President Jackson's Transportation System

The use of “steamboats created a transcontinental market and an agricultural empire that produced much of the nation’s timber, wheat, corn, cattle, and hogs”(268). That particular method of water transportation“ transformed St. Louis, Missouri, from a sleepy frontier village into a boomin river port. New Orleans developed even faster. By 1840, it was the wealthiest and third largest american city, having developed a thriving trade with the Caribbean island and the new Latin American republics that had overthrown Spanish rule”(268-269). But “ during the second quarter of the nineteenth century, a more versatile and powerful form of transportation emerged: the railroad”(269). “ The railroad surpassed other forms of transportation because of its speed, carrying capacity, and reliability” (269). Railroads also “ provided indirect benefits by …show more content…
“There was nothing for the Cherokees (who had fought with Jackson as allies against the Creeks) to do but sign a treaty, which they did in 1835. The gave up their land in the Southeast (about 100 million acres) in exchange for 32 million acres in the Indian Territory to the west of Arkansas-part of present-day Oklahoma.”(333)

The old South stood out from the rest of the United States. And “ While geography and climate were key factors in shaping the South’s economy and culture, what made the region most distinctive was the diminishing presence of Native Americans and the expanding institution of race-based slavery.”(348). “ Slavery in the south was “such a powerful engine of economic development”(354) “that it resisted any criticism and helps explain why southerners became so defiantly defensive about preserving