Essay on Life in the 1850's

The Treaty of St. Peters of 1837 sold the land located in the Minnesota territory to the United States and granted the Ojibwe Indians the privilege of hunting, fishing, and gathering wild rice upon the lands, the rivers and the lakes included in the territory ceded.

Everyday Life in Early America was written by David Freeman Hawke, a professor of American History at Lehman College. He was seventy-five years old when he passed away in 1999. Hawke carried multiple degrees from Swarthmore College, University of Wisconsin, and the University of Pennsylvania. He was a highly regarded historical scholar with a talent for writing. Hawke already had several books published by the time he wrote Everyday Life in Early America in 1988. These books include: The Colonial Experience (1966), In the Midst of a Revolution (1961), Paine (1974), and Franklin (1976). His other book, “Benjamin Rush: Revolutionary Gadfy” was a biography nominated for National Book Award in 1972.

The railways became an important system that guided settlement and delivered economic opportunity for much of the United States. Railroads allowed access to places that people had no means of getting to and provided an opportunity to develop cities and towns

Polk immediately asked for funding from Congress, and they approved under the Wilmot Proviso; it stated that the war would receive funding but there would be no slavery in the southwest. Polk longed to finish the war quickly so the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was passed. It stated that Rio Grande was Texas’s southern border. Also, it gave the United States control of modern day Texas, California, Nevada, Utah, and most of New Mexico and Arizona, but the United States had to pay fifteen million dollars in return.

“In a government where sectional interests and feelings may come into conflict, the sole security for permanence and peace is to be found in a Constitution whose provisions are inviolable” (Document B). But, what if the answer is not found in the Constitution? At this time there was an increasing sectional conflict between the North and the South. The problems arose mainly from the issue of slavery, and came largely after the Mexican war. Although the issue of slavery had never been fully resolved, it became a very heated subject during the 1850’s. The Constitution never took a clear stand on the issue, and the people began to see it more as source of sectional discord and tension and they ultimately began to see it as a

Each railroad was to receive a 200-foot-wide right-of-way and sections of public lands to help finance construction. The Northern Pacific’s charter originally provided ten alternate sections per mile in states through which it passed and 20 sections per mile in territories. If sufficient lands were not available within this grant, other sections could be selected as in-lieu from a secondary zone which reached back from the tracks another 20 miles.8 These land grants contributed greatly to commercial development and growth of towns along the track routes. A fourth railroad was the Southern Pacific, which was routed from New Orleans to Los Angeles. The Great Northern Railway was the fifth transcontinental line. The Great Northern, along with the Northern Pacific, had the greatest impact on developing the northwest. However, unlike the Northern Pacific, it was not a land-grand railroad. It did not obtain federal loans to help in its construction as did the Union

On June 19th 1862 the US Congress prohibits slavery in the United States territories nullifying the Dred Scott

The Gilded Age was characterized by rapid industrialization, reconstruction, ruthless pursuit of profit, government, corruption, and vulgarity (Cashman 1). After the Civil War, America was beginning to regroup as a nation. There were many other changes developing in the country. Industrialization was taking over the formerly agricultural country. The nation’s government was also in great conflict (Foner 20). Many changes occurred during the Gilded Age. These changes affected farmers, labor, business, and politics.

A successful economy is perhaps the most key ingredient leading to a successful nation. An economy is a delicate balance of many different conflicting and coexisting elements. Naturally, an economy’s success can often be measured by the amount of wealth it contains, not to mention the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of its distribution of the wealth. Effective distribution of wealth is no easy feat. Wealthy and poor people will always need to coexist- this is an inescapable truth. The government’s job in many cases becomes that of a referee. Naturally, perfect peace and harmony between two totally different classes would be a utopia, and probably will never be completely achieved. A government must, therefore,

AAmerica began as a small struggling nation, with each citizen desiring an opportunistic way of life. To achieve this way of life, many changes needed to be made. Different people with distinctive ideas came together, and although there was conflict, they made great changes politically, socially, and economically. Each aspect changed America tremendously in a variety of ways. Analyzing each specific change can determine the extent in which America has changed for better or for worse.

because the need for access to the Pacific Ocean for trading. In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe was signed. For 15 million, Mexico ceded more than one-third of its territory and the U.S. acquired all of Arizona north of the Gila River (McClory, 2001). Unfortunately, southern Arizona still was in control by Mexico, which included Tucson. Arizona and New Mexico became one territory called the Territory of New Mexico. Soon after, the United States paid another 10 million for 30,000 square miles of the Mexican territory that included Tucson. Congress thought the purchase was meaningless because it was just desert land. The Gadsden Purchase gave the final boundary that Arizona has today. In 1860, along with the constitution, a governor and other elected officials were established. That was unfortunately short lived because of the Civil War. In 1862, Union troops entered the state and placed it under martial rule, this action further delayed Arizona’s official admission as a state (McClory, 2011).

     San Francisco was a small town of a few hundred people in 1840, but by 1850 it was a huge city whose economy was injected with gold money. This rapid growth and development was brought on by an accidental discovery by James Marshall.

During the harsh times of the 1890’s, the Newsboys were under severe oppression in the working place. This would change when they publicly challenged the authority of the corporate operation, ultimately leading to a shift in New York civil disputes and eventually helping to engulf the unfair working laws that were presented. This will and would lead the change of many civil minds and spark more impactful rebellions down the road.

In 1992 the city of Los Angeles was one of our nation’s largest cities. It had an estimated population of over 9 million.1 The city had been in a deteriorating state for several years. There also had been tension growing between the citizens and the police for nearly the last 30 years. This had a lot to do with riots that occurred in Los Angeles back in the 1960’s.2

The California economy boomed after the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1849, spurring a huge demand for shipping. Henry Wells and William Fargo joined with several other New York investors to create Wells, Fargo and Company to serve and profit from this demand. In July 1852, the company began transporting its first loads of freight between the East Coast and the isolated mining camps of California. From the beginning, Wells, Fargo and Company also engaged in banking, making good profits in the traffic of gold dust and providing loans that helped sustain the growth of the California economy.