14,755,211 (Canada)
184-717: Michigan ( / ˈ m ɪ ʃ ɪ ɡ ən / MISH -ig-ən ) is a state in the Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest region of the United States . It borders Wisconsin to the southwest in the Upper Peninsula , and Indiana and Ohio to the south in the Lower Peninsula ; it is also connected by Lakes Superior , Michigan , Huron , and Erie to Minnesota and Illinois , and
368-604: A gallicized variant of the original Ojibwe word ᒥᓯᑲᒥ ( mishigami ), meaning "large water" or "large lake". Michigan consists of two peninsulas . The Lower Peninsula resembles the shape of a mitten , and comprises a majority of the state's land area. The Upper Peninsula (often called "the U.P.") is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac , a five-mile (8 km) channel that joins Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. The Mackinac Bridge connects
552-473: A 2003 report by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee , Virginia Beach , Charlotte , Houston , Nashville-Davidson , and Jacksonville were the five most integrated of the nation's fifty largest cities, with Memphis at number six. Southern states tend to have a low disparity in incarceration rates between Blacks and Whites, relative to the rest of the country. The New Great Migration
736-496: A 4.2-magnitude earthquake occurred on Saturday, May 2, 2015, shortly after noon, about five miles south of Galesburg, Michigan (9 miles southeast of Kalamazoo ) in central Michigan, about 140 miles west of Detroit, according to the Colorado-based U.S. Geological Survey 's National Earthquake Information Center . No major damage or injuries were reported, according to then-Governor Rick Snyder 's office. State government
920-517: A Protestant sect. African Americans made up 39% of those persons affiliated with other religions. In 2000, the city of Atlanta had 10,000 Buddhists, 12,000 Hindus, and 30,000 Muslims. In Louisiana, some Black Southerners perform Louisiana Voodoo . Slaves brought their Voodoo religion to Louisiana and Haiti from Benin . The south is known for many foods, many of which contain African American influences. George Washington Carver ,
1104-416: A blend of Protestant hymns and African styles, two popular sectors of music that could harmoniously coexist. Black gospel musicians started creating their own trends by creating duos and choirs and competing worldwide in traveling singing groups. Eventually, this led to the combination of White and Black gospel groups; however, they remained distinctly separate. R&B is popular among African Americans in
1288-402: A botanist from Missouri, made many discoveries regarding the peanut. The United Peanut Associations of America reached out to Carver to discuss Carver's many advances using the peanut. Carver gave a discussion regarding the peanut and all the things that can be done with a peanut. Popular southern dishes: Sweet: Savory: The African American job market has significantly changed in
1472-472: A combination of a wire screen and small wire hooks to pull the cotton through, while brushes continuously removed the loose cotton lint to prevent jams. The invention of the cotton gin made cultivation of short-staple cotton profitable, and the Deep South was developed for this product. This drove up the demand for slave labor in that developing area, causing more than one million slaves to be transported to
1656-1146: A concentration of economic power , industrial workers organized the Congress of Industrial Organizations , a coherent agricultural cooperative movement, and the Progressive politics led by Wisconsin's Governor and Senator Robert M. La Follette . State universities, professional social work, and unemployment and workers' compensation were some of the region's permanent contributions to American social policy. The Great Lakes region has produced globally influential breakthroughs in agricultural technology, transportation and building construction. Cyrus McCormick 's reaper, John Deere 's steel plow, Joseph Dart ( Dart's Elevator ), and George Washington Snow's balloon-frame construction are some of innovations that made significant, global impact. The University of Chicago and Case Western Reserve University figured prominently in developing nuclear power . Automobile manufacture developed simultaneously in Ohio and Indiana and became centered in
1840-452: A depression in the upland area, independent of the overlap of Palaeozoic strata. The western half of the basin occupies a trough of synclinal structure. The Great Lakes receive the drainage of a small peripheral land area, enclosed by a water-parting from the rivers that run to Hudson Bay or the Gulf of Saint Lawrence on the north and to the Gulf of Mexico on the south. The three lakes of
2024-768: A distinctive historical, economic, and cultural identity. A portion of the region also encompasses the Great Lakes megalopolis . State and provincial governments are represented in the Conference of Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers , which also serves as the Secretariat to the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Compact and the Great Lakes–Saint Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement . The Great Lakes region takes its name from
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#17327810948192208-807: A fabled Northwest Passage to Asia generated sporadic but intense competition among the three most powerful northwest Europe imperial nations to control the territory. A century and a half of naval and land wars among France, The Netherlands and Britain resulted finally in British control of the region, from the Ohio River to the Arctic, and from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. Beyond the region, North American claims remained disputed among Britain, France, Spain and Russia. Britain defeated France decisively at
2392-554: A fall of 326 feet (99 m) (160 feet (49 m) at the cataract) in 30 miles (48 km), is thought to have been of recent origin, as an older river would have a mature valley. The original valley that is thought to have connected the two depressions through the Niagara Escarpment is thought to have been at the present route of the Welland Canal , and to have been completely filled with glacial drift . The same
2576-471: A few hundred feet tall. It is divided by a low water divide running north and south. The larger portion of the state is on the west of this and gradually slopes toward Lake Michigan. The highest point in the Lower Peninsula is either Briar Hill at 1,705 feet (520 m), or one of several points nearby in the vicinity of Cadillac . The lowest point is the surface of Lake Erie at 571 feet (174 m). The geographic orientation of Michigan's peninsulas makes for
2760-586: A growing hot spots for the migrants of The New Great Migration. The percentage of Black Americans who live in the South has been increasing since 1990, and the biggest gains have been in the region's large urban areas, according to census data. The Black population of metro Atlanta more than doubled between 1990 and 2020, surpassing 2 million in the most recent census. The Black population also more than doubled in metro Charlotte while Greater Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth both saw their Black populations surpass 1 million for
2944-561: A joint French and rebel American attack. Dunmore's Black soldiers aroused fear among some Patriots. The Ethiopian unit was used most frequently in the South, where the Black population was oppressed to the breaking point. As a response to expressions of fear posed by armed Black men, in December 1775, George Washington wrote a letter to Colonel Henry Lee III , stating that success in the war would come to whatever side could arm Black men
3128-660: A landmark during the day to safely guide the passenger ships and freighters traveling the Great Lakes (see: lighthouses in the United States ). The state's rivers are generally small, short and shallow, and few are navigable. The principal ones include the Detroit River, St. Marys River, and St. Clair River which connect the Great Lakes; the Au Sable , Cheboygan , and Saginaw , which flow into Lake Huron;
3312-561: A long distance between the ends of the state. Ironwood , in the far western Upper Peninsula, lies 630 miles (1,010 kilometers) by highway from Lambertville in the Lower Peninsula's southeastern corner. The geographic isolation of the Upper Peninsula from Michigan's political and population centers makes the region culturally and economically distinct. Frequent attempts to establish the Upper Peninsula as its own state have failed to gain traction. A feature of Michigan that gives it
3496-426: A permanent community there would strengthen French control over the upper Great Lakes and discourage British aspirations. The hundred soldiers and workers who accompanied Cadillac built a fort enclosing one arpent (about 0.85 acres (3,400 m), the equivalent of just under 200 feet (61 m) per side) and named it Fort Pontchartrain . Cadillac's wife, Marie Thérèse Guyon, soon moved to Detroit, becoming one of
3680-554: A result of industrialization, the population became more concentrated into urban areas. In part to balance democratic representation against the economic and political power of these corporations, the region hosted industrial labor organization, consolidated agricultural cooperatives and state educational systems. The Big Ten Conference memorializes the nation's first region in which every state sponsored major research, technical-agricultural, and teacher-training colleges and universities. The Congress of Industrial Organizations grew out of
3864-407: A reverse New Great Migration , but they tend to be educated and to settle in urban areas. Black Southerners strongly contributed to the cultural blend of Christianity , foods , art, music (see spiritual , blues , jazz and rock and roll ) that characterize Southern culture today. African slaves were sent to the South during the slave trade. Slavery in the United States was primarily located in
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#17327810948194048-532: A rich source of lumber, iron, and copper. Michigan led the nation in lumber production from the 1850s to the 1880s. Railroads became a major engine of growth from the 1850s onward, with Detroit the chief hub . A second wave of French-Canadian immigrants settled in Michigan during the late 19th to early 20th century, working in lumbering areas in counties on the Lake Huron side of the Lower Peninsula, such as
4232-678: A severe American defeat in the River Raisin Massacre . This battle, still ranked as the bloodiest ever fought in the state, had the highest number of American casualties of any battle of the war. Michigan was recaptured by the Americans in 1813 after the Battle of Lake Erie . They used Michigan as a base to launch an invasion of Canada, which culminated in the Battle of the Thames . But the more northern areas of Michigan were held by
4416-595: A significant amount of population due to global competition and the dramatic unavailability of manufacturing jobs. Meanwhile, Michigan had increased use of technology, specifically when the IBM Personal Computer started selling in the state, in which became mostly used at work. Michigan became the leading auto-producing state in the U.S., with the industry primarily located throughout the Midwestern United States ; Ontario, Canada; and
4600-434: A single pound of fiber from the seeds, a team of two or three slaves using a cotton gin could produce around fifty pounds of cotton in just one day. The number of slaves rose in concert with the increase in cotton production, increasing from around 700,000 in 1790 to around 3.2 million in 1850. The invention of the cotton gin led to an increased demand for slaves in the South, reversing the economic decline that had occurred in
4784-672: A strong, established Lutheran tradition (as established by populations from Nordic and Germanic countries), but this tradition has become more diversified in recent years. Large professional sports leagues such as the National Football League (NFL), the Canadian Football League (CFL), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), National Hockey League (NHL) and Major League Soccer (MLS) have team franchises in several cities in
4968-427: A warmer climate ( Köppen climate classification Dfa ) with hot summers and cold winters. The northern part of the Lower Peninsula and the entire Upper Peninsula has a more severe climate (Köppen Dfb ), with warm, but shorter summers and longer, cold to very cold winters. Some parts of the state average high temperatures below freezing from December through February, and into early March in the far northern parts. During
5152-445: Is Lil Wayne , from New Orleans. He has won Grammy Awards and has sold millions of albums. Notable Southern hip hop musicians include Lil Jon , T.I. , Flo Rida , Rich Boy , Rick Ross , Scarface , Young Jeezy and Lil Wayne . In the 20th century, gospel music originated from Blacks and Whites who created soulful and deep energy through music that also includes dance. The combination of music from Black and White cultures created
5336-533: Is a binational Canadian – American region centered around the Great Lakes that includes the U.S. states of Illinois , Indiana , Michigan , Minnesota , New York , Ohio , Pennsylvania , and Wisconsin and the Canadian province of Ontario . Canada's Quebec province is at times included as part of the region because the St. Lawrence River watershed is part of the continuous hydrologic system. The region forms
5520-594: Is a center of manufacturing , forestry , agriculture , services , and high-tech industry. When the first European explorers arrived, the most populous tribes were the Algonquian peoples , which include the Anishinaabe groups of Ojibwe , Odaawaa/Odawa (Ottawa) , and the Boodewaadamii/Bodéwadmi (Potawatomi) . The three nations coexisted peacefully as part of a loose confederation called
5704-448: Is a hot spot for African American migrants in the US. Between 1975 and 1980, Charlotte saw a net gain of 2,725 African Americans in the area. This number continued to rise as between 1985 and 1990 as the area had a net gain of 7,497 African Americans, and from 1995 to 2000 the net gain was 23,313 African Americans. This rise in net gain points to Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, and Houston being
Michigan - Misplaced Pages Continue
5888-641: Is bounded on the south by the states of Ohio and Indiana , sharing land and water boundaries with both. Michigan's western boundaries are almost entirely water boundaries, from south to north, with Illinois and Wisconsin in Lake Michigan; then a land boundary with Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula, that is principally demarcated by the Menominee and Montreal Rivers ; then water boundaries again, in Lake Superior, with Wisconsin and Minnesota to
6072-429: Is decentralized among three tiers—statewide, county and township . Counties are administrative divisions of the state, and townships are administrative divisions of a county. Both of them exercise state government authority, localized to meet the particular needs of their jurisdictions, as provided by state law. There are 83 counties in Michigan . Great Lakes region The Great Lakes region of Northern America
6256-485: Is not evenly distributed throughout the South. As with the earlier Great Migration, the New Great Migration is primarily directed toward cities and large urban areas, such as Atlanta , Charlotte , Houston , Dallas , Raleigh , Washington, D.C. , Tampa , Virginia Beach , San Antonio , Memphis , Orlando , Nashville , Jacksonville , and so forth. North Carolina's Charlotte metro area in particular,
6440-526: Is rugged. The state's highest point, in the Huron Mountains northwest of Marquette, is Mount Arvon at 1,979 feet (603 m). The peninsula is as large as Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island combined but has fewer than 330,000 inhabitants. The people are sometimes called "Yoopers" (from "U.P.'ers"), and their speech (the " Yooper dialect ") has been heavily influenced by the numerous Scandinavian and Canadian immigrants who settled
6624-511: Is served by Interstate 94 , Interstate 75 , Ontario Highway 401 , Amtrak Lake Shore Limited and VIA rail services. The three largest international airports in the Great Lake region are Chicago O'Hare , Toronto Pearson , and Detroit Metro Airport . All three airports are major airline hubs that provide nonstop connectivity to other regions and continents. Black Southerners Black Southerners are African Americans living in
6808-453: Is significantly well known for the use of the electric bass guitar to create songs that are long and enable people to dance. James Brown was a notable funk musician. Michael Jackson was notorious for blending funk and soul music together to create a successful and popular genre of music that stemmed from old jazz and Motown . Rap music originated from the pent-up anger of the civil rights movement. The biggest inspiration for rap music
6992-631: Is soul music. Rap music and hip-hop music are often interchangeable. Hip-hop, however, covers a wider variety of topics and stems from a different type of energy. In the 1990s, a new form of rap called Gangsta rap emerged. Soon, there were rap rivalries between the East coast and the West Coast. In the South, many Blacks perform and listen to Southern hip hop . Southern cities with their own hip hop scene are Houston , Atlanta , New Orleans , Memphis , and Miami . A notable black Southern hip hop musician
7176-466: Is the state's largest metropolitan area (roughly 50% of the population resides there) and the eleventh largest in the United States. The Grand Rapids metropolitan area in Western Michigan is the state's fastest-growing metro area, with more than 1.3 million residents as of 2006. Michigan consists of two peninsulas separated by the Straits of Mackinac . The 45th parallel north runs through
7360-740: Is true for the St. Lawrence , where there may not have been an original valley. The Ontarian River that was a precursor to Lake Ontario is thought to have drained westward, and the St. Lawrence drainage to have been created by subsidence due to the weight of the ice sheet. Paleo-Indian cultures were the earliest in North America, with a presence in the Great Plains and Great Lakes areas from about 12,000 BCE to around 8,000 BCE. Prior to European settlement, Iroquoian people lived around Lakes Erie and Ontario , Algonquian peoples around most of
7544-795: The African Methodist Episcopal Church and the National Baptist Convention . They would barely be found in historically white churches. By 1906, the National Baptist Convention accounted for over 61% of the Black Christian community. From 1890 till 1906, the population of Black churchgoers increased by one million. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most prominent African-American ministers in
Michigan - Misplaced Pages Continue
7728-683: The American Revolutionary War . The area was part of the larger Northwest Territory until 1800, when western Michigan became part of the Indiana Territory . Michigan Territory was formed in 1805, but some of the northern border with Canada was not agreed upon until after the War of 1812 . Michigan was admitted into the Union in 1837 as the 26th state, a free one . It soon became an important center of industry and trade in
7912-765: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham near Quebec City in 1759, and the Treaty of Paris (1763) that ended The Seven Years' War , known in America as the French and Indian War ceded the entire region to the victor. Indian Reserve is the historical term for this largely uncolonized area set aside in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 for use by Native Americans , who already inhabited it. The British government had contemplated establishing an Indian barrier state in
8096-513: The Canadian province of Ontario . With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of 96,716 sq mi (250,490 km), Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the largest by area east of the Mississippi River . Its capital is Lansing , and its largest city is Detroit . Metro Detroit is among the nation's most populous and largest metropolitan economies. The name derives from
8280-1012: The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (the "Merc"), which is owned, along with the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) by Chicago's CME Group . The CME Group, in addition, owns the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the Commodities Exchange Inc. (COMEX), and the Dow Jones Indexes ., as well as headquarters of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (the Seventh District of
8464-734: The Confederate Congress , the President's Cabinet , and C.S. War Department staff . In general, newspapers, politicians, and army leaders alike were hostile to any efforts to arm Blacks. The war's desperate circumstances meant that the Confederacy changed its policy in the last month of the war; in March 1865, a small program attempted to recruit, train, and arm Blacks, but no significant numbers were ever raised or recruited, and those that were never saw combat. The Civil War led to
8648-516: The Council of Three Fires . The Ojibwe, whose numbers are estimated to have been at least 35,000, were the largest. The Ojibwe Indians (also known as Chippewa in the U.S.), an Anishinaabe tribe, were established in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and northern and central Michigan . Bands also inhabited Ontario and southern Manitoba , Canada; and northern Wisconsin , and northern and north-central Minnesota . The Ottawa Indians lived primarily south of
8832-512: The Detroit area of Michigan . Henry Ford 's movable assembly line drew on regional experience in meat processing , agricultural machinery manufacture, and the industrial engineering of steel in revolutionizing the modern era of mass production manufacturing. Chicago -based Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck companies complemented mass manufactures with mass retail distribution. Chicago , Detroit , and Cleveland carry important roles in
9016-478: The Georgian Bay from Lake Huron . From there, it heads westward through the land-arm between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan and southwestward into the narrow points dividing Green Bay from Lake Michigan. Finally, it fades away with the thinning out of the limestone and is hardly traceable across the Mississippi River . The arrangement of the Great Lakes closely matches the course of the lowlands worn on
9200-539: The Great Lakes Basin , defines a unit of sub-national political entities defined by the U.S. states and the Canadian province of Ontario encompassing the Great Lakes watershed, and the states and province bordering one or more of the Great Lakes. The Palaeozoic strata are parts of a great area of similar layers hundreds of feet in thickness. These strata decline gently southward from the great upland of
9384-550: The Guardian Building , each of which has been designated as a National Historic Landmark (NHL). In 1927 a school bombing took place in Clinton County . The Bath School disaster resulted in the deaths of 38 schoolchildren and constitutes the deadliest mass murder in a school in U.S. history. Michigan converted much of its manufacturing to satisfy defense needs during World War II ; it manufactured 10.9% of
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#17327810948199568-496: The Laurentian Highlands of eastern Canada. The visible upland area of today was a small part of the primeval continent with the remainder of it still buried under a Palaeozoic cover. The visible part was the last part of the primeval continent to sink under the advancing Palaeozoic seas. This district may be considered an ancient coastal plain. The weaker layers are worn down in sub-parallel belts of lower land between
9752-825: The Miami , the Sac (or Sauk), and the Meskwaki (Fox) . The Wyandot were an Iroquoian-speaking people in this area; they were historically known as the Huron by the French, and were the historical adversaries of the Iroquois Confederation . French voyageurs and coureurs des bois explored and settled in Michigan in the 17th century. The first Europeans to reach what became Michigan were those of Étienne Brûlé 's expedition in 1622. The first permanent European settlement
9936-408: The North Country National Scenic Trail passes through Michigan. With 78 state parks , 19 state recreation areas, and six state forests , Michigan has the largest state park and state forest system of any state. Michigan has a continental climate with two distinct regions. The southern and central parts of the Lower Peninsula (south of Saginaw Bay and from the Grand Rapids area southward) have
10120-476: The Ontonagon , and Tahquamenon , which flow into Lake Superior; and the St. Joseph , Kalamazoo , Grand , Muskegon , Manistee , and Escanaba , which flow into Lake Michigan. The state has 11,037 inland lakes—totaling 1,305 square miles (3,380 km) of inland water—in addition to 38,575 square miles (99,910 km) of Great Lakes waters. No point in Michigan is more than six miles (9.7 km) from an inland lake or more than 85 miles (137 km) from one of
10304-431: The Seven Years' War in Europe. Under the 1763 Treaty of Paris , Michigan and the rest of New France east of the Mississippi River were ceded by defeated France to Great Britain. After the Quebec Act was passed in 1774, Michigan became part of the British Province of Quebec . By 1778, Detroit's population reached 2,144 and it was the third-largest city in Quebec province. During the American Revolutionary War , Detroit
10488-401: The Southern United States , the United States region with the largest black population. Despite a total of 6 million Blacks migrating from the South to cities in the North and West from 1916 to 1970, the majority of the Black population remains concentrated in the Southern states. In addition, since the 1970s, numerous Black Americans have migrated to the South from other U.S. regions in
10672-401: The Straits of Mackinac in northern, western , and southern Michigan , but also in southern Ontario, northern Ohio, and eastern Wisconsin. The Potawatomi were in southern and western Michigan, in addition to northern and central Indiana, northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, and southern Ontario. Other Algonquian tribes in Michigan, in the south and east, were the Mascouten , the Menominee ,
10856-791: The original thirteen . Five states evolved from its provisions: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. The northeastern section of Minnesota, from the Mississippi to St. Croix River , also fell under ordinance jurisdiction and extended the constitution and culture of the Old Northwest to the Dakotas . The surge of settlement generated tension culminating in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. Britain, fearing that fast American settlement could lead to annexation of its western provinces, countered with The Constitution Act of 1791 , granting limited self-government to Canadian provinces and creating two new provinces out of Canada: Lower Canada (today's Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario). Settlement and economic expansion on both sides accelerated after
11040-441: The 17th century, French explorers claimed it as part of the New France colony, when it was largely inhabited by Indigenous peoples. French and Canadian traders and settlers, Métis , and others migrated to the area, settling largely along the waterways. After France's defeat in the French and Indian War in 1762, the region came under British rule. Britain ceded the territory to the newly independent United States after its defeat in
11224-482: The 1825 opening of The Erie Canal , an astonishingly successful public venture that effectively integrated markets and commerce between the Atlantic seaboard and the region. The region on both sides of the border became a vast research and design laboratory for agricultural machinery and techniques. Owner-operator family farms transformed both demographics and ecology into a vast terrain of farmlands, producing primarily wheat and corn. In western New York and northeast Ohio,
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#173278109481911408-445: The 1910s. Blacks and Whites made music that would mix cultures and aspects of European and African music. Jazz was created as a different type of Blues music. Blues was considered to be reflective of lower class status, while jazz was more stylized. Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles were famous jazz musicians. In the 1960s, a new type of music called funk emerged onto the scene. Funk is a type of music that brings soul and energy. It
11592-414: The 1930s, so many immigrants had arrived that more than 30 languages were spoken in the public schools, and ethnic communities celebrated in annual heritage festivals. Over the years immigrants and migrants contributed greatly to Detroit's diverse urban culture, including popular music trends. The influential Motown Sound of the 1960s was led by a variety of individual singers and groups. Grand Rapids ,
11776-439: The 1950s and 1960s ended Jim Crow laws across the South and other areas of the United States. A third migration appears to be underway, this time with African Americans from the North and West moving back to the South in record numbers. While race relations are still a contentious issue in the South and elsewhere in the U.S., the region surpasses the rest of the country in many areas of integration and racial equality. According to
11960-530: The African American population from return migration. Blues , a genre of music, originated from the sorrow songs that slaves would sing. Blues originated in the Deep South , mostly in cities like Memphis, Tennessee and New Orleans . Blues often consist of a sole singer with an instrument, usually a guitar, expressing their emotions. Blues music generally comes from the inspiration of love, sex, betrayal, poverty, bad luck, and lifestyles that are less than ideal. Jazz music originated in New Orleans in
12144-414: The American Revolution, the region was contested between Britain and rebellious American colonies. Hoping for favorable claims of territorial control in an eventual peace treaty with Britain, American adventurers led by Kentucky militia leader George Rogers Clark briefly occupied village settlements, including Cahokia, Kaskaskia and Vincennes unopposed, with passive support from Francophone inhabitants. In
12328-465: The American South. By 1850, about 3.2 million African slaves labored in the United States, 1.8 million of whom worked in the cotton fields. Black slaves in the South faced arbitrary power abuses from white people . Before the Civil War, more than 4 million black slaves worked in the South. Virginia had the largest slave population, followed by Georgia , Mississippi , Alabama and South Carolina . There are large black communities in urban cities in
12512-475: The Atlantic seaports and the U.S. interior. In Wisconsin , the inner lowland is a knob of resistant quartzites, known as Baraboo Ridge, rising from the buried upland floor through the partly denuded cover of lower Palaeozoic strata. This knob or ridge can be thought of as an ancient physiographic fossil, as it is an ancient monadnock having been preserved from destructive attacks of weather by burial under sea-floor deposits. It has been recently re-exposed through
12696-602: The Big Five, have their global operational headquarters in Toronto. Outside of Chicago and Toronto, many other cities are host to financial centers as well. Major bank headquarters are located in Ohio including Huntington Bancshares in Columbus, Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati, and KeyCorp in Cleveland. Insurance companies such as Anthem in Indianapolis, Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, American Family Insurance in Madison, Wisconsin, State Farm Insurance in Bloomington, Illinois, and Progressive Insurance and Medical Mutual of Ohio in Cleveland. The Great Lakes region has
12880-405: The British army had 300 enslaved men wearing a military uniform. Sewn on the breast of the uniform was the inscription "Liberty to Slaves". These enslaved men were designated as " Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment ." Except for those Black men who joined the Ethiopian Regiment, only a few Black men, such as Seymour Burr , served in the British army while the fighting was concentrated in the North. It
13064-405: The British until the peace treaty restored the old boundaries. A number of forts, including Fort Wayne , were built by the United States in Michigan during the 19th century out of fears of renewed fighting with Britain. Michigan Territory governor and judges established the University of Michigan in 1817, as the Catholepistemiad, or the University of Michigania. The population grew slowly until
13248-522: The British used African Americans as laborers, skilled workers , foragers and spies. Lord Dunmore , the royal governor of Virginia , was determined to maintain British rule in the southern colonies and promised to free those enslaved men of rebel owners who fought for him. On November 7, 1775, he issued a proclamation: "I do hereby further declare all indented servants, Negroes, or others, (appertaining to Rebels,) free, that are able and willing to bear arms, they joining His Majesty's Troops." By December 1775,
13432-650: The Deep South in the domestic slave trade. Prior to the introduction of the mechanical cotton gin, cotton had required considerable labor to clean and separate the fibers from the seeds. With Eli Whitney's gin, cotton became a tremendously profitable business, creating many fortunes in the Antebellum South . Cities such as New Orleans, Louisiana ; Mobile, Alabama ; Charleston, South Carolina ; and Galveston, Texas became major shipping ports, deriving substantial economic benefit from cotton raised throughout
13616-556: The Federal Reserve). Toronto is an international centre for business and finance. Generally considered the financial capital of Canada, Toronto has a high concentration of banks and brokerage firms on Bay Street, in the Financial District. The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) is the world's seventh-largest stock exchange by market capitalization. The five largest financial institutions of Canada, collectively known as
13800-583: The French established a trading post and Fort St. Joseph along the St. Joseph River at the present-day city of Niles . In 1701, French explorer and army officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit or "Fort Pontchartrain on-the-Strait" on the strait, known as the Detroit River , between lakes Saint Clair and Erie . Cadillac had convinced King Louis XIV's chief minister, Louis Phélypeaux, Comte de Pontchartrain , that
13984-598: The Great Lakes region, attracting immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from many European countries . Immigrants from Finland , Macedonia , and the Netherlands were especially numerous. Migration from Appalachia and of Black Southerners as part of the Great Migration increased in the 1930s, with many settling in Metro Detroit. Although Michigan has developed a diverse economy, in
14168-615: The Great Lakes, the British continued to supply not only their own troops but a wide alliance of Native American nations through Detroit, Fort Niagara , Fort Michilimackinac , and so on, until these posts were turned over to the United States following the Jay Treaty (1794). During the Confederacy Period of 1781–1789, the Continental Congress passed three ordinances whose authority was unclear regarding
14352-630: The Great Lakes. The state is home to several areas maintained by the National Park Service including: Isle Royale National Park , in Lake Superior, about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Other national protected areas in the state include: Keweenaw National Historical Park , Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore , Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore , Huron National Forest , Manistee National Forest , Hiawatha National Forest , Ottawa National Forest and Father Marquette National Memorial . The largest section of
14536-536: The Indian population. The ordinance prohibited the establishment of state religion and established civic rights that foreshadowed the United States Bill of Rights . Civil rights included freedom from cruel and unusual punishment , trial by jury , and exemption from unreasonable search and seizure . States were authorized to organize constitutional conventions and petition for admission as states equal to
14720-503: The Lower Peninsula, Michigan is drained by the Great Lakes- St. Lawrence watershed and is the only state with the majority of its land thus drained. No point in the state is more than six miles (9.7 km) from a natural water source or more than 85 miles (137 km) from a Great Lakes shoreline. The Great Lakes that border Michigan from east to west are Lake Erie , Lake Huron , Lake Michigan and Lake Superior . The state
14904-570: The North and West, however, Black migrants unsurprisingly faced widespread racial discrimination there as well, being perceived as competitors for jobs and housing and blamed for lowering the property values of white residents. Despite this, conditions in the North and Western U.S. were still ahead of the South at that time; blacks in those areas had the right to vote, could send their children to better schools, and were paid more for skilled and unskilled labor. In reference to why so many Blacks stayed in
15088-694: The North), the invention of the cotton gin is frequently cited as one of the indirect causes of the American Civil War . During the Civil War, runaway slaves from the South joined the fight on the side of the Union . In the Confederacy , both free and enslaved Blacks were used for manual labor, but the issue of whether to arm them, and under what terms, became a major source of debate within
15272-465: The Northern Tier of New England and New York. Michigan made a significant contribution to the Union in the American Civil War and sent more than forty regiments of volunteers to the federal armies. Michigan modernized and expanded its system of education in this period. The Michigan State Normal School, now Eastern Michigan University , was founded in 1849, for the training of teachers. It
15456-586: The Peace of Paris (1784) Britain ceded what became known as the Northwest Territory , the area bounded by Great Lakes, Mississippi and Ohio rivers, and the eastern colonies of New York and Pennsylvania, to the fledgling United States. Britain, which may have entertained ambitions to repossess the area if America failed to govern it, retained control over its forts and licensed fur trade for fifteen years. By well-established trade and military routes across
15640-733: The Saginaw Valley, Alpena, and Cheboygan counties, as well as throughout the Upper Peninsula, with large concentrations in Escanaba and the Keweenaw Peninsula . The first statewide meeting of the Republican Party took place on July 6, 1854, in Jackson, Michigan , where the party adopted its platform. The state was predominantly Republican until the 1930s, reflecting the political continuity of migrants from across
15824-413: The South for so long, Jimmie Lewis Franklin points out that while Pan-Africanist values and prolonged discrimination may have inspired the continuous migration of Blacks from the South in search of a better life, many choose to stay not due to a submission to racism, but out of the basic human desire to remain in an established home. The migration also empowered the growing civil rights movement . While
16008-442: The South such as Houston , Memphis , New Orleans , Dallas and Atlanta . Black Southerners are more likely to identify as a Southerner and claim Southern identity than their counterpart White Southerners . The history of Africans in the South dates to 1619, when a ship headed toward San Juan, Mexico was intercepted by two pirate ships. The pirates expected to steal precious metals like gold and silver, but they found that
16192-471: The South, leading a Baptist church in Atlanta. Numerous other Christian denominations and other religions have entered the South with new migrants and immigrants. There has been exceeding growth of religions in the South. Catholic , Jewish , Hindu , and Buddhist religions have been introduced into large Southern cities. In 1999, more than 1 out of 5 people identified as being part of a religion other than
16376-429: The South. The invention of the cotton gin caused massive growth in the production of cotton in the United States, concentrated mostly in the South. Cotton production expanded from 750,000 bales in 1830 to 2.85 million bales in 1850. As a result, the region became even more dependent on slave plantations , with agriculture becoming the largest sector of its economy. While it took a single slave about ten hours to separate
16560-403: The South. New Orleans rhythm and blues is often performed by black musicians from New Orleans. A notable black R&B singer from the South is Beyoncé . She often pays homage to her Southern culture in her music and music videos. The vast majority of black people in the South are Protestant . After the Civil War, there was a great divide in religion in the south. Blacks were split between
16744-619: The South. The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta includes a museum that chronicles the Civil Rights Movement as well as Martin Luther King Jr.'s boyhood home on Auburn Avenue. Additionally, Ebenezer Baptist Church is located in the Sweet Auburn district, as is the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change , location of Martin and Coretta Scott King 's gravesites. The Civil Rights Movement of
16928-503: The South. This is largely due to improved race relations and an improvement of the economy in the South. Primary destinations are states such as Texas , Georgia , North Carolina , Maryland , Virginia , Tennessee , and Florida . African Americans began moving to the suburbs seeking out safer and more comfortable housing. There is a common misconception that much of the African American population lives in ghettos in high-rise, government-provided housing, when in reality, over 33% live in
17112-547: The Southern United States. With almost ten million residents in 2010, Michigan is a large and influential state, ranking tenth in population among the fifty states. Detroit is the centrally located metropolitan area of the Great Lakes megalopolis and the second-largest metropolitan area in the U.S. (after Chicago ) linking the Great Lakes system. The Metro Detroit area in Southeast Michigan
17296-788: The St. Lawrence, Mohawk, and Hudson rivers provided outlets for commercial corn and wheat, while The Ohio River let agricultural products from western Pennsylvania and southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois journey downstream to New Orleans. Mining, primarily soft metals of copper, zinc, and lead; and timber to supply rapidly expanding sawmills that supplied lumber for new settlements. Agricultural and industrial production generated distinctive political and social cultures of independent republican producers, who consolidated an ideology of personal liberty, free markets, and great social visions, often expressed in religious terms and enthusiasms. The region's alliance of antislavery with free soil movements contributed troops and agricultural goods that proved critical in
17480-412: The U.S. Post Office issued a commemorative 3-cent stamp celebrating the 100th anniversary of Michigan statehood. Michigan's statehood, however, wasn't officially established until January 26, 1837, but since the campaign for statehood actually began in 1835, Michigan chose to hold its centennial celebration in 1935, the year the stamp was first issued. A constitutional convention of assent was held to lead
17664-425: The Union's victory. The Homestead and Morrill Acts , donating federal land to extend the agrarian economic franchise, and support state universities, modeled western expansion and education for all future states. The British-Canadian London Conference of 1866 , and subsequent Constitution Act of 1867 analogously derived from political, and some military, turmoil in the former jurisdiction of Upper Canada , which
17848-468: The United States and much of the world. With the growth, the auto industry created jobs in Detroit that attracted immigrants from Europe and migrants from across the United States, including both blacks and whites from the rural South . By 1920, Detroit was the fourth-largest city in the U.S.. Residential housing was in short supply, and it took years for the market to catch up with the population boom. By
18032-512: The United States military armaments produced during the war, ranking second (behind New York ) among the 48 states. Detroit continued to expand through the 1950s, at one point doubling its population in a decade. After World War II, housing was developed in suburban areas outside city cores to meet demand for residences. The federal government subsidized the construction of interstate highways , which were intended to strengthen military access, but also allowed commuters and business traffic to travel
18216-491: The Upper South. In Delaware, nearly 75 percent of Black people were free by 1810. This was also a result of a changing economy, as many planters had been converting from labor-intensive tobacco to mixed commodity crops, with less need for intensive labor. After that period, few enslaved people were granted freedom. A modern mechanical cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney in 1793 and patented in 1794. Whitney's gin used
18400-462: The area during the lumbering and mining boom of the late 19th century. The Lower Peninsula is shaped like a mitten and many residents hold up a hand to depict where they are from. It is 277 miles (446 km) long from north to south and 195 miles (314 km) from east to west and occupies nearly two-thirds of the state's land area. The surface of the peninsula is generally level, broken by conical hills and glacial moraines usually not more than
18584-413: The boundary for many years, and the United States did not have uncontested control of the Upper Peninsula and Drummond Island until 1818 and 1847, respectively. During the War of 1812 , the United States forces at Fort Detroit surrendered Michigan Territory (effectively consisting of Detroit and the surrounding area) after a nearly bloodless siege in 1812. A U.S. attempt to retake Detroit resulted in
18768-473: The coast is much indented. Keweenaw Bay, Whitefish Bay , and the Big and Little Bays De Noc are the principal indentations on the Upper Peninsula. The Grand and Little Traverse , Thunder , and Saginaw bays indent the Lower Peninsula. Michigan has the second longest shoreline of any state—3,288 miles (5,292 km), including 1,056 miles (1,699 km) of island shoreline. The state has numerous large islands ,
18952-558: The coldest recorded temperature is −51 °F (−46 °C) at Vanderbilt on February 9, 1934. The state averages 30 days of thunderstorm activity per year. These can be severe, especially in the southern part of the state. The state averages 17 tornadoes per year, which are more common in the state's extreme southern section. Portions of the southern border have been almost as vulnerable historically as states further west and in Tornado Alley . For this reason, many communities in
19136-615: The corresponding geological formation of the Great Lakes Basin , a narrow watershed encompassing the Great Lakes, bounded by watersheds to the region's north by the Hudson Bay , to the west by the Mississippi , and to the east and south by the Ohio . To the east, the rivers of St. Lawrence , Richelieu , Hudson , Mohawk and Susquehanna form an arc of watersheds east to the Atlantic . The Great Lakes region, as distinct from
19320-466: The courts to end racial segregation when their students were not admitted into the white school in their neighborhood. At that time, segregation was still a huge part of southern life. It was everywhere: restaurants, restrooms, and water fountains, to name a few examples. James Meredith was the first African American student to attend the University of Mississippi. On October 1, 1962, Ross Barnett ,
19504-603: The distinct shape of a mitten is the Thumb , which projects into Lake Huron, forming Saginaw Bay . Other notable peninsulas of Michigan include the Keweenaw Peninsula , which projects northeasterly into Lake Superior from the Upper Peninsula and largely comprising Michigan's Copper Country region, and the Leelanau Peninsula , projecting from the Lower Peninsula into Lake Michigan, forming Michigan's "little finger". Numerous lakes and marshes mark both peninsulas, and
19688-495: The early 20th century it became widely known as the center of the U.S. automotive industry , which developed as a major national economic force. It is home to the country's three major automobile companies (whose headquarters are all in Metro Detroit). Once exploited for logging and mining, today the sparsely populated Upper Peninsula is important for tourism because of its abundance of natural resources. The Lower Peninsula
19872-744: The entire Lower Peninsula. The Upper Peninsula exhibits Lower Silurian sandstones, limestones, copper and iron bearing rocks, corresponding to the Huronian system of Canada . The central portion of the Lower Peninsula contains coal measures and rocks of the Pennsylvanian period. Devonian and sub-Carboniferous deposits are scattered over the entire state. Michigan rarely experiences earthquakes , and those that it does experience are generally smaller ones that do not cause significant damage. A 4.6-magnitude earthquake struck in August 1947. More recently,
20056-461: The erosion of its cover. The occurrence of the lake basins in the lowland belts on either side of the Niagara escarpment is an abnormal feature. Glacial erosion has formed them through the glacial drift obstructing the normal outlet valleys and to crustal warping in connection with or independent of the glacial sheet. Lake Superior is unlike the other lakes. The greater part of its basin occupies
20240-461: The establishment of their brand names as purveyors of consumer goods. The region's natural features, cultural institutions, and resorts make it a popular destination for tourism. Advantages of accessible waterways, highly developed transportation infrastructure, finance, and a prosperous market base make the region the global leader in automobile production and a global business location. Henry Ford 's movable assembly line and integrated production set
20424-400: The fastest growing entrepreneurial groups in the United States. Over half of the black population in America works a white-collar job. The income gap between Blacks and Whites has been cut by about a third. Although the gap is still there, two-parent Black families earn 13% less than two-parent White families. Since the second Great Migration ended in 1970, many Black people have moved back to
20608-513: The fastest; therefore, he suggested a policy to execute any of the slaves who would attempt to gain freedom by joining the British effort. Washington issued orders to the recruiters to reenlist the free Black men who had already served in the army; he worried that some of these soldiers might cross over to the British side. The Black Patriots who served the Continental Army found that the postwar military held few rewards for them, as it
20792-744: The field of architecture. Chicago pioneered the world's first skyscraper, the Home Insurance Building designed by William LeBaron Jenney . Engineering innovation established Chicago from that time on to become one of the world's most influential epicenters of contemporary urban and commercial architecture. Equally influential was the 1832 invention of balloon- framing in Chicago which replaced heavy timber construction requiring massive beams and great woodworking skill with pre-cut timber. This new lumber could be nailed together by farmers and settlers who used it to build homes and barns throughout
20976-436: The first European women to settle in what was considered the wilderness of Michigan. The town quickly became a major fur-trading and shipping post. The Église de Saint-Anne (Catholic Church of Saint Anne) was founded the same year. While the original building does not survive, the congregation remains active. Cadillac later departed to serve as the French governor of Louisiana from 1710 to 1716. French attempts to consolidate
21160-441: The first time. Several smaller metro areas also saw sizable gains, including San Antonio; Raleigh and Greensboro, N.C.; and Orlando. Primary destinations are states that have the most job opportunities, especially Georgia , North Carolina , Maryland , Virginia , Tennessee , Florida and Texas . Other southern states, including Mississippi , Louisiana , South Carolina , Alabama and Arkansas , have seen little net growth in
21344-702: The fur trade led to the Fox Wars , in which the Meskwaki (Fox) and their allies fought the French and their Native allies. At the same time, the French strengthened Fort Michilimackinac at the Straits of Mackinac to better control their lucrative fur-trading empire. By the mid-18th century, the French also occupied forts at present-day Niles and Sault Ste. Marie, though most of the rest of the region remained unsettled by Europeans. France offered free land to attract families to Detroit, which grew to 800 people in 1765. It
21528-506: The governor of Alabama, symbolically stood in the front door of the University of Alabama to protest the admittance of two black students, James Hood and Vivian Malone , in an attempt to keep them from enrolling in the university. Reporters were invited to witness this protest during his reelection campaign, in which Nicholas Katzenbach , the United States Deputy Attorney General , stated that Wallace
21712-574: The governor of Mississippi, withheld Meredith's ability to register, and he was convicted of civil contempt. He complied and faced no major charges, but had he refused to halt his interference, he would have been arrested and ordered to pay a fine of $ 10,000 per day. However, a race riot ensued when Meredith arrived on campus, and President John F. Kennedy was forced to send the National Guard to Oxford, Mississippi, where two people were killed and 200 were injured. The next year, George Wallace ,
21896-710: The largest city in Canada and the fourth largest city proper in North America behind Mexico City , New York City and Los Angeles. Cities along the Great Lakes have access to the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lawrence Seaway , making them international ports. Chicago is the largest economic and financial center. Chicago was named the fourth most important business center in the world in the MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index. The 2017 Global Financial Centres Index ranked Chicago as
22080-539: The largest economic units on Earth (with a $ 6-trillion gross regional product). This region also contains what area urban planners call the Great Lakes Megalopolis , which has an estimated 59 million people. Chicago is emerging as the third megacity in the United States , after the New York City and Los Angeles metropolitan areas, with a metro population approaching ten million. Toronto is
22264-551: The last fifty years. Previously, almost all African Americans were impoverished. The poverty rate has significantly declined since then. Today, more than 40% of African Americans consider themselves to be in the middle class. They previously had low-paying manual jobs such as sharecroppers, laborers, or any other jobs that Whites wouldn't work. A majority of African American women worked as servants, and they were paid even less than men. Fifty years ago, 6 out of 10 African American women worked as servants. Today, African Americans are one of
22448-596: The loss of the citizenship and voting rights that Blacks had worked so hard to gain. These laws were based on "separate but equal" clauses, which legally mandated the racial separation of Blacks from Whites in public places like schools, bathrooms, and transportation. Blacks usually received inferior accommodations. Segregation determined which hospitals people were born in, which schools children could attend, and even dictated which graveyards people were buried in. Blacks and Whites were also held to different legal standards, with two criminal justice systems in existence to maintain
22632-540: The middle group: Lake Michigan, Lake Huron and Lake Erie stand at practically the same level. Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are connected by the Straits of Mackinac with the Mackinac Bridge spanning the straits. Lake Huron and Lake Erie are connected by the St. Clair River and Detroit River , with the small Lake St. Clair between them. The land northeast of the rivers is undergoing a slow elevation. The Niagara River connecting Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, with
22816-475: The minds of civil rights leaders, drove the movement. School segregation was finally declared unconstitutional in 1954 by the Supreme Court ruling of Brown vs The Board of Education . In this ruling, the Supreme Court overruled the "separate but equal" ruling of Plessy vs Ferguson in 1896, concluding that this was far from the reality. The 1954 Supreme Court ruling came about after 13 parents took to
23000-510: The model and standard for major car manufactures. The Detroit area emerged as the world's automotive center, with facilities throughout the region. Akron, Ohio became the global leader in rubber production, driven by the demand for tires. Over 200 million tons of cargo are shipped annually through the Great Lakes. According to the Brookings Institution , if it stood alone as a country, the Great Lakes economy would be one of
23184-399: The movement existed in all parts of the United States, its focus was against ending disenfranchisement and Jim Crow laws in the South. A big part of the civil rights movement was nonviolent resistance . Organizations were formed around the idea of nonviolence . More often than not, the reasoning behind the nonviolence was religion, and the belief that everyone should be treated with love. It
23368-462: The moving assembly line in Highland Park marked a new era in transportation. Like the steamship and railroad, mass production of automobiles was a far-reaching development. More than the forms of public transportation, the affordable automobile transformed private life. Automobile production became the major industry of Detroit and Michigan, and permanently altered the socioeconomic life of
23552-401: The nineteenth century Grange , which in turn generated the agricultural cooperatives that defined much of rural political economy and culture throughout the region. Fraternal , ethnic, and civic organizations extended cooperatives and supported local ventures from insurance companies to orphanages and hospitals. The region was the political base, and provided much leadership political parties in
23736-689: The opening in 1825 of the Erie Canal through the Mohawk Valley in New York, connecting the Great Lakes to the Hudson River and New York City. The new route attracted a large influx of settlers to the Michigan territory. They worked as farmers, lumbermen, shipbuilders, and merchants and shipped out grain, lumber, and iron ore. By the 1830s, Michigan had 30,000 residents, more than enough to apply and qualify for statehood. On November 1, 1935,
23920-469: The outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, hundreds of thousands of black Africans were sold into slavery and imported into the Thirteen Colonies . African Americans played an important role in America's independence war against Great Britain. After suffering from ongoing oppression, they saw independence as an opportunity to break free from slavery and end unfair treatment. During
24104-401: The passage of the 13th Amendment , which abolished slavery across the country; the 14th Amendment , which states that all people born in the United States are American citizens; and the 15th Amendment , which prohibits the federal government and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Reconstruction ,
24288-453: The pattern of American centralized industrial consolidation and eventual global dominance. The region hosted the world's greatest concentrations of production for oil, coal, steel, automobiles, synthetic rubber, agricultural machinery, and heavy transport equipment. Agronomy industrialized as well, in meat processing, packaged cereal products, and processed dairy products. In response to disruptions and imbalances of power resulting from so vast
24472-406: The peninsulas. Michigan has the longest freshwater coastline of any political subdivision in the United States, being bordered by four of the five Great Lakes and Lake St. Clair . It also has 64,980 inland lakes and ponds . Michigan has the second-most water area of any state, behind only Alaska. The area was first occupied by a succession of Native American tribes over thousands of years. In
24656-424: The people they had enslaved. In addition, in this period, Methodist, Baptist and Quaker preachers also urged manumission . The proportion of free Black people in the Upper South increased markedly, from less than 1 percent of all Black people to more than 10 percent, even as the number of enslaved people was increasing overall. More than half of the number of free Black people in the United States were concentrated in
24840-690: The political protocols by which American states south of the lakes would enter the union as political equals with the original thirteen colonies. The ordinance, adopted in its final form just before the writing of the United States Constitution , was a sweeping, visionary proposal to create what was at the time a radical experiment in democratic governance and economy. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 prohibited slavery , restricted primogeniture , mandated universal public education , provided for affordable farm land to people who settled and improved it, and required peaceful, lawful treatment of
25024-661: The portion of the reserve west of the Appalachian Mountains , and bounded by the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and the Great Lakes . Britain's claims were intensely disputed by a confederation of Indians during Pontiac's Rebellion , which induced major concessions to still sovereign Indian nations; and by the Iroquois Confederacy , whose six member nations- Mohawk , Oneida , Onondaga , Cayuga , Seneca and Tuscarora -never conceded sovereignty to either Britain or, later, The United States. During
25208-545: The principal ones being the North Manitou and South Manitou , Beaver , and Fox groups in Lake Michigan; Isle Royale and Grande Isle in Lake Superior; Marquette, Bois Blanc , and Mackinac islands in Lake Huron; and Neebish , Sugar , and Drummond islands in St. Mary's River . Michigan has about 150 lighthouses , the most of any U.S. state. The first lighthouses in Michigan were built between 1818 and 1822. They were built to project light at night and to serve as
25392-507: The process of making the newly freed slaves into US citizens with civil rights ostensibly guaranteed by these three new constitutional amendments, angered many southern Whites, who were highly opposed to granting Blacks citizenship and the right to vote. The 14th and 15th amendments were both nullified in 1883. White southerners, who had been forced to free their slaves, feared that Black involvement in politics would lead to "Negro supremacy" (Black majority rule); in reality, Blacks never controlled
25576-542: The ratification of the Constitution in 1789, free Black men could vote in five of the thirteen states, including North Carolina. That demonstrated that they were considered citizens not only of their states but of the United States. Although southern state legislatures maintained the institution of slavery, numerous slaveholders, especially those in the Upper South , were inspired by revolutionary ideals to free
25760-500: The region became the global epicenter of motorized land vehicles, including cars, trucks and jeeps, as well as a major supplier of engine, transmission, and electrical components to the wartime aeronautics industry. Despite extreme labor shortages, the region increased mechanization, and absorbed large numbers of women and immigrant labor, to increase its food production. Navigable terrain, waterways, and ports spurred an unprecedented construction of transportation infrastructure throughout
25944-465: The region during the late 18th century. The cotton gin thus "transformed cotton as a crop and the American South into the globe's first agricultural powerhouse". Because of its inadvertent effect on American slavery, and on its ensuring that the South's economy developed in the direction of plantation-based agriculture (while encouraging the growth of the textile industry elsewhere, such as in
26128-532: The region more easily. Since 1960, modern advances in the auto industry have led to increased automation, high-tech industry, and increased suburban growth. Longstanding tensions in Detroit culminated in the Twelfth Street riot in July 1967. During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, increasing fuel costs and other factors made significantly more global competition and recession among families. Michigan lost
26312-493: The region's coal and iron mines; steel, automobile and rubber industries; and breakthrough strikes and contracts of Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. The role of government also grew during the early 20th century. In the rural areas, most people obtained food and manufactured goods from neighbors and other people they knew personally. As industry and commerce grew, goods such as food, materials, and medicines were no longer made by neighbors, but by large companies. During World War II ,
26496-623: The region's governance on the American side. The Land Ordinance of 1784 established the broad outlines of future governance. The territory would be divided into six states, which would be given broad powers of constitutional instituting, and admitted to the nation as equal members. The Land Ordinance of 1785 specified the manner in which land would be distributed in the Territory, favoring sale in small parcels to settlers who would work their own farms. The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 defined
26680-511: The region. Blue collar industry traditionally represent in the Great Lakes region. In the United States, it is a stronghold of the Democratic Party although in recent years many states in Great Lakes region have become swing states . In Ontario , it has long been divided between rural and urban districts, with many rural ridings voted more conservative, and larger urban and Suburban areas voting Liberal or NDP. The Great Lake region
26864-439: The region. The region's greatest institutional contributions were major corporate, labor, educational and cooperative organizations. It hosted some of the most influential national and international corporations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century monopoly age, including John Deere Plow, McCormack Reaper, New York Central and Erie railroads, Carnegie Steel, U.S. Steel, International Harvester and Standard Oil. As
27048-683: The region. The region is a global leader in advanced manufacturing and research and development, with significant innovations in both production processes and business organization. John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil set precedents for centralized pricing, uniform distribution, and controlled product standards through Standard Oil, which started as a consolidated refinery in Cleveland. Cyrus McCormick 's Reaper and other manufacturers of agricultural machinery consolidated into International Harvester in Chicago. Andrew Carnegie 's steel production integrated large-scale open-hearth and Bessemer processes into
27232-629: The respect of the oppressor. The Montgomery bus boycott helped birth organizations that were embedded in nonviolence. They were the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee . Some of the most important writings to come out of the movement were written by black Southerners, such as King's famous 1963 " Letter from Birmingham Jail ". Most civil rights landmarks can be found in
27416-517: The rest, and a variety of other indigenous nation-peoples including the Menominee , Ojibwa , Illinois , Pottawatmie , Huron , Shawnee , Erie , Fox , Miami , Meskwaki and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago). With the first permanent European settlements in the early seventeenth century, all these nation-peoples developed an extensive fur trade with French, Dutch, and English merchants in the St. Lawrence, Hudson and Mohawk Valleys, and Hudson's Bay, respectively. The prospects of fur monopolies and discovery of
27600-433: The second wave hitting its high point during World War II and the post-World War II economic boom, which lasted until 1970. During both migrations, five million Blacks left their homes in the South for Northern and Western states to find work in private and public sectors of the economy. They also wanted to leave the racial segregation, lynching, bigotry, violence, and disenfranchisement in the South behind. Upon arriving in
27784-525: The second-largest city in Michigan also became an important center of manufacturing. Since 1838, the city has been noted for its furniture industry. In the 21st century, it is home to five of the world's leading office furniture companies. Grand Rapids is home to a number of major companies including Steelcase , Amway , and Meijer . Grand Rapids is also an important center for GE Aviation Systems . Michigan held its first United States presidential primary election in 1910. With its rapid growth in industry, it
27968-544: The separation of law and expectation. In instances of law breaking, the Ku Klux Klan , often working in tandem with law enforcement officers, would engage in racial terrorism against Blacks. In the 20th century, two major events changed the lives of Black Southerners: the Great Migration and the Civil Rights Movement . The first Great Migration began during World War I and continued until 1940, with
28152-665: The ship held 350 black Africans from the Kingdom of Ndongo on the Kwanza River in north central Angola . The pirates took 60 of the best and healthiest slaves to the English colony of Jamestown with the hopes of selling them to the manpower-deprived city. The settlers of Jamestown purchased 32 slaves (17 men and 15 women), with the hopes that slave labor would help expand the colony. These slaves and their descendants worked wherever they were needed up until 1705. Between 1619 and
28336-400: The side towards the upland, and a long gentle slope on the other side. Its relief is seldom more than 200 or 300 feet (91 m) and is generally small. Its continuity and its contrast with the associated lowlands on the underlying and overlying weak strata make it an important feature. The escarpment would lie straight east–west if the slant of the strata were uniformly to the south. However,
28520-603: The single lowland is continued under the name of the Mohawk Valley . This is an east–west longitudinal depression that has been eroded on a belt of relatively weak strata between the resistant crystalline rocks of the Adirondacks on the north and the northern escarpment of the Appalachian Plateau ( Catskills - Helderbergs ) on the south. Early in U.S. history, this provided a vital economic route between
28704-443: The smaller cities established high schools late in the century. Michigan's economy underwent a transformation at the turn of the 20th century. Many individuals, including Ransom E. Olds , John and Horace Dodge , Henry Leland , David Dunbar Buick , Henry Joy , Charles King , and Henry Ford , provided the concentration of engineering know-how and technological enthusiasm to develop the automotive industry . Ford's development of
28888-440: The south politically. For roughly 100 years after the end of the Civil War, Black Americans, especially in the South, suffered from racial oppression in the form of segregation and lynchings . Jim Crow laws , passed in the late 19th and early 20th century, required racial segregation in the states that had maintained slavery until 1865. Fully in place from 1910 onwards, Jim Crow laws reinstated white supremacy and contributed to
29072-595: The state, marked by highway signs and the Polar-Equator Trail— along a line including Mission Point Light near Traverse City , the towns of Gaylord and Alpena in the Lower Peninsula and Menominee in the Upper Peninsula. With the exception of two tiny areas drained by the Mississippi River by way of the Wisconsin River in the Upper Peninsula and by way of the Kankakee - Illinois River in
29256-478: The strata are somewhat warped and so the escarpment's course is strongly convex to the north in the middle, gently convex to the south at either end. The escarpment begins where its determining limestone / dolomite begins, in west-central New York . There, it separates the lowlands that separate Lake Ontario from Lake Erie . It curves to the northwest through the Ontario province to the island belt that divides
29440-434: The suburbs. While both White and Black families live in suburbia, the neighborhoods seemingly are very separated. Many of the middle class African American families live in all Black suburbia. The African American middle class continues to grow, with more than 40% of the Black middle class population owning a home. In the last 25 years, for example, the population of Prince George's County, Maryland , where suburban housing
29624-467: The territory to statehood. In October 1835 the people approved the constitution of 1835, thereby forming a state government. Congressional recognition was delayed pending resolution of a boundary dispute with Ohio known as the Toledo War . Congress awarded the "Toledo Strip" to Ohio. Michigan received the western part of the Upper Peninsula as a concession and formally entered the Union as a free state on January 26, 1837. The Upper Peninsula proved to be
29808-399: The twenty-fourth most competitive city in the world, behind Toronto, also in the Great Lakes region, at seventh. The Chicago Board of Trade (established 1848) listed the first ever standardized "exchange traded" forward contracts, which were called futures contracts . As a world financial center it is home to major financial and futures exchanges , including the Chicago Stock Exchange ,
29992-410: The two belts of weaker strata on either side of the Niagara escarpment. Lake Ontario, Georgian Bay and Green Bay occupy depressions in the lowland on the inner side of the escarpment. Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan lie in depressions in the lowland on the outer side. When the two lowlands are traced eastward, they become confluent after the Niagara limestone has faded away in central New York, and
30176-423: The upland and the belts of more resistant strata, which rise in uplands . Illustrations of this type of forms are found in the district of the Great Lakes . The chief upland belt or escarpment is formed by the firm Niagara limestone/dolomite , which takes its name from the gorge and falls cut through the upland by the Niagara River . The Niagara Escarpment has a relatively strong slope or enfacing escarpment on
30360-466: The very southern portions of the state have tornado sirens to warn residents of approaching tornadoes. Farther north, in Central Michigan, Northern Michigan, and the Upper Peninsula, tornadoes are rare. The geological formation of the state is greatly varied, with the Michigan Basin being the most major formation. Primary boulders are found over the entire surface of the Upper Peninsula (being principally of primitive origin), while Secondary deposits cover
30544-566: The war, Blacks fought for whichever side they thought would have the best chance of granting them their freedom. It is estimated that 20,000 African Americans joined the British cause, which promised freedom to enslaved people, as Black Loyalists. Around 9,000 African Americans became Black Patriots. In state navies, some African Americans served as captains: South Carolina had significant numbers of Black captains. The British regular army had some fears that, if armed, Black men would start slave rebellions . Trying to placate southern planters,
30728-455: The west, capped around by the Canadian province of Ontario to the north and east. The heavily forested Upper Peninsula is relatively mountainous in the west. The Porcupine Mountains , which are part of one of the oldest mountain chains in the world, rise to an altitude of almost 2,000 feet (610 m) above sea level and form the watershed between the streams flowing into Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. The surface on either side of this range
30912-492: The western prairies and plains. Wisconsin-born, Chicago-trained Sullivan apprentice Frank Lloyd Wright designed prototypes for architectural designs from the commercial skylight atrium to suburban ranch house. German-born Pennsylvania immigrant John A. Roebling invented steel wire rope, a pivotal part of suspension bridges he designed and whose construction he supervised in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Buffalo, based on earlier successful canal aqueducts. His most famous project
31096-431: The winter through the middle of February, the state is frequently subjected to heavy lake-effect snow . The state averages from 30 to 40 inches (76 to 102 cm) of precipitation annually; however, some areas in the northern lower peninsula and the upper peninsula average almost 160 inches (4,100 mm) of snowfall per year. Michigan's highest recorded temperature is 112 °F (44 °C) at Mio on July 13, 1936, and
31280-466: The world's most efficient and profitable mills. The largest, most comprehensive monopoly in the world, United States Steel , consolidated steel production throughout the region. Many of the world's largest employers began in the Great Lakes region. Mass marketing in the modern sense was born in the region. Two competing Chicago retailers— Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck —developed mass marketing and sales through catalogues, mail-order distribution, and
31464-419: Was also thought that violent protests would never gain the needed momentum, despite the fact that anti-racism protests were often disbanded with intense police violence . These nonviolent protestors were also inspired by the work of Gandhi . Leaders of the nonviolent protest movement like Martin Luther King Jr. and James Bevel were backed by religious morals and the ideals of Gandhi. These ideals, paired with
31648-440: Was an important British supply center. Most of the inhabitants were French-Canadians or American Indians, many of whom had been allied with the French because of long trading ties. Because of imprecise cartography and unclear language defining the boundaries in the 1783 Treaty of Paris , the British retained control of Detroit and Michigan after the American Revolution . When Quebec split into Lower and Upper Canada in 1791, Michigan
31832-414: Was an important center of industry-wide union organizing, such as the rise of the United Auto Workers . In 1920 WWJ (AM) in Detroit became the first radio station in the United States to regularly broadcast commercial programs. Throughout that decade, some of the country's largest and most ornate skyscrapers were built in the city. Particularly noteworthy are the Fisher Building , Cadillac Place , and
32016-412: Was arrested for sitting in the white section of a public city bus. The Association organized carpooling for Blacks as well as weekly prayer groups. In 1956, it was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. The Montgomery bus boycott was a major event in the civil rights movement, and it brought King to national attention as the leader of this protest. He stressed the importance of nonviolence in gaining
32200-434: Was developed near Washington, DC , became majority African American. By 2006 it was the wealthiest majority-black county in the nation. Similar to White Americans , African Americans continue to move to more distant areas. Charles County, Maryland has become the next destination for middle-class black migrants from Washington and other areas; by 2002, the students in the school system were majority black. Charles County has
32384-436: Was founded in 1668 on the site where Père Jacques Marquette established Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan , as a base for Catholic missions. Missionaries in 1671–75 founded outlying stations at Saint Ignace and Marquette . Jesuit missionaries were well received by the area's Indian populations, with few difficulties or hostilities. In 1679, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle built Fort Miami at present-day St. Joseph . In 1691,
32568-407: Was much reduced in size, and the Southern states had banned all enslaved men from their militias. North Carolina was among the states that allowed free people of color to serve in their militias and bear arms until the 1830s. In 1792, the United States Congress formally excluded African Americans from military service, allowing only "free able-bodied white male citizens" to serve. At the time of
32752-428: Was not until the final months of the war, when manpower was low, that loyalists used Black men to fight for Britain in the South. In Savannah, Georgia , Augusta, Georgia , and Charleston, South Carolina , when threatened by Patriot forces, the British filled gaps in their troops with African Americans. In October 1779, about 200 Black Loyalist soldiers assisted the British in successfully defending Savannah against
32936-431: Was part of Kent County , Upper Canada. It held its first democratic elections in August 1792 to send delegates to the new provincial parliament at Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake ). Under terms negotiated in the 1794 Jay Treaty , Britain withdrew from Detroit and Michilimackinac in 1796. It retained control of territory east and south of the Detroit River, which are now included in Ontario, Canada. Questions remained over
33120-505: Was renamed and organized in the new dominion as the province of Ontario . Like the provisions of the ordinance, Ontario prohibited slavery, made provisions for land distribution to farmers who owned their own land, and mandated universal public education . Industrial production, organization, and technology have made the region among the world's most productive manufacturing centers. Nineteenth-century monopolies such as International Harvester, Standard Oil, and United States Steel established
33304-468: Was the Brooklyn Bridge . Contributions to modern transportation include the Wright brothers ' early airplanes, designed and perfected in their Dayton, Ohio mechanics' workshops; distinctive Great Lakes freighters , and railroad beds constructed of wooden ties and steel rails. The early nineteenth century Erie Canal and mid-twentieth century St. Lawrence Seaway expanded the scale and capacity of massive water-born freight. Agricultural associations joined
33488-438: Was the fourth oldest normal school in the United States and the first U.S. normal school outside New England . In 1899, the Michigan State Normal School became the first normal school in the nation to offer a four-year curriculum. Michigan Agricultural College (1855), now Michigan State University in East Lansing , was founded as the first agricultural college in the nation. Many private colleges were founded as well, and
33672-409: Was the largest city between Montreal and New Orleans. French settlers also established small farms south of the Detroit River opposite the fort, near a Jesuit mission and Huron village. From 1660 until the end of French rule, Michigan was part of the Royal Province of New France . In 1760, Montreal fell to the British forces, ending the French and Indian War (1754–1763), the North American front of
33856-436: Was unauthorized to do so, and he eventually stepped down. Most of the major events in the movement occurred in the South, including the Montgomery bus boycott (1955–1956), the Mississippi Freedom Summer (1964), the Selma to Montgomery marches (1965), and the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr . The Montgomery Improvement Association was formed in 1955 with Martin Luther King Jr. as its president after Rosa Parks
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