A Growing Sense of Nationhood

A Growing Sense of Nationhood

by Mr. Pinard

​In the Early 1800's

In 1800, two out of every three Americans still lived within 50 miles of the Atlantic Coast, and fewer than one in ten lived west of the Appalachians. That means that most Americans lived east of the Appalachian Mountains. These forested mountains extended from Maine through Georgia, making travel between east and west very difficult.

​Travel was very difficult

​Nothing moved faster than a horse. People, goods, and messages all depended on the horse. That meant that news could take weeks to travel from one city to another. The post office labored to deliver letters and newspapers over rutted, muddy roads. In places without roads dense forest and mountains acted a a barrier to travel.

​How Do You Unite the Country?

1. ​Build roads and waterways for better transportation of people and goods.

2. ​Create symbols of the nation

3. ​Create a shared national identity. This would cause an increase in the shared value of individualism.

​American Symbols of the Early 1800's

• ​Uncle Sam

• ​the Capitol Building

• ​the United States Flag

​The Era of Good Feelings

• ​Emerged during the Presidency of James Monroe

• ​there was a strong sense of national unity

• ​Expanded Federal Power from economic and judicial nationalism

​Economic Nationalism

• A series of proposals that the federal government take a more active role in building the national economy.

• ​A major proponent of this was Henry Clay, a member of congress from Kentucky.

• ​Henry Clay was a strong supporter of capitalism

​Henry Clay's American System

• ​​This plan called for:

• taxes on imported goods to protect industry

• federal spending on transportation projects like roads and canals.

• ​a new national bank to standardize currency and provide credit.

​Judicial Nationalism

• ​Chief Justice John Marshall wrote some of the most important court decisions in U.S. history.

• ​In McCulloch v.Maryland (1819), the Court confirmed Congress's authority to create a national bank that was free from state interference, which strengthened the federal government's position.

​Judicial Nationalism

In Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), the Court further reduced state powers by ending a monopoly that New York State had granted to a steamboat company operating between New York and New Jersey. Only Congress, the Court said, had the authority to regulate interstate commerce.

​Early American Art

• American art forms also helped the nation develop a unique identity. Ordinary people created American folk art, such as carved weather vanes and patchwork quilts. Painters of the Hudson River School created artworks that highlighted the landscape's natural beauty, and George Catlin painted scenes of American Indian life.

​​Early American Music

• ​New forms of music included spirituals and patriotic anthems. Square dancing, danced by four couples at a time to fiddle music, became popular.

• ​Spirituals were created when slaves combined the hymns of white churchgoers with African musical styles.

​Early American Literature

• ​Writers used uniquely American settings and subjects to create such stories as Washington Irving's “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and popular novels like James Fenimore Cooper's The Pioneers and The Last of the Mohicans.