Free
The sky was the limit.
After independence, almost every aspect of New York was growing. Population. Cities. Transportation. Suffrage (the right to vote). Culture. Was there anything untouched by change? It seemed not.
▲ After the American Revolution, settlers in New York streamed to the frontier. It fell to surveyors to map the countryside and the new communities that were developing. (A surveyor is someone who measures the dimensions of land.) Simeon De Witt was one of them. During the war for independence, De Witt worked under George Washington. He made maps that helped military operations. Afterward, he was appointed surveyor general of New York State. Below is part of the letter De Witt wrote to George Washington in 1784. In the letter he tells Washington he will resign his position in the army to become surveyor general:
I write this to acquaint Your Excy [excellency] that I am appointed surveyor general of the state of New York . . . in consequence of which I shall make a resignation of my commission as geographer . . . requesting at the same time permission to retain the papers I have, with the view of compiling them into a map or maps for publication.
◀ The Hudson Valley was developing and growing. Many would say Robert Fulton’s steamboat was the reason. Robert Fulton was an American engineer and artist. He did not invent the steamboat. Nor was he the first to introduce it. But he was the first in the U.S. to use it to create a successful business. His business carried passengers along the Hudson River between New York City and Albany. In 1807, the Clermont, his first steamboat, made the 150-mile trip in 32 hours. That was faster and more comfortable than stagecoaches traveling on muddy, bumpy roads. Here is part of what Fulton wrote to a friend about the first trip of the Clermont:
I overtook many sloops and schooners, beating to the windward, and parted with them as if they had been at anchor. The power of propelling boats by steam is now fully proven. The morning I left New York, there were not perhaps thirty persons in the city who believed that the boat would ever move one mile an hour, or be of the least utility, and while we were putting off from the wharf, which was crowded with spectators, I heard a number of sarcastic remarks. . . . Having employed much time, money and zeal in accomplishing this work, it gives me . . . great pleasure to see it fully answer my expectations.
◀ New Yorkers understood the significance of New York Harbor. During the War of 1812 (sometimes described as America’s second war for independence), New York fortified the harbor so strongly that the British never even attacked. After the war, the harbor’s importance continued to grow. By around 1840, more passengers and goods came through New York Harbor than all other harbors in the U.S. combined.
▲ The process of expanding the right to vote in New York had also begun. But slowly. In the state’s original constitution, only White males who owned property, were 21 years old, and residents of New York for six months could vote. The 1821 state constitutional convention gave White males the vote whether or not they owned property. At the same time, Black males who owned $250 worth of property also got the vote. This requirement, however, meant that most of them were excluded. Women’s suffrage was not even considered.
REFLECTION
Reflect on the constitutional convention of 1821. What is your reaction to the changes that were made and not made?
▲ Suppose you wanted to get from Albany to Buffalo in 1825. The fastest way was to take the Erie Canal. The original canal was a 363-mile human-made waterway. Building it involved blasting through rocky cliffs and hills. Carving a path through fields and forests. Crossing rivers and swamps. No wonder it took eight years to complete. The canal brought people and ideas to America’s interiors. Scores of New York communities sprouted and grew along the route. Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Schenectady, Syracuse, and Troy were among them. ▶
◀ Packet boats moved continuously along the Erie Canal. As such, they linked people and goods from the Midwest to New York. They brought goods manufactured in New York to people in the Midwest. The fee to ride the boat was four cents per mile. This included meals and a place to sleep. Here’s how one passenger described the boat:
These boats are about 70 feet long, and with the exception of the kitchen and bar, is occupied as a cabin. The forward part being the ladies’ cabin, is separated by a curtain, but at mealtimes this obstruction is removed, and the table is set the whole length of the boat. The table is supplied with everything that is necessary and of the best quality with many of the luxuries of life.
▲ What if you needed to travel between Schenectady and Albany. On the Erie Canal it would take a full day. On the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad it took about an hour. The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad was completed in 1831. It was the first railroad in New York and one of the first in the United States. Later the railroad was expanded and became part of the New York Central Railroad. Some of New York Central’s main lines are still in use today.
◀ In the 1830s, the middle class was growing. More people were learning to read and write. And more people were becoming interested in the news. In 1835, Scottish-American editor and lecturer James Gordon Bennett started publishing the New York Herald, a four-page newspaper that sold for a penny – much less than other papers of the day. With articles about finance and culture as well as crime and other sensational topics, the New York Herald was an example of modern journalism. The paper soon became hugely popular, helping to make New York City the news and information center for the whole country.
▲ In advance of the 1846 state constitutional convention, six women from Jefferson County submitted a petition. The petition demanded that women get the right to vote. The petition wasn’t successful, but the fight wasn’t over. Two years later, the first women’s rights convention took place, in Seneca Falls (above). At the meeting, a resolution about women’s right to vote was passed. The resolution became a key part of the continuing women’s suffrage movement.
◀ New York was both the setting and the subject of fine art during this period. For example, the Catskill Mountains was the setting for Washington Irving’s short story Rip Van Winkle. Its main character falls asleep in the woods for 20 years. The Hudson Valley was the setting for the many landscape paintings by artists of the Hudson River School. Thomas Cole, whose painting is shown here, was one of the leaders of the movement. The painting is called River in the Catskills.
