USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The steamboat dramatically reduced time used to transport goods and allowed for increased specialization. The steamboat was also critical to facilitating the internal slave trade. With the steamboat came the need for an improved river system and infrastructure along the rivers.

Detailed explanation-2: -Compared to other types of craft used at the time, such as flatboats, keelboats, and barges, steamboats greatly reduced both the time and expense of shipping goods to distant markets. For this reason, they were enormously important in the growth and consolidation of the U.S. economy before the Civil War.

Detailed explanation-3: -They worked better than flatboats, which were more common. Steamboats could travel quickly, at up to five miles per hour, and could go against the flow of the river. Farmers quickly sent goods like cotton and corn to other places.

Detailed explanation-4: -Steamboats “were also an environmental menace, destroying riverbank ecosystems and contributing to both air and water pollution. Nature was seen as a thing to be tamed rather than protected by most” (Woollard).

Detailed explanation-5: -The introduction of the steamboat had reduced the cost and time of cargo shipments and made upriver traffic easier. At the time, the steamboat was hailed as an impetus to western expansion. But while river transportation had improved greatly, it still could not compete with the expanse and speed of the railroad system.