Here are all the dates you need to know.
Dates to memorize for American Literature 1
Jon Miller, University of Akron
Some of these dates are on the naturalization test required of foreign citizens applying for U.S. Citizenship. So there’s pretty much no excuse for any U.S. citizen to not know these dates. The other dates are just useful for learning and retaining a basic outline of American literary history.
1521 Spain conquers the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán (Mexico City).
1630 John Winthrop arrives at the Massachusetts Bay Colony with a large group of Puritans.
1690 About this time, some people in Boston (pop. 7,000) and New York (pop. 6,000) begin to prosper and “refine” themselves; the “refinement of America” will define the cultural and literary history of the eighteenth century (1700-1800).
1732 Benjamin Franklin publishes Poor Richard’s Almanac for the first time.
1776 Declaration of Independence adopted.
1787 U.S. Constitution written.
1803 The Louisiana Purchase doubles the size of the United States and energizes American politicians with plans of empire and expansion.
1825 The Erie Canal opens, connecting Lake Erie and the Great Lakes region to New York City’s Hudson River and eastern markets. Construction begins on the Ohio and Erie Canal, which criss-crosses the enormous western state of Ohio. In a few years, construction will begin on the first U.S. passenger railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio. Transportation improvements in the interior of the country – along rivers as well as newly-built roads, canals, and railroads – speeds the “market revolution” or transition from subsistence/barter local economies to cash-based regional and national economies. Big-city books, magazines, and newspapers are much more accessible throughout the country.
1835 “Penny papers” are now available in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore; steam-driven presses are now printing radically inexpensive reading materials. The number of American authors and publications begins to accelerate dramatically.
1839 The “Public School Movement” underway. Improved public schools increase the demand for reading material – and creative literature – in and out of the classroom. Children’s literature begins to flourish as a distinct genre in both England and the United States.
1861 The Civil War begins.
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