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Growth and Expansion

Growth and Expansion. Economic Growth Westward Bound Unity and Sectionalism. Moving West. First census (official count of a population) in 1790 4 million people Most lived east of Appalachian Mts., within a few hundred miles of Atlantic coast By 1820 census… 10 million people

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Growth and Expansion

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  1. Growth and Expansion Economic Growth Westward Bound Unity and Sectionalism

  2. Moving West • First census (official count of a population) in 1790 • 4 million people • Most lived east of Appalachian Mts., within a few hundred miles of Atlantic coast • By 1820 census… • 10 million people • 2 million west of Appalachian Mts. • People lived in 3-sided shacks, log cabins with dirt floors • Faced loneliness, poverty, primitive lifestyle

  3. Western Settlement • waves of settlers • 4 new states, Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio • 1816-1821, 5 new states • Indiana, Illinois, Mississippi, Alabama and Missouri • pioneer settlers live in communities along rivers • crops easily transported to market • canals allow settlers to live farther away from rivers • settlers lives in communities with others from original settlements in eastern US • gather for social events and practical events (harvesting etc.)

  4. The Northwest Territory

  5. Roads and turnpikes • travel long and difficult and dangerous • 363 miles from NY City to Buffalo takes 3weeks • wagons filled with family and household goods • roads made of crushed stone, sometimes in muddy areas, logs laid side by side (corduroy roads) • turnpikes or toll roads built by private companies in some areas • travelers paid to use road, pays for construction • when Ohio becomes a state in 1803, federal gov. asked to build road to connect Ohio with the East • gov. oks, 1st opened in 1818, later expanded to Vandalia, IL • Congress oks this project, seen as a military necessity, doesn’t build anymore

  6. River Travel • advantages over wagon/horse travel • more comfortable, all goods loaded on barges, if headed downstream can use current to travel • two main problems • most eastern rivers flow in N-S direction • traveling upstream is difficult and slow • steam engines developed for boats • at first small and weak • Robert Fulton (1802), Hudson River, 150 mi/32 hrs. • much more comfortable, smooth ride, sleeping areas • major rivers now used to transport goods/passengers • shipping becomes cheaper and faster • river cities rise up along rivers (St. Louis, Cincinnati)

  7. Canals • steamboat routes depend on existing river systems • can’t tie eastern/western parts of the country together • idea to join NY City w/Great Lakes • build canal -artificial waterway across NY state • connect Albany w/Buffalo

  8. Erie Canal • 363 miles, built by thousands of Irish immigrants • uses series of locks-compartments where water levels are raised/lowered to raise/lower boats where canal levels change • 2 yrs. of digging, canal opens 1825 • steamboats not allowed at first, worry engines would damage earthen embankments • instead mules/horses pull barges • about 24 miles/day, fast compared to wagons • 1840’s canal banks reinforced to accommodate steam boats • more canal building follows • 1850=more than 3600 miles of canals

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