01:512:205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Natty Bumppo, The Emerald Isle, Molly Maguires

22 views20 pages
Chapter 14: Forging the National Economy, 1790-
1860
1. The Westward Movement
1. The rise of Andrew Jackson, the first president form beyond the
Appalachian Mountains, exemplified the inexorable westward march of the
American people; the West, with its raw frontier, was the most typically
American part of America
2. The Republic and the people were so young as late as 1850, half of
Americans were under the age of thirty; By 1840 the demographic center
of the American population map had crossed the Alleghenies; by the Civil
War it had crossed the Ohio River
3. Legend portraying men carving civilization out of the western woods were
false as in reality, life was downright grim for most pioneer families in the
West
1. Poorly fed, ill-clad, housed in hastily erected shanties, they were
perpetual victims of disease, depression, and premature death; above
all, unbearable loneliness haunted them, especially the women, who
were often cut off from human contact
2. Frontier life could be tough and crude for men as well as no-holds-
barred wrestling was a popular entertainment and pioneering
Americans, marooned by geography, were often ill informed,
superstitious, provincial, and fiercely individualistic
3. Popular literature of the period abounded with portraits of unique,
isolated figures like Cooper’s heroic Natty Bumppo and Melville’s
restless Captain Ahab
4. Even in the era of rugged individualist there were important
exceptions; pioneers, in tasks beyond their resources would call upon
their neighbors for logrolling and barn raising and upon their
government for help in building internal improvements
2. Shaping the Western Landscape
1. The westward movement also molded the physical environment
1. Pioneers in a hurry often exhausted the land in the tobacco regions
then pushed on
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Unlock document

This preview shows pages 1-3 of the document.
Unlock all 20 pages and 3 million more documents.

Already have an account? Log in
2. In the Kentucky bottomlands, tall cane posed a barrier but settlers
soon discovered that when the cane was burned off, European
bluegrass thrived in the canefields
3. Kentucky bluegrass made ideal pasture for livestock—and lured
thousands
4.
2. The American West felt the pressure of civilization in additional ways
1. By the 1820s American fur trappers were in the Rocky Mountain
regions and the fur-trapping empire was based on the rendezvous
system; each summer, traders ventured from St. Louis to the Rocky
Mountain valley and waited for the trappers and Indians to arrive with
beaver pelts to swap for manufactured goods from the East
2. The trade thrived for two decades before the hats went out of style
and fewer beavers
3. Trade in buffalo robbers also flourished, leading eventually to the
virtually total annihilation of the massive bison herds and still farther
west, on the California coast, other traders bought up sea-otter pelts,
driving otters to the point of near-extinction
4. Aggressive, heedless exploitation of West natural bounty—ecological
imperialism
3. Yet Americans in this period also revered nature and admired its beauty;
the spirit of nationalism fed the growing appreciation of the uniqueness of
the American wilderness
1. Searching for the United States’ distinctive characteristics, many
observers found the wild, unspoiled character of the land, especially
the West, to be defining
2. Other countries may have mountains or rivers, but none had the
pristine, natural beauty of America, unspoiled by human hands and
reminiscent of a time before the dawn of civilizationattitude became
a kind of national mystique, inspiring literature and painting, and
eventually kindling a powerful conservation movement
3. George Catlin was among the first to advocate for preservation of
nature as deliberate national policy; he proposed the creation of a
national park (Yellowstone, 1872)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Unlock document

This preview shows pages 1-3 of the document.
Unlock all 20 pages and 3 million more documents.

Already have an account? Log in
3. The March of the Millions
1. As the American people moved west, they also multiplied at an amazing
rate; by mid-century the population was still doubling approximately every
twenty-five years
2. By 1860, the original thirteen states had more than doubled in number:
thirty-three stars graced the American flag and the United States was the
fourth most populous nation in the western world, exceed only by three
European countriesRussia, France, and Austria
3. Urban growth continued explosively; in 1790 only two American cities
(Philadelphia and New York) had populations of twenty thousand or more
but by 1860, there were 43
4. Such over rapid urbanization unfortunately brought undesirable by-
products; It intensified the problems of smelly slums, feeble street lighting,
inadequate policing, impure water, foul sewage, ravenous rats, and
improper garbage disposal
5. A continuing high birthrate accounted for most of the increase in
population, but by the 1840s the tides of immigration were adding
hundreds of thousands more
1. Before this decade immigrants had been flowing in at a rate of sixth
thousand a year, but suddenly the influx tripled in the 1840s and then
quadrupled in the 1850s
2. During these two feverish decades, over a million and a half Irish, and
nearly as many Germans, swarmed down the gangplankswhy did
they come?
6. The immigrants came partly because Europe seemed to be running out of
room; Europe grew and surplus people, who were displaced and
footloose in their homelands before they felt the tug of the American
magnet (nearly 60 million people abandoned Europe in the century after
1840, about 25 million went somewhere other than in the United States)
7. Yet American still beckoned most strongly to the struggling masses of
Europe, and the majority of migrants headed for theland of freedom and
opportunity
1. There was freedom from aristocratic caste and state church; there
was abundant opportunity to secure broad acres and better one’s
condition
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Unlock document

This preview shows pages 1-3 of the document.
Unlock all 20 pages and 3 million more documents.

Already have an account? Log in

Get access

Grade+20% off
$8 USD/m$10 USD/m
Billed $96 USD annually
Grade+
Homework Help
Study Guides
Textbook Solutions
Class Notes
Textbook Notes
Booster Class
40 Verified Answers
Class+
$8 USD/m
Billed $96 USD annually
Class+
Homework Help
Study Guides
Textbook Solutions
Class Notes
Textbook Notes
Booster Class
30 Verified Answers

Related Documents