TIMELINE OF EVENTS
| 1820–1850 | Southern cotton production increases from about 500,000 bales to 3 million bales |
| 1821 | Mexico overthrows Spanish rule and encourages U.S. settlement in Texas |
| 1830–1850 | 440,000 slaves from the Upper South sold to owners in the Lower South |
| 1831 | Cherokee Nation v. Georgia |
| August 1831 | Nat Turner leads slave uprising in Virginia |
| December 1831 | Virginia’s Assembly establishes special committee on slavery |
| 1832 | Worcester v. Georgia |
| 1833 | Tredegar Iron Works established |
| 1834 | Britain abolishes slavery |
| 1835–1842 | Second Seminole War |
| 1836 | Treaty of New Echota |
| March 2, 1836 | U.S. settlers declare eastern Texas an independent republic |
| March 6, 1836 | General Santa Anna crushes U.S. rebels at the Alamo |
| March 1836 | James Hammond leads campaign that results in congressional gag rule |
| 1837 | Panic of 1837 triggers recession |
| October 1838–March 1839 | Trail of Tears |
| 1840 | Whigs win the presidency and gain control of Congress |
| 1841 | Solomon Northrup kidnapped and sold into slavery |
| 1845 | U.S. annexes Texas |
| 1846 | U.S. settles dispute with Great Britain over Oregon |
| May 1846–February 1848 | Mexican-American War |
| August 1846 | David Wilmot proposes Wilmot Proviso |
| March 1848 | Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo |
| 1853 | Solomon Northrup publishes Twelve Years a Slave |