APUSH AMSCO Topic 3.12 Movement in the Early RepublicAPUSH AMSCO Topic 3.12 Movement in the Early Republic

APUSH · PERIOD3 · 1754TO1800

Movement in the Early Republic

AMSCO Topic 3.12 Study Guide

Big idea. People, settlers, and enslaved workers moved west and south, which caused conflict with Native Americans and foreign powers, and the cotton gin made slavery grow even though some people hoped it would fade. Two learning objectives: migration and conflict, and changing attitudes toward slavery.

Migration and settlement

After the Revolution people moved mostly west, but British forts to the north and west and Spain to the south and west still threatened the new nation.

The Northwest Ordinance (Topic 3.7, 1787) planned orderly sale of land, creation of new states, public education, and a ban on slavery in the territory.

Scouts like Daniel Boone opened trails across the Appalachians.

Population grew mostly from natural increase (births over deaths), plus small European immigration and the slave trade, which the Constitution let end after 1808.

American Indians

Topic Details

Indian

Intercourse Act

(1790)

Only the federal government, not the states, could buy Native land or regulate trade. Settlers and traders mostly ignored it

Resistance A confederacy of Shawnee and others twice beat government troops, then lost at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. Britain closed its trading forts, weakening Native position West of the

Mississippi

Many tribes migrated (Shawnee in the north, Cherokees in the south). Some stayed (the Iroquois stayed on reservations or moved to Canada). Journeys were dangerous because tribes already in the west resisted

Southern frontier Spain worried about US settlers and gave Native Americans more freedom Result Native Americans were increasingly pushed onto reservations or forced to migrate west New states, 1791 to 1803

Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792), Tennessee (1796), Ohio (1803). Order shows the move west. Slavery

Opposition: Quakers, Mennonites and others motivated by faith, plus Enlightenment ideas about liberty. Some slaveholders (James Madison) hoped slavery would fade away and be replaced by

cheaper free immigrant labor.

Cotton gin (1793): Eli Whitney. Made separating cotton fiber from seeds quick and cheap. Cotton became hugely profitable, so demand for enslaved labor grew rather than declined. Textile mechanization: Britain protected its factory designs, but Samuel Slater memorized one, moved to the US and built a factory. Cheap cloth raised the value of cotton again. Expansion conflict: planters moved into Alabama and Mississippi (good cotton land). Growing numbers of northerners opposed slavery or wanted the land without slave competition. Conflict over slavery's expansion begins.

The interregional slave trade

By the 1790s Chesapeake planters had more enslaved people than they needed because tobacco was uncertain and the enslaved population grew. They sold people to cotton planters farther south and west. Between 500,000 and 1 million people were transported before the Civil War, and families were often broken apart. Some enslaved people escaped to northern free states (the Constitution's fugitive clause required return), Canada, Native land, or Spanish Florida.

State (1790) % enslaved

Maryland 32

Virginia 39

North Carolina 25

South Carolina 43

Georgia 35

Test trap. The cotton gin increased slavery. A common wrong answer says it reduced the need for enslaved labor. Remember: easier processing led to more cotton, more land use, more demand for enslaved workers.

Practice

1. What did the Indian Intercourse Act (1790) do, and was it effective?

2. Which battle weakened the Northwest Confederacy, and what did the British do afterward? 3. Name the four states admitted 1791 to 1803 in order.

4. Why did slavery grow after 1793 despite opposition?

5. Who was Samuel Slater and why did he matter?

6. Why did Chesapeake planters sell enslaved people to the Deep South?

7. Which constitutional provision allowed the slave trade to end, and in what year? 8. SAQ-style: ONE reason for conflict between settlers and Native Americans.

9. SAQ-style: ONE difference in regional attitudes toward slavery by 1800.

10. LEQ thesis starter: evaluate the extent to which movement in the early republic caused conflict.

Answers

1. It gave the federal government control over Native land purchases and trade. Settlers largely ignored it.

2. Fallen Timbers. The British closed their trading forts.

3. Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio.

4. The cotton gin made cotton very profitable, so demand for enslaved labor increased. 5. He memorized British factory designs, moved to the US and built a factory, launching an efficient US textile industry.

6. They had a surplus after tobacco declined and the enslaved population grew, while cotton regions wanted workers.

7. The Constitution allowed the importation of enslaved Africans to end after 1808. 8. Settlers moving west into Ohio Valley lands claimed by tribes, ignoring treaties and laws. 9. Slavery declined in the North but grew stronger in the South because of cotton. 10. Strong claim: westward movement caused conflict with Native Americans and with Britain and Spain, and the expansion of cotton-based slavery began regional conflict.