondike Gold Rush begins |
| Abraham Cahan, The Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories of the New York Ghetto Crane, The Open Boat and Other Tales of Adventure |
1898 | Spain cedes Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the US in the treaty ending the Spanish–American War |
| Charles W. Chesnutt, The Conjure Woman and The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line Chopin, The Awakening Sutton F. Griggs, Imperium in Imperio Frank Norris, McTeague |
1899 | Beginning of Philippine–American War Gold rushes in the Klondike and in Nome, Alaska |
| Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie Pauline Hopkins, Contending Forces |
1900 | US population: 75 994 575 McKinley reelected President US troops help suppress Boxer Rebellion in China |
| Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery Norris, The Octopus |
1901 | Theodore Roosevelt becomes President after the assassination of McKinley |
| Charles Eastman, Indian Boyhood James, The Wings of the Dove Helen Keller, The Story of My Life Zitkala‐Ša, Old Indian Legends |
1902 | Cuba gains independence Official end of the Philippine–American War |
| Mary Austin, The Land of Little Rain W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood James, The Ambassadors Jack London, The Call of the Wild |
1903 | Wilbur and Orville Wright make their first flights at Kitty Hawk |
| James, The Golden Bowl London, The Sea‐Wolf |
1904 | Theodore Roosevelt elected President |
| John Burroughs, Ways of Nature Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth |
1905 | Russian Revolution of 1905 leads to constitutional reform |
| Langdon Mitchell, The New York Idea Upton Sinclair, The Jungle |
1906 | Devastating earthquake and fire in San Francisco |
| Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams James, The American Scene |
1907 | Financial panic and economic downturn One million immigrants pass through Ellis Island into US |
| 1908 | William Howard Taft elected President | |
| Gertrude Stein, Three Lives London, Martin Eden |
1909 | Formation of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) |
| Rachel Crothers, A Man’s World | 1910 | |
| John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra Wharton, Ethan Frome |
1911 | Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City kills 146 workers, most of them women |
| Mary Antin, The Promised Land James Weldon Johnson, The Autobiography of an Ex‐Colored Man Sui Sin Far, Mrs. Spring Fragrance Harriet Monroe founds Poetry |
1912 | Woodrow Wilson elected President Titanic sinks in North Atlantic |
| Cather, O Pioneers! Wharton, The Custom of the Country |
1913 | Woman Suffrage Procession, the first suffragist parade in Washington, DC |
| Robert Frost, North of BostonEzra Pound edits Des Imagistes: An Anthology | 1914 | World War I begins in Europe Opening of the Panama Canal |