Michelle Plarina

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HIST:1015581
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Explain how the dual issues of land and expansion have been central to American history
from the time of English colonization to the Civil War. You should consider how expansion
influenced economics, impacted politics, altered relations between people(s), and even led to
conflict.

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HIST:1015581
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American History: Land and Expansion
The issues of land and expansion are fundamental to the history of America. These two
issues influenced how the ideals of the country would be formed over the centuries between the
first British settlements to the Civil War. Everything about this intricate history would have
these issues related to it in some way, and in times be at the very basis of what was occurring.
Americas need for new land and expansion would shape how the country operated politically
and dealt with its inhabitants.
From the first inception land was at the forefront. In order to give new settlers from the Old
World incentive to settle in the Chesapeake area, the local government offered headright grants
of 50 acres per person (Roark, 56). These headright grants gave the new settlers the ability to
support themselves in the New World.
The settlers in the Chesapeake area were quick to start farming the newly discovered tobacco
plant for sale to England, but labor was in very short supply since tobacco requires a great deal
of labor to cultivate (Roark, 56). To combat this, farm owners would pay for the trip across the
Atlantic Ocean for new laborers in exchange for the laborers headright grant and 4 or 5 years of
labor (Roark, 59). This land received from the many indentured servants from their headright
grants was not enough for many farmers (Sheflin, Unit 3 Lecture).
This need for more land and expansion created a problem for governments in the Chesapeake
area, in Virginia especially. After the government of Virginia, trying to keep the peace, assured
the local natives that they would be able to keep their land the local British rose up against the
government in what came to be known as Bacons Rebellion in 1678 (Sheflin, Unit 3 Lecture).
Bacon felt that the colonists needed to expand west, as if it was theirs for the taking. The land

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was being held unfairly by the natives, and as such he led a band of supporters to fight a war
against the local natives (Sheflin, Unit 3 Lecture).
Expansion was required for the economic strength of the continent. The tobacco trade,
which was a very large part of the economy at the time, needed new land in order to expand and
continue growth. The new land would allow those moving into the region, as well as established
farmers, to own new land that was not touched by tobacco. Tobacco is a plant that uses up the
nutrients in the ground to the point where the crop cannot be grown across all of the farmers
land at any given time. In fact, it is so exhaustive that a farmer would only be able to devote up
to 10% of his land at any given time (Roark, 64). This created a massive need for land, and
given that land increased the expansion of tobacco farms, gaining this land would boost the local
economy in the Chesapeake.
By the late 1700s people were moving to the new country of the United States of America
in droves. In order accommodate new land for these people, as well as raising money for the
deeply indebted government after the Revolutionary war, congress adopted the Land Act of 1787
(Roark, 202). This act established a vast area known as the Northwest Territory, disallowed
slavery in the new territory, as well as made sure that the new area would not become a colony as
America had become a colony of England before the Revolutionary War. The latter was ensured
by outlining the ability for the new territories could apply to become states after reaching 60,000
eligible voters and petitioning Congress, ensuring the area would have a full voice within
government (Roark, 202-203).
The natives were not forgotten in this Land Act. The best of intensions were acknowledged
within the act as they were recognized to never allow their goods and property to be taken from
them without their consent; and, in their property, rights, and liberty, they shall never be invaded

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or disturbed unless in just and lawful wars authorized by Congress (Roark, 204). This
statement was placed with the best intention of the people colonizing the new area to not harm
the Native Americans. Though the Land Act would pass easily through Congress, the part
protecting the affairs and rights of the Native Americans would not be followed.
In 1789, the federal government send military units into the western Ohio in order to subdue
the local tribes. Such was the commitment of the federal government that they set up a
command post in what is now Cincinnati in order to send forth three separate invasions into
Native American territory (Roark, 229). These invasions were especially brutal and had soldiers
wasting their way across the territory burning local inhabitants as they went (Roark, 229). These
operations would eventually fail with large losses taken by the military as the local tribes banded
together to fight off the intruders.
The call from the settlers of more land and greater economic opportunity as they entered the
new country not being subdued by these losses, the American military, commanded by
Washington, doubled the commitment of troops in Ohio and appointed a new commander to
oversee the operation (Roark, 229). This massive surge in troops would finally be enough to rid
the area of the Native American tribes fighting a war against the American military. In August
1794, the local tribes sought to ambush the invading force in the battle of Fallen Timbers but
were under-armed and were forced to withdraw (Roark, 230).
Conflicts such as these were numerous in the coming years as settlers pushed into many
lands that were already occupied by local inhabitants. At times the politicians overseeing the
areas would try and enforce peace over the area with the locals, but in the end they would be
unable to stem the increasing tide of new settlers occupying more and more land. In the years
after the Revolutionary War, America had become, according to Thomas Paine, "the asylum for

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the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe" ("Immigration
Timeline"). The country was burgeoning with new people and it needed more land to satiate
their thirst.
The type of wonton need to more land and expansion seen throughout the late 18th century
and into the 19th century is what helped shape the country into the future. It would bring the
country against a whole group of people in order to fulfill what it would declare to be its
manifest destiny. By 1845, it had become the countrys God-given right to expand across the
continent and shove aside those who were in the way, including the Native Americans and
Mexicans inhabiting the areas in the west of the continent (Roark, 312-313). This ideology
resonated and took hold within the people in the country extremely quickly.
One of the grand effects of this massive push was the establishing of trade to Asia through
the continents west coast (Roark, 313). This trade allowed for economic expansion that entered
the realm of politics. Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton declared Commerce is a great
civilizer, which tied the economic expansion into the idea to civilize the west (Roark, 313). The
quest for land became a necessity of the whole country and permeated the very idea of what it
was to be American. The God-given right to the land became wrapped up in the idea of the
necessity of economic expansion and civilizing the vast open country of the west.
Expansion in the west pushed to the limelight the question over slavery. Although
expansion was cheered by many in the North of America, it was considered to be one of liberty.
The political question of slavery came to a head with the annexation of Texas. The annexation
was considered to be an expansion of slavery since Texas was known throughout the continent as
one that widely supported the institution (Roark, 319). It wasnt until the annexation was tied to

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that of the annexation of Oregon, a slavery free state, that it was made palatable to the politicians
of the time.
This war in Congress over whether or not the new states would be pro- or anti-slavery was
one that would boil over in Kansas as settlers would fight for what each side considered to be the
better way. The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed people to move into the area and decide which
system was best in the new territories (Sheflin, Unit 13 Lecture). This act was a flash point for
the debate over the direction of the country pertaining to slavery. Speaking of the KansasNebraska Act, Lincoln himself spoke out against slavery as he noted that it assumes that there
CAN be MORAL RIGHT in the enslaving of one man by another (Johnson, 268). One could
argue that the first battles of the civil war were fought here as the settlers eventually armed
themselves and turned to violence over what would be the direction of slavery as the United
States expanded (Sheflin, Unit 13 Lecture). This violence became known as Bleeding Kansas
and lasted into the Civil War.
Expansion and the necessity of land were integral to American way of life up through the
Civil War. The insatiable need for land by settlers always put the country at odds with the local
inhabitants, as well as other countries, which caused many conflicts with them throughout the
period. What America gained through the rapid expansion seen, however, was a great amount of
economic influence by allowing the resources of new areas to be used and opening up trade to
distant areas. These gains and necessities pushed the general idea of the God-given right to the
expansion and influenced politics and pushed forward support for the settling in these new areas.
The issue of slavery in the new land became a large part of the political arguments heading
towards the Civil War and would help drive the country towards the unavoidable fight.

Michelle Plarina
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HIST:1015581
10/7/2016
Works Cited
"Immigration Timeline" Immigration Timeline - The Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island. Accessed
December 05, 2016. http://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/immigration-timeline.
Johnson, Michael P. Reading the American Past: Selected Historical Documents. (Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012), 175
Roark, James L. The American Promise: A Concise History. Vol. 1. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's,
2014.