Identify the problems faced by Americans moving westward.

Objectives • Identify the problems faced by Americans moving westward. • Describe the impact of the building of the Erie Canal. • Discuss the debate over slavery and the Missouri Compromise.

Terms and People • Daniel Boone – a famous early pioneer who helped clear the Wilderness Road • turnpike – a toll road • corduroy road – a road made of sawed-off logs laid side by side • canal – a channel that is dug across land and filled with water • Henry Clay – a senator who persuaded Congress to adopt the Missouri Compromise

How did Americans move west, and how did this intensify the debate over slavery? New roads, turnpikes, and canals enabled northerners and southerners to move west. Westward expansion threatened to upset the balance between free and slave states and moved the nation closer to civil war.

During colonial times, the backcountry between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains was considered the western frontier. By the 1750s, the Scotch-Irish and the Germans of Pennsylvania had begun to settle the backcountry.

The road crossed the Appalachian Mountains through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. In 1775, Daniel Booneand others cleared the Wilderness Road, a new route to the West. The Wilderness Road became the main route across the Appalachians.

By the early 1800s, western populations swelled as immigrants moved west. From 1792 to 1819, eight states joined the Union.

Traveling west was not easy, because settlers used paths worn by animals as their roads. These roads were unpaved, dotted with tree stumps, and easily washed out by rain. Some capitalists decided to build betterroads so commerce could flow more easily.

Private companies began to build turnpikes. ¢ ¢ Travelers on these roads had to pay a toll in order to pass. ¢ In marshy areas, wagons traveled on corduroy roads, which were hazardous to horses.

In 1795, a private company in Pennsylvania built a turnpike between Lancaster and Philadelphia. The Lancaster Turnpike was the first long-distance stone road in the United States.

Traveling by road was slow, however, and people began to think about building canals so they could ship goods by water. Work on the Erie Canal, which would connect the Hudson River and Lake Erie, began in 1817.

Because the land in upstate New York is not level, locks were built to raise or lower boats in the canal. The workers that built the canal were mostly Irish immigrants.

The Erie Canal was very successful. • Within two years of its opening in 1825, the Erie Canal had paid for itself. • It sparked a surge of canal building. • Because it was at the end of the canal, New York soon became the richest city in the United States.

Westward expansion strengthened the United States, but it also caused disagreements over the extension of slavery. Free States Slave States In 1819, the United States consisted of 11 “free states,” which prohibited slavery, and 11 “slave states,” which permitted slavery.

However, Missouri had been seeking admission to the United States as a slave state since 1817. Northerners did not want to add a slave state to the United States. It was important to maintain a balance between representation of slave states and free states in the Senate.

A solution to the problem presented itself when Maine, a state that prohibited slavery, applied for admission to the Union. In 1820, Senator Henry Clay persuaded Congress to adopt the Missouri Compromise.

For the North For the South • Maine was admitted as a free state. • Missouri was admitted as a slave state. • The Louisiana Territory north of the southern Missouri border would be free. • Southern slave owners could pursue escaped slaves into free states.

The compromise preserved the balance of power between slave and free states.

The Missouri Compromise revealed how much sectional rivalries divided the Union. Southerners were unhappy that Congress was making laws about slavery. Northerners were angry that Congress had allowed slavery to expand into another state. In time, the issue of slavery would split the United States.

Section Review QuickTake Quiz Know It, Show It Quiz

Identify the problems faced by Americans moving westward.