Race and Class | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Race and Class

Timeline

1790–1859 ∼ Dealing with Slaves and Indians

Naturalization Law excludes vagrants, paupers and non-whites from citizenship (1790) / Indian Removal Act authorizes relocating Indian nations west of the Mississippi (1830) / Thousands of Indians die during forced relocation on the “Trail of Tears” (1831–1838) / Provisional Government of Oregon bans slavery and orders all free blacks age 18 or older to leave the territory (1844) / Debates over slavery rage in the western territories (1850) / Oregon “Bill of Rights” contains a Negro Exclusion Law which remains on the state’s law books until 1926 (1859)

MILESTONES: New Orleans forms police force to control slavery (early 1800s) • Louisiana Purchase doubles the size of the U.S. (1803) • The Freedom Journal is the first African American newspaper (1827) • Texas Revolution against Mexico (1835) • Economic Crisis of 1837 brings high unemployment, bread riots and rent strikes (1837) • Henry David Thoreau imprisoned for refusing to pay taxes as part of his protest against the Mexican-American War (1846) • First labor parties formed (1830s) • Beginning of the Manifest Destiny doctrine of acquiring western territory (1845)

1860–1899 ∼ Dealing with Immigrants, Freed Slaves and Indians

Fugitive Slave Law requires whites to return runaway slaves (1850) / Chinese workers comprise one-fourth the population of Hawaii (1864) / Fourteenth Amendment declares that all persons born or naturalized in America are citizens (1866) / Florida passes state law banning convicted felons, aimed at African Americans, from voting (1868) / Fifteenth Amendment declares all men eligible to vote without regard to color (1870) / Interracial alliances of workers and farmers forge national organization, the Knights of Labor (1880s–1890s) / Chinese Exclusion Act restricts immigrant workers (1882 and 1884) / Native Americans in the West lose over 100 million acres of land to white ranchers, farmers, mining companies, railroads and land speculators as a result of the General Allotment Act of 1887 (1887–1929) / Plessy v.

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