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From 1808, there was a movement in the New York Legislature
to survey a canal route across the state. The need for improved transportation
was demonstrated in the War of 1812 with the need to send troops to the
Niagara Frontier. It was hoped that federal aid in a canal project would
be given but in 1816 it was evident that such aid would not be forthcoming.
On July 4, 1817, ground was broken in the marshy lands south of Lynchville
on the new Erie Canal with funding from New York State.
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| The completion of the Erie Canal
created an economic boom across New York State. New York City became the
nation's leading port. Communities across the state grew in size and economic
development blossomed. The cost of commodities dropped, allowing increased
production in the agricultural districts of Central New York especially
the Genesee Valley. Access to consumer and manufactured goods, such as clothing,
shoes, pottery, glass, cast iron, and tobacco, became commonplace with specialized
merchants in every community. Read
more about the Erie Canal. |
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Social transformations accompanied the opening of the
canal. Geographic mobility and the tremendous influx of migrants and immigrants
into central and western New York created a region with a mixed cultural
background. Industrial growth and the rise of commercial farming transformed
the economic and social standing of individuals within the population
creating and heightening differences of status.
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Existing trends within society were enhanced
in this social environment leading the Erie Canal corridor to gain the title
of the "Burned-Over District." The name comes from the tremendous number
of religious revivals that occurred within the region. Revivals were the
name given to the activist and evangelical religious events promoting ideals
that were replacing the Calvinist traditions that had dominated American
religion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. |
| Revivals were adopted as an important expression
of middle-class religion during the second quarter of the nineteenth century.
This coincided with the economic rise of the middle class facilitated by
the construction of the Erie Canal. Drawing on the same basic ideals as
the religious movements were the Anti-Masonic, temperance, abolitionist,
and the women's rights movements.
These movements transformed fundamental aspects of American political and
social life. The social context created by the construction of the Erie
Canal facilitated those transformations. |
| Agitation for the enlargement of the Erie Canal
began early and in 1835 the state legislature approved the enlargement.
Portions of the existing canal were abandoned for new sections. The portion
of the canal in Rome was relocated to the old Western Inland Lock and Navigation
Company route through the village. Work on this section began in 1844. |
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