Streams of interest: The Mississippi River and the political economy of the Early Republic, 1783--1803

This dissertation uses the issue of Mississippi trade as a lens for examining the process of American nation building from the perspective of the trans-Appalachian west. Placing the trans-Appalachian west in local, national, and international contexts, my work reveals the complex forces driving the simultaneous processes of the dispersion of the Anglo-American population across the trans-Appalachian west and the construction of American sovereignty, over both the European peoples and lands of the west.;In 1784, Spain closed the Mississippi River to American trade, sparking outcry in the trans-Appalachian west and disinterest in the east. In subsequent trade negotiations with Spain, American officials and seven of the states proved willing to sacrifice the western part of the nation's interests in the Mississippi River in order to receive trade concessions that would benefit Atlantic merchants. The issue of Mississippi trade became central to the developing relationship between the people of the trans-Appalachian west and the federal government.;In 1802, the Spanish again closed the port of New Orleans to American trade, the result was national outcry and vehement calls for the acquisition of the Mississippi River and the expansion of American territorial interests so as to make the Mississippi fall within American territorial limits. This dissertation seeks to answer the question: what had changed in the relations of the trans-Appalachian west and the federal government in the east in the two decades between the end of the American Revolution and the Louisiana Purchase? How had access to the Mississippi River gone from being a western issue to an American issue? My work explores the complex relationship between land, cash, trade and political ideology in the trans-Appalachian west, in order to better understand the society being created in the west and its effects on the larger American nation. Ultimately, I argue that the creation of trade ties between the trans-Appalachian west and Atlantic markets was instrumental to the creation of a cohesive nation--that a union of interest was a pre-condition for the creation of a truly united nation.