market revolution i.the market revolution a.american economy, 1800 b.first industrial revolution...

Market RevolutionI. The Market Revolution

A. American Economy, 1800B. First Industrial RevolutionC. Transportation

II. The Transformation of WorkA. Common laborB. DeskillingC. Manufacturing

III. Freedom and FrustrationA. The Decline of ServitudeB. From Craftsman to LaborerC. Community under Pressure

IV. Worker ResponsesA. AmbitionB. AssociationC. Labor ProtestD. Mass Politics

American Economy, 1800

• Farming

• Hand Labor

• Craft work

• Local Family Firms

• Upward Mobility– apprentice– journeyman– master

Industrial Revolution, 1750-1850

• Spinning jenny

• Steam engine

• Iron puddling furnace

• Cotton gin

• Telegraph

• Sewing machine

Transportation

• Canals create market towns and cities.• Incentive for mass production

Common Labor

Deskilling & Manufacturing

• Division of

labor

• Machines

• Teamwork

• Discipline

Creating Class

An anxious blacksmith, circa 1850

The Decline of Servitude

• Courts begin replacing paternalism with employment at-will.

• Freedom of contract– Employer and employee

have equal rights to make and break contracts.

– Ignores difference in bargaining power.

Massachusetts Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw (1781-1861)

Community under Pressure

Five Points, NYC, 1840s

Ambition

• System offers opportunities for economic mobility.

Sewing machine inventor, Elias Howe

Association

• Religion– 2nd Great Awakening

• 1820-40

– Church membership• Grows 100K in 1831

– Revivals• 10-25K people attend

• Mutual benefit– Fire companies– Insurance

companies– Fraternal Societies

Labor Protest

• Violence – Unskilled labor– Canal diggers

• Boycotts– Skilled workers

• Cordwainers• General Trades

Union

• Strikes– Machine

Operatives• Women of Lowell

Workers in political cartoon, circa 1830s

Mass Politics

• Workingman’s Party

• Jacksonian Democracy

• Free labor ideology

President Andrew Jackson