History Collection from the Constitution to the Civil War

Daniel Boone

• Explored, hunted, and trapped in the Appalachians.

• Very good at finding trails – nicknamed “Pathfinder”

• Led 5 families across Cumberland Gap to settle KY.

• They left in Oct. because Native Americans attacked their group. His son James was killed.

• Created a new trail called Wilderness Road. It also led to the Cumberland Gap.

• Boonesborough was a settlement founded by Boone and his men.

• He’s important because he helped settle the west – Kentucky.

• Didn’t wear a coonskin cap!• Married Rebecca.

Louisiana Purchase

• Louisiana’s main port, New Orleans, was extremely important to farmers in KY, TN, and other territories along the Mississippi River.

• President Jefferson wanted to buy New Orleans from France.

• He sent James Monroe to make an offer.

• Monroe was offered all of the Louisiana territory instead.

• The Louisiana Purchase cost $15 million. That’s about $.04/acre.

• It doubled the size of the United States and guaranteed Americans the use of the Mississippi River and New Orleans.

Lewis and Clark

• President Jefferson sent an expedition to explore Louisiana and all of the land to the Pacific Ocean.

• They were to travel the Missouri River to find a safe route to the Pacific Ocean.

• The group (42 men) called itself the “Corps of Discovery.”

• Lewis and Clark were to write down everything they saw.

• They brought gifts for the Native Americans whom they might meet along the way.

Don’t forget

Sacajawea!

• Lewis and Clark met a French Fur trapper and his Shoshone wife, Sacajawea.

• They wanted to join the expedition.

• Lewis and Clark agreed because they needed Sacajawea to translate for them.

• When the expedition reached the Rocky Mountains a group of Shoshone approached them.

• Sacajawea knew the Shoshone chief because it was her brother. “She jumped for joy!”

• Her brother gave the expedition the horses it needed to cross the Rocky Mountains.

• The expedition followed the Snake River and the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean.

• The trip took 18 months, but it was a success.

War of 1812

• War between Great Britain and the U.S. from 1812-1815.

• Britain and France were fighting a long and costly war.

• The U.S. tried to stay neutral, but both countries started taking American ships. Britain actually kidnapped American sailors to serve in the British Army.

• The ship called the Constitution earned the nickname, “Old Iron Sides” because it sank the Guerriere (a mighty British ship).

• Americans had to face Native Americans on land. They were allies to the British.

• When the British were near Washington D.C., First Lady Dolly Madison saved important papers and a famous painting of George Washington.

Francis Scott Key in the War

of 1812

• Francis Scott Key watched as the British attacked Fort McHenry.

• Key wrote a song about the battle. It was called, “The Star Spangled Banner.”

• His song became our country’s national anthem.

• General Andrew Jackson won a huge victory at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. The British lost over 2,000 men! He didn’t know that a peace treaty (Treaty of Ghent) had already been signed. The war was over.

Trail of Tears

• President Jackson believed Native Americans were a threat to the growth and expansion of the U.S.

• Jackson wanted them to move west of the Mississippi.

• In 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act – It allowed the President to remove Native Americans from their homes.

• In 1838, U.S. soldiers rounded up the Cherokee and burned their houses.

• The Cherokee were forced to march 800 miles to Indian Territory (Oklahoma).

• The march took over a year.• 4,000 out of 15,000

Cherokee people died – that’s about 27%.

• Native Americans called the march “the place where they cried.” It’s now known as the “Trail of Tears.”

Eli Whitney and his Cotton Gin

• The Industrial Revolution changed the way things were made. Goods that were made by hand or in workshops were now made by machines, often in factories. Production increased and the costs of making the goods decreased.

• Cotton has seeds that need to be picked out. It takes a very long time.

• Eli Whitney invented a machine to pick out the seeds quickly – A Cotton Gin.

• The Cotton Gin (short for engine) helped workers clean up to 50 times more cotton than they could by hand.

• This increased the need for cotton. Therefore, the need for slaves increased too.

Eli Whitney and

Interchangeable Parts

• Eli Whitney was also the first in this country to use interchangeable parts.

• Interchangeable parts were parts of all the same size.

• Before this time, if a gun had a broken piece, another piece had to be custom made.

• Gun making took forever!!

• Interchangeable parts made it quicker and easier to make things like guns, and if something broke, it was easily fixed.

Fulton’s Folly

• River travel was cheap and flat-bottomed boats carried many goods.

• The Mississippi lead to a main port in New Orleans.

• Going downstream was good. Going upstream was extremely hard! The steam engine solved this problem.

• Robert Fulton learned of a powerful steam engine that was developed in Scotland.

• Fulton dropped his art career to build a steamboat – a boat powered by a steam engine.

• After years of work, Fulton named his steamboat the Clermont.

• Some people laughed and called it “Fulton’s Folly.”

• In 1807, the 150 mile trip took only 32 hours. It usually took 8 – 11 days. The Clermont was a success!

Erie Canal

• The governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton, wanted to link the Hudson River with Lake Erie – A distance of 350 miles.

• A canal is a human-built waterway.

• On July 4th, the $7 million Erie Canal project began (Clinton got enough investors).

• It took them 8 years to build it.

• Before the canal it took traders 20 days to get to Lake Erie. After the canal it took traders 8 days to get to Lake Erie.

• Before, it cost $100 a ton. After, it cost $90 a ton.

• The Erie Canal made it easier to ship goods.

• Trading boomed!

The “Iron Horse”

• The 1st railroad cars were pulled by horses.

• In 1829 a British inventor created a steam locomotive – the “iron horse.”

• Designed and built by Peter Cooper in 1830, the Tom Thumb was the first American-built steam locomotive to be operated on a common-carrier railroad.

• Tom Thumb raced a horse-drawn coach to prove itself.

• Something happened, and it didn’t beat the horse.

• It did prove that steam engines could haul large loads long distances.

Texas and the Alamo

• Texas (The Lone Star State) was part of the Spanish Territory of Mexico.

• Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821.

• Mexico wanted to populate Texas because they were afraid the U.S. would come take it if people didn’t live there.

• “Texas Fever” swept through the U.S. in 1822. People rushed to accept offers of cheap, fertile land.

• Americans were allowed to come to Texas if they became Mexican citizens, joined the Roman Catholic Church, and learned to speak Spanish.

• Americans didn’t follow the rules, and the weak new Mexican government couldn’t make them.

• Mexico’s government worried that they would lose Texas to the Americans because there were so many of them.

• Santa Anna took control of the Mexican government. Then he planned to take control of Texas.

Texas and the Alamo Continued

• The volunteer Texan Army included people like Davy Crockett, Sam Houston, and Jim Bowie.

• The Alamo was an old Spanish mission (turned into a fort) that the Texan Army took from the Mexican Army.

• Soldiers, their wives, and their children camped inside the Alamo.

• Mexican troops attacked the Alamo on Feb. 23, 1836. After 2 weeks of constant fighting, Mexican soldiers broke through. Most of the Alamo defenders were killed.

• On March 19, Texan troops were defeated and forced to march to the fort at Goliad. Santa Anna ordered the 350 Texans be put to death.

• Texans defeated the Mexican army on April 21, 1836 at the Battle of San Jacinto. They yelled, “Remember the Alamo!” “Remember Goliad!” It ended the war. Santa Anna was caught. Texas won their independence. They became a state in 1845.

Westward JourneyWhy? How?

• For religious freedom (e.g., Mormons)

• For gold and other wealth

• For cheap or free land (farms and ranches)

• For trading• For adventure• For “elbow room”• They used many

different trails like the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail.

The California Gold Rush

• James Marshall found gold in the American River in California one Jan. morning in late 1848. He was at the Sutter’s Mill sawmill.

• People from all over the world raced along the California Trail.

• This event was called the California Gold Rush.

• Forty-Niners were miners. Some found gold. Most of them only found hard work and disappointments.

• The cost of supplies went up as more miners came to California.

• Merchants were the ones getting rich –Merchants charged higher prices because miners needed supplies and had no where else to go.

• In 1847, San Francisco had a population of 800. In 1849 the population was 25,000.

• In 1850 California became a state.