If one counted through the history of the Cooper family, they had produced notable figures. During the Chartist movement, there was a workers' leader in Sheffield named Thomas Cooper, locally known as "Old Brother."
At first, the Chartists and the Anti-Corn Law League had been allies. Later, as the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew spread—"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God"—the starving masses stopped clamoring for bread and began pondering abstract concepts.
From that period onward, the struggle between the Chartists and the Anti-Corn Law League became extremely fierce. Historians had analyzed the Chartist movement's failure as being connected to its leaders emigrating, but Thomas Cooper had not gone to America or Australia. He had moved to London, lived until 1892, and worked as a newspaper deliveryman in his final job.
He had been a brave man, but also a tyrannical father. Of his three children, one had been driven by him to the New World, and they had never contacted one another again. Ben Cooper had not even known he had such a relative.
America had experienced several major economic crises, in 1810, 1837, 1857, and 1873. The crises of 1819 and 1837 had been caused by banks engaging in risky speculation.
At the time, America had been carrying out massive infrastructure development. Cotton and canal construction had far-reaching effects, while enormous loans from Europe financed these projects. Along with them came civilians fleeing European wars for America, triggering a wave of immigration.
Western films often showed vast, desolate lands with few inhabitants and dreary little towns. In truth, if people could settle on the East Coast, they had no desire to move west.
Real-estate speculation had produced many ghost towns, places that existed only on