Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an 1845 memoir and treatise on abolition written by famous orator and former slave Frederick Douglass. It is generally held to be the most famous of a number of narratives written by former slaves during the same period.
The wrought-iron framed plow had a polished steel share. This made it ideal for the tough soil of the Midwest United States and worked better than other plows.
John Deere invents the first commercially successful steel plow Read more
In an emergency, Morse code can be sent by improvised methods that can be easily “keyed” on and off, making it one of the simplest and most versatile methods of telecommunication.
Samuel Morse invents Morse code Read more
As early as 1834, Davenport developed a battery-powered electric motor. He used it to operate a small model car on a short section of track, paving the way for the later electrification of streetcars.
Thomas Davenport invents what is perhaps the world’s first electric vehicle Read more
The U.S. Congress passed an act to “prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States…from any foreign kingdom, place, or country.”
U.S. Congress abolishes the African slave trade Read more
In 1794, U.S.-born inventor Eli Whitney (1765-1825) patented the cotton gin, a machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber.
Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin, revolutionizing the production of cotton Read more
The Bill of Rights amendments add specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government’s power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically granted to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved to the states or the people.
U.S. Bill of Rights ratified, become first 10 amendments of the U.S. Constitution Read more
Rights of Man (1791), a book by Thomas Paine, including 31 articles, posits that popular political revolution is permissible when a government does not safeguard the natural rights of its people
Thomas Paine publishes Rights of Man Read more
Today the U.S. Constitution is the oldest written constitution in operation in the world.
The United States Constitution is ratified Read more
This idea formed the basis of the new U.S. Constitution, which became the law of the land in 1789.
Constitutional Convention convenes in Philadelphia, marking new era of democracy Read more
