1850 Events

1850
to 1860
Harriet Tubman serves as a Conductor on the Underground Railroad
In September of the same year, Harriet was made an official "conductor" of the UGRR. This meant that she knew all the routes to free territory and she had to take an oath of silence so th...
1850 Industry & Western Expansion #1
The United States exploded into war in 1861. Though the outcome of the Civil War cemented the Union causing dramatic change in the years leading up to the Civil War, the United States was...
1850 Joseph Swan Begins Work on Light Bulb
Swan was born in 1828 at Pallion Hall in Bishopwearmouth (now part of Sunderland), and he served an apprenticeship with a pharmacist there. He later became a partner in Mawson's, a firm o...
1850 Tom Wiggins (and his parents) sold to General James Neil Bethune
Tom Wiggins was sold in 1850 along with his slave parents, Charity and Mingo Wiggins, to Columbus, Georgia lawyer, General James Neil Bethune. The new owner re-named the child Thomas Gree...
1850 Jan 29 Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas Draft Compromise
Congress convened on December 3, 1849. On January 29, 1850, Whig Senator Henry Clay gave a speech which called for compromise on the issues dividing the Union. However, Clay's specific pr...
1850 Mar 7 Senator Daniel Webster Delivers His "Seventh Of March" Speech
The acquisition of territory following the U.S. victory in the Mexican War revived concerns about the balance of free and slave states in the Union. On March 7, 1850, Senator Daniel Webs...
1850 Mar 16 'The Scarlet Letter' is Published
The truth is that the situation selected by Hawthorne has more scope and depth than the one which he passed over. It is with the subjective consequences of a sinner's act that our underst...
1850 Apr 16 Angers Bridge Collapse
In 1850, in the midst of a thunderstorm, part of the Batallion of the 11th light infantry regiment totalling 500 men was crossing the suspension bridge in Angers, which had been in servic...
1850 Apr 20 Daniel Chester French Is Born
American sculptor Daniel Chester French was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, on April 20, 1850. Reared in Cambridge and Concord, Massachusetts, he was embraced by members of the Transce...
1850 May 12 Henry Cabot Lodge Is Born
On May 12, 1850, Republican statesman and noted historian Henry Cabot Lodge was born in Boston, Massachusetts. One of the first students at Harvard to graduate with a Ph.D. in history an...
1850 Jun 3
to 1850 Jun 11
 Slavery Debate Labors on at Nashville Convention
The Nashville Convention was a political meeting held in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 3 – 11, 1850. Delegates from nine slave holding states met to consider a possible course of action i...
1850 Sep 9 California is Admitted to the Union as a Free State
In 1848, the non-native population of California has been estimated to be no more than 15,000. But after gold was discovered, the population burgeoned with U.S. citizens, Europeans, and o...
1850 Sep 9 California is the 31st State Admitted to the Union
It was August 1848 before the United States Senate ratified the treaty ending the Mexican War and recognizing the transfer of California to American hands. Local Army commanders, "Forty-e...
1850 Sep 9 Compromise Sets Texas Boundaries
The Compromise of 1850 set Texas's boundaries at their present form. Texas ceded land which later became half of present day New Mexico, a third of Colorado, and small portions of Kansas,...
1850 Sep 9
to 1850 Sep 20
 Douglas and Clay Draft the Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a series of bills aimed at resolving the territorial and slavery controversies arising from the Mexican-American War (1846–1848). There were five laws which bal...
1850 Sep 9 Utah Territory Preserves Balance
The territory was organized by an organic act of Congress in 1850, on the same day that the State of California was admitted to the Union. The creation of the territory was part of the Co...
1850 Sep 11 Jenny Lind Makes Her Debut
Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, whose purity of voice and natural singing style earned her the nickname "the Swedish nightingale," made her American debut at the Castle Garden Theatre in New ...
1850 Sep 11 P. T. Barnum Arranges American Tour of Swedish Opera Star, Jenny Lind
By 1849, when Lind was in the midst of her third triumphant London season, P. T. Barnum had become aware of her success and the large audiences she attracted. Earlier in 1845 and 1846 Bar...
1850 Sep 18 United States Congress Passes Fugitive Slave Act
The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slaveholding interests and ...
1850 Sep 20 Final Compromise Bans Slave Trade in District of Columbia
The fifth law, enacted on September 20, 1850 prohibited the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in the District of Columbia. Significantly, before this particular measure could be passed...
1850 Oct 10 Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Is Completed And Opened
On October 10, 1850, the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal was completed and opened for business along its entire 184.5 mile length from Washington, DC to Cumberland, Maryland. Sections of the cana...
1850 Dec Harriet Tubman rescues sister, brother-in-law, and children
In December 1850, Tubman received a warning that her niece Kessiah was going to be sold (along with her two children, six-year-old James Alfred, and baby Araminta) in Cambridge, Maryland....