This wide-ranging, multidisciplinary, illustrated encyclopedia covers in depth one of the most colorful and eventful periods in U.S. history--the eight decades from the end of the American Revolution to the eve of the Civil War.

Table of Contents

• Introduction: Interpreting the Early Republic and Antellum America, 1783–1861
• A
• Abolitionist and Antislavery Movements
• Adams, Abigail
• Adams, John
• Adams, John Quincy
• Adams-Onís Treaty (1819)
• African Colonization
• African Methodist Episcopal Church
• African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
• Aging and the Elderly
• Agriculture
• Alamo, Battle of the
• Alcohol and Temperance
• Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)
• Amistad Incident
• Anthony, Susan B.
• Anti-Federalists
• Anti-Masonic Party
• Architecture
• Army, U.S.
• Army Corps of Engineers, U.S.
• Aroostook War
• Art, Fine
• Art, Folk
• Asbury, Francis
• Ashley, William Henry
• Astor, John Jacob
• Astor Place Riot
• Atchison, David Rice
• Atlanta, Georgia
• Audubon, John James
• Austin, Stephen F.
• B
• Baltimore, Maryland
• Bancroft, George
• Bank of the United States
• Bankruptcy and Insolvency
• Banks and Banking
• Banneker, Benjamin
• Baptists
• Barbary Wars
• Barnum, P.T.
• Beecher, Catharine
• Beecher, Henry Ward
• Bennett, James Gordon
• Benton, Thomas Hart
• Bible
• Bill of Rights
• Birney, James Gillespie
• Birth and Childbearing
• Black Hawk War
• Blackwell, Elizabeth
• Bleeding Kansas
• Boone, Daniel
• Booth, Edwin
• Boston, Massachusetts
• Breckinridge, John C.
• British Americans
• Brook Farm
• Brown, Charles Brockden
• Brown, John
• Bryant, William Cullen
• Buchanan, James
• Buffalo, New York
• Bulfinch, Charles
• Buntline, Ned
• Burns, Anthony
• Burr, Aaron
• C
• Cabinet, Presidential
• Calhoun, John C.
• California
• Canada, Relations with
• Canals
• Caroline Affair
• Carson, Kit
• Cass, Lewis
• Catholicism
• Channing, William Ellery
• Charity and Philanthropy
• Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge (1837)
• Charleston, South Carolina
• Chase (Samuel), Impeachment of
• Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831)
• Chicago, Illinois
• Children and Child Rearing
• China, Relations with
• Chinese Americans
• Chisholm v. Georgia (1793)
• Christiana Riot
• Cincinnati, Ohio
• Cities and Urban Life
• Civil War, The Road to
• Clay, Henry
• Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (1850)
• Clinton, George
• Clocks and Clock Manufacturing
• Clothing and Fashion
• Coal
• Cole, Thomas
• Colt, Samuel
• Columbia University
• Compromise of 1850
• Congregationalists
• Congress, U.S.
• Constitution, U.S.
• Constitutions, State
• Convention of 1818
• Cooper, James Fenimore
• Corn
• Corporations
• Cotton
• Creoles
• Crimean War, Impact of
• Crittenden Compromise (1860)
• Crockett, Davy
• Cuba, Relations with
• D
• Dance and Dancing
• Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)
• Davis, Jefferson
• Death and Dying
• Decatur, Stephen
• Deere, John
• Delany, Martin R.
• Democratic Party
• Democratic-Republican Party
• Disciples of Christ
• Dix, Dorothea
• Donner Party
• Dorr Rebellion
• Douglas, Stephen A.
• Douglass, Frederick
• Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
• Dueling
• Dwight, Timothy
• E
• Eaton, Peggy
• Economy and Economic Policy
• Education and Schools
• Election of 1796
• Election of 1800
• Election of 1824
• Election of 1828
• Election of 1840
• Election of 1860
• Elliott, Jesse Duncan
• Embargo Act (1807)
• Emerson, Ralph Waldo
• Entrepreneurs
• Environment and Nature, Views of
• Epidemics
• Episcopalians
• Erie Canal
• Everett, Edward
• F
• Federalist Party
• Female Reform Movement
• Filibustering
• Fillmore, Millard
• Finney, Charles Grandison
• Fishing
• Fletcher v. Peck (1810)
• Food and Diet
• Foreign Affairs
• Forrest, Edwin
• Fort Sumter, Attack on
• Forty-Eighters
• Foster, Stephen
• Fourierism
• France, Relations with
• Franklin Institute
• Fraternal Societies
• Free Blacks, Business and Economy
• Free Blacks, Life and Culture
• Free Soil Movement and Party
• Freemasonry
• Freeport Doctrine
• Frémont, John C.
• French Americans
• French Revolution, Impact of
• Freneau, Philip
• Fries's Rebellion
• Fugitive Slave Laws (1793 and 1850)
• Fuller, Margaret
• Fulton, Robert
• Fur Trade
• Furniture and Furnishings
• G
• Gabriel's Rebellion
• Gadsden Purchase (1853)
• Gag Rule
• Gallatin, Albert
• Gambling
• Games and Toys
• Garrison, William Lloyd
• Gender Roles
• Genet Affair
• German Americans
• Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
• Gottschalk, Louis Moreau
• Graham, Sylvester
• Great Britain, Relations with
• Great Lakes
• Great Migration
• Great Plains
• Greeley, Horace
• Greenough, Horatio
• Grimké, Sarah, and Angelina Grimké
• Guns and Weapons
• H
• Haitian Revolution, Impact of
• Hale, John Parker
• Hamilton, Alexander
• Harpers Ferry Raid
• Harrison, William Henry
• Hartford Convention
• Harvard University
• Hawthorne, Nathaniel
• Hewlett, James
• Holidays and Observances
• Horses
• Houston, Sam
• Howe, Elias
• Howe, Samuel Gridley
• Hunting
• I
• Immigration and Immigrants
• Industrialization
• Irish Americans
• Iron and Steel
• Irving, Washington
• J
• Jackson, Andrew
• Japan, Relations with
• Jay, John
• Jay Treaty (1794)
• Jefferson, Thomas
• Jews
• Johnson, Richard Mentor
• Johnson v. M'Intosh (1823)
• Judiciary Act (1789)
• K
• Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
• Kearny, Stephen W.
• L
• Labor and Unions
• Lafayette's Tour
• Laffite, Jean
• Lamy, Jean-Baptiste
• Larkin, Thomas O.
• Latin America, Relations with
• Latrobe, Benjamin
• Law, Business and Labor
• Law, Criminal
• Law, Property and Contract
• Law Enforcement
• Lewis and Clark Expedition
• Lexington, Kentucky
• Liberty Party
• Libraries
• Library of Congress
• Lincoln, Abraham
• Lincoln-Douglas Debates
• Lind, Jenny
• Literature
• Livestock, Dairy Farming, and Ranching
• Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
• Los Angeles, California
• Louisiana Purchase (1803)
• Lovejoy, Elijah P.
• Lowell, James Russell
• Lowell System
• Lyceums
• M
• Macready, William Charles
• Madison, Dolley
• Madison, James
• Manifest Destiny
• Mann, Horace
• Marbury v. Madison (1803)
• Marine Corps, U.S.
• Market Revolution
• Marriage and Divorce
• Marshall, John
• Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1816)
• Massachusetts Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842)
• Maury, Matthew Fontaine
• McCormick, Cyrus
• McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
• Medicine and Health
• Melville, Herman
• Mental Illness
• Merchants
• Methodists
• Mexican-American War
• Mexican Americans
• Mexico, Relations with
• Mid-Atlantic
• Midwest
• Military Academy, U.S.
• Military and Naval Technology
• Millennialism and Adventism
• Mining
• Minstrelsy
• Missionaries and Missionary Work
• Missions of California
• Mississippi River
• Missouri Compromise (1820)
• Money and Currency
• Monroe, James
• Monroe Doctrine
• Mormons
• Morse, Samuel F.B.
• Morton, William T.G.
• Mott, Lucretia
• Mount Holyoke College
• Music, Classical
• Music, Folk and Popular
• Music, Sacred
• N
• Napoleonic Wars, Impact of
• National Debt
• National Road
• Nationalism
• Native American-African American Relations
• Native American-U.S. Government Relations
• Native Americans, California
• Native Americans, Great Plains
• Native Americans, Mid-Atlantic
• Native Americans, Midwest
• Native Americans, New England
• Native Americans, Pacific Northwest
• Native Americans, South
• Native Americans, Southwest
• Nativism and the Know-Nothing Party
• Naturalization Acts (1790s)
• Naval Academy, U.S.
• Navy, U.S.
• Neutrality Act (1794)
• New England
• New Orleans, Louisiana
• New York City, New York
• Newport, Rhode Island
• Newspapers and Periodicals
• Northwest Territory
• Notre Dame, University of
• Nullification Crisis
• O
• Oberlin College
• Ohio River
• Oneida Commune
• Oregon Trail
• Osceola
• Ostend Manifesto (1854)
• O'Sullivan, John L.
• Owen, Robert
• P
• Pacific Northwest
• Paine, Thomas
• Panic of 1819
• Panic of 1837
• Panic of 1857
• Parker, Theodore
• Peale, Charles Willson
• Peddlers
• Perry, Matthew C.
• Perry, Oliver Hazard
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Phillips, Wendell
• Photography
• Pierce, Franklin
• Pike, Zebulon M.
• Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth
• Pinckney's Treaty (1795)
• Pinkerton, Allan
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Planters and Plantations
• Poe, Edgar Allan
• Poetry
• Politics and Political Culture
• Polk, James K.
• Pony Express
• Popular Culture
• Population and Demographics
• Postal Service, U.S.
• Presbyterians
• Presidency
• Prigg v. Pennsylvania (1842)
• Princeton University
• Printing and Publishing
• Prisons and Penitentiaries
• Prostitution
• Purvis, Robert
• Q
• Quakers
• R
• Railroads
• Randolph, John
• Religion, African American
• Religion, Native American
• Republican Party
• Rice
• Richmond, Virginia
• Ripley, George
• Roads and Turnpikes
• Rocky Mountains
• Roebling, John A.
• Ross, John
• Rush-Bagot Agreement (1817)
• S
• Sabbatarianism and the Sabbath
• Sacagawea
• San Francisco, California
• Santa Fe Trail
• Science and Technology
• Scots-Irish Immigrants
• Scott, Winfield
• Secession
• Second Great Awakening
• Seneca Falls Convention
• Sequoyah
• Seton, Elizabeth Ann
• Seward, William H.
• Sex and Sexuality
• Shakers
• Shipbuilding
• Shoemaking
• Simms, William Gilmore
• Singer, Isaac
• Slater, Samuel
• Slave Patrols
• Slave Trade, Domestic
• Slave Trade, International
• Slavery, Life and Culture
• Slavery, Resistance to
• Smith, Jedediah
• Smith, Joseph
• Smithsonian Institution
• South, Lower
• South, Upper
• Southwest
• Spain, Relations with
• Spas and Gardens
• Spiritualism
• Spoils System
• Sports and Recreation
• St. Louis, Missouri
• Stanton, Elizabeth Cady
• Steam Engine
• Steamboats and Steamships
• Stewart, Maria W.
• Stone, Lucy
• Stowe, Harriet Beecher
• Stuart, Gilbert
• Sumner, Charles
• Supreme Court, U.S.
• T
• Tammany Hall
• Taney, Roger B.
• Tariffs
• Taxation
• Taylor, Zachary
• Tecumseh
• Telegraph
• Tenskwatawa
• Texas
• Textiles
• Theater
• Thoreau, Henry David
• Timber and Logging
• Tobacco
• Trade, Foreign
• Trail of Tears
• Transcendentalism
• Transportation Revolution
• Trumbull, John
• Truth, Sojourner
• Tubman, Harriet
• Turner Rebellion
• Tyler, John
• U
• Underground Railroad
• Unitarians
• University of Michigan
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Virginia
• V
• Van Buren, Martin
• Vanderbilt, Cornelius
• Vesey Conspiracy (1822)
• Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions
• W
• Walker, William
• War of 1812
• Warren, Josiah
• Washington, D.C.
• Washington, George
• Waterpower
• Wealth and Poverty
• Webster, Daniel
• Webster, Noah
• West, Benjamin
• Westward Expansion
• Whaling
• Wheat
• Whig Party
• Whiskey Rebellion
• Whitney, Eli
• Whittier, John Greenleaf
• Willard, Emma Hart
• William and Mary, College of
• Wilmot Proviso (1846)
• Women, Elite
• Women, Middle-Class
• Women, Slave
• Women, Working-Class
• Women's Rights Movement
• Worcester v. Georgia (1832)
• Workingmen's Party
• Wright, Fanny
• X
• XYZ Affair
• Y
• Yale University
• Young, Brigham
• Primary Documents
• Federalist No. 10, On Factions (1787)
• The Anti-Federalist Papers, Centinel IV (1787)
• Washington Accepts the Presidency, Report to the Continental Congress (1789)
• The Journal of Francis Asbury, Excerpt (1791)
• Report on Manufactures, Alexander Hamilton (1791)
• The Apprentice System in America, Excerpt from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1793)
• Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1795)
• American Cookery, by Amelia Simmons, Excerpt (1796)
• George Washington's Farewell Address (1796)
• The Second Kentucky Resolution (1799)
• The Life of Washington, by Mason Locke Weems, Excerpt (1800)
• On the Scene at a Kentucky Revival (1801)
• Marbury v. Madison (1803)
• Twelfth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1804)
• The Hamilton-Burr Duel (1804)
• The Journals of Lewis and Clark, Excerpts (1805)
• The First Steamboat Sets Sail, Letter by Robert Fulton (1807)
• “We Listen to the Voice of the Great Spirit,” Remarks by Tenskwatawa (1808)
• Knickerbocker's History of New York, by Washington Irving, Excerpt (1809)
• “The White People Have No Right to Take the Land,” Speech by Tecumseh (1810)
• “I Prefer War to Submission,” Speech by Representative Felix Grundy (1811)
• Objections to the War of 1812, Speech by Daniel Webster (1812)
• “The Benefits of Colonization,” by Robert Goodloe Harper (1817)
• McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
• The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth (The Jefferson Bible), Excerpt (1820)
• “Thanatopsis,” by William Cullen Bryant (1821)
• The Burning of Washington, an Eyewitness Account (1821)
• “A Visit from Saint Nicholas,”by Clement Clark Moore (1823)
• Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
• “The Hunters of Kentucky,” Andrew Jackson Campaign Song (1824)
• Lafayette Visits Bunker Hill, Welcoming Remarks (1824)
• Proper Parenting, Diary of Susan Mansfield Huntington (1826)
• Cherokee Progress, Address by Elias Boudinot (1826)
• Webster's Dictionary, Excerpts (1828)
• “South Carolina Exposition and Protest,” by John C. Calhoun (1828)
• The Inauguration of Andrew Jackson, A Firsthand Account by Margaret Bayard Smith (1829)
• Conditions on a Slave Ship, Description by the Reverend Robert Walsh (1829)
• “All Men Are Sinners,” Sunday School Text (1830)
• “Wade in the Water,” Slave Spiritual (1830)
• Tom Thumb Races a Horse, Eyewitness Account by John Latrobe (1830)
• Inaugural Editorial, The Liberator, by William Lloyd Garrison (1831)
• The Removal and Plunder of the Cherokee, A Firsthand Account (1831)
• The Confessions of Nat Turner, by Thomas Ruffin Gray, Excerpt (1831)
• Worcester v. Georgia (1832)
• “Jump Jim Crow,” Minstrel Song (1832)
• The Black Man's Fourth of July, Address by Peter Osborne (1832)
• The Founding of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Recounted by Richard Allen (1833)
• Davy Crockett Kills a Bear, from A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett (1834)
• On Revivals of Religion, Sermon by Charles Grandison Finney (1835)
• A Visit to San Francisco, Excerpt from Two Years before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1835)
• How to Conduct a Newspaper, Editorial in the New York Herald (1836)
• The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, Excerpt (1836)
• The Battle of the Alamo, as Recounted by a Survivor (1836)
• Obituary of James Madison, Connecticut Observer (1836)
• “Because They Are Black,” by William Lloyd Garrison (1837)
• “The American Scholar,” by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Excerpt (1837)
• “A Lecture to Young Men on Chastity,” by Sylvester Graham, Excerpt (1838)
• Wage Slavery, Excerpt from The Savage, by Piomingo (1838)
• The “Revolting and Audacious” Amistad Trial, New York Herald (1839)
• The Americans and the Romans, Excerpt from Democracy in America, by Alexis de Tocqueville (1840)
• On the “Log Cabin and Hard Cider” Campaign, Letter by James Buchanan (1840)
• A Treatise on Domestic Economy, by Catharine Beecher, Excerpt
• Anti-Mormonism, Letter by John Cook Bennett (1842)
• Visit to a New York Prostitute, Excerpt from The Journal of Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1843)
• “The Tell-Tale Heart,” by Edgar Allan Poe, Excerpt (1843)
• Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians, by George Catlin, Excerpt (1844)
• Life in the Lowell Mills, Letter by Harriet Farley (1844)
• The State of American Jewry, The Occident and American Jewish Advocate (1844)
• The Success of the Telegraph, Letter by Samuel F.B. Morse (1844)
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Excerpt (1845)
• The Rules of Baseball, by Alexander J. Cartwright (1845)
• Opposition to the Mexican-American War, Letter by Frederick Douglass (1846)
• The Donner Party Makes a Grim Decision, A Contemporary Account (1847)
• The Proper Use of Ether, by William T.G. Morton (1847)
• Support for the Mexican-American War, Letter by James Buchanan (1847)
• Education as a Great Equalizer, Report by Horace Mann (1848)
• “Oh! Susanna,” Song by Stephen Foster (1848)
• Soldiering in the Mexican-American War, A Letter Home (1848)
• The Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls Convention (1848)
• Opposition to the Seneca Falls Convention, Mechanic's Advocate, Albany, New York (1848)
• On Civil Disobedience, by Henry David Thoreau, Excerpt (1849)
• “Powder, Not Prayer”: A View of Native Americans (1849)
• Prospecting for Gold in California, A Firsthand Account (1849)
• The Drunkard, Temperance Play by W.H. Smith, Excerpt (1850)
• “The Art of Money-Getting,” by P.T. Barnum (1850)
• Traveling the Underground Railroad, Excerpt from Reminiscences of Levi Coffin (1850)
• On a Whale Hunt in the Pacific (1850)
• Speech to the U.S. Senate in Favor of the Compromise of 1850, by Henry Clay (1850)
• Jenny Lind in America, Advertisements, New York Herald (1850)
• “November Fashions,” Godey's Lady's Book (1850)
• Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville, Excerpt (1851)
• Report on Indian Affairs (1851)
• The King of the Sea, by Ned Buntline, Excerpt (1852)
• Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Excerpt (1852)
• Response to Uncle Tom's Cabin, Southern Press Review (1852)
• Argument for Slavery, Excerpt from Sociology for the South, by George Fitzhugh (1854)
• On “Slave Power,” Editorial, The National Era (1854)
• Life on a Cotton Plantation, Excerpt from Twelve Years a Slave, by Solomon Northup (1855)
• Developments in Science, Excerpts from Scientific American (1855)
• Objections to African Colonization, Letter to Frederick A. Douglass (1855)
• “Song of Myself,” by Walt Whitman, Excerpt (1855)
• Opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Letter by Abraham Lincoln (1855)
• The Song of Hiawatha, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1855)
• Anthony Burns Returned to Virginia, an Eyewitness Report (1856)
• An American View of Japanese Culture, Commodore Matthew C. Perry (1856)
• “The Crime Against Kansas,” Speech to the U.S. Senate by Senator Charles Sumner (1856)
• The Whipping of Charles Sumner, Charleston Mercury (1856)
• Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
• Northern Response to the Dred Scott Decision, New York Tribune (1857)
• Southern Response to the Dred Scott Decision, Richmond Enquirer (1857)
• McGuffey's Eclectic Reader, Excerpts (1857)
• The New York Debut of Edwin Booth, Theater Review, The New York Times (1857)
• Heading Off Fraudulent Votes, Letter by Abraham Lincoln (1858)
• The Demoralizing Effects of Prizefighting, Editorial, The New York Times (1858)
• Slave Auction in Savannah, A Newspaper Account (1859)
• Interview with Brigham Young (1859)
• John Brown's Final Speech (1859)
• The Impact of John Brown's Raid, Editorial, Raleigh Register (1859)
• “Lincoln and Liberty,” Song (1860)
• The Secession of South Carolina, A Firsthand Account (1860)
• The Attack on Fort Sumter, The New York Times (1861)
• Chronologies
• African Americans and Slavery
• Art, Literature, and Culture
• Economy, Business, and Labor
• Expansion and Exploration
• Foreign Affairs
• Native Americans
• Politics and Government
• Reform
• Religion
• Science and Technology
• Glossary
• Master Bibliography
• Books and Articles
• Web Sites