Title: The Growth of the Early American Economy in the West
Headings: The Growth of the Early US Economy in the West
The Growth of the Early US Economy in the West
A Brief History
Early Americans Move West
President Andrew Jackson's Economic Influence
American 19th Century Economic Growth in the West

Content: Planters in the South bought land from small farmers who frequently moved farther west. Soon, large southern plantations supported by labor stolen from enslaved African people made some American families very wealthy. Early Americans Move West
It wasn't just small southern farmers who were moving west. Whole villages in the eastern colonies sometimes uprooted and established new settlements looking for new opportunity in the more fertile farmland of the Midwest. While western settlers are often depicted as fiercely independent and strongly opposed to any kind of government control or interference, these first settlers actually received quite a bit of government support, both directly and indirectly. For example, the American government began investing in infrastructure out west including government-funded national roads and waterways, such as the Cumberland Pike (1818) and the Erie Canal (1825). These government projects ultimately helped new settlers migrate west and later helped move their western farm produce to market in the eastern states. President Andrew Jackson's Economic Influence
Many Americans, both rich and poor, idealized Andrew Jackson, who became president in 1829, because he had started life in a log cabin in American frontier territory. President Jackson (1829–1837) opposed the successor to Hamilton's National Bank, who he believed favored the entrenched interests of the eastern states against the west. When he was elected for a second term, Jackson opposed renewing the bank's charter and Congress supported him.