The Trans-Appalachian West

1) Across and beyond the Appalachian Mountains – the Trans-Appalachian Region.

a) New territories – expansion of settlement

i) Where: Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, and Missouri

ii) When: 1790 to 1820 per US Census figures. The settlement populations of the Trans-Appalachian states….. “by 1820 over 2 million people lived across the mountains, nearly 25 percent of the populations” (Fig. 7.8).

iii) Frontierism – “a line moving steadily westward” (Fig. 7.8 and Table 7.3))

iv) Rivers were the roads of the wilderness; rivers flow westward in this region as part of the Mississippi watershed system.

v) Kentucky and Tennessee: Agricultural settlements occurred in geographical areas with low topography, rich, fertile, quality soil with good drainage.

vi) Ohio and Indiana: Access to the river highways to enable participation in trade and commerce systems. The same held true in facilitating settlement in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama. Access to Mississippi River and Gulf ports.

vii) Appalachia Mountains sparsely populated, bypassed for better farmland and access to waterways.

2) Land Ordinance of 1785.

a) 50 years of squabbles began with the conflicting “preemption rights of squatters” and “intrusion acts” intended to prohibit squatting.” (p. 160).

b) U.S. signed treaties with natives, the territory was surveyed into a rectangular land system, and land offices were opened to sell land to settlers. (p. 160).

3) Pennsylvania and Maryland boundary: Mason-Dixon Line (Free Space north and Slave space south) (p.160).

a) Economy of north was unhurt by emancipation laws. Economy of south (labor intensive tobacco and cotton plantations) allowed a slave-dependent society to endure.

b) Missouri Compromise of 1820 and 1821 “banned slavery in any future states to be established north of …the southern boundary of Missouri” (p. 162).

4) Expansion west. Atlantic Coast needs and wants versus trans-Appalachian needs and wants. Population growth in trans-Appalachian region gave the west political power with increased representation in Congress.

a) Land Sale Act of 1796 – no plot smaller than 640 acres. Sales to eastern companies.

b) Homestead Act of 1862 – “settlers could claim up to 160 acres for free” (p. 163).

c) The National Road linking Ohio to Maryland – federally funded – U.S. Route 40

d) High tariffs on imported English finished goods coincided with low land prices. Exported raw materials from southern plantations lost profits with retaliatory high tariffs imposed by other countries.

e) Tensions mounted with expanding differences between the north and south as the trans-Appalachian region took shape into new states.

5) 1815-1860, “contributions of trans-Appalachian agriculture to American economic growth and development” (p. 165.)

a) Fast and successful economic growth, increases in family income

b) Diversified economies over agriculture

c) Three theories to explain this growth and achievement

i) Substantial capital investment in transportation systems (riverways, roads, and railroads). In 1960 Walt Rostow, Cambridge University, theorized these improvements revolutionized the economies by lowering the cost of transporting goods and materials.

ii) Regional specialization and the resulting interregional trade commerce is another theory from Douglass North in 1966. However, the interregional trade did not occur between the northern and southern regions (p. 166).

iii) The development and success of staple crops (wheat, corn, and cotton) in each region is the third theory to explain economic growth during this period. The differences in labor requirements for these crops contributed to regional differences in settlement patterns (seasonal labor for wheat and corn—i.e. rural to urban patterns versus sustained labor for cotton—i.e. slave labor) (p. 167).

d) “Halcyon days” (peaceful days) followed the War of 1812 end. High expectations for international trade. Movement of goods and commerce was a priority to expand the economies.

e) The Erie Canal, completed in 1825, eased trade in the states around the Great Lakes region. The Canal facilitated interregional trade and the export trade potential across the Atlantic to European countries. (p. 168).

f) The Mississippi River watershed enabled trade to expand in this vast area of the trans-Appalachian states via flatboat. In 1817, the steamboat lowered the cost of transportation upstream.

g) By 1851, the railroad completed the access to and from the trans-Appalachian region for commerce. High initial capital investment for railroads delayed expansion of rail system.

h) Lower transportation costs than overland wagon methods contributed to the growth of commerce across the greater land area encountered in America.

i) Expansion of railroad and canal systems “spurred economic development and population growth in the trans-Appalachian West” (p. 171).

j) Agricultural patterns

i) Patterns of successful agriculture developed in rich river valleys.

ii) Cotton was exported regularly by 1820 and relied on access to water transport systems.

iii) Wheat was produced for export by 1850.

iv) Corn and livestock were produced for export by the beginning of the Civil War.

v) Access to cheaper transportation systems was essential to profitability of over production for export. Cities grew at key points along the rivers and railroads from the trading activities. New Orleans dominated the Mississippi trade system, Chicago took the advantage in the northern west, and the interior hegemony was shared by St. Louis and Cincinnati.

6) The territories beyond the Appalachians were extensive and “assumed the role of the nation’s agricultural heartland” (p. 176).

7) The staple crops of flourished in particular areas of the trans-Appalachian region.

a) Cotton, in particular, was limited to a three-state area of the south due to its climatic needs.

b) The corn-belt was the region with the climatic advantage for this crop as a commerce activity.

c) The climate in the wheat belt also resulted in crops with the yield per acre advantage.

d) The farms and communities in the states producing corn and wheat were similar in size and make-up versus the plantations comprising the southern states.

e) Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 – repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 – allowed slavery in these two northern states.

8) By the end of the decade before the Civil War, economies and profit-margins of staple crop industries reached the divide. The profit margin was larger for the slave states, i.e. the cotton crop plantation owners and corn producers in Kansas and Nebraska (and some parts of Ohio).