11/16/01

1:25 PM

Page 12

The Americans
G7 Population Density,

Geography Transparencies

G8 Distribution of Slaves,

1790 and 1830

Use this transparency to open discussion on the population changes in the United States during a time of rapid
territorial expansion.

BACKGROUND

he transparency shows the average number of

persons living in the areas of the United States
opening to settlement, based on a per-square-mile
rate. The figures are based on census counts that
considered whites and blacks but did not include
Native Americans. Be sure that students do not
mistake density with actual population totals.

Questions and Activities

1. Which state appears to be the most densely populated in 1790? (Rhode Island)
2. Would you imagine that Rhode Island had more
people than Massachusetts had? Explain. (No.
Though more densely populated, Rhode Island is
not as big a state as is Massachusetts and would
undoubtedly have had fewer people overall.)
3. What accounts for Massachusetts small area of
90 or more people per square mile in 1830?
(That area includes Boston and its suburbs.)
4. If students have used the transparency of the
Wilderness Road for Chapter 6, ask them what
accounts for the sizable purple and yellow patch
surrounded by green in 1790 in Kentucky. (The
Wilderness Road opened up inner Kentucky to a
migration of people from Virginia and North
Carolina.)
5. By 1830, which of the states comprising the old
Northwest Territory had had the most dramatic
growth in density? (Ohio)
6. Which two states are virtually unchanged in density from 1790 to 1830? (Delaware and Rhode
Island)
7. Which state would you say showed the largest
density growth from 1790 to 1830? (Possible
responses: Massachusetts, New York, or
Pennsylvania)

4 History from Visuals

1790 and 1860

Use the transparency to discuss the shift in the distribution and growth of the slave population between 1790
and 1860.

BACKGROUND

ecause the importing of slaves had been outlawed in 1808, the increase in slave population
in evidence in 1860 reflects mainly births and subsequent movement, not new arrivals. (However,
possibly as many as 250,000 slaves were illegally
imported after 1808.) The movement involved a
sort of domestic slave tradeslaves mostly from
the crop-exhausted Upper South region being sold
to areas of the Lower South where a cotton
demand was booming. The total of about 700,000
slaves in 1790 grew to about 4 million by 1860
about 3.5 million in the soon-to-be Confederate
states and more than 400,000 in the border states.

Questions and Activities

1. By 1790, which Northern state had no slavery?
(MassachusettsMaine was not yet a state)
2. By 1860, which Northern States had ended their
use of slaves? (New Hampshire, New York,
Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Rhode Island)
3. Which Southern and border states actually
showed a reduction in the number of slaves in
some areas between 1790 and 1860? (Kentucky,
Virginia, Tennessee, Maryland, Delaware, and
North Carolina)
4. Which Northern state still showed an area of
slavery as late as 1860? (New Jersey)
5. In 1863 the northwestern counties of the
Confederate state of Virginia seceded from the
state. The counties were admitted to the Union
as the new state of West Virginia, and by the end
of the Civil War had freed all of its slaves. How
do the two maps reflect the difference toward
slavery between this section of Virginia and the
rest of the state? (The two maps show a consistently low incidence of slave holding in the
northwestern region of Virginia, much lower
than in the rest of the state. In fact, by 1860
some of the area had become slave-free.)

The Americans 2003 McDougal Littell Inc. All rights reserved.

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