| 1830 |
The population of U.S. is 12,800,000. Andrew Jackson is President. |
| 1835 |
Ralph Waldo Emerson moves to Concord. Walt Whitman works as a printer in New York City. |
| 1836 |
Emerson publishes Nature. |
| 1837 |
Emerson delivers The American Scholar address at Harvard. Melville ships as a sailor on a
merchantman for Liverpool. |
| 1837 |
Henry David Thoreau graduates from Harvard College and begins teaching in Concord. Hawthornes
Twice Told Tales is published. |
| 1838 |
Emerson gives his Divinity School Address. Thoreau teaches gives his first Lyceum address. |
| 1838 |
Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery. Whitman establishes, edits, and publishes a weekly
newspaper on Long Island. |
| 1839 |
Thoreau and brother John take a two-week trip on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. |
| 1840 |
Bronson Alcott moves his family to Concord. Eight-year-old Louisa May Alcott attends Concord
Academy, admires Thoreau, and accompanies him on walks in woods around
Concord. Margaret Fuller edits first issue of the Transcendentalist journal The Dial. |
| 1841 |
Hawthorne is at Brook Farm. Emersons Essays appears. Thoreau moves in with the Emerson family
and begins to read Oriental philosophy. Douglass speaks in public for the first time at an anti-slavery
meeting on Nantucket and begins to lecture full-time as anti-slavery speaker. Melville goes to sea on the
Acushnet, a whaling vessel. |
| 1842 |
Hawthorne marries Sophia Peabody and moves into the Old Manse in Concord. Melville jumps ship in
the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific. |
| 1843 |
Whitman writes a temperance novel, Franklin Evans, or the Inebriate, to make money. Stranded in
Hawaii, Melville enlists in U.S. Navy. |
| 1844 |
Melville arrives home in Boston, having been gone for four years. After eight months, the
Transcendentalist communal experiment at Fruitlands fails. The Alcotts return to
Concord. Bronson Alcott suffers a nervous breakdown. |
| 1845 |
Margaret Fuller publishes her book, Woman in the Nineteenth Century. All 1500 copies sell out. On
July 4, Thoreau moves to Walden Pond. Douglass publishes his autobiography,
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave and begins a two-year lecture tour of British Isles. |
| 1846 |
To protest Massachusetts role in the perpetuation of slavery, Thoreau spends a night in jail rather
than pay the poll tax. An anti-slavery fair is held in Concord. Hawthorne publishes a
collection of stories titled Mosses from an Old Manse. Melvilles first book, the tale
of his adventure in the Marquesas, is published. It is titled Typee, after the cannibal
tribe he lived with on Nuku Hiva. |
| 1846 |
Whitman writes for The Brooklyn Eagle. |
| 1847 |
Thoreau leaves Walden. Omoo, a second sea book by Melville, is published. Douglass begins to
publish a reformist weekly newspaper, The North Star. |
| 1848 |
Douglass takes part in first womens rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York. |
| 1848 |
Thoreau writes Civil Disobedience. Whitman travels to New Orleans. |
| 1849 |
Thoreau publishes A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Hawthorne begins to write The
Scarlet Letter. Melville travels to Europe and then writes two books during the
summer: Redburn and White Jacket. Rredburn is published |
| 1850 |
Melville publishes White Jacket. Margaret Fuller, together with her husband and infant son, perish
when the ship on which they were returning home from Europe runs aground in a
storm and breaks up off Fire Island, New York. Thoreau is sent to recover her effects. |
| 1850 |
Emerson publishes Representative Men and makes a lecture tour in the West. Hawthorne publishes
The Scarlet Letter. Melville and Hawthorne meet on a picnic to Monument Mountain
in the Berkshries. |
| 1851 |
The Fugitive Slave Act becomes law. Hawthornes House of Seven Gables is published. Moby- Dick,
Melville's classic novel, is published. 2001 is the book's 150th anniversary. |
| 1852 |
Hawthorne publishes The Blithedale Romance. Pierre, yet another novel, is published by Melville. |
| 1853 |
After having written a campaign biography for his college friend, Hawthorne is appointed American
Council at Liverpool by President Pierce. |
| 1854 |
Thoreaus Walden is published. He acquires a modest reputation as a lecturer. |
| 1855 |
Melvilles Israel Potter appears. The first edition Whitmans Leaves of Grass is printed. Emerson
praises it highly. Douglass writes a second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom. |
| 1856 |
Thoreau and Bronson Alcott meet Walt Whitman. A second edition of Leaves of Grass is printed.
Melville publishes a collection of stories titled The Piazza Tales and visits Hawthorne in Liverpool and then tours Italy, Greece, and the Holy Land. |
| 1857 |
Melville's novel The Confidence Man is published. |
| 1858 |
John Brown is a house guest for three weeks at the home of Frederick Douglass. Hawthorne travels to France and Italy. Thoreaus Maine Woods begins to appear. Melville lectures on
"Statues in Rome.". |
| 1859 |
John Brown speaks at Concord Town Hall on May 8. On October 16 John Brown makes a raid on
U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Thoreau delivers a tribute "A Plea for Captain John
Brown." John Brown is executed December 2. Hawthorne begins to write The Marble
Fawn. Melville lectures on "Traveling." |
| 1860 |
The third edition of Leaves of Grass appears. Abraham Lincoln is elected President. |
| 1861 |
Thoreau goes to Minnesota for his health and to see Indians. He makes his last visit to Walden Pond
in September. The Civil War begins, April 12. Louisa May Alcott serves as a nurse in
an army hospital in Washington, D.C. Thoreau dies of tuberculosis. Hawthorne writes
an essay about the Civil War. |
| 1863 |
Louisa May Alcotts first successful literary work, Hospital Sketches is published. The
Emancipation Proclamation is issued by President Lincoln and takes affect January 1. Douglass recruits
Negro troops for Union army. Whitman works as nurse in Washington, D.C hospitals. |
| 1864 |
Melville gets a firsthand glimpse of the Civil War visiting a cousin serving in the
Army of the Potomac. |
| 1865 |
President Lincoln is assassinated. |
| 1865 |
Whitman publishes Drum-Taps and works as a government clerk. |
| 1866 |
Melville begins to work at the New York Customs House as an inspector. |
| 1867 |
Fourth edition of Leaves of Grass comes out. |
| 1868 |
Louisa May Alcotts Little Women is published. |
| 1870 |
Fifteenth Amendment gives the vote to Negro men. Fifth edition of Leaves of Grass is published. |
| 1870 |
Walt Whitman writes Democratic Vistas. |
| 1871 |
Little Men is published by Louisa May Alcott. Whitman adds "Passage to India" and other poems to
Leaves of Grass. |
| 1873 |
Alcott publishes Work: A Story of Experience and her satire of Fruitlands, Transcendental Wild
Oats. |
| 1875 |
Alcotts Eight Cousins is published. |
| 1876 |
Alcott publishes Rose in Bloom. Melvilles long poem about the Holy Land, Clarel, is published. |
| 1877 |
Alcott publishes A Modern Mephistopheles. Whitman lectures on Tom Paine in Philadelphia. |
| 1879 |
Whitman lectures on Abraham Lincoln and travels to Denver. |
| 1881 |
Douglass third autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass appears. |
| 1887 |
Melville gets last royalty statement. His lifetime earnings for sale of his books in the United States is
$5,900. |
| 1888 |
Louisa May Alcott cares for her dying father and dies herself just two days later. |
| 1890 |
Population of U.S. is 62,900,000. |
| 1891 |
Frederick Douglass is appointed Council General to Republic of Haiti by President Harrison. Melville
dies leaving Billy Budd, Sailor all but finished. Whitman publishes the deathbed
edition of Leave of Grass.
|
| 1892 |
Walt Whitman dies. |
| 1895 |
After speaking at a womens rights meeting, Douglass dies of heart attack in Washington, D. C. |
