US Map 1850

About US Map 1850

Explore map of America 1850 to see the political division of United States in 1850 including states, territories, other countries, and disputed territories.

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States in the United States in 1850

#	State	Year of Statehood	Capital (in 1850)	Population (1850 Census)	Slave or Free	Region
1	Delaware	1787	Dover	91,532	Slave	Border
2	Pennsylvania	1787	Harrisburg	2,311,786	Free	North
3	New Jersey	1787	Trenton	489,555	Free	North
4	Georgia	1788	Milledgeville	906,185	Slave	South
5	Connecticut	1788	Hartford and New Haven	370,792	Free	North
6	Massachusetts	1788	Boston	994,514	Free	North
7	Maryland	1788	Annapolis	583,034	Slave	Border
8	South Carolina	1788	Columbia	668,507	Slave	South
9	New Hampshire	1788	Concord	317,976	Free	North
10	Virginia	1788	Richmond	1,421,661	Slave	South
11	New York	1788	Albany	3,097,394	Free	North
12	North Carolina	1789	Raleigh	869,039	Slave	South
13	Rhode Island	1790	Providence and Newport	147,545	Free	North
14	Vermont	1791	Montpelier	314,120	Free	North
15	Kentucky	1792	Frankfort	982,405	Slave	Border
16	Tennessee	1796	Nashville	1,002,717	Slave	South
17	Ohio	1803	Columbus	1,980,329	Free	North
18	Louisiana	1812	Baton Rouge	517,762	Slave	South
19	Indiana	1816	Indianapolis	988,416	Free	North
20	Mississippi	1817	Jackson	606,526	Slave	South
21	Illinois	1818	Springfield	851,470	Free	North
22	Alabama	1819	Montgomery	771,623	Slave	South
23	Maine	1820	Augusta	583,169	Free	North
24	Missouri	1821	Jefferson City	682,044	Slave	Border
25	Arkansas	1836	Little Rock	209,897	Slave	South
26	Michigan	1837	Lansing	397,654	Free	North
27	Florida	1845	Tallahassee	87,445	Slave	South
28	Texas	1845	Austin	212,592	Slave	South
29	Iowa	1846	Iowa City	192,214	Free	North
30	Wisconsin	1848	Madison	305,391	Free	North
31	California	1850	San Jose (1850–1851)	92,597	Free	West

The United States in 1850

By 1850 the United States had grown considerably in size of territory and political complexity and Millard Fillmore had recently become the 13th President after the death of Zachary Taylor. Slavery was a major issue on which the country was deeply divided and tensions between the North and South were growing stronger. The Compromise of 1850, a series of legislative measures to resolve sectional disputes, was one of the most significant political developments of the time. The Compromise admitted California as a free state, strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act, abolished the slave trade in Washington, D.C., and let new territories decide about slavery on popular sovereignty. The tensions were eased for the time being, but this led to further conflicts which resulted in the Civil War.

Territorial Expansion and Manifest Destiny

The United States had recently annexed huge new territories from Mexico in 1848 after winning the Mexican-American war and had gained more than 500000 square miles. These were areas that include California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada and parts of Colorado, and Wyoming. The discovery of gold in California in 1848 touched off the gold rush there and attracted hundreds of thousands of settlers to the West. This rapid expansion was based on Manifest Destiny the idea that the U.S. was supposed to expand across the entire continent. The Oregon Trail and the Mormon migration to Utah are also a good example of the westward movement and the intensification of the war with the Native American tribes as more and more settlers moved into the tribes' territories.

Population Growth and Urbanization

By 1850 the population of the U.S. had increased to about 23 million, almost twice the number of 1820. Immigration was one of the major factors in this growth, and there were large numbers of Irish and German immigrants coming into the country, many of them fleeing economic hardship and political upheaval in Europe. New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago grew rapidly as industries began to develop. Most Americans however were still rural and the farmers. Earnings rose from the development of new transportation networks like railroads and steamboats to facilitate migration and commerce, which led to the growth of the Midwest and the South.

Economic Developments and Industrial Growth

By 1850 the U.S. economy was increasingly diverse, and in the north industrialization was beginning to take hold while in the south the economy continued to be based on agricultural slave labor. Textile industry was booming in New England, fed by cotton from plantations in the deep south. Revolution in transportation and commerce had been revolutionized by the expansion of railroads, for by 1850 nearly 9,000 miles of track had been laid. The telegraph, which Samuel Morse developed in the 1840s, instantly transformed communication, in that it could send messages over long distances. Economic growth was spurred by the development of banking institutions and the investment in infrastructure projects, and international trade with Europe and Latin America continued to expand.

Slavery and Sectional Tensions

Slavery was a dominant issue during national debates in 1850 as the country was deeply divided between free and slave states. The Compromise of 1850's Fugitive Slave Act made citizens help capture escaped enslaved people and fined people for helping fugitives escape. The law heightened opposition in the North where abolitionist movements were growing stronger. The Underground Railroad, a network of safe houses and secret routes, helped enslaved people escape to free states and Canada, and the role of people like Harriet Tubman in that escape. The debate over whether slavery should be allowed to expand into newly acquired territories increased the tensions between the sections, which had been increasing and foreshadowed the conflicts that would result in the Civil War.

Native American Displacement and Conflict

In the 1850s, westward expansion increased the displacement of Native American tribes. The U.S. government employed policies of forced removal, treaties, and military action to remove indigenous communities from their ancestral lands. The California Gold Rush was accompanied by violent conflicts between settlers and Native American groups, and accompanied by disease, warfare and forced displacement, which led to a dramatic decline in the size of the indigenous population. Tensions between Native American nations and settlers in the Great Plains increased as more wagon trains crossed the region, resulting in violent clashes, and the establishment of Indian reservations in the second half of the century.

Foreign Relations and Expansionist Policies

The United States also did not cease to act on the world stage in 1850. Manifest Destiny policy continued to influence foreign policy and focused on the expansion to Central and South America. The Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, signed with the U.S. in 1850, was to guarantee that no one of the two countries would ever seek a exclusive control over a strategic isthmian route, which was a precursor to the Panama Canal. In order to protect shipping lanes and enhance world trade especially in Asia and Pacific, the U.S. also increased its naval power.

Cultural and Educational Advancements

The mid-19th century was a period of cultural and intellectual growth continuing in the United States. The Second Great Awakening had started as a religious revival movement, which had spurred on social reforms such as temperance, education, and women's rights. Horace Mann had been leading the expansion and improvement of the public education system. The women's suffrage movement was also gaining steam, with leaders like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott fighting for women's rights at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. Literature was also on the rise, with the likes of Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe creating works that would go on to define the nascent American literary identity. Newspapers, however, played a crucial role in shaping public opinion — slavery, expansion, and democracy were the issues of the day in the press.