United States and American History: 1819

About the history of the United States in 1819, the financial panic, Jefferson founds the University of Virginia, the U.S. gets Florida from Spain and Alabama gets statehood.

1819

--Financial panic. State banks closed and the Bank of the U.S. received much western property. Immigration was down and continued low for the next 10 years.

--Thomas Jefferson, after years of work and maneuvering, established the University of Virginia. The Virginia legislature had provided a $15,000 endowment in 1818. The university made chapel attendance voluntary. It had been mandatory in other American colleges.

--Massachusetts' deaf, dumb, and blind were boarded in an asylum in Hartford, Conn.

--New Yorkers Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett began a fish-canning business.

--A reward of 6 cents was offered in the New York Evening Post for a 19-year-old apprentice blacksmith who was either "lost, stolen, or strayed."

Feb. Spain signed the Adams-Onis treaty ceding Florida to the U.S., in return for a $5 million credit on its debt to this nation.

Mar. 2 First immigration law passed which included a numerical tally of immigrants, thus making statistics on immigration available.

Dec. 14 Alabama, with a population of 128,000, became the 22nd State. Slavery was permitted.