Emergence of the Northwest

The area west of the Appalachians, north of the Ohio, and east of the Mississippi- the "Northwest" The immigration in the North bore considerable similarities to its southern counterpart. First of all, many of the settlers to the Northwest came from the states of the Upper South. Some southern migrants to the North professed themselves eager to move out of the states with slavery, while others merely followed the easiest routes to good land. As in the Southwest, settlers to the Northwest did not move in a simple westward wave, but rather flowed up the rivers and spread from there, sometimes back to the east. Those who remained in a community became its leading citizens, consolidating land into larger farms, setting up grist mills and sawmills, running for office, establishing the small towns that serves as county seats and trading centers. In many cases storekeepers were among the first to arrive and among those whose fortunes flourished best. Courthouses were built early on to formalize land sales and taxation.

Migration to the Southwest

The Demand for cotton in England took off in 1815, when cotton became, for the first time, the clothing of choice for large number of the world's people. The south was the WORLD'S most ready place to start this transition. Small farmers as well as planters from the older states of the southern seaboard saw Opportunity in the new states of Alabama and Mississippi, especially now that Andrew Jackson had opened Mobile as a port for southern Alabama. Slave owners in the older states of the Atlantic seaboard face with what they considered a surplus of labor, eagerly sold slaves to planters moving to "New" lands. Many planters to the east took advantage of the opportunity to sell slaves "down south", especially as the price of slaves- stagnant or declining before 1815- began to rise. Because of this migration east, the population of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana more than tripled between 1810 and 1820.

Some ambitious young men from northern states moved to the new cotton land, the place in the United States, it seemed where the greatest fortunes could be made in the shortest amount of time. the lure of the sotuthwest overrode concerns husbands may have felt for their wives' opinions, however, for the new states offered a chance at the independence they considered synonymous with manliness.

The American System

Leading members of the Republican party, long known for their opposition to federal power, began to view central government more favorably after the victory of Britain in 1815. Young republicans such as Henry Clay of Kentucky and John c. Calhoun of South Carolina urged Congress and the president to encourage the growth of enterprise, with the aid of the government, creating roads, canals, a strong navy and a national bank. The future of the country, Clay and Calhoun believed, lay in commerce and industry. The government should ally itself with the forces of trade. These nationalists called their vision the “American System.” Because far too little cash spread across its vast growing territory, much business within the country rested on nothing more than trust and promises. Monroe supported a new national bank to stabilize the economy and distribute scare money more uniformly. The expanding country's economic system needed a central institution to coordinate the flow of money. Accordingly, in 1816, congress chartered the Second Bank of the United States. The bank pumped large amounts of paper currency into the system in an attempt to feed the voracious hunger of the postwar economy, especially in the new states of the West where specialization in land fueled demands for access to easier credit.

Courts increasingly favored market forces over customs and stability in property relation, shifting the advantage from farmers and landowners to developers. The Supreme court, under Chief Justice, John Marshall issued number of important decisions following the War of 1812 that also hastened economic development.The outcome of the Dartmouth College V. Woodward case sheltered corporations form legislative interference. The McCulloch V. Maryland case established the consiutionality of the bank of the United States and protected it from state taxation.

The preceeding year, 1818, the U.S. government opened the "National Road" connecting the Potomatic River at Cumberland, Maryland with Wheeling, West virginia on the Ohio River. The raod was the best that technology could provide at the time, with excellent bridges and a relatively smooth stone surface. Fortunately for New York, a passage broke through the Appalachian mountains within the state's borders. New Yorker's believed that a canal through this area, connecting the Hudson River to Lake Erie would far surpass any other kind of transportation. Other states looked enviously upon the glorious and profitable Erie Canal and began their own plans and excavations.

Rivers offered faster and cheaper travel, especially along Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio. As soon as Jackson won at New Orleans in 1815 the Enterprise churned its way upriver from Lousiana all the way to Louisville Kentucky. Though the shallow, high powered and top heavy steamboats showed a dangerous propensity to explode, run aground, and slam into submerged obstacles, no one thought of going back to the old way of travel.

Jackson kicks Spain out of Florida

Like the American Indians, the Spanish who remained in Florida after 1815 had become vulnerable. White Americans, for their part, felt they had a right, even an obligation to drive the Spain from the mainland, in part because Anglo Protestants had a long tradition of distrusting Catholic, monarchical Spanish. To make relations even more volatile, 60 miles from the southern border of the United States stood the so-called Negro Fort (above) near Pensacola, occupied by runaway slaves and their Indian allies. Spain was eager, in fact to overthrow it but they did not have enough military power. Though his authorization form Washington was doubtful, Jackson invaded Spanish territory, executed a Creek prophet and two British men who accused of abetting the Indian cause, and overran the weak, Spanish presence in the most important outposts. Many white Americans thronged the cities where Jackson appeared along the way, celebrating him as a decisive hero rather than castigating him for being the military despot Henry Clay (right) claimed.

Expanding Borders with James Monroe

Americans had gained a new confidence after winning the War of 1812. Thereafter came the election of 1816, where James Monroe ran unopposed of another party, but against five others of his own cabinet:

1. John C. Calhoun from South Carolina
2. Henry Clay from Kentucky
3. John QUINCEY Adams from Massachusetts
4. William H. Crawford from Georgia
5. General Andrew Jackson from Tennessee

Monroe and his wife set a new tone for the presidency, with greater emphasis on etiquette, style, and entertaining, had the executive mansion painted a brilliant white to cover the smoke stains from its burning during the war with England, the residence became known as the "White House".

There were fights over territories all over the country. Because of this, states were determined to safeguard their policies, despite the conflicts they created, which led to clashing economies. The Rush-Bagot Treaty of 1817 calmed conflict on the Great Lakes and the convention of 1818 fixed the border of Canada at the 49th Parallel.

By the early 19th century, the American Indians had lived in contact with Europeans for more than 200 years. Indians clothing reflected the combination of cultures. The intermingling worked both ways, for considerable numbers of English and Scots traders lived among the Indians. African Americans too often took refuge with the Creeks and Seminoles, so that by 1815 mixed ancestry had become common.

The removal of the British troops after the War of 1812, dealt a strong blow to the hopes of the American Indians. Alliances with the British, both actual and threatened had helped hold back the white Americans. Jackson used heavy-handed treaties to force Indians from their former land. Many of the natives resisted the removal, objecting that the treaties extracted by Jackson had been signed by Indians who had no authority to make such concessions. But whites insisted on lumping these diverse people into groups so they could be more easily dealt with. The U.S. government made it easy for white settlers to buy land and sold about a million acres a year throughout the next decade. After northern Indians' disastrous losses in the War of 2812, they posed little threat to white settlers. The grown numbers of white farmers made it difficult for Native Americans to hunt for a living. No matter what accommodations they made, however, the American Indians suffered repeated conflicts with whites who relied on shee numbers, trickery violence and the law to dispose native Americans of their land claims.

Shipwreck hunters find 1870 schooner

A shipwreck was recently discovered in Lake Erie. The location of where it's been found isn't all that deep, actually, only 80ft, 25 miles north of Cleveland. More Specifically, it was found off Cleveland by the Cleveland Underwater Explorers and the Great Lakes Historical society. They believe it was the historical Plymouth, a tiny schooner of 133 feet, and it was pretty much fully in tact. The problem is, however, that most of the ship is buried under the muck of the lake, making it all the more difficult to pull it out of the water.

Exhibitionists have started this search in 2004 and thought it ended in October, 2007. On Friday October 13, exhibitionists set out for NYC. The information acquired there was that the schooner, which has three masts, hit a storm and everyone aboard, including the sea captain and his wife were thought dead.

The discovery of shipwrecks has more than one value, as Carrie Sowden, archaeological direct of the Peachman Lake Erie shipwreck Research Center said. It fills gaps in two fields: both in history and in archaeology.

Source: toledoblade.com

The Beginning of the Second Great Awakening

Religion became the new "craze" as the nineteenth century began. The outcome of this craze, known as the Second Great Awakening, lasted into the 1830s. This is also where the concept of evangelicalism originated. Evangelicalism is the belief that one who is saved is required to share the message of salvation with others. "Evangelical ministers feared for the nation because so many westerns were unchurched (Ayers, 227)." The Presbyterians began another series of revivals known as the great western revivals of 1800-1815. Their first camp meeting took place in August, 1801 at Cane Ridge Kentucky where people from all denominations came, numbering to about 20,000. Religion was also important to black Americans, whether they remained enslaved or had achieved freedom.

The period around 1800 witnessed the expansion of several dissenting sects: The Shakers, the Society of the Public Universal Friend, and the Universalists. They are called sects, rather than denominations because they were new and fairly small. They held distinctive beliefs that set them apart from mainstream religions, yet had a significant influence on intellectual and scial movement of their time. The Shakers were the most influential sect. They left England to escape mob attacks and imprisonment. The sect offered an avenue for people who had been spiritually reborn in the Awakening and sought a distinctive way to represent that rebirth in their lives. Prominent amongst them was Mother Lee. Mother Lee Believed she embodied Christ's Second Coming. She was also called the Mother of New Creation. She preached the Shaker's beliefs of achievement of salvation was on by that of confession of sin, equality regardless of sex or race, opposition to slavery and war, and assistance to the poor. Men and woman slept, ate and worked separately to abstain form sexual intercourse. In a large open space without pulpit or pews, worshipers dances, shouted and sang. The Shakers influenced other groups to organize communal Utopian experiments during the years after 1815.

The Louisiana Purchase

The greatest success of Thomas Jefferson's Presidency was, in fact, the Louisiana Purchase. His tour de force granted him land that doubled the size of the United States, thus undermining Spain's control in America. This all began when, in 1800, Jefferson sent the Robert R. Livingston , the U.S. minister to France to recover lands in the west, with high desire to prevent French control of the Mississippi Valley. In October, 1802, the Spanish suspended once again the right of Americans to deposit goods for export at New Orleans. The Americans thought, incorrectly, that Napoleon was behind this ban. In response to Livingston's overtures Napoleon decided to sell the entire Louisiana Territory to the United States. Jefferson ignored the Spanish objections, but worried that the Louisiana purchase was unconstitutional. The Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson believed, wouldn't the life of the republic by providing space for generations of ordinary planters. Beyond Spain's objection to the U.S. purchase of Louisiana, the two nations also disputed territory boundaries. Jefferson pushed for West Florida, with an eastern boundary at the Puerdo River, in the southwest to the Rio Grande, in the Northwest to the Rocky Mountains and along the west bank of the Mississippi from Northern Missouri to the Gulf of Mexico. Jefferson sent troops as a threat but decided not to attack and tried to purchase what is now Florida with failed attempts. Several times since 1783, he had tried to organize expeditions for scientific knowledge, and to promote American interest in the region. In 1792 an American sea Captain named Robert Grey explored the Columbia River, and George Vancouver, a British Naval Officer, explored the Northwest coast.Even before buying Louisiana, Jefferson appointed his private secretary, Meriwether Lewis as captain of his expedition. Lewis choose William Clark to accompany him. Clark was his close friend and the two of the m actually fought in the Army together. This time, their task was to find the Northwest Passage and explore the west. Jefferson also hoped they would make peaceful contact with the Native Americans to expand commercial networks for fur trade. Lewis and Clark more than fulfilled their duty. Lewis and Clark received commissions as army officers to lead the Corps of Discovery of about 40 men who departed from St. Louis in may 1804. They traveled up the Missouri River and duirng that time several men deserted and one died. The arrived in the Manda and Hidtsa villages of what is North Dakota. The Lewis and Clark Expedition set out with Sacajawea a Shoshone woman and her French Husband and infant son. They went southeast along the Yellowstone River and returned to St. Louis by September 1806.