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Timeline of Events

1600s | 1700s | 1800s

1600s

1630
Boston is founded.

1635
The nation's first free public school is founded.

1638
The first Africans arrive in Boston on the vessel “Desire”.

1641
Massachusetts is the first colony to legalize slavery.

1647
Massachusetts passes first compulsory education law.

1700s

1721
Boston administers first U.S. smallpox inoculations, advised by Africa-born Onesimus Mather.

1770
Crispus Attucks, a black man, is killed near the Customs House in the Boston Massacre.

1773
Phillis Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, the first book written by an African American woman, is published.

1775
The American Revolution starts.

1776
The Declaration of Independence is signed.

Economist Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations, introducing the “free enterprise” system.

Prince Hall establishes the first African American Masonic Lodge in Boston.

1780
Paul Cuffe and others protest taxation without representation.

1783
The American Revolution ends; slavery is abolished in Massachusetts.

1784
Bostonians establish New England's first bank.

1785
Congress adopts the dollar as America's unit of currency.

1787
The U.S. Constitution is written.

1789
George Washington is inaugurated as first U.S. president.

1792
The N.Y. Stock Exchange is founded.

1793
Massachusetts native Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, mechanizing the separation of cotton fibers from seed pods.

Slater's Mill, America's first successful water-powered textile factory, is established in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Congress passes the first Fugitive Slave Law.

1794
Interchangeable parts are introduced to manufacturing processes in Springfield, Massachusetts

1796
The African Society, a mutual self-help organization, is founded in Boston.

1798
The African School is established In Primus Hall's home in Boston.

1800s

1803
The Louisiana Purchase doubles the size of the United States.

1806
The Boston African Meeting House is dedicated.

1807
Congress bans the transatlantic slave trade.

1810
The American insurance industry is established in Hartford, Connecticut

1812
The War of 1812 with Great Britain curtails the transatlantic slave trade.

1814
The first “all in one” textile mill is established in Waltham, Massachusetts, enabling the manufacture of cotton cloth from raw cotton under one roof.

1825
The Erie Canal opens the western frontier to trade and expansion; Boston declines in importance as a port city.

1826
The Massachusetts General Colored Association, the first abolitionist society, is founded.

1829
David Walker prints An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World.

1831
William Lloyd Garrison publishes his weekly, The Liberator, until 1865
The first Convention of Colored People is held in Philadelphia.

1832
The New England Anti-Slavery Society is founded.

1834
The first electrical motor is invented in Vermont.

The Boston Stock Exchange is established.

1835
Abiel Smith School, the first public school for black children, opens in Boston.

1844
The first telegraph message dramatically changes the speed of communication.

1845
A potato famine increases Irish emigration, especially to Boston.

1846
The first practical sewing machine is patented.

1848
The California Gold Rush spurs westward migration.

The Temple Toggle Harpoon revolutionizes the whaling industry.

1850
Congress passes the second Fugitive Slave Law, requiring U.S. marshals help slave owners capture runaway slaves.

1853
William Wells Brown publishes Clotel, the first novel by an African American.

1855
Boston schools are racially integrated.

1857
The U.S. Supreme Court Dred Scott ruling denies citizenship to all slaves, ex-slaves, and descendents of slaves, and denies Congress the right to prohibit slavery in the territories.

1859
Harriet Wilson publishes Our Nig, the first novel by a black woman.

1861
U.S. Civil War begins.

1863
Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation ends slavery in the Confederacy.

1865
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution outlaws slavery nationwide.

1866
Congress passes the first Civil Rights Act.

1868
The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States”.

1869
Massachusetts establishes the first bureau of labor statistics.

The Union and Central Pacific rail lines meet, forming the first transcontinental route.

1870
The 15th Amendment guarantees the right to vote for all citizens.

1875
Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone in Boston.

The Civil Rights Act of 1875 guarantees equal rights to black Americans in public accommodations and jury duty until overturned in 1883.

1879
Thomas Edison develops the light bulb; Latimer improves it.

1883
Jan Matzeliger invents the shoe-lasting machine, which increases daily shoe production to 700 pairs from 50.

1893
The first gas-powered car in the United States is built in Springfield, Massachusetts.