RiverWeb Teachers Guide

The Teacher's Guide to RiverWeb

Section Four:

Artery of a Nation, Part I - River Transportation and the Mississippi River

PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES:

The Transportation Revolution, as it is known to some historians, was one of the most important developments in nineteenth century American history. RiverWeb has produced several sections on this subject that would be ideal as supplements to a lecture on the transformation of American commerce. The first deals with the Mississippi River itself, a major conduit of the nation's shipping for a large portion of the nineteenth century, and the second section deals with railroads and their impact on the American scene.

You can use the following section on the Mississippi River in many ways. While steamboats have received considerable attention by themselves, few projects attempt to show as RiverWeb does the obstacles to overcome before river transit could become a viable means of transportation. For example, the section on snag boats and the reengineering of the Mississippi clearly show the role technology and government legislation had on commerce and the emergence of a new industry, steamboat transportation. The narrative of the famous steamboat race between the Natchez and the Robert E. Lee gives important insight into American popular culture of the era.

One of the most useful aspects of this section, and indeed the RiverWeb CD-Rom, are the archives created to complement the individual sections. For example, the famous work by Mark Twain entitled Life on the Mississippi, a classic account of growing up on the banks of the Mississippi River, is available in the RiverWeb literary archive and can be assigned in whole or in specific sections to augment both RiverWeb materials or your regular classroom lectures. Other archives contain pictures, sounds, video, etc. and can just as easily be adapted to a large variety of classroom subjects.

EXPLANATION OF MATERIAL:

One of the most important broad historical developments of the first half of the nineteenth century is the so-called "Transportation Revolution." Mechanical power replaced animal in propulsion, metals replaced wood in construction, and new forms of transportation altogether - the railroad for example - came into being. Yet while railroads often garner most of an historian's attention it remains the case that developments in water transportation came first. Canals began to connect the waterways of the west and east starting in the 1810s and gathering pace over the next decade, but natural waterways remained vitally important, and none more so than the Mississippi River.

From the very beginning, river transportation played a critical role in the livelihood of the American Bottoms. But navigating the river was not always as easy as it seems today. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Mississippi suffered from deadfallen trees, accumulations of logs, and other snags that made traveling by river a difficult process. To combat this problem, the U.S. government mandated a river cleanup project that ended with the creation of Henry Shreve's famous snagboat, the Heliopolis, a vessel designed to clear the river of obstructing debris.

Not only did nineteenth-century Americans have to deal with obstructions in the river, they had to deal with the Mississippi itself. Beginning around 1800 the river began changing course, a natural occurrence but one which had the effect of moving the main channel closer to Illinoistown and further from St. Louis. To meet the growing fears of St. Louis residents, the governmen t looked into the problem and sent a young officer named Robert E. Lee to oversee the engineering required to divert the flow of the Mississippi back towards its original course. Ultimately the dam constructed under his supervision assured that the river would not move further from St. Louis and further threaten the economic livelihood of that city's river industries.

Overcoming these natural problems, the Mississippi soon became the mecca of steamboat travel for the nation. Robert Fulton, the famous steamboat designer, began looking at the Mississippi very early on, and hired Nicholas L. Roosevelt to captain his steamboat New Orleans, the first to successfully navigate the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. This was to be the first of innumerable steamboat voyages up and down the mighty river.

While the transportation of goods occupied many of the steamboats, it was the passenger steamboats that captured America's imagination. Some of these steamboats were floating palaces, with all of the comforts of the finest hotels. Riverboats became famous for gambling, and the slick riverboat gambler later developed into one of Hollywood's most enduring images, but there was some truth behind the myth. The famous riverboat race between the Natchez and the Robert E. Lee captured the country's imagination in 1870, and more than a few dollars were waged on the outcome. The background to the race gives interesting insight into the community of riverboat captains in the nineteenth century.

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT:

How did the advent of steamboats effect river transportation? What did this mean for the Illinois side of the Mississippi, including East St. Louis?
What natural problems did river communities face at the beginning of the 19th century? In what way(s) did they cope with these problems?
What role did the U.S. government play in making the river a safer place to travel and transport goods?
How do you think the change in course of the Mississippi would have effected the growth of both St. Louis and Illinoistown if left unchecked? What was the ultimate solution to this problem?
What does the famous Natchez-Robert E. Lee riverboat race tell us about river culture in the nineteenth century? What explains the preoccupation with the race felt throughout the country?

POSSIBLE ASSIGNMENTS:

Using the available RiverWeb resources such as the texts, archives, images, sounds, and outside links, create a multimedia slide show showing the effect of technology on river transportation in the American Bottoms region. Can you see any distinct stages?
Using first-hand accounts like Harry Dyer's diary from the RiverWeb archives as well as texts from both the RiverWeb site and the World Wide Web, explain what life was like on a riverboat during the nineteenth century.