Videos

Video 5: New York's governor DeWitt Clinton, often referred to "Father of the Erie Canal", had a vision of making New York rich and ran New York for 20 years. Within 20 years, the population grew from a few hundred to 16 thousands and the economy was booming. At the age of 19, Abraham Lincoln made his first trip down the Mississippi River, carrying lumbers, and discovered the simple route. Population and economy of America increased vertically during the Industrial Revolution and turned US into a global economic powerhouse. The canal was called "Clinton's big ditch".
Economic activities:
Grown goods that were exchanged using the Mississippi River.
Trading of goods through the Erie Canal.
Global economic house.
Video 6: Villages were built along the Mississippi river and gradually turned into a huge city. The word "millionaire" was invented in 1840 when there were people who started to have more than a million dollars. Cotton started to grow, bur required intense work to tear off the seed to get the cotton inside...by hand (1 pound per day). As the cottons grow, the slaves starting to increase. Half the world's cotton came from US. Then machine was invented and it changed all. Cotton was called "White Gold".
Video 7: America started to run on whale oil during the Industrial Revolution. Whale oil was discovered and one whale can support up to 3000 gallons of oil.
# Whale oil trade killed a lot of people, especially African American slaves who wanted to become wealthier.
# Some African Americans were kidnapped for slavery.
Video 8: Frederick Douglass became the idol of anti-slavery in New York. Harriet Tubman was put on a reward of $40,000 for her head by the South but nothing stopped her from helping slaves flee. She went back and forth to the South in order to flee more slaves. John Brown, hero to the North, terrorist to the South, terrorized Southern towns in order for his anti-slavery protests. John Brown planned to strike the South's arsenal, which contains 20,000 rifles, muskets and pistols. He wanted to arm the Southern slaves and "light the fumes", leading the slaves' rebellion. He fought with his five sons, no slaves' reinforcement at all. It's a suicide mission.
Economic activities / conflicts
Trading of slaves.
John Brown and his sons stormed the South's arsenal.
Video 9: After they captured the arsenal, US Marines stormed the arsenal, killed all of his sons, and captured him alive. John Brown was then tried and executed, but it was just the begun of the slaves' rebellion.
Abraham Lincoln elected President of the United States. Battle-line was drew, although Lincoln wanted to avoid the Civil War. The South deployed 800,000 mobile troops in a virtual state of war.
Conflict:
* John Brown fighting the marines
* Abraham Lincoln had personal hatred on slavery
* US Civil War