Section 6.4 Heading Into the West Settlers had been moving steadily westward from the Atlantic coast since the 1600s. In the early 1800s, the promise of new farmland and other work opportunities brought a flood of new migrants to the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains.
Entire families gathered up all their possessions, including furniture and livestock, and made the long journey westward in their quest for a better life on the frontier.
Settlers took a number of routes west. People from important regions and places like New England, New York, and Pennsylvania pushed into a region northwest of the Ohio River called the Northwest Territory. Some traveled west from Albany, New York, along the Mohawk River, through the Appalachians, and then west along the plains south of Lake Ontario. Many then sailed across Lake Erie into Ohio. Another well-traveled path was the Great Valley Road that ran southward from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, through Maryland and western Virginia. Some settlers would then continue south and west along the trail opened by Daniel Boone before the Revolution. Known as the Wilderness Road, it led through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky. Other settlers pushed west across the Appalachians to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There, they loaded their animals and wagons onto flatboats, or flat-bottomed boats, and journeyed down the Ohio River into Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. Flatboats were well suited to the shallow waters of the Ohio, which became known as the “Gateway to the West.” Even when carrying heavy cargoes, these barges rode high in the water. Pioneers from Georgia and South Carolina followed other trails west to Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Enslaved African Americans were forced to move with settlers or sold to new owners in these territories. There, enslaved workers cleared fields and built plantations in the rich, fertile soil.
By 1819, the United States had grown to 23 states.
Analyze Maps What can the dates of statehood of the new states tell us about how settlers migrated into the western territories?
Before long, some western territories had populations large enough to apply for statehood. Between 1792 and 1819, eight states joined the Union: Kentucky (1792), Tennessee (1796), Ohio (1803), Louisiana (1812), Indiana (1816), Mississippi (1817), Illinois (1818), and Alabama (1819). Compare How was travel during the early 1800s similar to and different from travel today?
Building Better Roads Settlers faced difficult journeys as they traveled to the West. Many roads were narrow dirt trails, barely wide enough for a single wagon. Trails often plunged through muddy swamps. Tree stumps stuck up in the road and often broke the wagon axles of careless travelers. The nation badly needed better roads.Paying Tolls In the United States, as in Europe, private companies built gravel and stone roads. To pay for these roads, the companies collected tolls from travelers. At various points along the road, a pike, or pole, blocked the road. After a wagon driver had paid a toll, the pike keeper turned the pole aside to let the wagon pass. As a result, these toll roads were called turnpikes.Probably the best road in the United States was the Lancaster Turnpike. Built in the 1790s by a private company, the road linked Philadelphia and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Many pike keepers lived by the gate they tended and could be awakened in the middle of the night by travelers seeking to pay the toll and pass through.
Because the road was set on a bed of gravel, water drained off quickly. For a smooth ride, the road was topped with flat stones. Other roads were more primitive. In swampy areas, roads were made of logs. These roads were known as corduroy roads because the lines of logs looked like corduroy cloth. Corduroy roads kept wagons from sinking into the mud, but they made for a very noisy and bumpy ride.The First National Road Some states set aside money to improve roads or build new ones. Meanwhile, in 1806, Congress approved funds for the first national road-building project. The National Road was to run from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, on the Ohio River in western Virginia. Work on the National Road began in 1811. Because of the War of 1812, it was not completed until 1818. Later, the road was extended into Illinois. As each new section of road was built, settlers eagerly used it to drive their wagons farther and farther west.
The Age of Steam Whenever possible, travelers and freight haulers used river transportation. Floating downstream on a flatboat was both faster and more comfortable than bumping along rutted roads. It also cost a lot less. Yet, river travel had its own problems. Moving upstream was difficult. People used paddles or long poles to push boats against the current. Sometimes, they hauled boats along the shore with ropes. Both methods were extremely slow. A boat could travel downstream from Pittsburgh to New Orleans in about six weeks. However, the return trip upstream took at least 17 weeks. Steamboats Arrive Americans worked hard to develop new kinds of boats that would make river travel faster and cheaper. A new invention, the steam engine, started a new era in river travel. In 1787, John Fitch showed members of the Constitutional Convention how a steam engine could power a boat. He then opened a ferry service on the Delaware River. However, few people used the ferry, and Fitch eventually went out of business.
Fitch’s steam engine was attached to a series of oars that paddled the boat through the water like a duck’s flippers. The boat could carry 30 paying customers across the Delaware River. Inventor Robert Fulton may have seen Fitch’s steamboat while in Philadelphia. In 1807, Fulton launched his own steamboat, the Clermont, on the Hudson River. On its first run, the Clermont carried passengers from New York City to Albany and back. The 300-mile trip took just 62 hours—a record at the time. A Travel Revolution Fulton’s success ushered in the age of steamboats. Soon, steamboats were ferrying passengers up and down the Atlantic coast. More important, steamboats revolutionized travel in the West. Besides carrying people, river steamboats gave farmers and merchants a cheap means of moving goods. Because western rivers were too shallow for larger boats, Henry Shreve designed a flat-bottomed steamboat. It could carry heavy loads without getting stuck on sandbars. Still, steamboat travel could be dangerous. Sparks from smokestacks could cause fires. High-pressure boilers sometimes exploded as steamboat captains raced each other in an effort to get to their destination first. Between 1811 and 1851, 44 steamboats collided, 166 burned, and more than 200 exploded.
Canals Connect the Country Steamboats and better roads brought many improvements to transportation. But they did not help western farmers get their goods directly to markets in the East. To meet this need, Americans began to transform their environment in a whole new way: they dug canals. A canal is an artificial channel filled with water that allows boats to cross a stretch of land. The earliest American canals were no more than a few miles long. Some canals provided routes around waterfalls on a river. Others linked rivers to nearby lakes. By the early 1800s, however, Americans were building longer canals. The Erie Canal In 1805, some New Yorkers developed a bold idea. They wanted to build a canal linking the Great Lakes to the Mohawk and Hudson rivers. Later known as the Erie Canal, this artificial waterway would let western farmers ship their goods to the port of New York. It would also bring business to towns along the route. To many people, the idea of such a canal seemed far-fetched. When Thomas Jefferson heard of the plan, he exclaimed: Why, sir, you talk of making a canal 350 miles through the wilderness—it is little short of madness to think of it at this day! —Thomas Jefferson to Joshua Forman of New York, 1809 New York’s governor DeWitt Clinton ignored such criticism. He persuaded state lawmakers to provide money for the Erie Canal. Critics referred to the project as “Clinton’s Ditch.”
Early construction of the Erie Canal used teams of men working with hand tools, oxen, and horses. This was slow work. It took an entire year to complete a single mile. Work on the Erie Canal began in 1817. At first, thousands of workers dug the waterway using hand tools. To speed up progress, inventors developed new equipment. One machine, a stump-puller, could pull out nearly 40 tree stumps a day. In two places, the canal had to cross over rivers. Workers built stone bridges to carry the canal over the rivers. An Instant Success By 1825, the immense job was finished. On opening day of the Erie Canal, a cannon fired in Buffalo, New York. When the sound got to the next town along the route, that town fired a cannon. Town after town fired cannons, all the way to New York City. The thunderous salute took 80 minutes to complete. The Erie Canal was an instant success. The cost of shipping goods dropped to about one tenth of what it had been before the canal was built. The canal also helped make New York City a center of commerce. The success of the Erie Canal led other states to build canals. These canals created vital links between western farms and eastern cities, advancing the economic development of the United States. These links encouraged more growth, as people moved to the new cities in search of work..