Election of 1836

• A new political party appears – Whigs• Whigs run three candidates in hope the vote

will have to go to the House• Plan backfires• Martin Van Buren wins

Election of 1840

• Van Buran vs. William Henry Harrison• Harrison wins and gives long speech• Dies from pneumonia just 4 weeks after taking

office• John Tyler is now president

• Whig party turn from him• All his cabinet resigns

Election of 1844

• James K Polk is elected for the Whigs

Changing American Life

TRANSPORTATION

• Need roads to go west• Wilderness Road– Daniel Boone helped

with this road– First federally funded

highway

• Travel by water was difficult• Steamboat was invented– Robert Fulton

• Use of canals• Canal – shallow, manmade water highway that

connects two bodies of water• Erie Canal was most famous

• Railroads– Peter Cooper did

first major trial of railroad

– Better travel than the canals

COMMUNICATION

• Telegraph– Samuel F. B. Morse invented it– Came about because of a need from the railroads– Used during the Mexican War

INDUSTRY

• Industrial Revolution– Happened in the North first

• Factory System– Collect many workers in one place and turn out

many similar items in one day– Britain forbade anyone with knowledge of

factories to leave Britain.

• Samuel Slater– Left England to come to US with knowledge

• Elias Howe and Isaac Singer– Created sewing machine

Singer

Eli Whitney

• Created interchangeable parts for his gun production

AGRICULTURE

• New equipment enabled the farmer to improve methods and lower costs

• John Deere– Created the steel

plow

• Cyrus McCormick– Created the reaper,

which cut and harvested grain

• Eli Whitney– Created cotton gin which cleaned cotton quickly