8G History Week 12

In 1848, a man named John Sutter built a sawmill along the American River. It was located about 50 miles away from modern-day Sacramento. On January 24th, James W. Marshall, who was Sutter’s carpenter, found gold flakes in the river! Both men promised to keep it a secret, but eventually the secret got out.

Thousands of people rushed to California, due to the news of the gold. John Sutter went bankrupt because of the large amount of people that flooded the area.

People came by sailing around Cape Horn or by taking the 2,000 mile journey across the U.S. Many people died before they even reached California.

By 1853, over a quarter of a million people had arrived in California to try their luck at finding gold. Most people were not very lucky! The working conditions were poor, and prices were very high.

The Gold Rush made lots of boom towns, or towns that sprang up very quickly. Some of those towns are still around today, like San Francisco.

The California Gold Rush fizzled out by the end of the decade, but the impact that it had on our country is still visible today. The gold rush helped California gain its statehood in 1850.

In this assignment, I will be summarizing the events of the Trail of Tears.

The Trail of Tears was when multiple Native American tribes were forced to relocate from their homeland. Some of these tribes were the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole. They were forced to move to Indian Territory, which is modern-day Oklahoma.

The reason for the Trail of Tears was because settlers wanted more land. There was a gold rush in Georgia, where the Cherokees made their home. The U.S. government forced the tribes out.

The settlers were happy, because they didn’t have to do much to the land, because the Native Americans had already done a lot of the land work.

Most of the tribes agreed to it, but some tribes like the Seminole, fought to stay in their homeland.

It was called the Trail of Tears because many Native Americans died along the way, so it was a very sad time. It is estimated that over 15,000 died on their trip west.

The physical trail was about 5,000 miles long.

In this assignment, I will be summarizing the life and career of our 5th president, James Monroe.

James Monroe was born on April 28, 1758. His father, Spence Monroe, and his mother, Elizabeth Monroe owned 600 acres in rural Virginia. He started going to William and Mary College, but he left in 1776 to fight in the Revolutionary war as a lieutenant. He was one of the men who crossed the Delaware River with Washington. He advanced through the ranks to major, but later resigned his commission.

Monroe then started studying law with Thomas Jefferson. He was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. His law career continued, as he served in congress from 1783 to 1786. He then retired and was elected to the senate in 1790. He was nominated as minister to France in 1794. In 1786, Monroe married Elizabeth Kortright. They had two daughters together.

Monroe was chosen to become secretary of state in 1811, and continued until he was president.

Monroe’s presidency was called the era of good feelings. Some of the major events included the Seminole wars, the addition of Florida, and the Missouri compromise.

After Monroe’s presidency, he retired to his estate. He felt like Congress owed him money, so Congress payed him 60,000 dollars in total. James Monroe died on July 4, 1831.

In this assignment, I will be summarizing the founding and early history of Washington D.C.

Washington D.C. was founded on July 16, 1790. Congress had signed the Residence Act a year before, which made it possible to set up a new capitol. Before Washington D.C., Philadelphia and New York City had served as the capitol. George Washington chose the site, between Georgetown and Alexandria. Maryland and Virginia both gave of some of their land to make room for the capitol. The territory around Washington was named the District of Columbia to honor Christopher Columbus.

George Washington appointed Pierre L’Enfant, a French designer, to plan the layout of the city, and Andrew Ellicott surveyed the area. Thomas Johnson, Daniel Carroll, and David Stuart were chosen by Congress to oversee the work.

The design of Washington D.C. has influences from Greek and Roman architecture. The city was laid out like a grid, and it had big buildings for all the main branches of government. L’Enfant brought some of his French style into the mix, with some parts similar to Paris.

In 1800, Washington D.C. became the official capitol of the United States. The Capitol and the President’s house (now the White House) were finished soon after. There wasn’t much housing and the people who lived there were miserable in the early years.

Most of D.C. was destroyed in 1814, during the War of 1812, when the British invaded the city and burned it. The city slowly recovered, and in 1817 the new White House was built, and in 1819, the new Capitol was built.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/place/Washington-DC/History

https://www.ronpaulcurriculum.com/public/13146.cfm?cid=BBCEE3A7-D848-9838-A6FB082D7BCC375D

https://washington.org/DC-information/washington-dc-history