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Erie Canal Bibliography
Compiled by Carolyn Keefe 2000
Organizations & Web Sites
For Media Inquiries: New York State Canal Corporation (518) 436-2983 Office of Public Information P.O. Box 189 Albany, NY 12201-0189 E-mail: PublicInfo@canals.state.ny.us
Description: Scholars interested in the study of human migration, particularly immigration to the United States and Canada. Provides a means of communication for historians, sociologists, economists, and others engaged in researching this field. Disseminates information on current research projects and available publications. Boards: executive. Affiliated With: American Historical Association; Organization of American Historians. Formerly: (1998) Immigration and History Society. Awards: Carlton C. Qualey Article Award. Frequency: biennial. Type: monetary. Recipient: for articles published in Journal of American Ethnic History. * George E. Pozzetta Dissertation Research Award. Frequency: annual. Type: recognition. Recipient: for dissertation research. * Theodore Saloutos Memorial Book Award in Immigration History. Frequency: annual. Type: monetary. Publications: Immigration History Newsletter, semiannual. Includes society business. Price: included in membership dues. Circulation: 900. * Journal of American Ethnic History, quarterly. Features scholarly articles. Price: included in membership dues; $30.00/year (includes newsletter). Circulation: 830. Advertising: accepted. Conventions/Meetings: annual meeting and dinner, held in conjunction with the annual convention of the Organization of American Historians - spring. © 1999 The Gale Group.
Abstract: Briefly outlines the planning and construction of the Erie Canal, which connected the East Coast to the Great Lakes via upstate New York. Begun in 1817 under the auspices of New York governor DeWitt Clinton, the canal opened in 1825.
Abstract: The planning, construction, and reconstruction of the Erie Canal.
Abstract: Recounts folktales about construction, grand opening, boats, canal life, and outlaws.
Migration:
Abstract: Examines the points of origin and paths of migration for settlers in the Old Northwest after 1800. American-born settlers included: New Englanders, who traveled over the Great Lakes and the Erie Canal and settled throughout the region; Delaware and Susquehanna Valley residents, mainly of German and Scotch-Irish descent, who traveled over the National Road and the Ohio River to settle in Ohio; and migrants from the Upland South, who settled in Ohio, though more heavily in Indiana and Illinois. The foreign-born included German immigrants settling around present-day Chicago and St. Louis and French Canadians from the St. Lawrence Valley settling in northern Michigan and Wisconsin. Initial settlement patterns demonstrate that Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were bifurcated for generations by Southern traditionalists who practiced subsistence farming and Yankees who moved toward commercial farming and became industrial innovators. Migrants, both American and foreign-born, settled in small, often predetermined, homogenous, rural clusters, creating polyglot communities of rich cultural diversity, where narrow cultural transformation prevailed. Documentation: 10 fig., 3 tables, 58 notes.
Abstract: Starting from the assumption that the railroads changed the value and importance of the various cultivated lands in the United States, the author discusses to what extent and in what way the existence of natural and the construction of artificial inland waterways - especially the James, Hudson, Connecticut, Ohio, and Mississippi river systems, the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes - determined the nature and extent of the colonization and integration of the eastern and Midwestern United States. Covers the period from the 17th century to the middle of the 19th. Based on American sources, and enriched with charts, statistics, and an extensive bibliography on the subject. Language: German
Personal Stories:
Abstract: Describes the 1850 Erie Canal trip of fugitive slaves William Harris and his wife. The boat crew harassed Harris and threatened to sell him back into slavery.
Abstract: Excerpts the Civil War letters of a private soldier, Elnathan Keeler, who was not at all typical of the Union soldier in his profession of lock tender on the Erie Canal and in his age of 45 but who had a familiar story of pain and suffering in war. 33 notes.
Abstract: Describes in detail the first of two traveling seminars (1826 and 1830), conducted by Amos Eaton, the founder of Rensselaer School. Based on the diary of Asa Fitch, a student who took part in the six-week tour, which throws light on early 19th-century teaching of geology and botany, and on life along the newly opened Erie Canal.
Broad Social Effects:
Subjects: Social Change, New York (upstate), Erie Canal, Economic Change, Daily Life. Dissertation. Period: 1817-62.
Abstract: Ministers and reformers who chronicled life among the boatmen of the Eric Canal exaggerated its negative, sinful aspects, while other travelers provided more balanced accounts. Canal work was attractive for unskilled young whites, upstate New York farmers during the summer months, roustabouts, and Irish immigrants. Due to the simplicity and irregularity of work and poor pay, the boatmen lacked the respect of their employers. Self-righteous reformers perceived boatmen as immature, dangerous, rootless, unskilled deviants who loved drink and threatened order. Serious efforts at reform, however, never materialized. With the advent of the railroad, and the decreasing use of the canal, the boatmen became nostalgic curiosities. Documentation: Based on the Erie Canal Papers, New York State Library; Erie Canal Collection, Oneida Historical Society, Albany Evening Journal; New York Evangelist; and Rochester Daily Advertiser; 48 notes.
Subject: Social Change, Republicanism, New York, Navigation, Inland, Liberalism, Erie Canal. Dissertation. Period: 1785-1850.
Subject: Urban growth, Transportation, Regional development, New York (Onondaga County), Erie Canal. Dissertation. Period: 1810-1900.
Other Aspects:
Abstract: China's Imperial Canal excited the imagination of a succession of travelers. While American and British canal promoters were interested in the technological details, the true importance of the Chinese precedent lay in the breadth of concept - a gigantic, state-supported geophysical manipulation in the interests of interregional trade.
Abstract: The Erie Canal across New York State and the Welland Ship Canal, connecting Lakes Erie and Ontario through a part of Upper Canada, are often considered rival canals whose construction in the 1820's and early 1830's was motivated by nationalism. But business interests on both sides of the border saw the economic advantages both canals brought by opening up trade opportunities with new areas. US interests invested in the Welland Ship Canal and saw to it that, unlike the Erie, it would be large enough to accommodate ships. De Witt Clinton, who played a major part in the building of the Erie Canal, advised and encouraged the builders of the Welland. Both canals opened up communications across the border and "offered the merchants of the borderland a free choice of markets for their goods." Documentation: Based on newspapers, materials in the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, Upper Canada Assembly Journals, and other primary sources; 51 notes.
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