Matthew PedenUS History 1301Professor Donald KnoxSeptember 5, 2018
Journal Assignment 2
Entry 1: The Erie Canal
The first proposal for the Erie Canal was in 1780 but it was not until 1817 did actual construction begin. The Principal engineer of the waterway was Benjamin Wright who began construction at Rome, New York on July 4, 1817 . It took roughly eight years to construct and was completed and opened October 26, 1825and stretched over 363 miles along the way making new ports and cities. The purpose of the canal would be connecting minor waterways, the Hudson River and Lake Erie to create a travel route accessible from the major waterways, the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the Great Lakes. Traveling across country limited colonizers to pack animals and less effective ways to ship goods. The creation of this canal opened up a way of safe, effective, and cheaper bulk shipment and travel for farmers and foreign traders. This canal put New York as becoming the fastest growing cities and the hub of all this new found advancement. More canals were eventually constructed after seeing the success of the Erie Canal. This new route to the nations interior gave more opportunity for the growing population of people to migrate westward and increase American expansion as well as industrialization.
Entry 2: John DeereJohn Deere was born in Rutland, Vermont on Febuary 4th, 1804. After being raised only by his mother and getting a public school education and becoming a black smith John Deere faced harsh business conditions and decided to move west to Grand Detour, Illinois at the age of 33. He found himself making the same repetitive repairs on farm plows and had the idea to do something about it. The wood and cast iron plow just were not holding up to conditions for farmers in the west due to the tougher soil. John made a large steel saw blade into the shape of a plow and found it worked much better than the former. After making a few plows as requests came he saw the potential in popularity and need for increased production. He began to manufacture before orders came in to allow customers to see the product before buying and led to increase business because word spread quickly. In 1842 John Deere went into a partnership and sold over 400 plows within a year. After the partnership ended in 1848 John relocated and went into another partnership and built a factory the same year. By 1849 production was so quick there were 200 plows produced a month. Eventually John bought out his partners and went into business with his son Charles. Eventually expanding to different types of farm equipment and creating a successful business empire that has lasted until present day.
Entry 3: Mormons
In 1823 young Joseph Smith in upstate New York said he had a vision from God as to what he should do after praying for which religion he should join. Instead God told him to follow an angel that would show him two golden tablets written by the ancient historian prophet Mormon. In 1830 Smith published the translation of these texts as the book of Mormon. April 6, 1830 Smith founded the Church of Latter-day Saints and later spread westward as Smith sent out missionaries. In 1831 The Church would move to Ohio due to the growing number of converts and had plans to build the city of Zion or New Jerusalem. Around 1833 the church would be pushed to two different counties due to settlers intolerance of the rise in Mormons. In 1838 during after a fallout in the church tensions between settlers and Mormons rose. Eventually the governor of Missouri said to treat Mormons as enemies and they are to be exterminated from the state. This caused a migration to eastern Illinois. They would settle near the Mississippi River and rename the city Nuavoo and build a temple as their headquarters. Here Smith would create councils, doctrines, and further expand the Mormon beliefs. In 1844 as prejudiced and political tensions rose smith eventually was killed by a mob. Which led Brigham Young to take leadership over the church and lead a movement of Mormons southwest into Utah. Here the Church would expand and grow but never completely free of hardship.
Entry 4:American System and Second Bank
The War of 1812 between the US and Great Britain had finished in a stalemate, and enormous war obligations, yet gave the United States the certainty to see itself bound together as a free country. The political quiet in the nation prompted the period known as the Era of Good Feelings. The legislature presented a monetary arrangement went for enhancing the economy of the US. The country’s financial arrangement depended on another national bank to give credit to Americans, burdening outside products to raise wage and making a sponsored transportation foundation of new streets and channels to enable Westward Expansion to new grounds with more pilgrims getting to be agriculturists. This would create a more united America and “bind” the nation as one using these roads and canals. The arrangement was started by Henry Clay and was called the ‘American System’. The foundation of the Second Bank of the United States was part of the financial arrangement to achieve these objectives. President James Madison, with the endorsement of Congress, allowed a sanction to the Second Bank of the United States in 1816 which was a privately held managing an account company. Overall the second bank was suppose to give out credit and help during this time of debt and did so for a time until it greatly restricted it qualifications for credit creating a recession which would eventually lead to the panic of 1819. As cotton prices fell and American exports were less requested the repayment of credit became harder on those that were under it. However this period only lasted little more than a year.
Entry 5: Resistance to Slavery
The most widely recognized type of resistance for slaves was quiet opposition. The damaging of tools and things for work, pretending to be ill, doing poor work. Less normal, however but more dangerous opposition included harming slave owners, setting fires, and equipped strikes. The slaves who fled were additionally debilitating to the soundness of the slave framework. Of the evaluated 1,000 slaves a year to get away, most got away from the Upper South. In the Deep South, outlaw slaves frequently ran away toward the south to easily mix in with the freed men. The Underground Railroad was a free association of abolitionists who helped slaves to get away. Harriet Tubman was an escaped slave who made at least twenty known outings back to her home to help friends and family escape as well. In 1839, a gathering of slaves assured their freedom by escaping on board a ship called the Amistad. Slave Revolts 1811 saw an uprising on sugar estates in Louisiana, which saw slaves walking toward New Orleans before the state army caught them. In 1831, Nat Turner and his devotees walked through Virginia attacking any farms that were owned by white people. Turner had a force of about eighty slaves and killed a number people, men, women, and children, before the local army put down the insubordination. Turner was caught and executed. Turner’s Rebellion was the last slave uprising in the South. The Virginia lawmaking body discussed plans for progressive liberation of the state’s slaves, yet voted not to make that stride. Virginia fixed its grasp on bondage through new laws additionally restricting slaves’ rights.
Entry 6: Asylums and Institutions
Between the 1830’s and 1850’s a perfectionism approach coupled with institutionalization by religious and social members of society believed all people deserved a place to go so the invention of asylums were put into place based on those with certain types of situations. These institutions believed they could turn the ineffective and lost people into reformed productive members of society. Poor houses were created for those in destitute situation from living on the street or in extreme poverty with no place to go. However these poorhouses would gain an atmosphere that was forgotten and sometimes just as bad as living on the streets. Orphanages were created for the children without families and a way to keep them from being placed with those that were in more troublesome situations. Orphanages were viewed as a stabilizing force to raise children and teach them basic values and turn them into productive societal adults. Jails became the main housing for criminals and eventually was more about keeping these people at bay and less about reform and reintegration into the public. Mental institutions or “insane asylums” were for those with existing mental disorders to segregate from regular jail population and learn more about the different types of mental illnesses. Both jails and asylums eventually would become known for being over crowded and unproductive thus keeping those in need in the same state of living. Along with institutions for the destitute a public school system was created to begin teaching those without the means to accessible schooling. These common schools were tax supported and open to all children.
Entry 7: The Texas Revolution
In the 1820s, Americans started to move to Texas, which was part of Mexico at the time. The leader of this colonization was Stephen F. Austin known as “The Father of Texas”. Fulfilling his own fathers wishes Stephen F. Austin took himself and over 300 families to move to Texas with the land grant his father left behind. However a larger number of Americans than Mexicans lived in Texas soon after. The pioneers of Mexico started to stress that they may lose Texas to the Americans so they chose to stop all immigration from the United States. To make the situation worse Mexico had a new president, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who disregarded the Mexican constitution and made himself president forever. He sent soldiers to Texas to ensure that the Texans would not attempt to secede from Mexico. Americans and Mexicans living in Texas joined forces to battle Santa Anna’s Mexican army. The war lasted from October 2, 1835 to April 21, 1836. A well known fight in this war was the Battle of the Alamo. Roughly 200 Texans were slaughtered because of this. After this battle Sam Houston and his forces defeated the Mexican army. Texas was pronounced a free nation, and called itself The Republic of Texas and remained its own nation for a while. In 1845 Congress voted to concede Texas as a slave state, making Texas the nation’s 28th state.
Entry 8:The Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush all started when James Wilson Marshall was building a water powered sawmill for John Sutter in 1848. When he wrapped up the sawmill, he went to the stream to bring some water and saw some shimmering little pieces of gold. He quickly went to tell John, and they tried to keep it a secret. A little while later word got out, and the gold rush started. The news of gold got over 300,000 people to California from the United States and abroad. The effects of the Gold Rush were broad. Native Americans were pushed off their properties by the gold-searchers, called "forty-niners" in reference to the year 1849. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush was the state of Oregon, Islands of Hawaii, and Latin America, and started racing to the state in late 1848. Of the 300,000 people who came to America in the midst of the Gold Rush, around half came by sea and half came overland. The forty-niners routinely went up against hardships on the excursion. While most of the people were Americans, the gold surge pulled in a few thousands from Latin America, Europe, Australia, and China. San Francisco grew from a little settlement of around 200 inhabitants in 1846 to a boom town of around 36,000 by 1852. In 1849 a state constitution was formed and in September, 1850, California transformed into a state.
Entry 9: Civil War TechnologyThere were many different weapons and technologies used during the Civil War and new tactics on the battlefield that changed the future. A majority coming from the North. Most soldiers fought with guns. Many soldiers used old style guns called muskets. Muskets had smooth bores that were inaccurate, took a long time to reload, and unreliable. However not long after rifles were invented. They had shallow spiral grooves cut into the barrel to make the bullet spin for better accuracy at long range. Sometimes the soldiers would end up in closer combat where much of the time they would use a knife or bayonet. Officers often had swords or pistols that they would use in close combat. Cannons were used by both sides during the war and best at destroying fortifications. They could fire either a large solid cannon ball a multitude of smaller iron balls. Some could hit a target a thousand yards away. Naval warfare included new ironclads and submarines. These were ships that were protected by steel or iron armor plates. They were nearly impossible to sink with conventional weapons and changed the way ships were used in battle. At the same time submarines were introduced and successful in sinking enemy ships undetected. An interesting technology used by the Union was the hot-air balloon. Balloonists would fly above enemy troops to get information. The invention of the telegraph changed the way of communication. Northern leaders were able to communicate in real time and get updated information on enemy troop giving them an advantage over the south. Railroads also had a major impact on the war by enabling armies to move a lot of troops quickly for long distance. Due to all these advances gave the North the advantage to win.
Entry 10: Radical ReconstructionReconstruction era is generally the time period from the end of American Civil war in 1865 to 1877 however it differs in Southern states. The Union imposed reconstruction policies on a state when it came under Union control. President Abraham Lincoln had announced Emancipation in 1863 to weaken the war and abolish slavery. Lincoln took critical steps by reconstructing Southern governments in captured states. Founding the Freedman’s Bureau it allotted land to freed slaves, banned color discrimination and legalized slave unions. Lincoln presented his Louisiana Plan that granted amnesty to confederates and freed slaves had to work at their former owners plantations for one year and asked states to declare slavery illegal. It was not well received by radical Republicans who wanted to change the south completely. After President Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, Andrew Johnson took over and continued the reconstruction policy. However, he set a more moderate policy and allowed former Confederate officials to stay in government and pardoned many war criminals. His soft stance on Southern states enforced black codes that put freed slaves in lower society and taken negatively by Northerners. He was opposed by radical Republicans in Congress but vetoed many of the legislation. After the Congressional elections of 1866, radicals were majority and took control of policy. Democrats alleged corruption through violence and fraud gained majority in most of the state legislatures. Hate groups arose like the Ku Klux Klan that were violent against freed blacks. The Compromise of 1877 stopped the crisis by democrats accepting Republican Rutherford B. Hayes as president and removed military from some states which effectively ended republican control and the Reconstruction Era.
