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Class Date: September 9th, 9:30am
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Forming A Nation
Forming A Nation
This week we are talking about how some states got their shapes! Since this is a broad timespan, we’ll stick to a brief overview of events happening at roughly the same time:
1763 - Proclamation of 1763
After securing victory over the French, the British government recognized the increasing agitation of the Native populations of the Eastern seaboard. The native tribes were concerned that continued westward expansion by the colonials would drive them from their lands.
The British Proclamation declared a boundary line for colonial settlement, even ruling that settlements beyond the boundary must be abandoned. Many Native tribes had previously aligned with the French, but in an attempt to build peaceful relations, the British government inflamed the sentiments of the colonists.
July 4th, 1776 - The Declaration of Independence is adopted
56 men affixed their signatures to the Declaration of Independence, moving towards a new nation. (They officially signed the version on parchment on August 2nd, but they officially adopted the document on July 4th).
1777 - 1804 - most Northern states abolish slavery
The territories continued to be designated as ‘free’ or ‘slave’ as they are added to the Union. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 designated that all territories north of the 36 30’ line would remain free.
1777 - Vermont Constitution written
Vermont becomes the first to provide for universal male suffrage (for white men), and outlaws slavery
1777 - The Articles of Confederation
Stemming from wartime urgency and a strong fear of a central authority, the Articles were written to provide a loose government structure for a fledgling nation. They were not ratified until 1781. Under the articles, the states remained sovereign, with a Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. Congress was able to make treaties and alliances, maintain armed forces, and coin money on behalf of the “United States of America”. However, the Congress could not impose taxes or regulate commerce. Those issues would lead to the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
1781 - Lord Cornwall surrenders to Washington’s troops
This is the last major military battle of the Revolutionary war. It would take some time for the British to leave the colonies, but the war is effectively over.
1783 - John Adams leads the delegation in France to sign the treaty officially ending the war between the United States and Great Britain
Massachusetts Supreme Court also outlaws slavery this year, citing the state Bill of Rights “all men are born free and equal”.
1787 - September - Delegates at the Constitutional Convention adopt the United States Constitution
A bicameral legislature is adopted to guarantee equal representation for the states and an Executive Branch is established.
1803 - Louisiana Purchase
President Thomas Jefferson completes the Louisiana Purchase from the French, doubling the size of the United States. The treaty was vague and Jefferson and others weren’t quite sure if the Constitution allowed him to make such a purchase, but Congress eventually ratified the treaty and the sale.
1805 - Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific
After 2 years of struggling across harsh and unforgiving terrain, the Lewis and Clark expedition reached the Pacific coast near present-day Astoria, Oregon. Along the way, the group swelled with ranks with Shoshone-born Sacagawea, who joined the expedition with her husband, a French-Canadian fur trapper. Though pregnant, Sacagawea traveled with the group and interpreted when necessary. Her son, whom she named Jean Baptiste, was born along the way before they reached the Pacific.
1819 - Transcontinental Treaty with Spain
Also known by some (historians, at least) as the Adams-Onis Treaty. The treaty ceded what are now Florida and Oregon to the United States. In return, the United States recognized Spanish sovereignty in the area of Texas.
1848 - Gold is discovered in California
James Marshall discovered gold near Sutter’s Fort (or John Sutter’s sawmill) in California. The next year begins the great gold rush, and migration, to California.
1841 - The Oregon Trail begins
The ‘Oregon Trail’, a roughly 2,000 mile path from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon, becomes an established route for people seeking to settle the West. The first primary travelers were often Christian missionaries, seeking to spread their religion to Native tribes out West. Missionary Marcus Whitman first traversed the route in 1835 to prove it could be traveled safely. After he married, he traversed it again to show that men and women could travel west.
1845 - The term ‘Manifest Destiny’ is first used
Magazine editor John L. O’Sullivan is the first known person to use the term to describe what many Americans felt was their destiny to occupy the land from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific. A great many Americans felt that dominating and owning the land was a particularly American right, regardless of who might be living there already. O’Sullivan used the idea to argue in favor of the annexation of Texas. (Texas was admitted to the Union in December of that year.)
- 1846 - Wilmot Proviso
- An amendment to a bill passed during the Mexican-American War. The bill appropriated money to President Polk to negotiate a settlement with the Mexican government. David Wilmot proposed an amendment to stipulate that none of the territory acquired could be open to slavery. Though the bill with the Wilmot Proviso passed the House two times, the Senate drafted a bill excluding it. Though the Proviso ultimately did not pass, it added to the already increasing tensions between those who favored slavery and those who did not.
1848 - Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
The treaty ends the Mexican-American War after 2 years of fighting. Under the treaty, Mexico ceded almost all of what is now New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, Texas, and part of Colorado.
1850 - Fugitive Slave Act passed
Prior to the Act, enslaved people who crossed into Northern ‘free’ states were considered free. Angry that their free laborers were escaping to freedom, Southern proponents of slavery pushed for legal help in tracking down and re-kidnapping people. The Act made aiding those attempting to escape enslavement a crime punishable by fines and imprisonment. It also made it easier for ‘slave catchers’ to kidnap free Black people to enslave them.
1853 - Gadsden Purchase completed
Also known as the Treaty of La Mesilla, the Purchase followed the cessation of most of the American Southwest from Mexico following the Mexican-American War. In exchange for $10 million, Mexico gave the U.S. an additional 30,000 square miles. Many advocates for a southern transcontinental railroad argued that a new railroad should pass through the newly acquired territory.
1856 - The first railroad train crosses the Mississippi River
Crowds gathered and bands played in Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa, as a train crossed the first railroad bridge to span the Mississippi River. The bridge would actually foreshadow many political adversaries in the months to come: Jefferson Davis attempted to halt construction of the bridge in Illinois, arguing that a more southern route through St. Louis would be more beneficial. Davis failed to stop construction, but shortly after the bridge was completed, a steamboat owner crashed his steamboat into a bridge piling, setting his boat and the bridge on fire. Though the crash was almost certainly deliberate, as steamboat owners fought railroad expansion, the steamboat owners sued the railroad for damages. The railroads brought in railroad attorney Abraham Lincoln to successfully argue that the bridge did not impede boat traffic and railroad bridges were needed to settle the West.
1867 - Purchase of Alaska is completed
Known at the time as ‘Seward’s Folly’, the sale was negotiated by Secretary of State William H. Seward. Purchased from Russia, Alaska would later become one of the largest states in the Union. After the purchase, gold was discovered in the area, which stimulated American settlement in the area.
1869 - Transcontinental Railroad completed
Constructed from 1863 - 1869, the railroad became the first continuous railroad line across the United States. To watch a 6-minute CBS special on the steam locomotive rebuilt to celebrate the centennial of the Transcontinental Railroad, click here: https://youtu.be/moDvjW9Z6_I
To watch a longer, more detailed story of the Transcontinental Railroad, check out the History Channel episode of ‘America: The Story of Us - The Transcontinental Railroad Unites’ here: https://youtu.be/rUmD0jFTnCA?si=KgE7rTgtwwXTzou4
That is where our timeline leaves us for this week! Check below for additional reading resources!
Recommended Reading
Recommended Reading
To read more about this period, here are some great books to get you started:
The 50 States by Gabrielle Balkan
In 51 charmingly illustrated infographic maps, explore every state of the USA from Alabama to Wyoming and the nation’s capital to discover more than 2,000 facts that celebrate the people, cities, nature, and historic events that have helped make America what it is today. You'll also get an expansive guide to the state flags and US presidents.
Ghost towns, swamp tours, the center of the universe…bacon donuts, brainy berries, salmon jerky…The French Fry King, The Mother of Oregon, The Queen of Blues…be inspired by the inventiveness, beauty, and diversity of the United States in this curious collection of fact-filled maps.
50 States: A State-by-State Tour of the USA (State Shapes) by Erin McHugh
Between 1854 and 1929, so-called orphan trains ran regularly from the cities of the East Coast to the farmlands of the Midwest, carrying thousands of abandoned children whose fates would be determined by pure luck. Would they be adopted by a kind and loving family, or would they face a childhood and adolescence of hard labor and servitude?
For adults:
How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein
Why does Oklahoma have that panhandle? Did someone make a mistake? We are so familiar with the map of the United States that our state borders seem as much a part of nature as mountains and rivers. Even the oddities—the entire state of Maryland(!)—have become so ingrained that our map might as well be a giant jigsaw puzzle designed by Divine Providence.
How the States Got Their Shapes is the first book to tackle why our state lines are where they are. Here are the stories behind the stories, right down to the tiny northward jog at the eastern end of Tennessee and the teeny-tiny (and little known) parts of Delaware that are not attached to Delaware but to New Jersey.
Packed with fun oddities and trivia, this entertaining guide also reveals the major fault lines of American history, from ideological intrigues and religious intolerance to major territorial acquisitions. Adding the fresh lens of local geographic disputes, military skirmishes, and land grabs, Mark Stein shows how the seemingly haphazard puzzle pieces of our nation fit together perfectly.
How the States Got Their Shapes Too: The People Behind the Borderlines by Mark Stein
Was Roger Williams too pure for the Puritans, and what does that have to do with Rhode Island? Why did Augustine Herman take ten years to complete the map that established Delaware? How did Rocky Mountain rogues help create the state of Colorado? All this and more is explained in Mark Stein's new book.
How the States Got Their Shapes Too follows How the States Got Their Shapes looks at American history through the lens of its borders, but, while How The States Got Their Shapes told us why, this book tells us who. This personal element in the boundary stories reveals how we today are like those who came before us, and how we differ, and most significantly: how their collective stories reveal not only an historical arc but, as importantly, the often overlooked human dimension in that arc that leads to the nation we are today.
The people featured in How the States Got Their Shapes Too lived from the colonial era right up to the present. They include African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, women, and of course, white men. Some are famous, such as Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, and Daniel Webster. Some are not, such as Bernard Berry, Clarina Nichols, and Robert Steele. And some are names many of us know but don't really know exactly what they did, such as Ethan Allen (who never made furniture, though he burned a good deal of it).
In addition, How the States Got Their Shapes Too tells of individuals involved in the Almost States of America, places we sought to include but ultimately did not: Canada, the rest of Mexico (we did get half), Cuba, and, still an issue, Puerto Rico.
Each chapter is largely driven by voices from the time, in the form of excerpts from congressional debates, newspapers, magazines, personal letters, and diaries.
Told in Mark Stein's humorous voice, How the States Got Their Shapes Too is a historical journey unlike any other you've taken. The strangers you meet here had more on their minds than simple state lines, and this book makes for a great new way of seeing and understanding the United States.
Works Cited
Works Cited
https://www.britannica.com/event/Louisiana-Purchase
https://www.britannica.com/summary/Manifest-Destiny-Timeline
https://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/lewis-and-clark#section_8
https://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/oregon-trail
https://www.thoughtco.com/timeline-1800s-4161075
https://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/social-science/sociology/reform-bios/garrison-william-lloyd
https://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/history/north-america/us/wilmot-proviso
https://americasbesthistory.com/abhtimeline1850.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studebaker
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Uncle-Toms-Cabin
https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/clay-henry
https://www.britannica.com/event/Gadsden-Purchase
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