1831

Events from the year **1831 in the United States**.

Governors
* Governor of Alabama:
	+ until March 3: Gabriel Moore (Democratic)
	+ March 3-November 26: Samuel B. Moore (Democratic)
	+ starting November 26: John Gayle (Democratic)
* Governor of Connecticut: Gideon Tomlinson (Democratic-Republican) (until March 2), John Samuel Peters (National Republican) (starting March 2)
* Governor of Delaware: David Hazzard (National Republican)
* Governor of Georgia: George R. Gilmer (Democratic-Republican) (until November 9), Wilson Lumpkin (Democratic) (starting November 9)
* Governor of Illinois: John Reynolds (Democratic)
* Governor of Indiana: James B. Ray (Independent) (until December 7), Noah Noble (National Republican) (starting December 7)
* Governor of Kentucky: Thomas Metcalfe (National Republican)
* Governor of Louisiana: Jacques Dupré (National Republican) (starting January 14) (until January 31), André B. Roman (National Republican) (starting January 31)
* Governor of Maine: Jonathan G. Hunton (National Republican) (until January 5), Samuel E. Smith (Democratic) (starting January 5)
* Governor of Maryland:
	+ until January 13: Thomas King Carroll (Democratic)
	+ January 13-July 11: Daniel Martin (National Republican)
	+ starting July 11: George Howard (National Republican)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Levi Lincoln Jr. (National Republican)
* Governor of Mississippi: Gerard Brandon (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: John Miller (Democratic)
* Governor of New Hampshire:
	+ until February 28: Matthew Harvey (Democratic)
	+ February 28-June 2: Joseph M. Harper (Democratic)
	+ starting June 2: Samuel Dinsmoor (Democratic)
* Governor of New Jersey: Peter Dumont Vroom (Democratic)
* Governor of New York: Enos T. Throop (Democratic)
* Governor of North Carolina: Montfort Stokes (Democratic)
* Governor of Ohio: Duncan McArthur (National Republican)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: George Wolf (Democratic-Republican)
* Governor of Rhode Island: James Fenner (Democratic-Republican) (until May 4), Lemuel H. Arnold (National Republican) (starting May 4)
* Governor of South Carolina: James Hamilton Jr. (Democratic)
* Governor of Tennessee: William Carroll (Democratic)
* Governor of Vermont: Samuel C. Crafts (National Republican) (until October 18), William A. Palmer (Anti-Masonic) (starting October 18)
* Governor of Virginia: John Floyd (Democratic)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Samuel Peters (National Republican) (until March 2), Thaddeus Betts (National Republican) (starting March 2)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Zadok Casey (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Milton Stapp (Independent) (until December 7), David Wallace (National Republican) (starting December 7)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: John Breathitt (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Thomas L. Winthrop (Democratic-Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Abram M. Scott (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Daniel Dunklin (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: Edward Philip Livingston (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Charles Collins (political party unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Patrick Noble (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Mark Richards (National Republican) (until October 18), Lebbeus Egerton (Anti-Masonic) (starting October 18)

## Events

### January - March

* January 1 – William Lloyd Garrison begins publishing *The Liberator*, an antislavery newspaper, in Boston, Massachusetts.
* 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.
* April 21 – New York University is founded in New York City.

### July - September

* 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 slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia. Approximately 55 whites are stabbed, shot and clubbed to death.

### 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 11 – In Jerusalem, Virginia, Nat Turner is hanged after inciting a violent slave uprising.

## Memoriam

* March 26 – Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1794 (aged 71; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* April 4 – Isaiah Thomas, publisher (aged 82; Worcester, MA, USA)
* May 11 – John Trumbull, poet (aged 81; Detroit, MI Territory, USA)
* May 24
	+ James Peale, miniaturist and still-life painter (aged 82; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
	+ Benjamin Carr, composer, singer, teacher, and music publisher (aged 62; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* May 27 – Jedediah Smith, explorer, hunter, trapper and fur trader (aged 32; Northern Mexico Territory (Now Ulysses, KS), USA)
* June 10 – Nathaniel Hale Pryor, sergeant in the Lewis and Clark Expedition (aged 59; Pryor, Indian Territory (Now OK), USA)
* July 4 – James Monroe, 5th President of the United States from 1817 to 1825 (aged 73; New York City, NY, USA)
* November 11 – Nat Turner, leader of slave rebellion (aged 31; Jerusalem, VA, USA)
* December 8 – James Hoban, architect of the White House (aged 76; Washington, DC, USA)