Topic 3.12: Movement in the Early Republic

Indian Intercourse Act

• placed the federal government in control of all legal actions with Native Americans

• only the federal government could purchase their land and regulate any trade and traveling over their lands — these laws were ignored by the traders and settlers migrating westward

Battle of Fallen Timbers

• where a confederation of Shawnee and other American Indians twice successfully defeated government troops

• federal government force defeated the confederation — example of how the government usually supported the settlers despite them ignoring laws

population increase

• caused by a continuation of European immigration to the U.S.

• the bringing of enslaved Africans into the country

• births exceeded deaths b/c of plentiful food supply and the desire of families to have children to help on their farms

Daniel Boone

• led the way across the Appalachian Mountains, and established the early white settlements in the old northwest

Quakers & Mennonites

• openly opposed slavery motivated by their Christian faith

opposition against slavery

• Enlightenment ideals about equality and liberty influenced many of the opposing ideas of slavery, as they saw no place for slavery in a democratic republic

Eli Whitney

• invented the cotton gin

cotton gin

• a device for separating cotton fiber from the seeds, turning a slow, costly process into a quick, inexpensive one

• growing cotton became immensely profitable — led to increased demand for African Americans

Samuel Slater

• broke British law by bringing the knowledge about British mechanization to the United States, and built his own factory

conflict over expansion of slavery

• plantation owners quickly settled in Alabama and Mississippi, which had excellent climate and geography for growing cotton — they began to want lands farther west and north soon meeting resistance by northerners who opposed slavery and did not want to compete with enslaved workers

enslaved Africans seeking freedom

• escaped bondage by reaching a free state in the north

• some went to Canada or settled in land controlled by Indians or in Florida

interregional slave trade

• a trade of slaves between Chesapeake planters who sold their enslaved African Americans to cotton planters — between 500,000 to 1 million people were transported, and broke families apart