East Coast Saloons
East Coast Saloons is all about the different areas, cities, characters and items that you can discover and of course the adventures that you can experience with them. It is an era of cowboys, Indians, pioneers, outlaws and revolvers, brought together for the purpose of expansion, defense, greed and reinvention. In the United States of America, tensions over the institution of slavery are deepening and chaos is looming. Discover the legends of the Old West whose untamed spirits helped define the new frontier and rough life in East-America from 1850.
The history of the United States began with the arrival of Native Americans around 15,000 BC. Numerous indigenous cultures emerged, but many disappeared in the 16th century. The arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 began the European colonization of the Americas.
The 1800s were a decade of drastic changes. The advances of the past three decades in the 18th century had propelled the industrial revolution into a global movement, with entire wars fought with the newly developed technologies, giving impetus to imperialist campaigns in Africa and Asia, as well as the counter-movement.
The 1850 United States Census was the seventh United States census. Conducted by the Census Office, it determined that the inhabitants of East America were 22,888,187, including 3,204,313 slaves.
Short history lesson:
The land that became the United States of America has been inhabited for some 60,000 years. The first people to live on the land were hunters who most likely migrated to North America from Asia. Eventually these people and their descendants—the Native Americans—spread across North America and South America.
Europeans Arrive in the Americas
The history of the Americas forever changed when the explorer Christopher Columbus arrived from Spain in 1492. This voyage and three later ones revealed vast new lands to the Europeans. The continents of North and South America and the nearby islands became known as the New World. Columbus’ discovery began an era of European exploration and colonization that had a devastating effect on the Native Americans. Many died of diseases carried by the Europeans. Others were killed in warfare or forced into slavery.
When the king and queen of Spain learned of what Columbus had found, they laid claim to much of the new lands. The Spanish established colonies in the West Indies, Mexico, Central America, and South America.
The first Spanish explorer to reach the shores of what is now the United States was Juan Ponce de León. He landed in what is now Florida Territorium in 1513 and claimed it for his country. Through later explorations, Spain also established control over what is now the southwestern United States.
Meanwhile, three other countries also became interested in the new land: England, France, and The Netherlands. In 1497 the Englishman John Cabot explored the coast of what is now eastern Canada. England laid claim to North America based on this voyage, though for decades it made little effort to colonize the land. In 1524 a French expedition commanded by Giovanni de Verrazzano explored the coast of North America from North Carolina northward to Canada. Ten years later another French expedition led by Jacques Cartier sailed up the Saint Lawrence River. In 1609 Henry Hudson, in command of a Dutch ship, sailed into New York Bay and up the river that later was named after him.
The Colonial Period
The 13 Colonies Are Established
The English founded their first permanent settlement on the continent at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. In 1619 the people of Virginia organized the first representative assembly in America. This was the House of Burgesses (or citizens).
Meanwhile, in 1624, Dutch settlers had founded a colony called New Netherland in the area of the Hudson River. The English colonists in New England and Virginia viewed the Dutch as intruders. In 1664 an English fleet seized the Dutch colony. The English changed its name from New Netherland to New York. The English also seized nearby New Jersey and Delaware from the Dutch in 1664. Pennsylvania was founded in 1681 by an English Quaker named William Penn.
South of Virginia, the land known as Carolina was settled by the English during the second half of the 1700s. In 1729 the territory was divided into the colonies of North Carolina and South Carolina. Georgia, the last of the original 13 colonies, was settled in 1733.
Early Relations with the Native Americans
Life in the colonies was influenced by the Native American tribes that had lived on the land since long before the Europeans arrived. The early colonists adopted Native American foods and herbs, methods of raising crops, war techniques, and words. Some of the colonists established friendly relations with the Native Americans living near them. Over the years, however, the interaction between the colonists and the Native Americans turned more often to conflict.
Expansion of the Colonies
Along with economic development, the colonies steadily made gains in such areas as religious freedom, education, travel, communication, and self-government. These advancements led to rapid population growth. In 1700 about 250,000 people lived in the 13 colonies. By 1760 this number had reached nearly 1.7 million. Many of the newcomers had come from Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and France. Part of the population growth, however, was due to huge increases in the number of African slaves brought to the colonies. By 1765, for example, Blacks outnumbered whites in South Carolina by about 2 to 1.
As the population of the colonies grew, people began to expand their settlements westward. This brought them into conflict with the Native Americans already living in the territory. The colonists and the Native Americans often fought for control of the land. In nearly every struggle the outcome was the same: the Europeans pushed the Native Americans farther and farther from their homelands.
Independence
The war for independence did not go well for the colonists at first. General Washington barely managed to keep his small army together because of defeats and lack of supplies. Finally the tide turned in the colonists’ favor in 1777, when the British were defeated at the Battles of Saratoga in New York. After that victory, France joined the colonies in their war against Britain. The fighting ended in 1781 with the surrender of the British at Yorktown, Virginia. By the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Britain recognized the independence of the American colonies. The new nation extended from Canada on the north to Florida on the south and westward to the Mississippi River.
The New Nation
The first elections under the new Constitution were held in 1789. George Washington became the first president. Alexander Hamilton, the secretary of the treasury, and others who believed in a strong central government came to be called Federalists. Thomas Jefferson and his followers, who feared that the national government might exercise too much power, were called Anti-Federalists, or Republicans. These groups marked the beginning of political parties in the United States of America.
Westward Expansion
After the United States became independent, people began to move into the region between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River. The first states created west of the Appalachians were Kentucky in 1792 and Tennessee in 1796. Most of the people who lived in the West were farmers. They shipped their farm products down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans for shipping outside the country.
Developments in Industry and Transportation
The 1800s was a period of great industrial growth in the United States. An important development was Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1793. This machine speeded up the process of separating seeds from cotton fibers. It led to a major expansion of the textile industry. It also caused the growing of cotton to spread throughout the Southern states. Farmers in the North were helped by other inventions, such as Cyrus McCormick’s mechanical reaper for harvesting grain. Ironworks were set up to manufacture these farm tools, along with household utensils, factory machines, and other items.
A key part of the economic growth of the United States in the 1800s was the development of better means of transportation. Goods had to be shipped from factories to farms and from farms to towns and cities. To meet this need, new roads and canals were built. The Erie Canal, opened in 1825, connected Lake Erie with the Hudson River. It provided a major boost to shipping between New York City and the Great Lakes region. The invention and improvement of the steam engine led to even more important developments in transportation and trade. The first successful steamboat was built by Robert Fulton. It made its first voyage on the Hudson in 1807. In the early 1830s the first American railroads were built. Thousands of miles of track were laid in the following decades.
The westward expansion of the United States heightened tensions over the issue of slavery. The growth of cotton and tobacco plantations in the South had made the Southern economy increasingly dependent on slave labor. Meanwhile, many Americans, especially in the northern states, began to oppose slavery. They wanted to abolish (end) the practice because they thought it was wrong. By 1804 all of the states north of Maryland had abolished slavery.
This difference of opinion regarding slavery led to conflict when the new Western territories began to apply for admission to the Union (the United States). When Missouri asked to be admitted as a “slave” state—one that allowed slavery—the northern states objected. In 1820 Congress reached an agreement known as the Missouri Compromise. Missouri entered the Union as a slave state and Maine entered as a “free” state—one that prohibited slavery. In addition, slavery was prohibited north of the southern border of Missouri. Another compromise over slavery came in 1850. California had asked to join the Union as a free state. California was admitted as a free state, and slavery was prohibited in the District of Columbia. But the people who lived in the rest of the territory that had been won in the Mexican War were to decide for themselves whether they would have slavery.