American Studies Week 3* February 24, 2014 The Mississippi Mark Twain

1. American StudiesWeek 3*February 24, 2014The MississippiMark Twain *Due to cancellation there is no Week 2

2. JONATHAN CHAPMAN
a.k.a. Johnny Appleseed
b.1774 - d.1845 Johnny Appleseed was a friend to both the Indians and the settlers. He was a man of peace who brought sweetness to the frontier.

3. The Ohio River

4. The Ohio River • Flows from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi • Travel route of Johnny Appleseed, Abe Lincoln, and many other pioneers • Major tributary of the Miss. • Boundary between slave/free territory

5. The Mississippi River 2,300 miles

8. The Upper Mississippi

9. The bluffs along the Mississippi are riddled with limestone caves, the walls of which are filled with fossils. The caves play a big part in the stories of Mark Twain and in the history of the region.

10. Rafting—Midwestern farmers built rafts from wood they cut themselves to float their produce to market down the river in New Orleans. Rafts could be small and simple or huge and elaborate. In New Orleans they would sell the raft for lumber and make the return trip by steamboat. This is how young Abe Lincoln went to New Orleans for the first time and got a good look at slavery.

11. Slave auction, New Orleans, c. 1836. Slaves all over the South lived in fear of being sold “down the river” to New Orleans.

12. Hannibal, Mo. as Huck Finn would have seen it.

13. Steam boat race on the Mississippi.

15. Cities on the Mississippi St. Louis, Missouri. Gateway to the West

16. Memphis, Tennessee

17. New Orleans, Louisiana

18. Battles on the Mississippi:The Battle of New Orleans The British tried to capture New Orleans at the end of the War of 1812. Andrew Jackson, with an army of Tennessee volunteers, Native Americans , free blacks and French pirates, waited for them behind a barrier made of cotton bales and defeated them, thus keeping the Mississippi open for western farmers. Jackson later became president.

19. The Siege of Vicksburg

20. The Siege of Vicksburg, 1863 • During the Civil War, Union forces commanded by Ulysses S. Grant bombarded Vicksburg, Mississippi for 40 days and 40 nights. • People of the city took refuge in natural caves above the river, but were eventually starved into submission. • Grant later became president.

21. Mark Twain

22. Mark Twain 1835-1910 • Samuel Clemons • Born in Missouri, grew up on river • River boat pilot • Dream job • Written about in Life on the Mississippi • Ended when Civil War began • Journalist, novelist, stand-up comedian

23. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer • Tom Sawyer • Twain’s 1st novel—made his reputation • Idealized small town America • Tom is mischievous but conventional • His best friend Huck is an outcast • They end up with a treasure in the end

25. Mark Twain’s Other Works • “Roughing It”—life on western frontier • Huckleberry Finn—Sequel to Tom Sawyer, shows darker side of American life. His greatest novel • The Prince and the Pauper • A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court • As he grew older, Twain became more sarcastic and bitter about modern America