Page 213 - American Stories, A History of the United States

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8.1

Learn about some key topics related to this chapter with the
8.2 MyHistoryLab Video Series: Key Topics in U.S. History.

1 a time of dramatic demographic shift for the United
8.3 demographic expansion the early 19th century was
states. in 1810, the population of the United states
numbered approximately 7.5 million people (about 20
8.4
percent of whom were enslaved African-Americans). the expanding free white population pushed westward
in search of new lands. As a result, the dominant political issues of the era focused on social and military
conflict between white settlers and American indian nations. native resistance produced a cycle of clashes
8.5 and treaty negotiations with state and federal governments. ravaged by disease and internal conflict, the
native nations of the southeast and old northwest eventually succumbed to sustained military pressure
from the federal government and signed treaties that facilitated the westward flow of U.s. settlers.
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advocated decentralized political and economic power and favored an agrarian economy. Although 2
thomas Jefferson A central political debate during the presidency of thomas Jefferson—the country’s
third chief executive—centered on the limits of the federal government in the lives of citizens. Jefferson

Jefferson favored a reduction of federal power and spending, his presidency is notable both for having
nearly doubled the land holdings of the United states as a result of the Louisiana Purchase in 1890 and
for embarking on the young nation’s first foreign war. Later in his life, Jefferson considered his greatest
accomplishments to be authorship of the declaration of independence, the founding of the University
of Virginia, and the establishment of legal precedents for religious freedom in the constitutions of
Virginia and the United states.
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3 the Louisiana Purchase of Lewis and Clark one of the key events of the early national period is the

purchase and exploration of the Louisiana territory. this video examines why President thomas
Jefferson overcame his personal political considerations to buy the Louisiana territory from france
for $13 million. it also profiles the expedition of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and the Corps of
discovery which proved the wisdom of this “purchase.”

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pretexts for war, namely, the British navy’s impressment of sailors serving aboard American merchant 4
the War of 1812 With Great Britain seemingly overstretched in its wars against napoleonic france and
its allies, the United states invaded Canada, thus triggering the War of 1812. this video looks at the

ships, Great Britain’s failure to abandon frontier forts, and its support of native Americans in their
attempts to resist white expansion into their territories.

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perhaps not in wealth but surely in character. She may have even dreamed of owning a house
staffed with “help.” American society fostered such ambition. In the early nineteenth century,
thousands of settlers poured across the Appalachians or moved to cities in search of opportunity.
Thomas Jefferson and men who stood for public office under the banner of the Republican Party
claimed to speak for these people.
The limits of the Jeffersonian vision were obvious even to contemporaries. The people who
spoke most eloquently about equal opportunity often owned slaves. As early as the 1770s, the
famed English essayist Samuel Johnson had chided Americans for their hypocrisy: “How is it that
we hear the loudest yelps for liberty from the drivers of Negroes?” Little had changed since the
Revolution. African Americans, who represented one-fifth of the population of the United States,
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