Editing History of Missouri (section)

===Connections and commerce===
Southern whites of the [[planter class]] poured into Missouri Territory during 1804–21, forcing many enslaved African Americans to migrate with them. The rapid population growth was facilitated by treaties that extinguished Indian land titles, with settlers attracted by the abundance of high quality inexpensive land, and the easy access provided by the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Land was especially accessible due to the circulation of Spanish land grants issued prior to 1803, land grants issued to U.S. soldiers, and relief grants issued by the federal government in response to the New Madrid earthquake of 1811. By 1810 European Americans dominated the population of Missouri's river valleys, demographically, and financially. They overwhelmed the small French-speaking element and sent Native Americans to lands further west. Land in the public domain was quickly surveyed and sold to [[Plain Folk of the Old South|yeoman farmers]], slaveholders, and aspiring slaveholders. Agricultural production in Missouri was heavily dependent on the labor of enslaved African Americans. The agricultural surplus produced by Missouri farms was often sold downriver to plantation societies in the lower Mississippi Valley.<ref name="schroeder263-294">Schroeder (2003), 263–294; Hammond, (2012)</ref>

The best agricultural lands lay along the Missouri River, and they attracted wealthy farmers, often slaveowners from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, who envisioned the development of commercial agriculture, using the excellent river transportation system to market crops. As Douglas Hurt has argued, based on research by Jeff Bremer, the ownership of land meant more than financial opportunity:
:Landownership provided economic security, served as a badge of independence and citizenship, and gave farmers control over a dependent labor force of children, wives and slaves.<ref>R. Douglas Hurt, reviewing Jeff Bremer, ''A Store Almost in Sight: The Economic Transformation of Missouri from the Louisiana Purchase to the Civil War'' (2014) in ''Western Historical Quarterly'' (2015) 46:232</ref>

St. Louis, the principal city of the upper territory, was situated at the confluence of major northern and western waterways; second, it had several merchants who could outfit an expedition; and third, it was an entrepot of information and experienced travelers who might be hired to assist any group.<ref name="meyer 1982 114">Meyer (1982), 114.</ref> After the departure of Lewis and Clark for the West, a second expedition, led by [[Zebulon Pike]], explored the northern reaches of the Mississippi River in 1805; upon his return in 1806, Pike led another expedition to the southern and western reaches of the Arkansas River.<ref name="meyer 1982 116">Meyer (1982), 116.</ref> The [[Pike Expedition]] of 1806 wintered in the mountains of Colorado, then turned to Spanish territory where the group was held prisoner until 1808.<ref name="meyer 1982 116"/> A final expedition of note that departed from St. Louis was that of [[Stephen Harriman Long]], who ventured up the Platte River in 1820 (after participating in the [[Yellowstone Expedition]] of 1819) and described the Great Plains as the "Great Desert".<ref name="meyer 1982 116"/>

The Mississippi-Ohio river systems were navigated by [[steamboat]] starting in 1811 with the ''[[New Orleans (steamboat)|New Orleans]]'' steamboat travelling from [[Pittsburgh]], Pennsylvania, to [[New Orleans]]. On December 16, 1811, the [[New Madrid fault zone|New Madrid earthquakes]] smashed the lightly populated region. In 1817, the first steamboat reached Saint Louis. That year, the commerce from New Orleans to the Falls of the [[Ohio River|Ohio]] at [[Louisville, Kentucky|Louisville]] was carried in barges and keel-boats having a capacity of 60 to 80 tons each, with 3 to 4 months required to make a single trip. In 1820 steamboats were making the same trip in 15 to 20 days, by 1838 in 6 days or less. By 1834 there were 230 steamboats, having an aggregate tonnage of 39,000 tons, engaged in trade on the Mississippi. Large numbers of flat boats, especially from the Ohio and its tributaries, continued to carry [[produce]] downstream. In 1842 Ohio completed an extensive canal system that connected the Mississippi with the [[Great Lakes]]. These were in turn connected in 1825 by the Erie Canal with the [[Hudson River]] and the Port of New York on the Atlantic Ocean. There was expansive growth of resource commodity, and agricultural products trade throughout the rivers and Great Lakes network.

The population of the Mississippi River region served by St Louis increased rapidly to about 4 million people in 1860.<ref>[http://www.civilwarhome.com/population1860.htm  Shows that the total population of the states ]</ref> With railroads just beginning to be important in the late 1850s, the riverboat traffic dominated the transportation and trade worlds, and St. Louis flourished at the center, with connections east along the Ohio, Illinois, Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, west along the Missouri River, and north and south along the Mississippi.

In 1845 St. Louis was connected by telegraph to the east coast. The same year, the first banks and colleges west of the Mississippi were established. The business leadership of St. Louis consisted primarily of Yankees from East, along with some Southerners. Much of the working class, especially the craftsman, were German immigrants. The politicians were Southerners and Irish Catholic immigrants.<ref name="adler">Adler (1991).</ref>

After the [[California Gold Rush]] began in 1848, Saint Louis, [[Independence, Missouri|Independence]], [[Westport, Kansas City|Westport]] and especially [[Saint Joseph, Missouri|Saint Joseph]] became departure points for those joining wagon trains to the West. They bought supplies and outfits in these cities to make the six-month overland trek to California, earning Missouri the nickname "Gateway to the West". This is memorialized by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

In 1848 [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] was incorporated on the banks of the Missouri River. In 1860, the [[Pony Express]] began its short-lived run carrying mail from Saint Joseph to [[Sacramento, California]].

In the 1820s northeastern Missouri saw a large influx of farmers, especially from the [[Bluegrass region|Bluegrass region of Kentucky]]. They introduced the upper South agricultural-economic pattern, with its mix of hog and corn production practiced by small-scale farmers and cattle and tobacco production practiced by large-scale farmers. Families typically moved to the region not as solitary units but as elements of large kin-based networks that maintained geographic integrity by purchasing clustered tracts of land.<ref name="obrien60-95">O'Brien (1989), 60–95.</ref>

Missouri was nationally famous for the quality and quantity of its [[mule]]s. The state produced a superior breed from Mexican and Eastern stock. Some were used on the western trails, and a larger number were used on southern plantations. The industry provided a full-time livelihood for a few traders, feeders and breeders, but it supplemented the income for a far larger number of farmers. Horses, which are larger and more expensive to maintain, but which can do more work, remained the favorite animal on Missouri farms.<ref name="renner433-457">Renner (1980), 433–457.</ref>