The Westward Movement: Settlers Of The Old Northwest Territory (1962)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] here were millions of Acres of some of the finest farming land in the world there were vast virgin forests rich in Timber a system of waterways Second To None offering easy access to this enormous reservoir of potential wealth untouched except by a sparse population of Indians here was a land ready for the taking by men who were tough enough to master the Wilderness energetic and Visionary enough to know what to do with it this was the Northwest Territory stretching from the alagan to the Mississippi from the Great Lakes to the lower Ohio Land one from England in the reol evolutionary War a treasure no Nation had ever before possessed so easily back in the East Congress was faced with a problem of how to develop this vast empty land by what means was it to be made a part of the new United States of America some even argued that it could not be done no Nation had ever before faced the problem of developing a territory of this size and making it an integral part of a democracy the answer was the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 an act of fundamental importance ranking with the Declaration of Independence and the constitution in the development of America this new and revolutionary concept of how to make new territories a part of the Union assured the people who were willing to Brave this Wilderness that they were not just colonizers dependent upon eastern states and Eastern government in time they would hold elections and send their own delegates to Congress when 60,000 people had settled in an area they could take steps toward becoming full-fledged States enjoying the same rights as the people of the already established states of the [Music] Union the opening of this Northwest Territory touched off one of the greatest mass migrations of people in history these were people who knew what they wanted political Freedom opportunity to live as they pleased and opportunity to better their Fortunes in years to come these were not peasants looking for a bit of land from which to eek out a bare existence they were people of energy ambition and vision who even as they first scouted the land already saw a vast expanse of prosperous Farms crisscrossed by good roads leading to fast expanding cities with a determination to turn this into a Land of Plenty they came by the thousands leaving crowded conditions and worn out land in New England Pennsylvania and the southern states they came from Europe people who refused to be Farm laborers or wage workers under a semi feudal [Music] system they passed through towns like Pittsburgh on the edge of a frontier and loaded onto flat boats that would take them down river to Ohio Indiana and Illinois territory someone said that all America seemed to be breaking up moving westward in search of new land new opportunity men like William Clinton from Virginia surveyed the land dividing it into sections to be sold by the government at a dollar an acre a section is 640 acres a piece about a mile long and a mile wide it cost $640 and not many had that much money Amos Miller for instance made $4 a month and boor it would take him over 13 years to save enough to buy a whole section only through a Land Company could a settler buy less than a whole section the Land Company would buy an entire Township from the government at a dollar an acre 36 square miles then divided into pieces that a small farmer could likely afford though it would cost the farmer more than a dollar an acre with the Land Company making a profit some people like Ben Striker from Kentucky hadn't much use for land companies Thousand Years the land set here for the taken now you want to sell it to us Mr Striker we bought it legal from the government and who' they buy it often from your Indian friends Ben hell Mr mcneel Clint tell him beig glad there's a Land Company to keep accurate records hey and divide the property into straight lines so there's no disputing over the boundaries you buying again Mr mcneel as much as I'm able to you can boil down creation and not find better land find soil to grow corn and wheat and find neighbors to help you clear your land and build your house there was great opportunity here for people strong enough and rugged enough to Bear the hardships and take the risks in the beginning a man's first concern was just to keep himself and his family alive for it was a hostile [Music] country sh Aus shy [Applause] [Music] [Applause] sometimes they saw an entire wheat crop destroyed by Indians but not even this could drive the Pioneer Farmers and fronti men from their land they stayed together sharing dangers and hardships they worked together helping each other clear land and build homes the important thing was the bite of a man's Axe and his willingness to help not how much money he had or where he came from in this Northwest Wilderness a spirit of true democracy was developing that existed nowhere else in the world each man had the same opportunity each family's worldly possessions were about the same a crude cabin with Clay plastered into the cracks between the Timbers clothes were made at home of flax or wool though sometimes a frontier woman was able to Trade corn or vegetables in a market town for muslin or linen the men wore buck skin or Homespun shirts and the food they ate was what they caught or grew themselves mostly cornbread wild turkey and venison they relied on themselves for practically everything they had and yet in the incredibly short span of some 20 years they transformed the Northwest Territory from a Wilderness Frontier to a rich farming region that was producing more than enough for its own needs a good harvest for 4 years and a man would have his farm paid for the vision the dream was becoming a reality schools were provided for by the Northwest Ordinance and established here long before free public education was common in most eastern states as the population of each territory increased the self-government they had been promised in the Northwest Ordinance became a reality judges rode from settlement to settlement administering laws to safeguard the rights of every citizen these people made themselves heard all over the land and soon the rest of the country realized that here was a new and important section of the United States by now the Ben Strikers the frontiersmen and Indian Fighters were moving Westward leaving the land to people who wanted to stay where they were to live and build permanently Farmers began growing Surplus crops and looking for markets in a few short years the northwest territory would become the main source of grain for all the United States and for much of Europe as well Tradesmen were producing Wagon Wheels tools farm implements bricks pottery and barrels but how to transport Goods to Market was the problem now they were fighting their products to the east it was a so hard pull and cost $10 100 lb to ship goods Overland via the National Road stretching from the Ohio Valley to Maryland better means of transportation had to be found if the territory was to develop and the vision of prosperity come true down the Mississippi to New Orleans by flatboat the shipping rate was lower $500 PBS but it was a hazardous thousand M trip and took 3 months in that time prices could drop so low a farmer was never sure of coming home with a profit or even coming home at all when steamboats appeared on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in the early 1800s travel time to New Orleans was shortened to weeks and shipping rates dropped as low as 20 cents a 100 lb though the natural waterways greatly speeded the growth of the territory they weren't enough so canals were built linking the Inland Farm communities with the rivers with the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 connecting Lake Erie and the Hudson River trade goods flowed directly from the Northwest Territory to the Eastern seaboard within the next 10 years a network of canals was completed linking the Great Lakes the Ohio River and the Mississippi railroads came by the middle of the 1800s perhaps never in history had such a system of Transportation developed so rapidly the old Northwest is called the Midwest now Wisconsin Michigan Illinois Indiana and Ohio are the states brought into being by the principles laid down in the Northwest Ordinance cities like Cleveland and Chicago which grew up along the old Transportation routes are major nerve centers of the nation there are few reminders now of those early days and of the people who first came here they wore greasy Buck skins did fors eles entered a hostile land with little more than they could carry in their own two hands yet within their lifetime within the incredibly short span of some 50 years they turned this territory into one of the most productive in the world they demonstrated the progress that can be made when people live and work together in a spirit of true democracy with courage determination and vision remember the Alex mcneel the Ben Strikers the clintons and Millers the settlers of the old Northwest