History of Ohio

The history of Ohio is composed of many thousands of years of human activity. What is now were probably  peoples, who lived in the area as early as 13,000 BC. They were eventually supplanted by Native Americans known as the. The Archaic period is generally subdivided into the Early, Middle and Late Archaic. Early Archaic peoples in Ohio are generally reckoned to be mobile hunters-and-gatherers. Middle Archaic people are less well known, because relatively few sites have been found, and those that are found are generally deeply buried in river valleys and thus inaccessible. The Late Archaic period featured the development of focal subsistence economies and regionalization of Archaic cultures. Regional cultures in Ohio include the (Excavations) of southwestern Ohio, the culture of western Ohio (especially northwestern Ohio), and the Red Ochre and Old Copper cultures, across much of northern Ohio. Flint Ridge, located in present-day, provided , an extremely important raw material and trade good. Objects made from Flint Ridge flint have been found as far east as the coast, as far west as, and as far south as.

Late Archaic cultures were in turn supplanted by Native Americans of the about 800 BC. The Adenas were s who built thousands of burial mounds in Ohio, many of which remain. Following the Adena culture was the (c. 100 to c. 400 A.D.), and later the. The in, the largest  in the United States and one of Ohio's best-known landmarks, was traditionally considered an Adena mound, but may have been the work of Fort Ancient people.

Early historic natives
When the first Europeans began to arrive in North America, Native Americans participated in the. When the confederation depleted the beaver and other game in the  region, they launched a war known as the, destroying or scattering those Indians living in Tennessee. The along the shore of  were virtually eliminated by the Iroquois in the 1650s during the Beaver Wars. Thereafter, the Ohio lands were claimed by the Iroquois as hunting grounds. Ohio was largely uninhabited for several decades.

However, population pressure from expanding European colonies on the Atlantic coast compelled several groups of American Indians to relocate to the by the 1730s. From the east, and  arrived, and  and s from the north. lived in what is now western Ohio. s were those Iroquois who migrated west into the Ohio lands.

European colonization
During the 18th century, the set up a system of trading posts to control the  in the region. was one of the first English-speaking explorers to travel through and write about the Ohio Country. When British traders such as started to do business in the Ohio Country, the French and their northern Indian allies drove them out, beginning with a raid on Miami Indian town of Pickawillany (modern ) in 1752. The French began the military occupation of the Ohio valley in 1753, and an attempt by the n to drive them out in 1754 led to a war known in the United States as the. As a result of the, the French ceded control of Ohio and the old Northwest to Great Britain.

American Revolution
British military occupation in the region had previously contributed to the outbreak of in 1763. Ohio Indians participated in that war, until an armed expedition in Ohio led by Colonel brought about a truce. Another military expedition into the Ohio Country in 1774 brought to a conclusion.

During the, Native Americans in the Ohio Country were divided over which side to support. For example, the Shawnee leader and the Delaware leader  sided with the British, while  (Shawnee) and  (Delaware) sought to remain friendly with the United States. American frontiersmen often did not differentiate between friendly and hostile Indians, however: Cornstalk was killed by American militiamen, and White Eyes may have been. Perhaps the most tragic incident of the war &mdash; the of 1782 &mdash; took place in Ohio.

With the American victory in the Revolutionary War, the British ceded claims to Ohio and the territory in the West to the to the United States.

After the Northwest Ordinance, settlement of Ohio began with the founding of by the, which had been formed by a group of American Revolutionary War veterans. The (also referred to as the "Symmes Purchase") in the southwestern section and the  in the Connecticut  in present-day.

Northwest Ordinance and Territory


American settlement of the Northwest Territory was resisted by Native Americans in the. The natives were eventually conquered by General at the  in 1794 and much of present-day Ohio was ceded to the United States in the  the next year.

The United States created the in  under the  of 1787. The territory was not allowed to legalize slavery (although once it achieved statehood it was allowed to do so, and did not.) The states of the Midwest would be known as free states, in contradistinction to those states south of the Ohio River known as slave states, and later, as Northeastern states abolished slavery in the coming two generations, the free states would be known as Northern States. The Northwest Territory originally included areas that had previously been known as and. As Ohio prepared for statehood, was carved out, reducing the Northwest Territory to approximately the size of present-day Ohio plus the eastern half of 's lower peninsula.

Statehood
As Ohio's population numbered 45,000 in December 1801, Congress determined that the population was growing rapidly and Ohio could begin the path to statehood with the assumption that it would exceed 60,000 residents by the time it would become a state. In 1802, Congress passed the that outlined the process for Ohio to seek statehood. The residents convened a constitutional convention which copied provisions from other states, and rejected slavery.

On,  signed an act of Congress that approved Ohio's boundaries and constitution. However, Congress did not pass a resolution formally admitting Ohio as the 17th state. The current custom of Congress declaring an official date of statehood did not begin until 1812, with 's admission as the 18th state. Although no formal resolution of admission was required, when the oversight was discovered in 1953, Ohio congressman introduced a bill in Congress to admit Ohio to the Union retroactive to. At a special session at the old state capital in, the Ohio state legislature approved a new petition for statehood that was delivered to Washington, D.C. on horseback. On  (the year of Ohio's 150th anniversary),  signed an act that officially declared   the date of Ohio's admittance into the Union.

War of 1812
Ohio was on the front lines of the, s the frontiermen angrily charged that British agents in Canada had provided weapons (especially rifles and gunpowder) to hostile Indian tribes. Simultaneously was the conflict in the  between the U.S. and an Indian confederacy led by the Shawnee chief, who became an official ally of the British in 1812. 's victory at the in 1811, coupled with the defeat and death of Tecumseh in 1813 broke the power of the Indians. After 1815 the British no longer traded with the Indians of Ohio nor provided them military supplies.

In 1835, Ohio contested with over the. Congress gave the land, which included the city of, to Ohio. In exchange, Michigan was given more of the.

Civil War
Main article: 

Ohio's central position and its population gave it an important place during the Civil War, and the Ohio River was a vital artery for troop and supply movements, as were Ohio's railroads. Ohio provided a large number of senior commanders to the during the war, and five Buckeye soldiers would later become.

Industrialization
Throughout much of the 18th and 19th century heavy indrustry was rapidly introduced. It was introduced in particular to combat for the appalling unemployment in the 19th century, by 1856 unemployment had reaced 3.45 million. However, with the rapidly advaning industrial techniques these jobs became more appealing and as a result unemployment steadily declined.

Constitutional Convention of 1912
In 1912 a Constitutional Convention was held with  as Secretary. The result reeflected the concerns of the. It introduced the and the, allowed the General Assembly to put questions on the ballot for the people to ratify laws and constitutional amendments originating in the Legislature as well. Under the principle that laws should be reviewed once a generation, the constituation provided for a recurring question to appear on Ohio's general election ballots every 20 years. The question asks whether a new convention is required. Although the question has appeared in 1932, 1952, 1972, and 1992, it has never been approved. Instead, constitutional amendments have been proposed by petition and the legislature hundreds of times and adopted in a majority of cases.

Surveys and textbooks

 * Andrew R. L. Cayton. Ohio: The History of a People (2002)
 * Knepper, George W. Ohio and Its People. Kent State University Press, 3rd edition 2003, ISBN 0-87338-791-0 (paperback),