Growth and Expansion Part 2

Growth and Expansion

Moving West

Headed West

• In 1790, the first census, which is the official count of a population,

revealed, or showed, that there were nearly 4 million Americans
• At the time, most people lived between the Appalachian Mountains and the

Atlantic Ocean.

• However, now a steady stream of settlers began moving west.

• Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road

• Explorer and pioneerDaniel Boone was among the early western pioneers.

• In 1769 he explored a Native American trail through the Appalachian Mountains.

• Called the 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 known as Kentucky.
• For two years he explored this area.

Multiple Choice

What is the official count of a population called?

• People Count

• Official Total

• Census

• Matrix

Headed West

• Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road cont.

• In 1775 Boone rounded up 30 skilled foresters to make the trail easier to cross

for pioneers migrating west.

• Boone and his crew widened Warriors’ Path, cleared rocks from the Cumberland

Gap, cut down trees in Kentucky, and marked the trail.
• The new Wilderness Road served as the main southern highway from the eastern states to

the West.
•More than 100,000 people traveled it between 1775 and 1790.

• Building Roadways

• The nation needed good inland roads for travel and to ship goods.

• Private companies built many turnpikes, or roads where tolls are collected.

• Tolls, or fees paid by travelers, helped pay the cost of building them.

Multiple Choice

What are the names of roads where tolls are collected to travel on?

• Turnpike

• Regal Roads

• Freeways

• Highways

Headed West

• Building Roadways cont.

• Ohio became a state in 1803.

• In 1806, after Ohio asked the federal government to build a road to connect it with

the east, Congress approved funds for a national road to the West.
• However, it took the members five more years to agree on a route.

• Work on the project began in 1811 in Cumberland, Maryland.

• The state of the War of 1812 with Great Britain halted construction.

• Because of that, the first section, which ran from Maryland to Wheeling in present-

day West Virginia, did not open until 1818.

• The route closely followed that of a military road George Washington had built

in 1754.

• The road 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.

Multiple Choice

Which state became a state in 1803?

• Indiana

• Illinois

• Virginia

• Ohio

Headed West

• 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.

• First

• Most rivers in the eastern region flowed in a north-south direction, while most of the 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 engines though did not have the power to overcome the currents in the large

rivers, lakes, or oceans.

Multiple Select

The engines in these new ships did not have the power to travel well on these THREE waterways?

• Rivers

• Sea

• Lakes

• Oceans

Headed West

• The Clermont’s First Voyage

• In 1802Robert 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 to Albany.

• In 1807 Fulton launched his steamboat, the Clermont.

• The boat made the 150-mile trip from New York to Albany in 32 hours.

• If done with sails, it 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, though noisy, provided a very smooth ride.

Multiple Choice

What is the name of the ship that Robert Fulton launched in 1807?

• Maine

• Clermont

• Titanic

• Lusitania

Headed West

• The Clermont’s First Voyage cont.

• 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 U.S.

• New Waterways

• Steamboats improved transportation but were limited to major rivers.

• No such river linked the East and the West.

Multiple Choice

What ushered in a new age of river travel?

• Caravels

• Tri-Sailed Ships

• Ironclad

• Steamboats

Headed West

• New Waterways cont.

• 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, which is 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.

• The Erie Canal

• Thousands of workers, many of them Irish immigrants, helped build the 363

mileErie Canal.

Poll

What was built that would connect the Hudson River with Buffalo on Lake Erie

Headed West

• The Erie Canal cont.

• Along the way they built a series of locks, which are separate compartments in

which water levels rise and fall in order to raise or lower the water level.

• The locks worked as an escalator to raise or 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 worked.

• After more than eight years of hard work, the Erie Canal opened on October 26,

1825.

Multiple Choice

In a canal, what is the name of the separate compartments in which the water level rises and falls?

• Locks

• Doors

• Branches

• Levees

Headed West

• 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.

• By the 1840s, workers strengthened the canal banks so the steam tugboats could pull

the barges.

• The Erie Canal success did not go unnoticed.

• By 1850 the country had more than 3,600 miles of canals.

• Canals lowered shipping costs and brought prosperity to towns along their routes.

•They also linked regions of a growing country.

Multiple Choice

How many miles of canals were built by 1850?

• 4,000 miles

• 2,800 miles

• 3,600 miles

• 5,100 miles

The Move West Continues

WHY DID AMERICANS TEND TO SETTLE NEAR RIVERS?
• The U.S. added four states between 1791 and 1803.

• These were: Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio

• More were added between 1816 and 1821.

• These were: Indiana, Illinois, Mississippi, Alabama, and Missouri.

• The formation of new states reflected the dramatic growth of the region

west of the Appalachian Mountains.
• In 1800, 387,000 settlers lived west of the mountains, however, by 1820 there

were 2.4 million settlers.

Multiple Choice

How many states were added between 1791 and 1803?

• 2

• 3

• 4

• 5

The Move West Continues

• Early pioneer families often settled in communities along rivers, such as the

Ohio and Mississippi River.
• 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, allowing

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, while

Michigan settlers came mostly from New England.

Multiple Choice

Along what did early pioneers settle next to?

• Forests

• Rivers

• Pastures

• Deserts

The Move West Continues

• Western families often gathered together for social events.

• Men took part in sports, like wrestling, while women met up for quilting and

sewing parties.

• Both men and women took part in cornhusking.

• Life in the West did not have many of the conveniences of Eastern town life.

• They did not travel out West to be pampered, but to start a new life.

• However, at the same time, these people shared the same dream as the

people out East.
• Because of this, the settlers helped spread the Eastern American culture out

West.

Multiple Choice

What did western families often gather together to do?

• Social Events

• Farming

• Holidays

• Winter Dances