Transportation Revolution | Indian Expulsion | Slavery and Cotton | U.S. Elections
Transportation RevolutionThe amount of railroad trackage in the United States tripled between 1850 and 1860. The Northeast developed the most comprehensive and efficient system, with twice as much trackage per square mile as the Northwest and four times as much as the South. Over time, the main "trunk lines" (shown in black) tended to displace traffic from the Erie Canal and the Mississippi River. By lessening the dependence of the West on the Mississippi, the railroads help to weaken the link between the Northwest and the South.
Why was there a greater concentration of railroads in the Northeast and Midwest than in the South? Give three hypotheses, and look for evidence on the map and in your text to back up each one. What effects would this have on sectional division and conflict?
Which cities grew up as a result of the new rail traffic? What economic impact did railroads have on the growth of cities across the North and Midwest? Which products were behind this growth in rail traffic?
Railroads in the South were fewer in number and served mostly to bring agricultural products from the hinterlands to cities and ports. Why did the railroads fail to bring about the economic changes it brought about in the North and Midwest?
You are a businessman interested in entering the railroad industry in 1840. Write a letter to Congress or to your state legislature asking for support of your project. What area of the country do you believe will offer the highest return on profit? What arguments will you make about the economic, political and social benefits of your enterprise? What assistance will you request?
You are a nineteenth-century rail traveler on a cross-country journey. Write a diary of your travels, the landscape you pass, the travel experience on the railroads, and the people you meet on your trip.
Indian ExpulsionThis interactive map shows the U.S. government's pushing of Native Americans from their tribal lands in the eastern United States to less-settled areas in the west, and the years of conflict that ensued.
Examine the timeline for the 1830s? Which Indian groups were forced to move? Where did they have to settle? What was the climate like in their new homes? What economic prospects did they have?
Follow the course of Indian conflicts through the timeline. Is there a pattern that emerges? Compare this map with the map on mining towns. Do any new patterns emerge?
What strategies did Native Americans try to preserve their lands and cultures? Compare, for example, the strategies of the Cherokee in the East and the Apache or the Sioux further to the west.
Slavery and CottonIn 1820, cotton production had begun to move into the Carolina and Georgia upcountry, as well as central Alabama and the Mississippi River valley. The slave population was still concentrated in the Chesapeake in the low country of South Carolina and Georgia. By 1860, the "Black Belt" had taken shape, marking the expansion of cotton production from the Carolinas all the way to Texas. The internal slave trade also shifted the slave population from the eastern seaboard to new cotton producing regions.
What was the correlation between cotton cultivation and slavery? Did slavery grow only in areas of cotton production? Did slavery grow elsewhere during this period? Choose two states in the map and discuss this relationship.
Using the map, discuss whether slavery was a "dying institution" in 1860, or whether it was expanding in scope.
How did the cotton gin change the economy and geography of slavery?
How did the abolition of the slave trade change the source of slaves for the American South? Which region profited most from this abolition?
Examine the map for 1835. How might the expanding cotton kingdom have contributed to the pressure for Indian removal? Use the map to support your argument.
U.S. ElectionsThomas Jefferson won the Presidency in 1800 in what has been called a political revolution for the new Republic. The election was the first in which two parties faced one another in a presidential election, and demonstrated that Americans could peacefully change their government through the electoral process. Jefferson, after narrowly defeating John Adams in the electoral college, pledged in his inaugural address to unite the country, "We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists." The two-party system that was born in this election persists until the present.
The election of Thomas Jefferson brought to power a new political party, the Democratic-Republicans. Was this party a national organization, representing the U.S. as a whole, or sectional party, representing only the South? What evidence is there for each position?
Why did a two-party system arise in the election of 1800? What effect did this system have on American political history? Was this a healthy or unhealthy development for American political life?
Write a diary as an observer from France in the United States during the Election of 1800. What are your views of the election? What do you think the election reveals about American political life? Compare America's peaceful transition to Democratic-Republican rule with political life in post-revolutionary France? How do you explain the differences?
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