ABSTRACT
Indian hostilities and the British attempt to hold the restless colonists east of a Proclamation Line, drawn for that purpose in 1763 along the Appalachian divide, retarded further developments until the Revolution successfully eliminated both restraints. The Iron City, as it was now designated, finally surpassed Lexington which, however, developed rope walks and hemp factories to employ its numerous slaves in making twine, bagging, and similar articles in great demand on the frontier. The rapid rise of New Orleans, even in the flat-boat era, was but a forecast of its growth following the introduction of the steamboat on the Mississippi. The completion of the Erie Canal to Buffalo in 1825 not only brought rapid growth to that town, transforming it into a city of 8,500 by the end of the decade, but the successful operation of the new waterway also spurred the multiplication of steamboats on the upper Great Lakes.
