Historical Timeline — 1800

Economic Cycles

1807-09
Embargo depression

1810-14
Uneven wartime prosperity

1815-19
Speculative boom

1819-22
Panic and depression

Farm Economy

1817-40
Antagonism between commercial and farming interests of the South; commerce especially opposes the institution of a protective tariff

Farmers & the Land

1800
Total Population: 5,308,483

1803
Louisiana Purchase

1810
Total population: 7,239,881

1819
Florida and other land acquired through treaty with Spain

Farm Machinery & Technology

1801
Thomas Moore of Maryland invents the icebox refrigerator

1819
Jethro Wood patents iron plow with interchangeable parts

1819-25
U.S. food canning industry established

Crops & Livestock

1805-15
Cotton begins to replace tobacco as the chief southern cash crop

1810-15
Demand for Merino sheep sweeps the country

1815-25
Competition with western farm areas begins to force New England farmers out of wheat and meat production and into dairying, trucking, and later, tobacco production

1815-30
Cotton becomes the most important cash crop in the Old South

1819
Secretary of Treasury instructs consuls to collect seeds, plants, and agricultural inventions

Transportation

1800-30
Turnpike building (toll roads) improves communication and commerce between settlements

1807
Robert Fulton demonstrates practicability of steamboats

1815-20
Steamboats become important in western trade

Agricultural Trade & Development

1800-09
Average annual value of agricultural exports: $23 million or 75% of total exports

1810-19
Agricultural exports: $40 million/year or 87% of total exports

1815-60
Cotton is by far the most important agricultural export

1816
Tariff of 1816 includes protection for wool, sugar, hemp, and flax

Life on the Farm

1810-30
Transfer of manufactures from the farm and home to the shop and factory is greatly accelerated

Farm Organizations & Movements

1802
George Washington Parke Custis institutes an agricultural fair in Arlington, VA

1811
Berkshire Agricultural Society organized under Elkanah Watson's leadership

1817-25
Agricultural societies and fairs flourish under State aid

Agricultural Education & Extension

1810
First American agricultural periodical, the Agricultural Museum, begins publication

1819
The American Farmer and the Plough Boy periodicals begin publication

Government Programs & Policy

1819
State legislature sets up the New York State Board of Agriculture, first organization of this sort