1831 in the United States explained

Events from the year 1831 in the United States.

Incumbents

• President: Andrew Jackson (D-Tennessee)
• Vice President: John C. Calhoun (D-South Carolina)
• Chief Justice: John Marshall (Virginia)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Andrew Stevenson (D-Virginia)
• Congress: 21st (until March 4), 22nd (starting March 4)

Events

January–March

• January 1  - William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing The Liberator, an antislavery newspaper, in Boston, Massachusetts.
• March 3  - Samuel B. Moore is sworn in as the sixth governor of Alabama, following the resignation of Gabriel Moore.^[1]
• March 18  - Cherokee Nation v. Georgia: An injunction requested by the Cherokee nation, claiming that Georgia's state legislature had created laws which, "go directly to annihilate the Cherokees as a political society", is denied.

April–June

• April 18  - The University of Alabama is founded.^[2]
• April 21  - New York University is founded in New York City.

July–September

• August 1  - John Gayle is elected the 7th governor of Alabama defeating Nicholas Davis and Samuel B. Moore.
• August 7  - American Baptist minister William Miller preaches his first sermon on the Second Advent of Christ in Dresden, New York, launching the Advent Movement in the United States.
• August 21  - Outbreak of Nat Turner's Rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia. Approximately 55 whites are stabbed, shot and clubbed to death. At least 125 enslaved people were killed in response.

October–December

• October 30  - In Southampton County, Virginia, escaped slave Nat Turner is captured and arrested for leading the bloodiest slave revolt in United States history.
• November 5  - Slave leader Nat Turner is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in Virginia for inciting a violent slave uprising.
• November 11  - In Jerusalem, Virginia, Nat Turner is hanged.
• November 26  - John Gayle is sworn in as the 7th governor of Alabama, replacing Samuel B. Moore.^[3]

Undated

• Alexis de Tocqueville visits the United States.
• Founding of:
  • Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.
  • Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio (as "The Athenaeum").

Births

• January 2  - Justin Winsor, historian and librarian (died 1897)
• January 14  - William D. Washburn, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1889 to 1895 and businessman (died 1912)
• January 15  - Ozora P. Stearns, U.S. Senator from Minnesota in 1871 (died 1896)
• January 26  - Mary Mapes Dodge, children's writer (died 1907)
• February 23  - Elizabeth Litchfield Cunnyngham, missionary and church worker (died 1911)
• March 3  - George Pullman, inventor and industrialist (died 1897)
• March 6  - Philip Sheridan, general (died 1888)
• March 12  - Clement Studebaker, automobile pioneer (died 1901)
• March 14  - Edward A. Perry, Governor of Florida (died 1889)
• March 20  - Solomon L. Spink, U.S. Congressman from Illinois (died 1881)
• May 16  - Daniel Manning, businessman, journalist and politician, Secretary of the Treasury (died 1887)
• June 1 or 29

Notes and References

1. News: 1831-03-31 . none . On the 3d instant, Gabriel Moore, Governor of the State of Alabama and United States' Senator elect, resigned his office as Governor into the hands of Samuel B. Moore, of Jackson County, President of the Senate... . 3 . The North-Carolina Star . 2023-07-27.
2. Book: Sellers, J. B. . History of the University of Alabama: Volume One 1818, 1902 . United States: University of Alabama Press . 2014 . 51.
3. Ala. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 13th sess., 38, accessed July 27, 2023