RiverWeb Student Guide

The Student's Guide to RiverWeb

Section Three:

East St. Louis - A Prototypical River Town?

EXPLANATION OF MATERIAL:

Over the course of the nineteenth century the face of the American landscape changed, coming to resemble something more recognizable to us today. The RiverWeb pilot site reflects some of these developments. Cities began to multiply and grow at an astonishing rate, some of them exceeding one million inhabitants by century's end. Steam began to replace sail and animal power as a means of transportation, and electric current slowly came to replace candle power in people's homes. It is important that in viewing our history of the American Bottom region we do not forget the larger context of which it was a part.

Obviously one of the most noticeable features of this history is the rise to prominence of East St. Louis, which was very firmly part of the wider trend of urban growth. To take one measure, by 1840 seven times as many settlements of 8000 inhabitants or more existed than had been the case in 1790. At that time only one out of every thirty Americans lived in cities, but by 1840 the figure was one in twelve, and by 1860 it was one in six. Although the growth of East St. Louis was a part of this trend, it owed its growth as much as anything else to the needs of transport, first by water and later by rail. In fact, the growth of railroads in America in the nineteenth century is one of the truly astonishing features of that period.

East St. Louis had an interesting foundation. Most people know that the city of St. Louis was instrumental in the history of the United States, ranging from its place as a terminal for African-American migration to its preeminent role as the Gateway to the West. Yet the same is not true for East St. Louis, a city just across the river in Illinois, and often overshadowed by its more famous neighbor but which has nonetheless played a critical role in the formation of middle America. Heavily effected by the transportation revolution that saw its docks filled with flatboats, steamboats, wagons, and railroads, East St. Louis became one of America's most important conduits of industry and agricultural goods.

East St. Louis started out as a simple ferry town but soon evolved into one of the great railroad cities in the country. But the city had to pay a price for its prosperity. Along with the growth of the railroads came many of the problems associated with urban growth, such as overcrowding, crime, and corruption. Later, when the railroad industry began its slow decline, East St. Louis had to deal with related problems such as deteriorating race relations, high unemployment, and a devastated economy.

A study of East St. Louis, then, will shed much light on many of the problems faced by similar river towns up and down the Mississippi. One of the more interesting aspects of this history was the growth of river transportation, from the earliest wooden pirogues to the ferries that operated between the two sides of the Mississippi to the heyday of the riverboat, and this is one of the main themes of the East St. Louis materials on RiverWeb. Because this is such an important subject, these materials are included under a separate heading entitled "Artery of a Nation."

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT:

How does the story of James Piggott, the founder of East St. Louis, reflect other American pioneers' experiences? How does it differ?
How has East St. Louis dealt with the problem of living in the shadow of its larger namesake, St. Louis, MO? What effect has this had on the development of East St. Louis?

POSSIBLE ASSIGNMENTS:

Using some of the archival materials like Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi and the Narrative of William Wells Brown, Fugitive Slave, show how the Mississippi River in general and the American Bottoms in particular were depicted in personal, first-hand accounts. Do these accounts give you any insight into the region and the time period?