Timelines

First Continental Congress

First Continental Congress invite Quebecois to join resistance and send representatives to Congress

New Hampshire militiamen storm Fort William and Mary in Portsmouth, seizing arms and munitions stored at fort

General Thomas Gage sends spies throughout eastern Massachusetts to assess strength of colonial resistance and determine where Whigs had stockpiled munitions

• Parliament declares Massachusetts to be in a state of rebellion
• Parliamentary legislation prohibiting trade of Boston extended to New England, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina
• Parliament attempts to improve relations with the American colonies by promising to levy only external taxes on the condition that colonists tax themselves and make provision for support of army and navy
• Gage instructed to arrest leaders of Massachusetts Provincial Congress, disarm population and end rebellion in the colony
• British troops arrive in Lexington and are met by seventy minutemen
• British troops fight with militiamen at Concord
• Green Mountain Boys seize Fort Ticonderoga
• Second Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia
• Congress renews invitation to Canada to join resistance

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• Royal Navy vessels burn port in Norfolk, Virginia
• Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense
• North Carolina Provincial Assembly authorizes congressional delegation to vote in favor of independence if other colonies concur
• Virginia Provincial Assembly instructs congressional delegates to propose independence
• Richard Henry Lee introduces Virginia resolution to Congress
• Assemblies in Connecticut, New Hampshire and Delaware instruct delegates to support independence
• Radicals in New Jersey oust royal governor William Franklin and send new pro-independence delegation to Congress
• Congress creates committee to draft declaration of independence
• Congress votes in favor of independence and adopts a revised Declaration of Independence

Congress authorizes invasion of Canada

General George Washington orders artillery captured from Fort Ticonderoga transferred to Boston

Major-General Philip Schuyler's army captures Montreal

• Continental Army driven from Canada
• British army abandon Boston
• British forces occupy Staten Island, New York
• Battle of Long Island
• British forces defeat Continental Army at White Plains and capture Forts Washington and Lee on Hudson River
• Washington leads a surprise attack on Hessian garrison in Trenton, New Jersey and captures nearly 1000 Germans

• Continental Army defeats British garrison at Princeton
• British forces occupy Philadelphia
• General William Howe defeats Continental Army at Battle of Germantown
• General John Burgoyne surrenders to General Horatio Gates at Saratoga, New York

Treaty of alliance between France and United States signed

Lord George Germain orders General Henry Clinton to prepare for more limited campaign in a bid to concentrate forces against France

Washington confronts Clinton's troops near Monmouth Court House

Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Campbell

Lieutenant-Colonel Archibald Campbell's forces capture Savannah and an inland garrison at Augusta

• Major General Benjamin Lincoln surrenders at Charleston
• General Horatio Gates' forces defeated at Camden, South Carolina
• Rebel militia defeat large force of British regulars and militia at King's Mountain, South Carolina
• General Nathanael Greene takes command of rebel operations in the south

Rebel forces defeat British Legion at Battle of Cowpens

General Charles Cornwallis withdraws troops to Yorktown

Continental and French troops undertake siege of Yorktown and force Cornwallis to surrender

Peace agreement

Parliament votes to discontinue offensive operations in America

British and Americans sign a provisional peace agreement

Peace of Paris

Continental Congress

Continental Congress adopts a resolution calling on all colonies that did not have a permanent constitution based on popular sovereignty to adopt one

Congress creates a committee to prepare a plan to govern the former colonies after independence

New Hampshire, Virginia, South Carolina, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware and North Carolina adopt new constitutions

Connecticut and Rhode Island amend charters as constitutions

Georgia and New York adopt new constitutions

North-eastern counties of New York break away to establish Vermont

Congress endorses the Articles of Confederation

Massachusetts voters reject proposed constitution

Massachusetts adopts new constitution

Articles of Confederation take effect after Maryland becomes final state to ratify the document

Continental currency collapses

Robert Morris

Robert Morris estimates national debt to be worth $27 million in specie

Veterans and local militia take up arms to close the county courts in western Massachusetts in protest at assembly's refusal to endorse paper money

Daniel Shays

Daniel Shays leads several hundred militiamen in an unsuccessful attempt to capture state armory at Springfield, Massachusetts

United States suspends payment of loans from France, Spain and Netherlands

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney proposes that Congress creates a committee to review national affairs and propose amendments to Articles of Confederation

Annapolis Convention meets to discuss commercial regulations

Constitutional Convention

Confederation Congress unanimously votes to submit Constitution to states for ratification

Federalist essays published in New York newspapers

Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey ratify the Constitution

Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia and New York ratify the Constitution

Constitution takes effect after New Hampshire becomes ninth state to ratify

North Carolina and Rhode Island reject the Constitution

First Federal Congress meets in New York City

North Carolina ratifies the Constitution

Judiciary Act adopted

Rhode Island ratifies the Constitution

Bill of Rights ratified

Adam Smith

Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson publishes Notes on the State of Virginia in French

George Washington

George Washington inaugurated as first president of the United States

Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton submits Report on Public Credit to Congress

Hamilton proposes creation of national bank and submits Report on Manufactures to Congress

Vermont admitted to Union

Congress adopts excise tax on whiskey

Kentucky admitted to Union

Philadelphia newspaper war breaks out between supporter of Hamilton and Jefferson

First expression of partisan bias at ballot box

Washington re-elected president

French ambassador Citizen Genet arrives in the United States

Washington issues a proclamation asserting America's neutrality in war between France and Britain

Britain adopts an edict authorizing its vessels to seize any neutral vessels carrying supplies to French islands

James Madison submits series of proposals to Congress calling for commercial retaliation against Britain

Whiskey Rebellion

• Jay Treaty
• Tennessee admitted to Union
• Washington issues “Farewell Address”
• John Adams elected president
• French ambassador Citizen Adet publishes series of proclamations in American newspapers threatening hostile French reaction to Federalist victory

XYZ Affair

Congress adopts Alien and Sedition Acts

Legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia adopt sets of resolutions condemning Alien and Sedition Acts

Fries's Rebellion

Capital of the United States moves permanently to new site on the banks of Potomac River between Virginia and Maryland

Jefferson elected president

France cedes Louisiana Territory to Spain

Land Ordinance authored by Jefferson adopted, establishing a system for the settlement of the West and admission of new states

Northwest Land Ordinance succeeds 1784 Land Ordinance

Slave revolt on Saint-Domingue begins Haitian Revolution

Talleyrand convinces Spain to “retrocede” Louisiana Territory

Barbary Wars begin, lasting until 1805

Thomas Jefferson enters office as President

Napoleon sends expeditionary force to Saint-Domingue, which is defeated by combination of Haitian rebels and yellow fever outbreak

United States buys entire Louisiana Territory from France

France and Britain resume war

Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaims himself ruler of independent black republic of Haiti

Lewis and Clark expedition departs from St. Louis

Lewis and Clark expedition reaches Pacific Ocean at the mouth of the Columbia River

British naval victory at Trafalgar effectively destroys French naval power

Chesapeake-Leopard Affair incites popular outrage and calls for war with Britain

Jefferson endorses Embargo Act

Congress repeals Embargo Act

James Madison takes office as President

Congress passes Non-Intercourse Act

Congress adopts Macon's Bill, Number 2, leading to resumption of nominally normal trade relations with France and renewal of non-intercourse with Britain

U.S.S. President kills 9 and wounds 23 sailors aboard H.M.S. Little Belt

William Henry Harrison attacks and destroys Prophetstown, signalling commencement of hostilities in War of 1812

June 1, Madison asks Congress to declare war on Britain, which Congress does on June 4

June 23, British Parliament suspends restrictions on American trade (not knowing of declaration of war)

British capture Detroit, defeat US forces in Battles of Queenstown Heights

U.S.S. Constitution defeats H.M.S. Guerriere

U.S.S. United States captures H.M.S. Macedonia

Battle of Lake Erie and Battle of the Thames

U.S.S. Constitution defeats H.M.S. Java

British forces capture and burn Washington, D.C.

Battle of Baltimore

Hartford Convention of New England Federalists

December 24, Treaty of Ghent ends War of 1812

January 15, Battle of New Orleans

Neolin begins preaching message of spiritual and cultural reform and renewal among Indians

Pontiac's Uprising

George III issues proclamation to create new colonies and set aside Indian reserve in the west

Paxton Boys murder twenty Conestoga Indians

Virginians at Yellow Creek murder eight to ten Indians, triggering Dunmore's War

Cherokees ignore advice of Britain’s Southern Indian Superintendent and launch attacks along frontiers of Virginia and Carolinas

Shawnees and Delawares begin attacking American settlements in Kentucky

Northwest Indians, Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis, Chippewas, Ottawas and Potawatomis form Western Confederacy to resist American encroachments

United States win concessions of land from Iroquois, Choctaws, Chickasaws and Cherokees

Western Confederacy warriors under Little Turtle and Shawnee Blue attack American encampment in Ohio, killing 632 and injuring 264 men.

Anthony Wayne defeats Western Confederacy at Battle of Fallen Timbers

British agree to withdraw from western forts

Western tribes agree to Treaty of Greenville

Tenskwatawa successfully predicts total solar eclipse

Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa establish Prophetstown in central Indiana

William Henry Harrison attacks and destroys Prophetstown, signalling commencement of hostilities in War of 1812

Tecumseh killed at Battle of Thames after being abandoned by British forces

850 Red Sticks killed at Battle of Horseshoe Bend

Pennsylvania Quaker Anthony Benezet publishes series of pamphlets exposing horrors of transatlantic slave trade

Massachusetts Great and General Court debates proposal to ban slave trade

Massachusetts Great and General Court adopts bill prohibiting slave trade, but Governor Thomas Hutchinson refuses to give his consent

Board of Trade overturns attempt by Pennsylvania assembly to increase duty on imported enslaved people as a means of banning the trade

New Jersey Quakers inundate assembly with petitions calling for abolition of slave trade and easing of restrictions on manumissions

Slave trade prohibited in Rhode Island and Connecticut

Group of Boston enslaved people apply to General Gage for their freedom in return for service in assisting the British

Congress bans all African-Americans from service in the Continental Army

Lord Dunmore promises freedom to any Virginia slave who flees a rebel master to serve the British

Washington bows to chronic manpower shortages and accepts African-American soldiers into Continental Army

Vermont prohibits the practice of slavery in its constitution

Benjamin Rush publishes pamphlet attacking slavery

Virginia prohibits participation in trans-Atlantic slave trade

General Sir Henry Clinton issues Philipsburg proclamation offering enslaved men and women the opportunity to serve the British

Black Carolina Corps formed

Pennsylvania adopts a law requiring gradual emancipation of enslaved persons when they became adults

Massachusetts courts begin process of ending slavery

Virginia Assembly adopts a law allowing slaveholders to free enslaved people in their wills

Maryland prohibits participation in trans-Atlantic slave trade

Connecticut and Rhode Island adopt gradual emancipation laws

Enslaved African majority attempt to seize their freedom in Saint-Domingue

Georgia prohibits participation in trans-Atlantic slave trade

New York legislature adopts gradual emancipation law

Gabriel’s Rebellion

New Jersey adopts gradual emancipation law

Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaims himself ruler of independent black republic of Haiti

Members of Black Carolina Corps and enslaved soldiers of other West Indian units given freedom by Parliament

Appeals made to women to protest unjust taxes by refusing to consume items enumerated in Townshend Duties

Boston women pledge not to consume taxed items

Boston women declare their intention to abstain from tea in protest of Tea Act

Edenton Tea Party

Abigail Adams asks her husband to “Remember the Ladies” at the Continental Congress

New Jersey constitution defines voters not by gender but as “all free inhabitants” who could meet property and resident requirements

British pursue a policy of systematic rape in New Jersey

Deborah Sampson enlists in the Continental Army under the name of Robert Shurtliff

Deborah Sampson honourably discharged from the army

Mercy Otis Warren publishes Observations on the New Constitution and on the Federal and State Conventions

New Jersey legislature affirms the right of white women to vote

New Jersey constitution disenfranchises women

Pennsylvania adopts a law requiring gradual emancipation of enslaved persons when they became adults

Declaration of Sentiments adopted at Seneca Falls, New York