Ira Jones and a New American Country When Ira was born, a new industrial economy was beginning in the northern states. The slave labor economy of the southern states expanded equally as fast. Americans began to build a system of national transportation using roads and rivers which allowed them to expand vigorously and often violently westward. Ira saw his world transformed from buckboards and stagecoaches to canal systems and railroads. What once took weeks to travel could now be counted in days and hours. People used this greater mobility to financially advance themselves. People did not stay in place for long if they could envision greener pastures elsewhere. People were not bound to a class or an aristocracy holding them in their service, they grasped their own destiny. Successive waves of religious enthusiasm, known as the "Second Great Awakening" emerged. The people built their own brand of "spiritual Protestant reform" without federal help, willfully reaching for a very separate choice (and change) of religion without government. In 1833, Massachusetts is the last state to end state supported churches. The self-made Protestants who created "the tent revival" was a concept embraced by Andrew Jackson. Jackson used this new method of gaining an audience and developed a political campaign gaining a populist vote to get elected. Ira was born into John Adams presidency. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, and John Quincy Adams followed until 1829. Andrew Jackson followed J.Q. Adams into the White House. Andrew Jackson's presidency is revered or reviled; depending on how one maintains their political and humanitarian viewpoints. These men are owed a great respect and deep gratitude for their dedication to form the United States of America. As the 11th President (1845-1849), James Polk aggressively and deceptively finagled his way to create the United States as we recognize the lower 48 today. Americans lives continued to be constrained by weather and the seasons. Night time was intensely dark. Most housing was small and poorly lit; heat and cold could not be kept inside or outside. Americans were usually dirty and insect-ridden. Smells from the barnyard, tannery and tavern, privy and chamber pot was pungent and profuse. Food was heavy and coarse, heavily salted and the taste was harsh. Hard physical labor was ordinary and endured. Disease and bodily discomfort was not to be cured and often, death, was an early visitor. Many Americans chose to reshape their future of everyday life at the dawn of the 19th century. People changed their patterns of childbearing, methods of childbirth, marriage, and death. These "institutions of life" were previously influenced by the agricultural cycles and seasons. New attitudes towards drinking (temperance) and social gatherings gave way to new manners of self-control in public and private. Ordinary people defied the old signs of deference and took up objects and customs that had been exclusive to the wealthy. A new personal interest in hygiene led to even more washing and bathing. How time was spent changed. Instead of weaving one's own flax for clothing, fabrics could now be affordably purchased. More time could be spent on cleanliness and other attention given to the condition of the home. Items such as brooms became more common in the household. The presence of a well kept household was quickly becoming important. Ideas flourished through new inventions like lithography and stereotyping. These new printing methods gave birth to an entirely new industry: magazines, dime novels, brochures, leaflets, newspapers and anything else wished to be shared with great freedoms of the press. Printed materials were absorbed by all classes of people. An "age of association" was born in sewing circles to lyceums to Masonic Lodges. Many organizations have come, and gone, which were created to celebrate a systematic bond of brotherhood or sisterhood. What originally started as "Sunday School" (basic reading, writing and arithmetic taught at churches); flourished into a growing want and need for public education. Horace Mann spearheaded the effort to standardize education, starting in 1837. Americans grasped their own identity and shed the conventions which Europe had handed down for centuries. A poor man did not have to kneel before the wealthy. They could commiserate and speak as equals (white men, for that matter; women were unleashing a new agenda that no one could see coming!). "Cotton is King!" was growled by James Henry Howard towards the northern states. Slavery appeared, with northern complicity, as a secure institution for fantastic profiteering -- the complexity of what slavery is still grapples the socio-economic makeup of who America is in 2010. 1799 Ira Jones is born 1799 Allessandro Volta developed the first electrical battery, known as t

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