USA 1776-1801

USA 1776-1801

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Info

Bill of Rights

Timeline

The South

Quiz

Declaration of Independence-Pennsylvania The Continental Congress gathered in Philadelphia in summer 1776. The Declaration of Independence was written there. They declared their independence from Britain. FUN FACTS:

• The oldest signer of the Declaration of Independence was Benjamin Franklin, who was 70 at the time of the signing.
• Robert Livingston refused to sign the Declaration of Independence, even though he was one of the "Committee of Five". He believed that it was too soon to declare independence and refused to sign his name.
• We celebrate July 4th as Independence Day because that is the day that Congress approved the final draft of the text.
• But the formal signing ceremony of the Declaration of Independence text did not take place until August 2, 1776, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

Washington DC In 1790 an agreement was reached over where to build the new capital of the US. It would be located where the Potomac and the Anacostia rivers meet. Maryland and Virginia gave up a little land to the national government, so that the new city would be on national soil but not on a state. Pierre Charles L'Enfant planned the city. He focused on the "Congress House" and the "President's House" which are today known as the Capitol and the White House respectively.

Thomas Jefferson-Virginia In 1800, Thomas Jefferson was elected president of US. He was the third president. He is best remembered for the founding of the University of Virginia.

Betsy Ross-New Jersey Betsy Ross, a seamstress that worked sewing flags, is credited with sewing the first US flag. The first official mention of a flag for the nation was made in 1777 and it would have 13 stripes and 13 stars, representing the original 13 colonies. In 1818, the number of stars increased so it had one for each of the states that had joined the union and has been increasing ever since.

The Compromise of 1850 (Missouri) Slavery was dividing the nation in two -a northern part, where there was no slavery, and a southern part, where slavery existed. In 1890, the number of free states equaled the number iof slave states. When Missouri wanted to become a state, the Congress reached a compromise. According to the Missouri Compromise of 1820, Missouri would become a slave state; the North allowed more slave states to enter the Union and the South allowed more free states. Slave and free states would be equal in number. This compromise set a line acoross the nation. Above that line, no slavery would be allowed. Another law in that Compromise called the Fugutive Slave Act said that blacks in the North could be taken back to South to slavery.

The Battle of Gettysburg Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War (the war between the North and the South). Southern General Robert E. Lee moved his army north to convince the North it could not win the war. This battle took place around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and was fought on three days in 1863, form Wednesday, July 1st until Friday, July the 3rd. The armies remained facing each other on the field on July 4th. The North won the Battle of Gettysburg. About 50,000 people were killed, wounded or captured.

Abraham Lincoln-Kentucky Lincoln is most famous for leading the country during the American Civil War. His leadership in the North helped the country to remain strong and defeat the South keeping the country united. He also pushed for the freedom of all slaves throughout the nation. Lincoln became the 16th President of the United States in the election of 1860. He preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the national government and modernized the economy. On the evening of April 14, 1865, Lincoln was shot in the head at Ford's Theatre in Washington and died in the early morning of April 15. 1865.

Boats on the Mississippi River When farmers in the north of USA wanted to sell their goods, they usually built RAFTS with trunks and travelled down the Mississippi river to New Orleans to sell them and get money to survive the rest of the year. After selling all their goods, they also sold the wood of their rafts. They wouldn’t use their rafts to sail up the river as it was impossible to travel against the current of the Mississippi for them. To return home with their money, they had two options: 1.Walk up the Natchez Trace (Trace =road) which was a 500-mile treck extremely dangerous because thieves were lurking along the trace ready to steal and kill the farmers. 2.Buy a ticket in a KEELBOAT. Four or five men held a long pole. At the same time, each stuck his pole through the water, into the river bottom. Then, each man leaned his shoulder against his pole and pushed as he walked toward the back of the boat. This was made all day long.

Remember El Alamo At the beginning, Texas belonged to Mexico. There were few people in Texas at that time and the Mexican government started to give free land to anyone-around 30,000 Americans among others who wanted to come to Texas. After fifteen years, the country passed a law to stop the flood of Americans as they didn’t want to learn Spanish, become Catholics or stop using slaves to work their lands-slavery was illegal in Mexico. In 1834, Antonio López de Santa Ana, a general who acted as a dictator was in charge of the government of Mexico and took the Mexican Army-about 4 or 5 thousand strong-against the American rebels on February 23, 1836. He attacked San Antonio, where there were about 150 Americans. The Americans retreated to El Alamo, which was an abandoned mission built by the Spanish over 100 years before. In the end, after the battle, the Mexicans won. General Santa Ana made sure no one survived. He killed everyone but a woman, her child and a slave, so they could tell other Americans what happens when you stand against Mexico’s army. However, the Americans killed hundreds and hundreds of Mexican soldiers. They were very brave. On April 21 of the same year, Texan Sam Houston led a new Texas Army against General Santa Ana and his army. He decided to attack the Mexicans outside San Jacinto. To inspire his soldiers, Sam rode among his men, crying “Remember the Alamo! Remember the Alamo!”. In 18 minutes, the Texans had killed over 600 Mexican soldiers and the Mexican Army fled back across the Rio Grande-the river that would become the border between Texas and Mexico. This victory ended the war. Texas was free. After ten years, on December 29, 1845, Texas became the 28the state of the United States.

1. WHITNEY'S COTTON GIN About three fourths of all the cotton the South produced was exported or sent to other countries. Britain received most of the exported cotton. In 1792 Elis Whitney went to the south to teach but he ended up inventing for the farmers of the region. He found that it took a slave a whole day to separate one pound of cotton from its seeds. He studied how slaves moved their hands as they cleaned the cotton and he built a machine that made the same motions as the slaves hands 50 times faster. The Price of the cotton dropped and it became a common cloth. Some people went away and made their own. Eli made very little money on his invention. More and more slaves were bought. Within ten years the price of a slave doubled. 2. SLAVERY The North was a place of growing cities, new factories and few slaves. The south was a place of small towns and miles of farms and slaves by the millions. Eight of the first 12 presidents were slave owners. Some of the crops grown on Southern plantations needed a great deal of care. So, slaves were sold and bought by their owners to work on those huge plantations. Slaves could not marry without their owner’s permission, they couldn’t learn to write or read. They couldn’t even name their own children. Any slave could be sold away even children and husbans. 3. THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th- century slaves of African descent in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists, both black and white, free and enslaved, who aided the fugitives.In 19 trips on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman guided some 300 slaves to freedom in the North.