Chapter 13
The Way West 1815 - 1850
The Agricultural Frontier
U. S. population – 1800 to 1850 – almost five time increase – 23 million in 1850
Land area – purchase and conquest – tripled
Large families in rural societies – ample space
Jefferson and Jackson - aid to Americans wanting to the freeholders
Old Northwest – mosaic of settlements – different values and folkways of regional
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cultures from the East took root and expanded.
Southerners and Northerners settled in those same respective areas of the Old
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Northwest – attracted antislavery and pro-temperance families
Claims Clubs – squatter property rights
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Wheat – major cash crop for northern market – milled into flour
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John Deere – steel plow to break thick prairie sod – 1837
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Commercial agriculture in the West contributed to growth of eastern
manufacturing
West included Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Wisconsin (last to gain statehood and
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not even a territory in 1850)
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Old Southwest – 1790 – 1860 – more than 800,000 slaves were moved or sold from the
South Atlantic region into the Old Southwest
Short-staple cotton – grown anywhere
Eli Whitney – gin – eliminated problem of removing seeds from fiber
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British textile industry – huge demand for cotton
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Cotton was more than half of the value of all U. S. exports by 1840s
Southwest Ordinance – 1790 – opened all territories south of the Ohio River to
slavery.
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Slaves, Land, Cotton – road to wealth
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Frontier of the Plains Indians
1840 – few white Americans had gone west of the Mississippi
Approximately 350,000 Native Americans lived in the plains and mountains of
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the Trans-Mississippi West
Great American Desert – little agricultural potential
Western Sioux, Crow, Cheyenne, and Arapahos – hunting and raiding people on plains
Sauks and Foxes defeated in Black Hawk’s War – 1832 – opened Iowa to white
settlement
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Sioux were dominant on northern and central Great Plains
Sioux and other Plains Indians fought to preserve hunting grounds and to show honor
Whites were opposite – kill greatest number of enemy
Annual Trade Fair - brought together Indians, trappers, and traders – beaver pelts and
buffalo robes traded by Sioux
Whiskey was a profitable trading good for whites
Oregon Trail
Six month journey –reports of fertile land in Oregon
Treaty 1818 – Oregon jointly administered by U. S. and Britain
Jason Lee – missionary in Oregon Territory
Independence, Missouri – starting point for Oregon Trail
At first, Indians tried to ignore wagon trains
Tribes such as Cayuses refused to abandon tribal customs and rejected
Christianity – killed a couple of missionaries
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Disease was the greatest killer of people on the trail – cholera
Fort Laramie Treaty – brief standoff between Sioux and U. S. government
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Peoples of the Southwest
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Mestizos – people of mixed ancestry – Spanish and Indian
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The largest concentration of Indians was in California – 300,000 in the 1760s – remained
so in the 19th century
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Yumans – Colorado River in southeastern California – practiced full-scale agriculture
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Hopis – Arizona – resided for more than 500 years – corn and beans staples of irrigation
agriculture – incorporated Catholic practices into their polytheistic religion
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Comanche – master horsemen and greatest warriors in the west
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Pueblo – major farming Indians – Arizona and New Mexico
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Americanization of Texas
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Tejanos – Spanish-speaking Mexicans born in Texas
Mexican approach to early American settlers in Texas – encouraged settlers to come in
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order to help against Indian attacks, offered huge land grants, settlers had to accept
Mexican citizenship and convert to Catholicism.
Stephen Austin – first American empresario – received huge land grant
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Americans brought slaves to Texas – violation of Mexican law forbidding slavery
General Santa Anna – 1833 President of Mexico – overturned liberal Mexican
constitution and declared himself as dictator
Difficult for Spain and Mexico to govern Texas – too large and too remote
Mexican army defeated Americans at the Alamo and at Goliad
Juan Cortina – fought for Mexico – claimed whites abused Mexicans (read A Mexican
Rebel in 1859 – page 363)
Sam Houston – led American volunteers – defeated Mexicans at Battle of San Jacinto and
established the independence of Texas
Americans also fighting Comanche Indians in northern and western Texas – difficult – U.
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S. Army, after the Civil War, finally defeated the Comanches.
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California
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Rancheros – carved up mission lands into cattle ranches
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New Mexico
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Santa Fe Trail – opened door for American takeover of New Mexico
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Utah
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Joseph Smith – Mormonism – based in Nauvoo, Indiana until Smith and his brother were
murdered - looked for refuge in the West – 1846 settled in the Great Basin in Utah led by
Brigham Young – 1848 they discovered they had not left the U. S. as Utah was acquired
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by the U.S.
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Politics, Expansion and War
James K. Polk – president – expansionist – conquering California was the cornerstone of
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his foreign policy – president during the Mexican War
Manifest Destiny – John L. O’Sullivan coined the phrase – peaked in the 1840s.
Expansionists in the late 19th century invoked Manifest Destiny to justify U. S.
acquisition of an overseas empire following the Spanish-American War. Most closely
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associated with Democratic Party. Justified expansion on basis of racial superiority of
white Americans
Also believed westward expansion was necessary to rid eastern cities of unwanted
immigrants
Mexican War
Polk sent John Slidell to Mexico City to offer $30 million to purchase California
and New Mexico and secure the Rio Grande boundary – Mexican government refused to
receive Slidell – Polk ready for war
American forces moved into borderland region at the mouth of the Rio Grande
U. S. amphibious assault on Vera Cruz enabled Gen. Winfield Scott to capture
Mexico City
Expansionist Americans wanted the U. S. to take Mexico
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo – 2-2-1848
Mexico surrender its claim to Texas north of the Rio Grande River
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Mexico cede to U. S. – Alta California and New Mexico
U. S. to pay Mexico $15 million
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U. S. citizenship granted to Mexicans in the new U. S. acquired lands
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Senator Thomas Benton advocated for increased trade with China
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