1. Expanding Westward Objectives: Do Now: Homework:
Understand the motives and settlement of western U.S.
Do Now:
Pg. 228 # 4
Homework:
The Era of Good Feelings pg. 220
Test next Monday Ch. 7 and 8

2. The Great Migrations West attractive because War of 1812 lessened
Native opposition by pushing Indians west and
establishing forts on Great Lakes and Miss. R.
Westward movement affected
economy
factor in Civil War,
peoples thrusted together
Pop. + econ. pressures, land availability, decreased Indian resistance
Immigration and natural growth increased Eastern population
agricultural lands occupied.
Slaves in South limited work opportunity.

3. White Settlers in the Old Northwest
Shelters primitive
Clearings in forest for crops to supplement game and domestic animals
Rough existence w/ poverty and loneliness
Migrants journeyed westward in groups
some formed communities, schools, churches, and other institutions.
Mobility a large part of life
Farm economy based on modest seized farms with grain cultivation + livestock

4. The Plantation System in the Southwest
Cotton fields in Old South had lost much fertility but market continued to grow for it,
Black Belt of SW lands could support thriving cotton
First arrivals small farmers, wealthier planters followed buying and clearing smaller lands.
Brought w/ them slaves, eventually mansions grew up from simpler log cabins symbolizing emergence of a newly rich class
Rapid growth in NW and SW resulted in new states after War of 1812:
Indiana 1816, Mississippi 1817, Illinois 1818, Alabama 1819

6. Trade and Trapping in the Far West
Trade began to develop between western regions in US in 19th century + beyond
Mexico (controlled Texas, CA, Southwest) won independence from Spain 1821,
opened territories to trade in order to grow their fortunes.
US merchants such as William Becknell displaced Indian traders and inferior Mexican products lost out to new US traders
Mexico lost its markets it in own colonies

7. Trade and Trapping in the Far West
Fur traders such as Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company eventually extended to Rockies
instead of pelts from Indians increasingly trapped their own
Trappers (“mountain men”) first wedge of white movement
changed society by interacting with Indians and Mexicans.
1822 Andrew and William Ashley founded Rocky Mountain Fur Company, recruited trappers to live permanently in Rockies (Utah, New Mexico)
Lives of trappers bound up with expanding market economy
relied on fur companies for credit, depended on Eastern merchants for livelihood

8. Eastern Images of the West
People in East only dimly aware of trappers’ world and their reshaping of it
Explorers dispatched by US government to chart territories.
1819/1820 Steven Long sent by War Department to explore
wrote influential report with dismissive conclusions for future settlement (like Zebulon Pike 15 years before)