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Invented by Robert Fulton the steamboat was a true success. Man could now defy wind, wave, tide and downstream current. Within a few years Fulton changed all of America's navigable streams into two way arteries. This doubled the carrying capacity of people and goods. By 1820 there were 60 steamboats on the Mississippi, by 1860 there were a 1,000 and some of them were river palaces. They played a vital role in opening the West and South and cities grew along the rivers, cotton growers created large plantations because they could ship their crops, and people could get more goods that they needed easier and faster than before.

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16y ago

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