Timeline: 1840-1849

· SmartFun Home

1840		The Underground Railroad, a secret network of hiding places and routes for helping enslaved persons escape to the North or Canada, is well established by this time.
1841		George Ripley and 20 others organize a short-lived community, called Brook Farm, in which all share equally in the work while having time for reading and study. This unsuccessful experiment in cooperative living ended six years later.
1842		The first gummed postage stamps bring changes in the postal system, as senders--rather than the receivers--begin paying for a letter to be delivered.
		The state of Massachusetts passes a law that limits children under 12, who worked in factories, to a ten-hour day.
1843		African American Sojourner Truth starts her travels speaking against enslavement.
1844		Samuel F.B. Morse sends the first telegraph message, from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore, Maryland.
1845		The first clipper ship is launched, a vessel capable of traveling at double the speed of the older merchant ships.
1846		Oregon Treaty signed with Great Britain sets the boundary between the United States and Canada at the 49th parallel.
		War with Mexico begins.
		Elias Howe invents the sewing machine.
1847		Thousands of Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine in Ireland come to the United States.
		Maria Mitchell of Nantucket, Massachusetts discovers a new comet, later becoming the first woman professor of astronomy in the United States.
		Frederick Douglass, an African American, begins publication of an abolitionist newspaper, The North Star.
1848		United States wins the Mexican War, acquiring over 500,000 square miles of territory in the Southwest.
		Women's Rights convention is held at Seneca Falls, New York.
1849		80,000 people rush to California after gold is discovered.
		Harriet Tubman escapes from enslavement in Maryland, and becomes an active worker helping other enslaved individuals escape to freedom on the Underground Railroad.

The Henry Ford ~ http://www.TheHenryFord.org