Westward Expansion 1820–1860. Settlers and Trappers Were Attracted to Oregon.

Westward Expansion 1820–1860

Settlers and Trappers Were Attracted to Oregon

Settlers and Trappers Were Attracted to Oregon

Oregon Country—a huge region west of the Rocky Mountains that included present-day Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and parts of Wyoming, Montana, and western Canada.– Good farmland along the Pacific coast attracted farmers.– Fertile soil– Mild temperatures year round– Plentiful rainfall– Forests further inland and in the Rocky Mountains attracted fur

trappers.– Beavers and other fur-bearing animals

American Interest in theNew Mexico Territory

New Mexico Territory• Ruled by Mexico in the early 1840s. • Included all of present-day California, Nevada and Utah, most of

Arizona and New Mexico, and parts of Colorado.

What attracted Americans to parts of the New Mexico Territory?• Reading books describing the Southwest.• Trade—William Becknell led traders to present-day New Mexico.

The route they followed became known as the Santa Fe Trail.

American Support for Westward Expansion

• Many people believed that Americans had a right and duty to spread their culture and its democratic government all the way to the Pacific Ocean. This belief was called Manifest Destiny. Manifest means clear or obvious. Destiny means something that is sure to happen.

• Many Americans believed that expansion would open new opportunities for the United States economy.

• Some people believed that white Americans were superior to Native Americans and Mexicans and deserved to take the land from those people.

• Every year, more Americans moved west. The United States government offered to buy California from Mexico.

• Some Americans wanted control of the ports at San Francisco and San Diego.

The Mormons Settle Utah

• Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1830 in upstate New York. Members of the church were called Mormons.

• Neighbors were angered by Mormon beliefs that property should be owned in common and that a man could have more than one wife.

• The Mormons moved west to Ohio, where they faced opposition.• The Mormons moved to Missouri, and then to Illinois. They again

clashed with neighbors. An angry mob killed Joseph Smith.• A new leader, Brigham Young, realized Mormons needed a refuge,

a place where they would be safe from persecution. In 1847, he led an advance party to the valley of the Great Salt Lake, in present-day Utah. Thousands of Mormons followed.

People Rush Westward

The California Gold Rush• In 1848, James Marshall was supervising the building of

a sawmill for John Sutter, when he discovered a lump of gold.

• Sutter tried to keep the news a secret, but within days people from San Francisco and other California towns were rushing to Sutter’s Mill to look for gold.

• Soon, thousands of Americans, as well as people from around the world, were rushing to California to search for gold. They became known as forty-niners.

• Early miners found gold easily. Some miners found a way to get the gold out of riverbeds. Yet, very few miners struck it rich. Many went broke trying to find gold. Still, although many miners left the gold fields, they stayed in California to farm or work at other jobs.

People Rush into The West

Eff

ect

s T

od

ay

• United States stretches from sea to sea

• California and Texas are the most populous states

• Mexican American culture enriches the United States

Cau

ses

• Oregon has fertile land

• Texas is ideal for raising cattle and growing cotton

• Many Americans believe in Manifest Destiny

• Mormons seek a safe home

• Gold is discovered in California

Wes

twar

d M

ove

men

t

Eff

ect

s

• Texas wins war for independence

Britain and United States divide Oregon

• United States defeats Mexico in war

• Cotton Kingdom spreads

North and South 1820–1860

New Inventions Changed Manufacturing and Farming

Invention

Sewing machine

Inventor

Elias Howe,improved by Isaac Singer

Improvement

Clothing could be manufactured by machine much more rapidly than it could be made by hand.

Iron Plow

Steel Plow

Jethro Wood

John Deere

The older, heavy wood and iron plows had to be pulled by slow-moving oxen. A horse could pull a lighter-weight steel plow faster.

Mechanical Reaper

Cyrus McCormick A horse-drawn reaper could mow wheat and other grains five times as fast as farmhands using hand tools.

Mechanical Drill, Threshing Machine, Horse-Drawn Hay Rake

All these improvements helped farmers raise more grain with fewer farmhands.

New Inventions Changed Manufacturing and Farming

Invention

Telegraph

Inventor

Samuel F. B. Morse

Improvement

The “talking wire,” or telegraph, was a device that sent electrical signals along a wire. For the first time, news could travel long distances in a few minutes.steam-powered

locomotive engine

an English family Railroad cars had been pulled by horses or mules. The steam-powered locomotive, or engine to pull railroad cars, could do 30 miles per hour.

The Cotton Gin• Textile mills in the North and in Britain needed more and more raw

cotton to make cloth.• Southern planters could grow plenty of cotton, but removing the

seeds by hand was a slow process.• Eli Whitney built a machine to clean cotton—the cotton engine, or

gin. It had rollers with wire teeth that separated the seeds from the fibers. One worker using a gin could do the work of 50 people cleaning cotton by hand.

• The cotton gin led to a boom in cotton production.• Cotton plants wore out the soil, so planters began to look for fresh

land. By the 1850s, cotton plantations extended in a wide band from the East Coast westward to Texas.

• As the Cotton Kingdom spread, so did slavery.

The Rise of Cotton Production and the Growth of Slavery

The South Becomes an Agricultural Economy

Crop Growing Area Effects

Cotton a wide band from South Carolina through Alabama and Mississippi to Texas

• promoted the plantation system and slavery

Rice coasts of South Carolina and Georgia

• required expensive irrigation and drainage systems

• promoted the plantation system

Sugar Cane Louisiana and Texas • required expensive irrigation and drainage systems

• promoted the plantation system

Tobacco Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky

• Usually grown on small farms

The Economic Relationship Between North and South

Southern industry remained small.• agricultural tools—cotton gins, planters, and plows• other agricultural goods—ironware, hoes, and hemp for bags• cheap cotton cloth• flour mills

However, the South had little industry compared with the North. The South depended on the North and on Europe.

• loans from northern banks• northern furniture, tools, and machines

Reform and Antislavery 1820–1860

Roots of Reformsocial reform—an organized attempt to improve what is unjust or imperfect in society

Political ideals • Politics was becoming more democratic. People pointed to the Declaration of Independence’s promise of liberty and equality.

• People question slavery as undemocratic.• People asked why women had few rights.

Religious ideals • In colonial times, American Protestants believed in predestination, the idea that God decided in advance which people would attain salvation after death. A religious movement of the early 1800s—the Second Great Awakening—stressed free will instead. Preachers said that individuals could save their souls by their own actions.

• In revivals, or huge outdoor meetings, people heard that individual salvation was the first step toward reforming the world. This message inspired people to improve society.

Roots of Reform

Political Origins• The ideals of liberty and

equality in the Declaration of Independence inspire people to try to improve society

• During Jackson era, more people can vote than ever before

• Critics say slavery and other injustices violate democratic ideals

Religious Influences• Second Great Awakening

stresses free will rather than predestination

• Revivals encourage people to reform their lives

• Finney teaches that individual salvation is the first step to the reform of a society

Antislavery Movement

Abolitionist Movement

• Reformers known as abolitionists wanted to end slavery completely in the United States.

• Some African Americans tried to end slavery through lawsuits and petitions. Others, used their newspaper to influence public opinion.

• Free African American David Walker encouraged enslaved African Americans to free themselves by any means.

• Frederick Douglass, the best-known African American abolitionist was a powerful speaker. He lectured in the United States and Britain.

• White abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison published The Liberator, the most influential antislavery newspaper.

The Underground Railroad

• The Underground Railroad was a network of black and white abolitionists who secretly helped slaves escape to freedom.

• Conductors guided runaways to stations where they could hide—the homes of abolitionists, churches, and caves.

• Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery. She risked her freedom and her life by returning to the South 19 times. She led more than 300 former slaves to freedom.

Reasons Why People Opposed Abolition

In the North• Northern mill owners,

bankers, and merchants who depended on southern cotton worried about losing their cotton supply.

• Northern workers feared that freed African Americans might come and take their jobs.

In the South

• Many white southerners accused abolitionists of preaching violence.

• Slave owners defended slavery even more firmly than before. Some argued that slaves were better off than northern factory workers.

• To many southerners, slavery was an essential part of the southern economy and way of life.

What happens next?