History - Making Of America

• The 13 original states of the USA

  • Connecticut
  • Delaware
  • Georgia
  • Maryland
  • New York
  • New Jersey
  • Massachusetts
  • New Hampshire
  • North Carolina
  • South Carolina
  • Pennsylvania
  • Rhode Island
  • Virginia
• The lands north of the River Ohio were known as the Northwest Territory, and the lands south of Ohio were called the Southwest territory
• Republic


  A country which has no Monarch
• Democracy


  A system of government where people vote for their leaders
• The USA was a federal country, where each state had its own government and powers, but could not go against the rules set down in the Constitution
• Congress


  The US parliament, where each state sent representatives to help make laws
• George Washington was the first President of the USA, serving from 1789 to 1797
• President George Washington spent 80% of the government budget on campaigns against Native Americans, who were sometimes referred to as Indians
• President Thomas Jefferson opened up the Northwest and Southwest territories for settlement, encouraging more people to move west
• The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 saw the US government buy 530 million acres of land from France, leading to a huge increase in US territory
• Meriwether Lewis and William Clark


  • Explored new lands, following the Missouri River into the Rocky Mountains and to the Pacific coast
  • Got on well with Native Americans, with a Shoshone woman called Saga gawa acting as their guide
• As the USA expanded

  Tensions and conflicts arose between different groups, including white Americans and Native Americans, and between the North and South over slavery
• The Northern states were often known as 'free states', while the Southern states were known as 'slave states'
• Abolitionists, including some white and free black Americans, campaigned against slavery
• Plantation


  A large farm that usually grew a single crop, often using enslaved African-American labour
• By 1789, slavery was being phased out in the seven northernmost states, but was rife in the southern states
• Cotton made up 42% of all US exports by 1819, and New Orleans was the fourth largest city in the USA
• Between 1815 and 1819, around 100,000 slaves were sold in the South
• Although many thought slavery would not last, it continued to grow, with several reasons including the opening of new plantations in the Deep South, children of slaves becoming slaves, new cotton-growing land becoming available, and banks lending money to plantation owners
• Many US presidents were from the slave-holding South and did not want to stop the growth of slavery
• As America expanded into other Southern States, new plantations were opened up that were involved in the slave trade, leading to an increase in slavery
• Children of slaves automatically became slaves themselves
• New cotton growing land became available in the south after 1790
• By 1838, the USA was producing over a million bales of cotton a year to meet demands from the north and overseas, requiring slave labor to keep up with this high demand
• Banks were willing to loan money to plantation owners as long as they were paid back with interest when the Harvest eventually came in, providing funding for the creation of new plantations
• Many presidents were from the slave holding South and therefore they did not want to try to stop the growth of slavery
• Cotton gin


  A piece of Machinery invented by Eli Whitney in 1793 which could separate cotton fibers, speeding up the cleaning of cotton by 50 times
• The cotton gin led to a huge increase in Cotton production and demand for more cotton to be planted, and therefore an expansion of plantations and slavery
• Louisiana Purchase


  The USA purchased the vast Louisiana colony from France in 1803, leading to the creation of the cotton Kingdom in the Deep South
• By 1819, lands west of the Mississippi River were added to Louisiana, and two more States Alabama and Mississippi were added, becoming known as the cotton Kingdom
• The expansion of the South and the growing power of southern slave holders created tension with the North
• Slavery was banned in the north but allowed in the southwest territory in the 1780s, leading to three states in the north and slave states in the south
• By 1838, there were two million slaves living in southern states, who could not vote while white Americans had all the power
• A handful of abolitionists believed that slavery was morally wrong and against the Christian religion, and spoke out against it
• The Missouri Compromise in 1820 tried to stop the conflict between slave and non-slave states by drawing a virtual line across the middle of the country, with any States created in the west which fell below the line being slave states and those above being free states
• There were growing fears about the risks that came with slavery, such as successful slave revolts
• Many in the north were also worried about rebellion and what would happen if enslaved people were freed
• Andrew Jackson, the president from 1829 to 1837, was from the south and openly supported slavery
• Some abolitionists wanted to freely enslave people and actually send all black Americans back to Africa
• The north also did well out of slavery, with the goods made in Northern factories and businesses being profitable