Caption:

It took a long time to get places back in the early 1800s, before there were trains, cars, or airplanes. The fastest way to travel was by water on a boat, but the problem was that many rivers and lakes did not link up with each other. To connect them, people built canals so the boats could travel by water farther. In 1825, the longest canal in America opened. It was called the Erie Canal, and it ran 363 miles through the State of New York, linking the Great Lakes to the Hudson River. The Erie Canal was difficult to build, but when it was finished, it offered people a way to transport passengers and goods faster and cheaper than ever before. It also set off a wave of canal-building in America as other places constructed canals to link their waterways. 

Caption:

Caption:

Caption:

Millions of people who lived in Ireland in the 1800s depended on potatoes more than any other crop to survive. When a disease attacked the potato crop in Ireland in the 1840s and killed almost all of the potatoes, the people of Ireland began to starve. Thousands of people died in the Irish potato famine, and millions of Irish people left Ireland and came to America in an attempt to escape the famine. They were seeking a better life for themselves and their families. The lack of opportunities or food in Ireland pushed them from their native land. 

Caption:

Women did not always have the same rights as men like they do today. For a long time, they couldn’t even vote. In the middle of the 19th century, many women began to argue that they deserved the same rights as men, but only some men agreed with them. The women organized a big meeting, known as a women’s rights convention, in Seneca Falls, New York. While at the convention, the women wrote a document laying out their reasons why women should have equal rights. The document was called the Declaration of Sentiments, and it was based on the Declaration of Independence. This convention was the start of the women’s rights movement. It took another 60 years before women would get the right to vote in America! 

Caption:

When gold was discovered in California, hundreds of thousands of people traveled there from around the world, thinking they could find a vein of gold and get rich quick. In truth, few people found gold, but lots of people made their fortunes by selling supplies to the miners who came looking for treasure. Many of the people who came to California ended up staying there. The California Gold Rush helped settle the west, and California became a new state in the American union. 

Caption:

Caption:

By 1860, many Americans had become angry over slavery. In the South, slavery had become part of a cherished way of life in which African-American slaves were forced to work for their white masters. In the North, where slavery had been outlawed, people began to argue that slavery was wrong and that African-Americans should be free. In 1860-61, the southern states chose to leave the U.S. government and form their own country, one where they could keep their slaves. The northern states said they could not leave the American union. This led to the Civil War, which was a terrible war when Americans fought other Americans. The North eventually won the war, the United States remained one big country, and the slaves were all set free. But over 600,000 Americans died in the fighting. 

Caption:

Caption: