History of New Hampshire Timeline

The New Hampshire Assembly passed 'An Act To Prevent Disorders In The Night,' forbidding any Indian, Negro, or Molatto servant or slave to be abroad after nine o'clock unless on an errand for their masters or owners.

Following the Revolution, a powerfully-written petition sent by 20 slaves in Portsmouth—members of what historian Ira Berlin called the revolutionary generation of enslaved people—unsuccessfully requested freedom for the enslaved.

Abolitionists from Dartmouth College founded the experimental, interracial Noyes Academy in Canaan, New Hampshire, in 1835, at a time when slaves still appeared in the households of the state in the census.

The 1840 United States census was the last to enumerate any slaves in the households of New Hampshire, as the number of slaves resident in the state dwindled during the 19th century.

The ship Nightingale, built in Eliot, Maine in 1851 and outfitted in Portsmouth, served as a slave ship before its capture by the African Slave Trade Patrol in 1861, indicating the region's economic connection to the Atlantic slave trade.

The New Hampshire legislature did not officially eliminate slavery in the state until 1857, long after the death of many of the signatories of the 1779 petition for freedom.

The New Hampshire Grants area west of the Connecticut River became a subject of contention from the 1740s until the 1790s, when it was admitted to the United States as the state of Vermont in 1791.

Image source: New Hampshire Grants

On December 13, 1774, Paul Revere rode to warn local patriots that Fort William and Mary in Portsmouth Harbor was to be reinforced by troops sailing from Boston.

Image source: Fort William and Mary

The only battle fought in New Hampshire during the Revolutionary era was the raid on Fort William and Mary in Portsmouth Harbor over two nights, led by General Sullivan, which netted the rebellion sizable quantities of gunpowder, small arms, bayonets, cartouche-boxes, cannon, and ordnance stores.

On May 22, 1775, the New Hampshire Provincial Congress voted to raise a volunteer force to join the patriot army at Boston in response to the outbreak of war.

In January 1776, New Hampshire became the first colony to set up an independent government and establish a constitution, though it stated 'we never sought to throw off our dependence on Great Britain,' meaning Rhode Island holds the distinction of first declaring independence.

On January 5, 1776, New Hampshire became the first colony to declare independence from Great Britain, almost six months before the Declaration of Independence was signed by the Continental Congress.

The Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War declared the border with Canada as beginning at 'the northwestern head of the Connecticut River,' but imprecise terminology left the exact border unresolved until 1842.

Image source: Treaty of Paris (1783)

Concord was named the state capital of New Hampshire in 1808, establishing it as the political center of the state.

In 1832, New Hampshire saw a curious development: the founding of the Republic of Indian Stream on its northern border with Canada over the unresolved post-revolutionary border issue. The so-called republic was annexed by New Hampshire in 1835.

Image source: Republic of Indian Stream

The Webster–Ashburton Treaty finally resolved the long-disputed northern border with Canada left ambiguous since the Treaty of Paris of 1783.

Image source: Webster–Ashburton Treaty

Joseph Laurent, an Abenaki chief, immigrated from Quebec, wrote an Abenaki English language dictionary, set up an Indian trading post, and served as its postmaster.

Between 1884 and 1903, New Hampshire attracted many immigrants. At the turn of the century, French Canadians represented 16 percent of the state's population and one-fourth of Manchester's population, while there were about 850 Polish Americans in Manchester by 1902.

Since the 20th century, New Hampshire has been known for its presidential primary, outdoor recreation, prestigious educational boarding schools, and its biotech industry.

Image source: New Hampshire presidential primary

The closing of the Amoskeag Mills in 1935 was a major blow to Manchester, marking the decline of textile manufacturing in southern New Hampshire.

The former Nashua Manufacturing Company mill closed in Nashua in 1949, and the Brown Company paper mill in Berlin went bankrupt in the 1940s, leading to new ownership and further industrial decline.

Image source: Nashua Manufacturing Company

The replacement of the Nashua textile mill with defense electronics contractor Sanders Associates in 1952 helped lead southern New Hampshire toward its role as a high-tech adjunct of the Route 128 corridor.

Image source: Sanders Associates

The arrival of minicomputer giant Digital Equipment Corporation in the early 1970s further transformed southern New Hampshire's economy toward high technology.

Image source: Digital Equipment Corporation

The Whigs and Free Soil parties both collapsed in New Hampshire in 1854–55, reshaping the state's partisan landscape ahead of the Civil War.

Nativism aimed at the rapid influx of Irish Catholics characterized the Know Nothing movement and its American Party. They swept the 1855 fall elections against the Democrats and the small new Republican party, having already won support from 79% of Whigs in the 1854 governor's race.

Image source: Know Nothing

When the Know Nothing ('American' Party) collapsed in 1856 and merged with the Republicans, New Hampshire now had a two-party system with the Republican Party headed by Amos Tuck edging out the Democrats.

Image source: Amos Tuck

After Abraham Lincoln gave speeches in New Hampshire in March 1860, he was well regarded in the state, boosting his national profile before the presidential election.

Image source: Abraham Lincoln

New Hampshire provided eighteen volunteer infantry regiments (thirteen raised in 1861 in response to Lincoln's call to arms), three rifle regiments serving with the U.S. Sharpshooters, one cavalry battalion, two artillery units, and additional troops for the Navy and Marine Corps.

Image source: List of New Hampshire units in the American Civil War

As early as January 1861, top officials were secretly meeting with Governor John A., reflecting the state's preparation amid rising sectional tensions.

Called the 'Fighting Fifth' in newspaper accounts, the Fifth New Hampshire regiment was considered among the Union's best during the war—Major General Winfield Scott called it 'refined gold' in 1863—and by historians afterward.

Image source: 5th New Hampshire Infantry Regiment

Nathaniel Head took over as Adjutant General in 1864, obtained an adequate budget and office staff, and reconstructed missing personnel records for soldiers who enlisted after 1861, including volunteers, substitutes, and draftees.

Image source: Nathaniel Head