Chapter 11 section2

Chapter 11 section 2 American History

Headed West

In 1790 the first census—the official count of a population—revealed that there were nearly 4 million Americans. At that time, most of these people still lived in the narrow strip of land between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. That pattern, however, was changing. For years, a few rugged American settlers had been crossing the Appalachian Mountains and settling in western lands. Now, a steady stream of settlers began moving west.

Multiple Choice

What is an official count of people called?

• Decade

• Census

• Filibuster

• Numerology

Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road

Explorer and pioneer Daniel Boone was among the early western pioneers. In 1769 he explored a Native American trail through the Appalachian Mountains. Called Warriors' Path, it led Boone through a break in the mountains—the Cumberland Gap. Beyond the gap lay the gentle hills of a land now called Kentucky. For two years, Boone explored the area's dense forests and lush meadows.

Multiple Choice

What was the break in the Appalachian Mountains that people used to travel West?

• Khyber Pass

• St. Louis Gateway

• Cumberland Gap

• The Tennessee Gorge

In 1775 Boone rounded up 30 skilled foresters to make the trail easier to cross for pioneers migrating west. Boone's crew widened Warriors' Path, cleared rocks from the Cumberland Gap, cut down trees in Kentucky, and marked the trail. The new Wilderness Road, as it came to be known, served as the main southern highway from the eastern states to the West. More than 100,000 people traveled it between 1775 and 1790.

Multiple Choice

What was the road cut by Daniel Boone and his followers that people first used to travel into Kentucky?

• Cumberland Road

• Natchez trace

• Highway 1

• Wilderness Road

Building Roadways

The nation needed good inland roads for travel and to ship goods. Private companies built many turnpikes, or toll roads. Tolls, or fees paid by travelers, helped pay the cost of building them. Many roads had a base of crushed stone. In some areas workers built "corduroy roads." These roads had a surface made up of logs laid side by side, like the ridges of corduroy cloth.

Multiple Select

What names are given to roads that you have to pay to travel?

• Toll Road

• Interstate

• Turnpike

• Intrastate

Ohio became a state in 1803. The new state asked the federal government to build a road to connect it with the East. In 1806 Congress approved funds for a national road to the West, though it took five more years for members to agree on the route.

Work on the project began in 1811 in Cumberland, Maryland. The start of the War of 1812 with Great Britain halted construction. As a result, the road's first section, which ran from Maryland to Wheeling in present-day West Virginia, did not open until 1818.

Moving West

 The route closely followed that of a military road George Washington had built in 1754. It eventually reached Ohio and then Vandalia, Illinois. Congress viewed the road as vital to military readiness but did not take on any other road-building projects.

Traveling on Rivers

River travel was far more comfortable than travel by road, which was often rough and bumpy. Also, boats or river barges could carry far larger loads of farm products or other goods.

River travel had two big drawbacks, however. First, most major rivers in the eastern region flowed in a north-south direction, while most people and goods were headed east or west. Second, while traveling downstream was easy, moving upstream against the current was slow.

In the 1780s and 1790s, boat captains were already using steam engines to power boats in quiet waters. These early engines, however, did not have enough power to overcome the strong currents and winds found in large rivers, lakes, or oceans.

Open Ended

List two advantages and disadvantages of river travel

The Clermont's First Voyage

In 1802 Robert Livingston, a political and business leader, hired Robert Fulton to build a steamboat with a powerful engine. Livingston wanted the steamboat to carry cargo and passengers up the Hudson River from New York City to Albany.

In 1807 Fulton launched his steamboat, the Clermont. The boat made the 150-mile (241 km) trip from New York City to Albany in 32 hours. Using only sails, the trip would have taken four days.

The Clermont offered many comforts. Passengers could sit or stroll on deck or relax in sleeping compartments below deck. The engine was noisy, but its power provided a smooth ride.

Steamboats ushered in a new age of river travel. Shipping goods and moving people became cheaper and faster. Regular steamboat service began along the Mississippi River, between New Orleans and Natchez, Mississippi, in 1812. Steamboats also contributed to the growth of river cities such as Cincinnati and St. Louis. By 1850 some 700 steamboats were carrying cargo and passengers within the United States.

Multiple Select

Check all that were advantages of travel by steamboat

• contributed to the growth of river cities

• Shipping goods and moving people became cheaper and faster

• Steam boats were quiet

• Travel was more comfortable and quicker for passengers

New Waterways

Steamboats improved transportation but were limited to major rivers. No such river linked the East and the West.

Business and government officials led by DeWitt Clinton in New York developed a plan to connect New York City with the Great Lakes region. They would build a canal—an artificial waterway—across the state. The canal would connect the Hudson River with Buffalo on Lake Erie. From these points, existing rivers and lakes could connect a much wider area.

Multiple Choice

A man made water way that is used to connect areas

• Canal

• tributary

• Branch

• Stream

The Erie Canal

Thousands of workers, many of them Irish immigrants, helped build the 363-mile (584 km) Erie Canal. Along the way they built a series of locks—separate compartments in which workers could raise or lower the water level. The locks worked like an escalator to raise and lower boats up and down hills.

Canal building was a hazardous task. Many workers died as a result of cave-ins or blasting accidents. Another threat was disease, which bred in the swamps where the workers toiled.

After more than eight years of hard work, the Erie Canal opened on October 26, 1825. Clinton, who was now governor of New York, boarded a barge in Buffalo and traveled on the canal to Albany. From there he sailed down the Hudson River to New York City. As crowds cheered, officials poured water from Lake Erie into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Erie Canal went from Buffalo to Albany New York. It connected the Hudson river to the Great Lakes. It was an important accomplishment for opening up the west to settlement by pioneers. The Erie Canal made New York the Greatest port City in America.

Multiple Select

Check all that are true of the Erie Canal

• Many of the workers that helped build it were Irish Immigrants to the United States

• Canal building was a dangerous activity

• The Governor of New York was opposed to the building of the canal

• It took more than 8 years to build

Multiple Select

Check all that are true of the Erie Canal

• It has a series of locks to raise and lower ships

• It connected Buffalo to Albany New York

• It connected the Great Lakes to the Hudson River

• The canal was over 1000 miles long

Multiple Choice

Locks are most like which

• An escalator

• A slide

• A waterfall

• hole

Canal Travel Expands

At first, the Erie Canal did not allow steamboats because their powerful engines could cause damage to the canal's earthen banks. Instead, teams of mules or horses hauled the boats and barges. A two-horse team pulled a 100-ton (91 t) barge about 24 miles (39 km) in one day. This was fast compared with travel by wagon. In the 1840s, workers strengthened the canal banks so that steam tugboats could pull the barges.

The Erie Canal's success did not go unnoticed. By 1850 the country had more than 3,600 miles (5,794 km) of canals. Canals lowered shipping costs and brought prosperity to towns along their routes. They also linked regions of a growing country.

The Move West Continues

The United States added four new states between 1791 and 1803—Vermont, and the western states of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio. Then, between 1816 and 1821, Indiana, Illinois, Mississippi, Alabama, and Missouri also became states.

The formation of new states reflected the dramatic growth of the region west of the Appalachians. In 1800 only 387,000 white settlers lived west of the Appalachian Mountains. By 1820 that number had grown to more than 2.4 million people. Ohio, for example, had only 45,000 settlers in 1800. By 1820 it had 581,000 residents.

Early pioneer families often settled in communities along the great rivers, such as the Ohio and the Mississippi. These waterways provided a highway for shipping crops and other goods to markets. The growth of canals also helped expand the area open to settlement. Canals allowed people to settle on lands farther from the large rivers.

People often preferred to settle with others from their original homes. It was mainly people from Tennessee and Kentucky who settled Indiana, for example. Michigan’s pioneers came mostly from New England.

Western families often gathered together for social events. Men took part in sports such as wrestling. Women met for quilting and sewing parties. Both men and women took part in cornhuskings. These were gatherings where farm families shared the work of stripping the outer layers from corn.

Life in the West did not have many of the conveniences of Eastern town life. The pioneers had not traveled to the West to live a pampered life. They wanted to make new lives for themselves and their families.

Multiple Choice

True or False People like to settle with others form the same area they traveled from

• True

• False

At the same time, these new settlers brought with them many of the same hopes and dreams held by people in the East. In this way, the western migration of American pioneers helped spread an American culture and way of life.