Brief Timeline of American Literature

and Events
1830-1839
1830-
Political and Social History Literature
1839
1830  Mexico blocks further U.S.  Godey's Lady's Book
colonists  (1830-98) 
 U. S. population: 12,866,020  Birth of Emily Dickinson
 28 May. President Andrew (d. 1886)
Jackson signs the Indian Removal
Act authorizing the move of of
several tribes to Western lands. 
 The Republicans nominate
Henry Clay for president. 
 15 September. The Choctaws
sign a treaty exchanging 8 million
acres of land east of the Mississippi
for land in Oklahoma. 
1831  Former president John Quincy  Rebecca Harding Davis
Adams takes a seat in the House of born.
Representatives.  Poe publishes "Israfel"
 Nat Turner leads slave uprising in Poems by Edgar A.
in which 70 whites are killed; 100 Poe 
blacks are killed in a search for  James Kirke Paulding's
Turner. Thomas Gray records the The Lion of the West
Confessions of Nat Turner in early features a character,
November. Nimrod Wildfire, based on
 Black Hawk of the Sauk and Fox Davy Crockett (1786-
tribes agrees to move west of 1836).
Mississippi.  The
 Alexis de Tocqueville and his
friend Gustave de Beaumont spend
nine months touring America. The
book that de Tocqueville writes
after this trip, Democracy in
America, will be published in 1835.
 Liberator (abolitionist
paper, 1831-65). In its first
issue, William Lloyd
Garrison writes, "On this
subject [slavery] I do not
wish to think, or speak, or
write with moderation. No!
No!  Tell a man whose
house is on fire, to give a
moderate alarm; tell him
to moderately rescue his
wife from the hands of the
ravisher; tell the mother to
gradually extricate her
babe from the fire into
which it has fallen; but
urge me not to use
moderation in a cause like
the present.  I am in
earnest--I will not
equivocate--I will not
excuse--I will not retreat a
single inch--AND I WILL
BE HEARD." (Image courtesy
of the National Portrait Gallery.)
 Spirit of the Times (1831-58),
which publishes stories and
sketches of the Southwestern
humorists.
 The New-England Magazine
(1831-1835)

1832  Democrat Andrew Jackson is re-  Louisa May Alcott born

elected president over his on her father's 33rd
opponents, gathering 216 electoral birthday. 
votes to National Republican  Hawthorne, "Roger
candidate Henry Clay's 49. Also Malvin's Burial"
running are Anti-Masonic candidate
William Wirt (7) and Independent
John Floyd (11). 
 Seminole chiefs cede Florida to
the U.S. and agree to move west of
the Mississippi 
 The Oregon Trail becomes a
 main route for settlers 
 New England Anti-Slavery
Society is founded 
 6 April-2 August. Black Hawk
War (Columbia Encyclopedia entry)
1833  Americans in Texas territory vote  William Apess, "An
to separate Texas from Mexico.  Indian's Looking-Glass for
 Britain prohibits slavery in her the White Man" 
colonies.   Knickerbocker
 Oberlin College opens, the first Magazine (1833-65)
co-educational college and the first founded by Charles
to admit blacks. Fenno Hoffman (1806-
 25 September. Following the 1884)
instructions of President Jackson,  Child, Appeal in Favor
Treasury Secretary Roger B. Taney of that Class of
announces that the government will Americans Called
shift its deposits from the Second Africans
Bank of the United States to state    Black Hawk or
banks, a move that as Jackson Makataimeshekiakiak,
intended weakens the Bank of the selections from
United States.  Autobiography (Surrender
Speech of 1832 also available
online; iImage courtesy of the
National Portrait Gallery.)

1834  The Senate opposes Jackson Southern Literary

 over his removal of funds to topple
the Bank of the United States 
 Cyrus McCormick patents the
horse-drawn grain reaper 
 Anti-Catholic protestors burn the
Ursuline convent in Somerville,
Massachusetts.
1835  National debt is paid off. To
increase the amount of available
money needed for a growing
economy, the state banks begin to
issue bank notes not backed by
gold and silver. Inflation results
from this practice.  Norcom (Dr. Flint in
 Mob in Charleston, S.C. burns
abolitionist literature, and
abolitionist writers are expelled
from Southern states.
 Alexis de Tocqueville publishes
Democracy in America in France.
1836  Beginning on February 23, Santa
Anna leads 3,000 men in a siege of
the Alamo, killing all 187 Texans
inside on March 6; on March 27, his
troops under Col. José Nicolás de
la Portilla kill 300-400 soldiers
Messenger (1834-64)
 Samuel L. Clemens
(Mark Twain) born in
Florida, Missouri. (d.
1910)
 Harriet Jacobs goes
into hiding to escape Dr.
Incidents); she will remain
in hiding until her 1842
escape to New York. 
 Poe appointed editor of
the Southern Literary
Messenger 
 William Gilmore Simms,
The Yemassee (story of
Indian warfare in Georgia)
 Augustus Baldwin
Longstreet, Georgia
Scenes 
 Crockett almanacs
(1835-56)
 James Gordon Bennett
begins publishing the
New York Herald, which
boosts its circulation with
sensational coverage of
the murder of Helen
Jewett.
 Graham's Magazine 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Nature 
 Transcendental Club
(1836-c.1844) 
 Bret Harte born 
defending Goliad. (To see the Alamo  Elizabeth Peabody
today, visit the Alamo cam) edits Bronson Alcott's
 21 April. Texans capture Santa Record of a School and
Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto Conversations with
and kill some 650 Mexican Children on the Gospels.
soldiers.  (1826-58)
 11 July. The problems arising
from growing inflation, land
speculation, and worthless
currency lead President Jackson to
issue the Specie Circular, which
requires that public lands be paid
for in gold or silver instead of paper
money.
 1 September. Settlers led by Dr.
Marcus Whitman reach Walla Walla
in present-day Washington.
 Massachusetts Supreme Court
rules that any slave brought within
its borders by a master is free.