TIMELINE OF EVENTS
| 1780–1804 | Northern states pass gradual emancipation laws |
| March 1783 | Officers encamped at Newburgh, New York, threaten to mutiny |
| 1784 | U.S. commissioners meet with Iroquois delegates at Fort Stanwix, New York |
| 1785 | Northwest Land Ordinance passed Annapolis Convention |
| 1786–1787 | Shays’s Rebellion |
| 1787 | Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia Northwest Land Ordinance revised |
| June 1788 | U.S. Constitution ratified |
| 1789 | Alexander Hamilton named secretary of the treasury |
| Judiciary Act of 1789 passed | |
| 1789–1799 | French Revolution |
| 1790–1794 | Little Turtle leads pan-Indian alliance against American settlements in the Ohio valley |
| 1791 | Bill of Rights ratified |
| 1793 | Neutrality Act passed |
| July–October 1793 | Yellow fever epidemic paralyzes Philadelphia |
| 1794 | Whiskey Rebellion |
| Bethel African-American Methodist Church in Philadelphia founded | |
| 1796 | Jay Treaty and Pinckney Treaty ratified |
| Democratic-Republicans and Federalists contest presidential election | |
| 1798 | Alien and Sedition Acts passed |