Illinois, state, United States: Statehood and Settlement

The fur trade was still flourishing throughout most of Illinois when it became a state in 1818, but already settlers were pouring down the Ohio River by flatboat and barge and across the Genesee wagon road. In 1820 the capital was moved from Kaskaskia to Vandalia. The Black Hawk War (1832) practically ended the tenure of the Native Americans in Illinois and drove them W of the Mississippi. In the 1830s there was heavy and uncontrolled land speculation. Mob fury broke out with the murder (1837) of the abolitionist Elijah P. Lovejoy at Alton and in the lynching (1844) of the Mormon leader Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum at Carthage.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Diversification and Change
• Discontent and the Rise of the Labor Movement
• Industrialization and Abraham Lincoln
• Statehood and Settlement
• Early Inhabitants and European Exploration
• Government, Politics, and Higher Education
• Economy
• Geography
• Facts and Figures

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