Colonial American History Take-Home Exam

Essay by jdmooreCollege, UndergraduateA+, July 2014

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HIST 221-Summer 2014-Exam #2.

Joshua Moore

Identifications:

Northwest Ordinance: This act was passed by the Congress of Confederation on July 13, 1787. It established the first territory in the land south of the Great Lakes, north and west of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi River. It was then signed into law by George Washington in 1789. Often said to be the second most important thing congress did, only beaten by the Declaration of Independence. It created and solidified the idea of a sovereign government, that would expand westward across North America, creating more states instead of expanding the already existing ones.

Cotton Gin: The first modern mechanical cotton gin, invented by Eli Whitney in 1793 and patented in 1794. Because of this easy way to sort through the cotton, it sped up the process and revolutionized the entire cotton industry by expediting the production as well as reducing the labor and cost of processed cotton, and cotton materials.

This led to a large growth in cotton farming, especially in the south, where it took a very strong foothold that lasted up until the invention of cheap synthetic fabrics. However, because of the explosion of the cotton industry in the south, there was a subsequent explosion of slavery as well, because the new, large farms needed cheap labor that was willing (voluntarily or not) to do the difficult, and often torturous, manual labor needed to till, plant, weed, grow, pick and sort through vast amounts of cotton being produced.

Louisiana Purchase: This term refers to the acquisition of land by the US from France in 1803. In total, the US payed, in current USD, $236 million for 529,920,00 acres. This amounts to less than 42 cents per acre, more than doubling the size of the...