America Pushes West: Farming Beyond the Appalachians Following the end of the American Revolutionary War, a major shift began to reshape the young United States. One of the earliest barriers …
The National Road: America’s First Appalachian Highway
The National Road: America’s First Gateway Across the Appalachians Connecting East and West When most people think of iconic American highways, Route 66 often comes to mind. But nearly a …
Early 19th Century Farming Shaped America’s Economy
In the early decades of the 19th century, the United States was a nation built on agriculture. As Mark Oppold explains in this American Agriculture History Minute, no one at …
Homestead Act and America’s Westward Expansion
Reaching the Mississippi: The Edge of the Frontier By 1813, America’s western frontier stretched to the Mississippi River, marking a major milestone in the nation’s expansion. At its heart stood …
Farming the Frontier: How Early Settlers Built America
Life Beyond the Mississippi As settlers moved west across the Mississippi River in the 19th century, they carried with them not only their hopes for a new beginning but also …
Pioneering the Midwest: How Settlers Turned Iowa’s Prairies into Farmland
The Great Migration West By the 1850s, America’s westward expansion had surged into a defining movement. Families from the eastern states packed their wagons and made the long journey toward …
Early 19th-Century American Farming and Westward Expansion
America’s Agricultural Roots In the early 1800s, American agriculture was the backbone of the national economy. As Mark Oppold explains in An American Agriculture History Minute, most citizens relied on …