Chapter 11
Lesson 2
Jefferson Moves West
America- The Story of Us
Westward
Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President
Thomas Jefferson was a Republican.
He believed that government should
be small and the people should have
most of the control over their own
lives without government
restrictions.
Before he left office, he reduced the
size of our government and our
armed forces.
Thomas Jefferson
A Nation Moving West
Americans had
been moving
into the rich
farmland west
of the
Appalachian
Mountains since
before the
American
Revolution.
A Nation Moving West
 Fights between American pioneers and American
Indians were not unusual.
 Daniel Boone was a pioneer who created a road
through the mountains from Virginia to
Kentucky called the Wilderness road.
 Soon thousands of pioneers were riding their
wagons along the Wilderness Road to the
frontier.
A Nation Moving West
What do you think were
some of the hardships of
the early pioneers as they
moved west?
Time to Read
 Open your social studies book to page
372.
 Write the title “A Nation Moving West” in
your spiral
 Think about which ideas and details are
important enough to include in your
notes.
 Write them down in an understandable
organization.
Louisiana Purchase
As settlers moved west, the Mississippi
and Ohio Rivers became more important
to our country.
These waterways were used as trade
routes.
• Products like pigs and wheat were sent
south on the Mississippi to New Orleans
and then on to Europe
A Nation Moving West
The problem was that Spain had claimed
the territory west of the Mississippi River
and that included New Orleans.
In October 1802, Spain closed the Port of
New Orleans to American trade. The
pioneers’ products could not leave the
port.
Why do you think Spain did this?
A Nation Moving West
Spain re-opened the port again after a
few months, but this event concerned
President Thomas Jefferson.
Jefferson wanted to buy the port.
In 1803, France had taken control of
New Orleans from Spain.
Jefferson sent James Monroe to Paris to
offer to buy the port for $2 million.
France is Preparing for War
Napoleon is about to enter into a
war with Britain. He does not want
to sell New Orleans, but he needs
the money for the war.
Napoleon offered to sell not only
New Orleans, but the entire
Louisiana Territory for $15 million.
With the Louisiana
Purchase, the
nation doubled its
size.
828,000 square
miles were added.
That works out to
less than 3¢ an
acre!
Time to Read
 Open your social studies book to page
373.
 Write the title “Louisiana Purchase” in
your spiral
 Think about which ideas and details are
important enough to include in your
notes.
 Write them down in an understandable
organization.
Lewis and Clark
President Thomas
Jefferson hired
Meriwether Lewis to lead
an expedition into the
west.
Lewis chose his friend,
William Clark, to share
the command.
Lewis and Clark had three goals:
• Search for a water route to the Pacific Ocean
• Establish relationships with the Native Americans
they met
• Study and record the plants, animals, minerals, and
climate
Lewis and Clark
During the first
winter, Lewis and
Clark hired a French
fur trader and his
Shoshone wife,
Sacagawea to be
interpreters and
guides.
The team suffered many hardships, but were
rewarded with magnificent sights of the new
western territory of our country. The
explorers returned in 1806.
Time to Finish Reading
 Open your social studies book to page
374. Read pages 374-376.
 Write the title “Lewis and Clark” in your
spiral
 Think about which ideas and details are
important enough to include in your
notes.
 Write them down in an understandable
organization.
Population Density Maps
Open to textbook pages 378-9.
As you read, think about these questions:
 What is a distribution map?
 What is a population density map?
 How did the population of Virginia change
from 1790 to 1830?
 Which part of the Mississippi was most
densely populated in 1830?
 Why was this area densely populated?