Expansion and Conflict

With their independence from Britain secured, the citizens of the new United States began to consider their identity as a nation. If no longer British subjects, who were they? What did it mean to be simply American—without the word colonists attached? What should freedom look like under this new form of government? And what could be done with all that land that surrounded them?

The East Coast was already well-developed in terms of infrastructure, so the government turned its attention westward, hoping to add land that would help grow the country's wealth and population. The US government was particularly interested in gaining control of the port of New Orleans, which would secure access to the Mississippi River, allowing American farmers and merchants to transport their goods to larger markets both domestically and abroad. In a deal known as the Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson bought a large swath of land that included New Orleans and much of the Mississippi River valley. The purchase instantly doubled the size of the country and made westward expansion a much easier dream to realize.

As soon as pioneers began heading west, as many thousands did, conflicts developed regarding how these new territories would be governed. There was a bitter divide between Northern and Southern states over the issue of slavery. In 1808, the federal government abolished the importation of enslaved people from Africa. However, the population of slaves in the South remained stable or grew in size since enslavers claimed possession of all children of African descent born on their plantations. After the importation of enslaved people was banned by Congress, many Northern states abolished slavery altogether, while the practice became even more integral to the Southern agricultural economy.

Meanwhile, Americans produced inventions that made industry more profitable. After separating from Britain, the United States began producing the basic goods it had received from Britain before the Revolution, such as clothing, tools, and weapons. Americans built the first steam engine in 1698, and throughout the late 1700s, inventors like Thomas Newcomb and Abraham Darby refined the design of the steam engine to serve a greater variety of roles in transportation and manufacturing and to perform those tasks more efficiently. Because coal was the primary source of fuel used to power steam engines, the mining of coal became a separate and thriving industry.

By the start of the 1800s, the machines in American factories could produce just about any household items the country's citizens needed and did so in massive amounts. In 1807, Robert Fulton launched the first steam-powered boat, which made the transporting of goods along the country's waterways much easier and quicker. When the United States declared war on Britain in 1812, in response to attacks on American trade ships, the need for weapons and provisions to support the war effort created a boom in industrial production and the wealth that accompanied such growth. Private investors poured money into new factories, confident that government contracts to arm the military and improve transportation would make them rich.

New investment in industry meant new jobs, and thousands of rural Americans left their farms and moved to large cities to work in factories. Though the early 1800s were profitable and progressive times for the country, the lives of workers were less fulfilling. Factory owners focused on productivity and profits had given very little thought to the kinds of working conditions needed to sustain production by maintaining a healthy workforce. Most workers found themselves in environments that were unhealthy and unsafe, resulting in exhaustion, sickness, and sometimes even death. For the first time in the country's history, people began to wonder about the human price of prosperity, and several labor reform movements took shape among Americans of conscience.

Construction on the first westward-leading railroad began in 1828. In 1845, to encourage its citizens to move west, the United States government adopted a policy known as Manifest Destiny. The phrase itself was first used to rally national support for claiming ownership of disputed land that is now part of Texas, which in the early 1800s was claimed by both the United States and Mexico. The US policy of Manifest Destiny was based on the belief that it was the "destiny" of the United States to secure all land to its west to accommodate its expanding population. (Since more and more people wanted to come to America because of the freedom and opportunities it offered, the country would need more land to hold them all.) Gradually the idea took on religious overtones, with Americans claiming that God favored the Anglo-Saxon race and that it was His will that the nation control the continent.

Americans' belief in manifest destiny led to the development of nationalism, the belief that the interests of the nation should be placed ahead of the interest of the states and particularly ahead of the interest of other countries or peoples. Nationalism essentially gave the federal government license to act in any manner that promoted American expansion—since expansion was considered good for the country. In 1830, the Indian Removal Act authorized the relocation of Native American tribes west of the Mississippi River. Later, President James K. Polk invoked nationalism as he placed his federal army along the Mexican border south of the territory of Texas, provoking the Mexican government into a war that resulted in further westward expansion.

While nationalism helped to build an American identity, it made some Americans uncomfortable about the nation's domestic policies, especially as they related to slavery. As more states were carved out of newly acquired territory, Northern states pushed the U. S. government to disallow slavery in the new states. The Southern states pushed back, insisting, for political reasons, that the government maintain a balance between slavery and non-slavery states. Throughout the country's history, some enslaved people had managed to escape from plantations in the South and travel north to states that had abolished the practice of slavery. Many used the system known as the Underground Railroad, which was not an actual railroad, but a network of abolitionists, religious leaders, and escaped slaves who provided assistance and shelter to those fleeing to the northern states and Canada. The Underground Railroad was so named because of the terminology used to describe its leaders (conductors) and safe houses (stations). Harriet Tubman, the most famous conductor, was herself an escaped slave. Tubman used the Underground Railroad to return to the South approximately nineteen times and free more than three hundred enslaved persons.

Though escape attempts were primarily unsuccessful for the majority of slaves, Southern enslavers were fearful of losing their "property" and angered by the defiance that the Railroad represented. In 1850, they persuaded the federal government to pass the Fugitive Slave Act, which required northern states to return escapees to their enslavers.

By the mid-1800s, a railroad stretched westward across the country, and industrial production was booming. Then, in 1848, gold was discovered on the West Coast, and the California Gold Rush brought Americans across the continent by the thousands, most seeking instant wealth. Few actually found very much gold, but many stayed out west and made a life there. Towns and cities followed, and the infrastructure to support them. Well before 1900, the United States' expansion westward was complete.