Adsactly Education: Mississippi River The American Way

In many ways, the story of the Mississippi River is the story of America. Not so much that it is the complete story, but the story of the river reflects the story of America. The Mississippi is an ingrained part of our national consciousness and psyche. It’s our story. Even those of us who have never seen the river.

In the first part of this series (available here) we discussed the geologic history of the river and it’s flow. The second part of the series (available here) was about the early human history in the valley. The third part (available here) went from European contact to full American influence.

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The American Way

In 1803 the United States bought the Louisiana Purchase, with much of the west bank included in that purchase. In 1813 they defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans and the river was completely in American control from then until now.

The battle of New Orleans would gives us a President (Andrew Jackson) and a national identity as a true world power. The defeat of Britain for the second time in less than 40 years of existence as a nation let all Americans know that they were indeed players on the world stage and would have self determination of their nation.

The Treaty of 1818 with Great Britain essentially settled the northern border of the US from Atlantic to Pacific. The stage was set for the first heyday of the Mississippi. Steamboats had made an appearance on the river in 1812 with the Orleans and a much improved model, the Comet in 1813. Commerce could easily go both ways on the river.

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Settlers flooded the region particularly after the war with England. Some came to grow cotton on the fertile bottomland, and with them black slaves. Manifest destiny had become a watchword in America. As in ‘It is our manifest destiny to control this whole continent’. The practice led to slaughter of natives, expansion of slavery and a general disregard for anyone considered ‘less than’ oneself.

An American, Robert Fulton, was instrumental in the early development of the steam engine giving Americans a leg up on the technology at least as far as Riverboats were concerned. By 1820 there were over 20 Steamboats on the river, By 1830 there were more than 1000. Shipping up and down the river just erupted and the race was on to exploit every square inch of the river and it’s environs.

Like everything else on the river the development of the Riverboat happened fast. From the relatively crude Orleans in 1812 to fully developed and functional boats took less than 10 years. Some of them were over 300 feet (91 meters) in length and could haul a staggering amount of cargo and passengers. The great American land rush was fully underway and the Steamboats and the Mississippi clearly had their part in it. From the 1820s until the well after the end of the Civil War the Steamboat was king of the river.

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A side note on the impact of the Steamboat. They were almost all wood fired boilers that burned up to 75 cords of wood per day. Multiply that times 2000 boats on the river and the amount of timber that was used to drive the expansion was simply staggering. Much of the timber came off of land that would become farmland but the deforestation was stunning.

In many ways, it was the Golden Age of the Mississippi River and it reflected the age of America too. Not many rules, and those broken on a regular basis. Into this wild and free flowing world came a young man raised on the river in Hannibal, Missouri. He was a product of his time and timing who aspired to be a Steamboat pilot. He did that, and to help support himself on the journey he started writing a little for his local newspaper.

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Samuel Clemens would first become noticed at the deathbed of his brother who was killed in a boiler explosion on a steamboat. The meeting between the two was recorded and chronicled to the end of the brother’s life. Shortly after that incident Mr. Clemens went to Nevada following silver and started writing in earnest. Mark Twain was probably the first true American Superstar. He wrote tales of the river which still resonate with the world.

People of the Mississippi

In the heyday of the river (circa 1860) it was THE place to be in America. It was essentially populated by four groups.

Wealthy Planters

Wealthy white planters had pillaged the land in the South US raising cotton and had to keep moving west. The Mississippi River and it’s environs were the perfect place. They literally supplied the world’s cotton needs and became incredibly rich doing so. All built with black slaves. All of it.

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Black Slaves

From the first days of Europeans on the continent they relied on slaves. Some of the first were ‘indentured servants’ who traded a debt or passage for a specific number of years of service to the person who funded the operation. For a period of years they were absolutely owned by their master.

Once established on the continent the wealthy whites tried to enslave the local natives. That didn’t work out well principally because the locals just didn’t respond well. They would die rather than be impressed for any amount of time.

Which led to black slaves captured and transported in the most brutal conditions imaginable. They had no rights at all. None. They actually had less rights than the cattle the masters raised. Millions of them were imported to the US and hundreds of thousands were working lifetime sentences on the plantations. More than lifetime, all children (even those sired by the masters) were property for life also. It was a brutal institution that went on and on. The agricultural infrastructure of the nation was built on African and American born slaves.

Poor Whites

Millions of people immigrated to the US in the hope of free land and a better opportunity for them and their children. Some found it, some did not. Their life was hard, but not impossible, and there was always the opportunity for a man to improve himself. Some did so through honest hard work and on the strength of their own intellect. Some did so through intimidation and killing those that did the work. Women had NO rights in this system. They were essentially slaves to a male master.

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Free Natives

The rush to dominate the indigenous people of the US was fully on. The natives had no rights under the law and had, in fact, been singled out in the US Constitution for extermination. It was fully legal for a white man to kill a native at any time for any reason. Most of the inhabitants of the Mississippi River Valley that survived the Smallpox and Measles epidemics were simply slaughtered and discarded. The exception to this would be the nomadic tribes that had embraced the horse as a lifestyle. There would be war and trouble between the groups.

In the next portion of this series we will look briefly at the Civil War and it’s consequences and the ‘Indian Wars’. The river had it’s part in both of them.

Unsourced Photos are used courtesy of the author.

While the words and ideas in this post are strictly those of the author these sources were referred to by me to insure numerical and historical accuracy.
Wikepedia: Mississippi River
Legends of America: Mississippi River

Authored by: @bigtom13

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