* Local History Facts are Highlighted in red

1800 - Thomas Jefferson elected President.

1806 - The African Meeting House was built on the North slope of Beacon Hill by free blacks in Boston, MA.

1812 - War erupted between the United States and England.

1816 - Richard Allen became founder and first Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During his ministry he involved the church in various social issues, including the antislavery movement.

1826 - Lowell was incorporated as a town.

1826 - The Levy and Lewis families moved to Lowell shortly after incorporation.

1829 - David Walker published his “Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World.”

1830's-1860's - The Underground Railroad operated a vast network of stations (homes) that aided and abetted runaway slaves in their journey to the North and Canada. The most famous Underground Railroad conductor was Harriet Tubman. President Andrew Jackson denied abolitionists the right of petition and the use of the United States mail.

Nat Turner led a slave insurrection in South Hampton County, Virginia.

Frederick Douglass published “The North Star” newspaper.

1832 - The Pawtucketville Society Church on Mammoth Road holds the first anti-slavery meeting in Lowell.

1834 - Caroline Van Vronker entered Lowell High School as the first African American student in an integrated school. She later obtained her teacher’s certificate and “would have been employed but for objections on account of her color.”

1836 - Lowell was incorporated as a city.

1843 - African American John Levy worked with the Lowell Woman’s Anti-Slavery Society in organizing Anti-Slavery Fairs in Old City Hall.

1843 - Frederick Douglass, well-known African American abolitionist, came to give lecture at the Lowell Anti-Slavery Convention.

1844 - Peter and Lephia Lewis’ children are prohibited from attending an art exhibit at Mechanic’s Hall because of their color causing loud denunciations from the local press.

1844 - Nathaniel Booth, an escaped slave, moved to Lowell.

1844 – Adrastus and Elizabeth Lew built a home on Mount Hope Street in the Pawtucketville neighborhood of Lowell and the house became a stop on the Underground Railroad for escaped slaves.

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1850 - Compromise of 1850 passed. Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 passed forcing escaped slaves living in slave-free states to be returned to their enslavement.

1850 - Booth fled to Canada to escape slave catchers working in the area.

1851 – Booth’s freedom was purchased by the community, led by Linus Childs, the Agent for the Boott Mills.

1853 - William Wells Brown wrote the first published work of African American fiction. An abolitionist, Brown wrote the novel Clotel; or The President’s Daughter.

1857 - The Dred Scott v. Sandford Decision. In a decision that heightened rising sectional tensions over slavery, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a slave could not become a United States citizen.

1859 - John Brown raided Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

1860 - Abraham Lincoln was elected President.

1861-1865 - The Civil War erupted. African Americans saw the Civil War as an opportunity to end enslavement. Over 230,000 African Americans fought in the war. More than 38,000 lost their lives during the conflict. Massachusetts sent three all-black regiments into the War, the Fifty Fourth and Fifty Fifth All Volunteer Infantry Regiments and the Fifth All Volunteer Cavalry. President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The Proclamation freed all slaves residing in territory in rebellion against the federal government. States loyal to the Union were allowed to keep their slaves.

1862 - Levi Lewis of Lowell joined the United States Navy during the Civil War.

1863 - Walker Lewis of Lowell served on the USS Rhode Island.

1863 – William Manuel of Lowell died in Beaufort, South Carolina due to illness as a Civil War soldier.

1864 - Daniel Stewart of Lowell joins the Massachusetts 5th Cavalry.

1864 - William W. Hazard of Lowell was wounded at the Battle of Baylor’s Farm during the siege of Petersburg, Virginia and was promoted to Sergeant.

1865 – The Civil War ended. President Lincoln was assassinated. Reconstruction began. The United States Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery.

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