rth from the junction of
the Kentucky with the Ohio. All west of this was to be known as the
Indiana Territory, William Henry Harrison its governor, and a
territorial legislature to follow so soon as a majority of the
inhabitants should desire.

On February 19, 1803, Ohio became a State. Mainly through Governor
Harrison's exertions a better system of marketing public land was begun,
in healthy contrast with the old. It allowed four land-offices in Ohio
and Indiana. Lands once offered at auction and not sold could be
pre-empted directly by private individuals on easy terms. Actual
settlement and cultivation were thus furthered, speculation curbed, and
the government revenues vastly increased.

[Illustration: Man wearing a gun and dog standing in a doorway.]
Dugout of a Southwestern Pioneer

[1802]

We have spoken mostly of the Northwest. The present States of Alabama
and Mississippi north of 31 degrees, except a narrow strip at the
extreme north owned by South Carolina, were claimed by Georgia, but the
part of this territory south of 32 degrees 30 minutes the United States
also claimed, as having before the Revolution been separated from
Georgia by the king and joined to West Florida, so that it, like the
Northwest, passed to the United States at the treaty of 1783. This
section was organized in 1798 as the Mississippi Territory. In 1802
Georgia relinquished all claim to the northern part as well, which
Congress added to the Mississippi Territory. At this date there were
settlements along the Mississippi bluffs below the Yazoo bottom.

[Illustration: Portrait.]
Robert Fulton

CHAPTER VIII.

SOCIAL CULTURE AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY

[1800]

In 1800 the population of our land was 5,305,482, of whom 896,849 were
slaves. New York City had 60,489; Philadelphia, 40,000; Boston, 24,937;
Baltimore, 23,971; Charleston, 18,712; Providence, 7,614; Washington,
3,210. The population of Vermont, Northern and Western New York, and the
Susquehanna Valley of Pennsylvania had grown considerably more dense
since 1790. The social life, ideas, and habits of the rural districts
had not altered much from those prevalent in colonial days, but in the
more favored centres great improvements, or, at any rate, changes, might
have been marked.

Even far in the country framed buildings were now the most common, the
raising of one being a great event. The village school gave a half
holiday. Every able-bodied man and boy from