Culture, Life, and the Establishment of America

Louisiana Purchase

• Napoleon had little use for the Louisiana Territory
• The French believed they had something the US wanted
• A French forign kminister informed the US that Louisiana was for sale

The Expedition

• Lewis and Clark were both amateur scientists, and were also in the military
• The purpose was to find what plants, animals, and geography was in the West
• Sacagawea was the the guide and she was a Shoshone woman
• The journey provided inspiration to nation of people eager to move westward

THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING

• The powerful influence on the growth of democracy was religion
• One author was James Fenimore Cooper, he wrote novels
• One artist was George Caleb Bingham, he painted fur traders, riverboat workers
• One musician was Stephen C. Foster, he combined African and European music

ARCHITECTURE

• American architects developed their own forms of building
• They based it on the classical styles of Ancient Rome and Greece

South Plantation Culture

• Southerners lived on small farms or large plantations
• They were widely spread out from each other
• The South's economy depended on slavery and growing cash crops

Life as a Slave

• Slaves labored together from dawn to dusk and were closely supervised
• Enslaved men generally worked the fields
• Enslaved women cooked, cleaned, did laundry, sewed, and cared for the plantation's children

Life in the Northern Cities

• There was a rise of industries in the North
• The gap between richer and poorer city residents widened
• Rising land values forced the lower classes into extremely crowded rooms
• More prosperous urban dwellers stayed in their own detached dwellings in

Life in the West

• Living on the frontier was very rigorous
• Wrestled with uncertain climate, limited supplies, and sometimes failing crops
• Settlements were far apart and often hard to reach
• The few roads that existed were poor