277 West Emigration

277 West Emigration

 During the first few years of this period the people of the older states on the seacoast felt very poor . The shipowners could no longer make great profits . For there was now peace in Europe , and European vessels competed with American vessels . Great quantities of British goods were sent to the United States and were sold at very low prices . The demand for American goods fell off . Mill owners closed their mils . Work - ing men and women could find no work to do . The result was a great rush of emigrants from the older states on the seaboard to the new settlements in the West . In the West the emigrants could buy land from the government at a very low rate , and by working hard could support themselves and their families . This westward movement was at its height in 1817. In the years 1816--19, four states were admit - ted to the Union . These were Indiana (1816), Mississippi (1817), Illinois (1818), and Alabama 
(1819). Some of the emigrants even crossed the Mississippi River and settled in Missouri and in Arkansas . In 1819 they asked to be admitted to the Union as the state of Missouri , or given a territorial government under the name of Ar - kansas . The people of Maine also asked Con - gress to admit them to the Union as the state of Maine .