Northeastern North America

(1828 to 1839 CE): Expansion, Industrialization, and Reform

From 1828 to 1839, Northeastern North America experienced extensive territorial expansion, industrial advancement, significant social reforms, and growing political tensions. This period was marked by the forced displacement of indigenous populations, rapid economic growth driven by new technologies, increasing labor unrest, and profound religious and social movements.

Territorial Changes and Indigenous Displacement

Indian Removal and the Trail of Tears

Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, authorizing President Andrew Jackson to negotiate treaties that exchanged Native American lands in the East for territories west of the Mississippi River. The forced relocations led to the Trail of Tears, during which approximately 2,000 to 8,000 of the over 16,000 Cherokee people perished. Many Seminoles in Florida resisted removal, resulting in prolonged conflict known as the Seminole Wars.

Iowa and Assiniboine Displacement

The Iowa ceded their lands in Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri to the U.S. government between 1820 and 1840, notably surrendering the Little Platte territory in Missouri in 1836. By 1837, most Iowa relocated to a reservation along the Kansas-Nebraska border, led by Chief Mahaska ("White Cloud"), settling alongside their longtime allies, the Sauk and Fox.

The Assiniboine suffered catastrophic population decline due to Eurasian diseases, notably smallpox, reducing their numbers from around 10,000 in the late 1700s to approximately 2,600 by 1890. Noted European and American painters, including Karl Bodmer and George Catlin, documented these tribes during this era.

Industrial Growth and Urban Development

Canals and the Rise of Rondout

Following the opening of the Delaware and Hudson Canal in 1828, Rondout transformed from farmland into a bustling maritime village, significantly driven by Irish laborers who initially came to dig the canal. This canal connected coal mines in northeastern Pennsylvania to New York City, prompting new industries like brick manufacturing, cement, bluestone shipping, and ice-making from Hudson River ice.

Lowell Mill Strikes and Labor Unrest

Significant labor unrest emerged, notably with the 1834 Lowell Mill strikes in Massachusetts, where textile workers sought shorter hours and better wages. Although unsuccessful, these strikes garnered national attention and inspired workers in other industrial towns. Throughout the 1830s, laborers across the Northeast increasingly organized against oppressive working conditions associated with rapid industrialization.

Technological and Economic Innovations

Steam Power and Railroad Expansion

Steam-powered transportation, especially steamboats and railroads, reshaped trade and travel. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, completed in 1830, significantly accelerated commerce and connected markets throughout the region. The Erie Canal continued to boost economic integration, linking frontier and urban markets efficiently.

Ice Harvesting and Refrigeration

Ice harvesting from the Hudson River became a crucial industry. Workers stored ice in warehouses insulated by straw, providing early refrigeration methods. This preserved ice supplied Rondout, Kingston, and Wilbur year-round.

Political Shifts and Tensions

Jacksonian Democracy and Bank War

President Andrew Jackson epitomized the era's populist politics. His successful 1832 reelection campaign slogan, "Jackson and no bank," led to the demise of the Second Bank of the United States in 1836, replaced by decentralized "pet banks." Jacksonian democracy also widened suffrage for white men, laying the foundation for the Second Party System, dominated by Democrats and Whigs from 1828 to 1854.

Canadian Border Conflicts

Border disputes with Canada included the Buckshot War (1838) and the Aroostook War (1838–1839), reflecting ongoing tensions with Britain over territorial claims.

Rebellions in Canada

The abortive Rebellions of 1837 in Canada highlighted demands for responsible government, leading to the influential Durham Report, recommending responsible governance and assimilation of French Canadians into English culture.

Social Movements and Religious Awakening

Second Great Awakening

The Second Great Awakening (1790–1840) reached its zenith during this era, dramatically increasing membership in Baptist and Methodist congregations. Camp meetings and revivalist gatherings promoted evangelical Protestantism, inspiring widespread social reforms including abolitionism and temperance.

Abolitionism and Moral Reform

Abolitionist sentiment surged, particularly following the establishment of William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper, The Liberator (1831). Religious revivalism fueled moral reform movements, striving to eradicate societal evils ahead of an anticipated millennial age.

Cultural and Economic Changes

Artistic Documentation of Native Peoples

European and American artists traveled extensively across the expanding frontier, documenting indigenous cultures through painting and sketches. This artistic endeavor created invaluable historical records of tribes like the Assiniboine during periods of profound change.

Rapid Urbanization and Population Growth

Cities such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia experienced substantial growth, driven by immigration and economic opportunity. Columbia, South Carolina's new state capital, flourished after being connected to Charleston by the Santee Canal in 1800, reinforcing regional economic integration.

Legacy of the Era (1828–1839 CE)

From 1828 to 1839, Northeastern North America witnessed profound transformations driven by rapid industrialization, territorial expansion, political realignment, and significant social reforms. Although economic growth and technological innovations brought prosperity, they were coupled with intense social inequalities, harsh labor conditions, and widespread displacement of indigenous populations. This era set enduring patterns in American society, politics, and economy, foreshadowing escalating sectional conflicts and future struggles over slavery, labor rights, and indigenous sovereignty.

The desire for responsible Canadian government results in the abortive Rebellions of 1837.

The Durham Report subsequently recommends responsible government and the assimilation of French Canadians into English culture.

Josiah Henson, born into slavery in Charles County, Maryland, serves in the Canadian army as a military officer, leading a Black militia unit in the Rebellions of 1837.

Henson had seen his father punished for standing up to a slave owner, receiving one hundred lashes and having his right ear nailed to the whipping-post, and then cut off.

His father was later sold to someone in Alabama.

Following his family's master's death, young Josiah had been separated from his mother, brothers, and sisters, when he was sold as property in an estate sale.

After his mother pleaded with her new owner Issac Riley, Riley agreed to buy back Henson so she could at least have her youngest child with her; on condition he would work in the fields.

Rising in his owners' esteem, Henson had eventually been entrusted as the supervisor of his master's farm, located in Montgomery County, Maryland (in what is now North Bethesda).

He had tried to buy his freedom by giving his master three hundred and fifty dollars that he had saved up over the years, only to find that it had been increased to one thousand dollars.

Cheated of his money and suspecting that his owner planned to sell him while on a trip to New Orleans, Henson had escaped to Upper Canada, crossing via the Niagara River in 1830, with his wife and four children.

Henson had first worked farms near Fort Erie, then Waterloo, moving with friends to Colchester by 1834 to set up a Black settlement on rented land.

Through contacts and financial assistance there, he had been able to purchase two hundred acres in Dawn Township, in next-door Kent County, to realize his vision of a self-sufficient community.

Here he had founded a settlement and laborer's school for other fugitive slaves from the United States, for whom Ontario had become a refuge after 1793, when Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe passed "An Act to prevent the further introduction of Slaves, and to limit the Term of Contracts for Servitude within this Province".

The legislation did not end slavery in the province, but it did prevent the importation of slaves, meaning that any U.S. slave who set foot in Ontario was free.

By the time Henson arrived, Blacks had already made Ontario home, including Loyalists from the American Revolution, and refugees from the War of 1812.

Henson also has become an active Methodist preacher, speaking as an abolitionist on routes between Tennessee and Ontario.

 

The Dawn Settlement will eventually prosper, reaching a population of five hundred at its height, and exporting black walnut lumber to the United States and Britain.

Henson purchases an additional two hundred acres next to the Settlement, where his family lives.

Political reform movements in both Upper and Lower Canada, largely influenced by American and French republicanism, have grown since the War of 1812.

The colonial legislatures set out by the Constitutional Act have become dominated by two wealthy elites: the Family Compact in Upper Canada and the Château Clique in Lower Canada.

Scots-born William Lyon Mackenzie, founder and publisher of the Colonial Advocate since 1824, had become a leader in the Reform party through his newspaper’s strong, often scurrilous attacks on the Family Compact.

Elected in 1828 to the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, Mackenzie had visited the United States the following year, returning to York a great admirer of U. S. institutions.

The moderate reformers, such as Canadian lawyer Robert Baldwin, elected MP for the town of York at twenty-five in 1829, and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada in 1830, argue for a more representational form of government that they call "responsible government.”

By "responsible," the reformers mean that such a government would be ultimately responsible to the will of the subjects of the colonies, not to the British legislature or monarchy.

The radical reformers, such as Mackenzie and Louis-Joseph Papineau, the leader of the reformist Patriote movement, demand equality or a complete break from British rule and the establishment of a republic.

The British have ignored the calls for reform by Papineau, who had been elected speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada in 1815, and in 1826 had been chosen leader of the Patriotes, a reformed and more radical Parti Canadien.

In 1831, he had sponsored a law that had granted full equivalent political rights to Jews, 27 years before anywhere else in the British Empire.

In 1834, the assembly had passed the Ninety-Two Resolutions, outlining its grievances against the legislative council.

The resolutions call for an elected Legislative Council and an Executive Council responsible before the house of the people's representatives.

After the arrival of the Russell Resolutions in Lower Canada on March 6, 1837, Papineau organizes boycotts and civil disobedience.

In mid-November, the colonial government illegally orders his arrest and that of twenty-five other Patriot leaders.

Papineau escapes to the U.S.

Rebellions against the British colonial government take place in both Upper and Lower Canada in 1837 but the more substantial rebellion occurs in Lower Canada.

Both English- and French-Canadian rebels, with some U.S. backing, fight several skirmishes against the authorities.

Quebec City is isolated from the rest of the colony after the towns of Chambly and ...

...Sorel fall to the rebels.

Montréal rebel leader Robert Nelson reads a declaration of independence to a crowd at Napierville in 1838.

Les Patriotes, however, are defeated after battles across Quebec.

Hundreds are arrested, and several villages are burnt in reprisal.

Louis-Joseph Papineau, upon arriving in the United States, had stayed at his friend judge Reuben Hyde Walworth's family house in Saratoga, and has arranged for his wife and his children to join him here.

For some time, he has attempted to gain the support of American President Martin Van Buren, using all the diplomatic influence that he and American supporters can provide.

When the United States declares themselves neutral in the conflict between Britain and its Canadian colonies, he turns to Europe for support.

A new Whig government sends Lord Durham to examine the volatile situation in Canada.

He and his entourage arrive in Upper Canada in May, and his Durham Report strongly recommends responsible government.

A less well-received recommendation, however, is the amalgamation of Upper and Lower Canada, a measure to forcibly assimilate the French speaking population.