Page 25 - 2021-bfw-henretta-10e

CHAPTER 7 Hammering Out a Federal Republic, 1787–1820 227

Cutting Hay on a New Hampshire Farm This painting, attributed to Francis Alexander, illustrates the
growing productivity of many New England farmsteads. In this idyllic scene, a group of men loads hay onto
an overflowing cart on the Leete family farm in West Claremont, New Hampshire, nestled in the foothills
between the White and Green mountain ranges. Though this was marginal agricultural land, the Leete farm
appears snug and prosperous. A large house is dwarfed by a series of outbuildings for livestock and storage.
The barn nearest the house is filled with fodder to feed livestock during the winter months. The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1972.

Easterners also adopted the progressive farming methods touted by British agri-
cultural reformers and shifted land and resources to livestock production. “Improv-
ers” in Pennsylvania doubled their average yield per acre by rotating their crops.
Many farmers raised sheep and sold the wool to textile manufacturers. Others
adopted a year-round planting cycle, sowing corn in the spring for animal fodder
and then planting winter wheat in September for market sale. Women and girls took
advantage of new urban markets by milking the family cows and making butter and SKILLS & PROCESSES
cheese to sell in the growing towns and cities.
Whether hacking fields out of western forests or carting manure to replenish eastern CAUSATION
soils, farmers now worked harder and longer, but their increased productivity brought Why were westward migration
them a better standard of living. European demand for American produce was high and agricultural improvement so
in these years, and westward migration — the settlement and exploitation of Indian widespread in the late eighteenth
lands — boosted the farming economy throughout the country. and early nineteenth centuries?

The Jefferson Presidency

From 1801 to 1825, three Republicans from Virginia — Thomas Jefferson, James
Madison, and James Monroe — each served two terms as president. Supported by
farmers in the South and West and strong Republican majorities in Congress, this
“Virginia Dynasty” completed what Jefferson had called the Revolution of 1800. It
reversed many Federalist policies and actively supported westward expansion.
When Jefferson took office in 1801, he inherited an old international conflict.
Beginning in the 1780s, the Barbary States of North Africa had raided merchant ships
in the Mediterranean, and like many European nations, the United States had paid
an annual bribe — massive in relation to the size of the federal budget — to protect its
vessels. Initially Jefferson refused to pay this “tribute” and ordered the U.S. Navy to
attack the pirates’ home ports. After four years of intermittent fighting, in which the
United States bombarded Tripoli and captured the city of Derna, the Jefferson admin-
istration cut its costs. It signed a peace treaty that included a ransom for returned
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Strictly for use with its products. Not for redistribution.

08_edwardsAPHS10e_28115_ch07_210_243_3pp.indd 227 15/09/20 8:56 PM