1. American National Expansion and Reform 1815 - 1880
presented by
Arthur Hall

2. Development
In these 65 years
from 1815 – 1880
America grew from the world‘s smallest republic to the world‘s largest democracy

3. Reform It extended suffrage (the vote) first to all adult white males
It saw the birth of four political parties:
Democratic
Republican
American
Free Soil
The first two survived; the last two died

4. Expansion
Its geographic expansion stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific
It took in:
Texas
Oregon
California
And finally the south-west of the continent

5. Population The settlers found many opportunities but they displaced
the Indians
and
the Mexicans

6. Slavery Had been present since the early 17th century
Since the new constitution it had started to die out
Slaves worked in tobacco, hemp, corn and livestock fields as well as in cotton
Some slaves earned enough to buy their freedom
Everyone‘s hours were very long including slaves
Slave families in their ‘cabins‘ were important institutions with a vibrant but limited social life
During this period African-American slavery got a new lease of life leading to increased conflict between north (against) and south (for) after 1850

7. Slaves

8. Optimistic Reform Reform arose in the following areas:
Temperance
Public school system
Treatment of prisoners
Treatment of the insane
Treatment of the poor
The abolition of slavery
Equal rights for women
It was a period of
social reform and religious revival

9. The Overland Trails
The most famous and most important was the Oregon Trail west to today‘s areas of Oregon and Washington
This took place between 1843 and 1860
From east of the Mississippi news came from missionaries about the new area in the 1830s and 1840s

11. Overland Oregon Trail Emigrant settlers set out to reach Oregon
This rush turned to a stampede in 1848 due to the discovery of gold in California
The journey exhausted both people and animals
The owners enlisted people to drive teams of oxen, stand guard and do camp duties in exchange for transporting them, their clothes and their tools

12. California; South-West of Oregon

13. John Sutter started the Gold Rush

14. The Oregon Pioneers
“They traveled in crude ox-drawn wagons, they rode on horseback, and they plodded along on foot, mile after weary mile across prairie, mountains, and desert. They forded raging rivers, crept along the faces of treacherous cliffs, and faced hostile Indians. Danger dogged them every stop of the way, and one out of ten would perish along the way. But still they continued on their long journey. It was the greatest mass migration of people in the history of the United States, if not the entire world; the trip west over the Oregon Trail.“

16. Thanks for your attention – any questions?
Yes, yes I know it was pure