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ESSENTIAL QUESTION:

Introduction

Population changes?
Life on the frontier? Image vs. reality?
Rugged individualism?
Why was the U.S. slow to embrace the
Industrial Revolution?
Why such rapid movement westward?
Liberal land policies
1796: minimum land purchase of 640 acres at
$2 per acre. (Federalist land policy)
1820: min. 80 acres for $1.25 (Democratic land
policy)

First Turnpike- 1790 Lancaster, PA

By 1832, nearly 2400 mi. of road connected


most major cities.

Conestoga Covered Wagons

Conestoga Trail, 1820s

Cumberland (National Road),


1811

Erie Canal System

Erie Canal, 1820s

Begun in 1817; completed in 1825

Robert Fulton
& the Steamboat

1807: The Clermont

Principal Canals in 1840

Inland Freight Rates

Clipper Ships

John Stevens
John Stevens became interested in
steam locomotion in the 1780s. He
established the world's first steam ferry,
and later built the first operating steam
locomotive in the United States.

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The Iron Horse Wins! (1830)

1830 13 miles of track built by Baltimore & Ohio RR


By 1850 9000 mi. of RR track [1860 31,000 mi.]

The
Railroad
Revolution,
1850s

Immigrant labor
built the No. RRs.

Slave labor
built the So. RRs.

Why were railroads so important for the industrial growth


of the United States?
Prior to the railroad it was difficult for companies to move
products to distant locations.
A transportation system was needed to efficiently and
cheaply move both raw materials to the factories and the
finished goods to the consumers.
River and canal transportation were limited to areas near
water routes. In addition, frozen water prevented their use
during the winter.
Railroads solved the problems and within a few decades of
development, railroads became the most important method of
moving goods and people.
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Innovations led to the creation of an efficient rail network in the


United States
The width of the rail tracts (gauge) was standardized which allowed
trains from different railroads to switch tracks.
Four standardized time zones were created for the entire nation in 1883.
This made it possible to
create train arrival and departure times
across the
country.
Steel rails replaced iron rails, which could carry heavier loads.
The state and federal governments gave railroads huge grants of land
amounting to over 180 million acres. This provided an incentive to build more
lines and encouraged settlement.
George Westinghouse patented the first automatic air brake, which
made train travel much safer.

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George Pullman designed a sleeping car including the services of supplying the
linens, housekeeping, and attendants for the sleeping cars, making train travel
much more comfortable. Pullmans car gained much attention after it housed
Presidents Lincolns body through 8 states during the funeral procession.

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New inventions led to the mechanization of agriculture


There were hundreds of inventions that increased output for
farmers beginning in the 1840s. Major new machinery included:

Reapers
Automatic wire binder
Threshing machine
Mechanical planter
Mechanical cutter
Huskers and shellers
Cream separators
Manure spreaders
Potato planters
Hay driers
Poultry incubators

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Number of man-hours to produce crop

21

Resourcefulness &
Experimentation

Americans were willing to try


anything.

They were first copiers, then


innovators.

1800 41 patents were approved.


1860 4,357

Eli Whitneys Cotton Gin, 1791

Actually invented
by a slave!

Eli Whitneys Gun Factory

Interchangeable Parts Rifle

John Deere & the Steel Plow


(1837)

Cyrus McCormick
& the Mechanical Reaper: 1831

Samuel F. B. Morse

1840 Telegraph

Cyrus Field
& the Transatlantic Cable, 1858

Elias Howe & Isaac Singer

1840s
Sewing Machine
*1st widely advertised consumer product
*Installment plans

The American Dream


z

They all regarded material advance as


the natural fruit of American
republicanism & proof of the countrys
virtue and promise.

A German visitor in the 1840s, Friedrich


List, observed:
Anything new is quickly introduced here,
including all of the latest inventions.
There is no clinging to old ways. The
moment an American hears the word
invention, he pricks up his ears.

Creating a Business-Friendly Climate


Supreme Court Rulings:
* Fletcher v. Peck (1810)
* Dartmouth v. Woodward (1819)
* McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
* Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
* Charles Rivers Bridge v. Warren
Bridge (1835) *See page #335
General Incorporation Law passed
in New York, 1848.
Laissez faire BUT, govt. did much
to assist capitalism!

Distribution of Wealth
v

During the American Revolution,


45% of all wealth in the top 10% of
the population.
1845 Boston top 4% owned over
65% of the wealth.
1860 Philadelphia top 1% owned
over 50% of the wealth.
The gap between rich and poor was
widening!

Samuel Slater
(Father of the Factory System)

The Lowell/Waltham System:


First Dual-Purpose Textile Plant

Francis Cabot Lowells town - 1814

Lowell in 1850

Lowell Mill

Early Textile Loom

New England
Textile
Centers:
1830s

New England Dominance in


Textiles

Women and the Economy


Factory work = greater economic independence
for women and opportunity to buy manufactured
goods. Esp. in nursing, teaching, and domestic
service
However, most factory girls had little chance of
becoming self-supporting why?
Most working women were single and once
married left the factories to care for their home.
Cult of Domesticity widespread cultural
creed that glorified the functions of the
homemaker.

Lowell Girls

What was their typical profile?

Lowell Boarding Houses

What was boardinghouse life like?


*See The Spread of the Factory readings

Lowell Mills
Time Table

Early
Union
Newsletter

The Factory Girls Garland

February 20, 1845 issue.

Im a Factory Girl Filled with Wishes


I'm a factory girl
Everyday filled with fear
From breathing in the poison air
Wishing for windows!
I'm a factory girl
Tired from the 13 hours of work each day
And we have such low pay
Wishing for shorten work times!
I'm a factory girl
Never having enough time to eat
Nor to rest my feet
Wishing for more free time!
I'm a factory girl
Sick of all this harsh conditions
Making me want to sign the petition!
So do what I ask for because I am a factory girl
And I'm hereby speaking for all the rest!

Average workday
was 11 hours per
day
From a report on Lowell, a
mill in Massachusetts,
working conditions in 1846
Thus thirteen hours per day of
close attention and monotonous
labor are exacted from the
young women in these
manufactories. . . So fatiguedwe should say, exhausted and
worn out but we wish to speak
of the system in the simplest
language-are numbers o f the
girls, that they go to bed soon
after their evening meal? and
endeavor by a comparatively
long sleep to resuscitate their
weakened frames for the toils of
the coming day.

Irish Immigrant Girls at Lowell

Labor Reform
Unions began to form after
the Revolutionary War in
cities such as Philadelphia
and Baltimore.
In the 1820s the Mechanics'
Union of Trade Associations,
the first to combine different
types of unions, formed.
Their goals were not only
higher wages and improved
working conditions but also
free public schools, abolition
of debtors jail, and universal
male suffrage.
The Union entered politics
to secure their goals.

Preamble of the Mechanics'


Union of Trade Associations
(Philadelphia, 1828)
We, the Journeymen Mechanics
of the City and County of
Philadelphia, conscious that our
condition in society, is lower than
justice demands it should be, and
feeling our inability, individually,
to ward off from ourselves and
families those numerous evils
which result from an unequal and
very excessive accumulation of
wealth and power into the hands
of a few, are desirous of forming
an Association, which shall avert
as much as possible those evils
with which poverty and incessant
toil have already inflicted, and
which threaten ultimately to,
overwhelm and destroy us

A family in debtors prison

Up until the mid-19th


century, a person
could be put in jail if
they could not pay
back money owed.
Early unions pushed
to have debtors jails
abolished.
Child labor was
widespread in the
19th and early 20th
centuries, for
example, in New
England about 30%
of workers were
children under 16.

Unions
In the late 1820s, unions entered politics with the
Working Men's Party. It was made up of craftsmen,
skilled journeymen, and reformers who sought a 10hour workday, free public education, abolition of debtor
imprisonment, and an end to prison contract labor..
Many of the early labor unions were destroyed by the
economic collapse caused by the Panic of 1837. Nearly
30% of U.S. workers lost their jobs.
Labor unions made a comeback in the 1840s and
1850s but were again devastated by the economic
crisis of the Panic of 1857.
Unions came back strongly after the Civil War.

The Early Union Movement


Workingmans Party (1829)
* Founded by Robert Dale Owen and
others in New York City.
Early unions were usually local, social,
and weak.

Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842)


Ruled that labor unions were not illegal
conspiracies as long as their methods were
honorable and peaceful

Major antebellum (period between the


Revolutionary and Civil Wars) labor
accomplishments
In 1840, President Van Buren established a ten
hour work day for all federal employees.
In 1842, the Massachusetts Supreme Court
ruled that labor unions were not illegal
conspiracies.
In 1842, children were prohibited from
working over ten hours a day.
In 1847, New Hampshire made ten hours the
legal workday.
In 1848, Pennsylvania passed a law to make
12 the minimum age for child workers.
In 1848, Pennsylvania passed a ten hour work
day.

Regional Specialization
EAST Industrial
SOUTH Cotton & Slavery
WEST The Nations Breadbasket

American Population Centers in


1820

American Population Centers in


1860

U.S. population increase: 1850 to 1900


Most of this increase can be attributed to the large number of immigrants
who arrived in the U.S. during the second and third waves of immigration
from Europe

60

National Origin of Immigrants:


1820 - 1860
Why now?

Irish Immigrants

1840s Black Forties

Potato famine killed 2 million in Ireland


Tens of thousands flocked to the U.S.
Swarmed to larger cities why?
Lived in squalor, regarded as social menace, and
forced into least desirable jobs.
Competed for jobs = native hatred toward the Irish
Molly Maguires
Became influential in politics

Tammany Hall
patronage

Most of the immigrants who came to the


United States following the potato famine of
the 1840s settled in
A. Urban areas of the North
B. Seacoast cities of the South
C. Rural sections of the Old Northwest
D. California
E. Appalachia

German Immigrants
1830-1860 more than 1 million Germans
came to U.S.
Mostly farmers and political liberals in
search of democracy.
Many settled in the West and established
farms
More scattered than the Irish

KnowNothing
Party:
The Supreme
Order of the
Star-Spangled
Banner

Changing Occupation Distributions:


1820 - 1860

The Market Revolution summarized

Market Revolution 18th and 19th century


transformation from a subsistence economy to
a national commercial and industrial network.
Supreme Court (under Marshall) protected
contract rights = development of monopolies.
After 1835, the SC under Taney encouraged
greater competition.
Self-sufficient households of colonial days
disappear.

The Market Revolution summarized

Market Revolution continued:

Advanced in manufacturing and transportation


= increased prosperity and growing gap
between rich and poor.
Millions of immigrants flocked to the U.S.
Increased standard of living.

ECONOMIC?

POLITICAL?

SOCIAL?

FUTURE
PROBLEMS?

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