America’s Economic Revolution

Canals Early Railroads

American Population – 1820-1840

• Population increases – public health improvements

• Urbanization• Western migration• Higher birth rates• 1820 – 10 million• 1840 – 17 million• Canals, railroads,

turnpikes assist migration

• New Orleans – Mid 1800’s

Immigration and Urban Growth• Urbanization 1840-1860• Rise of western cities – St. Louis, Pittsburgh,

Cincinnati, Louisville• Population hits 31 million by the 1850’s• Increased immigration – Irish, French, Italians,

English, Polish, Dutch• Irish – New England, Cities, left Ireland because

of the Potato Famine of the 1840’s• Germans – settle in western territory

Nativism • Some U.S. citizens welcome new

immigrants – factory owners in particular – immigrants represent a source of cheap labor

• Nativism – defense of native born citizens

• Increase in racism• “Alien Menace”• 1845 – Native American Party – Nativists• 1850 – Supreme Order of the Star-

Spangled Banner– Secret Societies – when asked if they were

a member of the secret societies, members would claim “I know nothing” this became the basis for the Know-Nothing Political Party of the 1840’s and 1850’s – East Coast

Transportation Changes• Canals – increased use of steamboats

navigating the Mississippi River led to the need for canals

• Erie Canal – 1825 – connects the Hudson River to the Great Lakes – access to Chicago and the West, NYC begins to compete economically with New Orleans

Erie Canal• Opened in 1825, the Erie Canal was the engineering marvel of the 19th Century.

When the planning for what many derided as “Clinton's Folly” began, there was not a single school of engineering in the United States. With the exception of a few places where black powder was used to blast through rock formations, all 363 miles were built by the muscle power of men and horses.

• The Erie Canal proved to be the key that unlocked an enormous series of social and economic changes in the young nation. The Canal spurred the first great westward movement of American settlers, gave access to the rich land and resources west of the Appalachians and made New York the preeminent commercial city in the United States. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Allegheny Mountains were the Western Frontier. The Northwest Territories that would later become Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio were rich in timber, minerals, and fertile land for farming. It took weeks to reach these precious resources. Travelers were faced with rutted turnpike roads that baked to hardness in the summer sun. In the winter, the roads dissolved in a sea of mud.

Early Railroads

• Baltimore and Ohio – first railroad company

• 1836 – approximately 1000 miles of track, not yet a true railroad system

• 1850’s – railroad construction increases – specifically in New England – factories

• Chicago becomes gateway to the West

Communication and Journalism• Telegraph• 1844 – Samuel Morse• Western Union Telegraph Company• Newspapers – 1846 – Associated Press– Newspapers contributed to increasing

sectionalism

Telegraphhttp://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/telegraph.htm

• While a professor of arts and design at New York University in 1835, Samuel Morse proved that signals could be transmitted by wire. He used pulses of current to deflect an electromagnet, which moved a marker to produce written codes on a strip of paper - the invention of Morse Code. The following year, the device was modified to emboss the paper with dots and dashes. He gave a public demonstration in 1838, but it was not until five years later that Congress (reflecting public apathy) funded $30,000 to construct an experimental telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore, a distance of 40 miles. Six years later, members of Congress witnessed the sending and receiving of messages over part of the telegraph line. Before the line had reached Baltimore, the Whig party held its national convention there, and on May 1, 1844, nominated Henry Clay. This news was hand-carried to Annapolis Junction (between Washington and Baltimore) where Morse's partner, Alfred Vail, wired it to the Capitol. This was the first news dispatched by electric telegraph.

Commerce/Industry• Expansion of business 1820-1840• Department stores• Corporations• Credit issues, bank failures• Factory system rises in New England• 1860 – the production of manufactured goods

is equal to the production of agricultural goods

Technology • Textile manufacturing

increases• Turret Lathe – metal cutting

machine• Universal Milling Machine• Interchangeable Parts• Coal Power – Pittsburgh• Inventions and patents• Sewing machine• Merchant capitalists decrease

by the mid 1800’s, replaced by corporations

Recruitment of Work ForceFactory Recruitment

• 1820’s – 90% worked on farms

• Mid 1800’s – food production increases, people begin to move to cities factories

• 2 types of recruitment of workers– 1) whole families – child labor– 2) young women –

Lowell/Waltham systems

Lowell Mills

Immigrant Work Force• Irish recruited – textile factories, physical labor• Piece rates – tied to production• Poor working conditions– Long hours– Unsafe conditions– Low wages– Workers easily replaced due to increasing

population

Workers Movements• 1834 – Factory Girls Association• 1837 – Female Labor Reform Association• 1820’s and 1830’s – craft societies, trade unions• Skilled artisans begin to decline• New Hampshire – 1847, Pennsylvania – 1848

create 10 hour work days• Craft unions exclude women• Commonwealth vs. Hunt

Commonwealth vs. Hunt Court Casehttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/128964/Commonwealth-v-Hunt

• Massachusetts - 1842• A case in which the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that the common-law doctrine

of criminal conspiracy did not apply to labour unions. Until then, workers’ attempts to establish closed shops had been subject to prosecution. Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw asserted, however, that trade unions were legal and that they had the right to strike or take other steps of peaceful coercion to raise wages and ban nonunion workers.

• The case stemmed from a demand by the Boston Journeymen Bootmakers’ Society that an employer fire one of its members who had disobeyed the society’s rules. The employer, fearing a strike, complied, but the dismissed employee complained to the district attorney, who then drew an indictment charging the society with conspiracy. The Boston Municipal Court found the union guilty.

• Justice Shaw, hearing the case on appeal, altered the traditional criteria for conspiracy by holding that the mere act of combining for some purpose was not illegal. Only those combinations intended “to accomplish some criminal or unlawful purpose, or to accomplish some purpose, not in itself criminal or unlawful, by criminal or unlawful means” could be prosecuted. Shaw, in effect, legalized the American labour union movement by this decision.

Rich vs. Poor• Unequal distribution of wealth social classes• Culture of wealth emerges, especially in major

cities• Paupers increase• Living standards of laborers increase• Working class mobility – unskilled skilled• Geographic mobility – movement West• Participation in politics increases

Middle Class Life• Antebellum – before war• Industrial economy – middle class emerges,

shopkeepers• Stay at home wives• Servants• Cast-iron stove• Changing diets – little refrigeration• Indoor plumbing and toilets

Changing Family• Patriarchal society begins to decrease in

industrial areas, South remains patriarchal• Shift from domestic system of production to

factory system people work outside of the home

• Women begin to take care of domestic duties• Emergence of gender roles• Decreasing birth rate

Women and the Cult of Domesticity• Women viewed as inferior to men• Women “Domestic Virtues”• Development of a distinct female culture• Societal pressure to marry and have children– “Old Maids”

Leisure

• Few holidays• Newspapers• Magazines• Theaters • Sports• Circus• Lectures• “Mass Leisure Culture”

North vs. South• Agriculture in New England begins to decline,

industry replaces• Shift of production west• Dairy farming increases• Northwest – Chicago, agriculture, commercial

agriculture• South – increasingly isolated, dependent on

agriculture to maintain economic prosperity• New technology – plow, reaper, threshing machine

Rural Life• Smalls towns and villages still a part of U.S. life• Focus on church and religion in small towns• Togetherness• Preach community and common values

Continued Sectionalism

Sectional Battles

• Missouri Compromise of 1820

• Tariff of 1828 “Tariff of Abominations”

• Webster-Hayne Debate• Tariff of 1832

Nullification Crisis• Western Expansion

• John C. Calhoun

Continued Sectionalism

• North– The northern regions of the nation tended to focus on trade,

shipping and manufacturing. The southern regions of the nation tended to focus on agriculture and the mid Atlantic region blended both. As the nation expanded westward new states like Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio were largely agricultural but yet still stuck to northern and southern ways of life. These geographic and economic differences spurned cultural differences as well. The merchants of the north were accustomed to a faster paced lifestyle while the plantation owners of the south played the role of the gentleman farmer. The leisurely lifestyle of the south did not extended, however, to the working farmhands and slaves that supported the plantation lifestyle of the southern aristocracy.

Continued Sectionalism• The bitterest battle of all was fought over the

issue of slavery. Cotton was essential to the southern economy, as they used to say; "cotton is king!." To southerners slavery was essential in maintaining cheap production of cotton. As cotton production grew, so did slavery.

Continued Sectionalism• South– Southern states, fearing the north would

eventually try to abolish slavery knew they needed to maintain control of the Senate. In order to do so, as the nation expanded west, the South needed to ensure that states entered the union as slave states. The north, on the other hand, wanted the opposite. When Missouri entered the Union in 1820 the nation attempted to settle the issue with the creation of the Missouri Compromise.