1820 1824 1828 1836 1840 1844 18501832Andrew JacksonJames Monroe John Q. Adams Martin Van Buren William Harrison James K. Polk Z. Taylor

1820|MO Compromise

1823|Monroe Doctrine

1823|Lowell Mills opens

1825|Erie Canal built

1826|Invention: steam powered printing press

1828|Tariff of Abom.

1830|Indian Removal Act

1831|Nat Turner’s slave rebellion

1832|Nullification Crisis

1834|Lowell Mills Strike by Factory Girls Assoc.

1834|New York Female Moral Reform Society established

1834|National Trades’ Union est.

1837|Mount Holyoke women’s college founded by Mary Lyon

1837|Oberlin Co-Ed College opens

1837-1844|Panic of 1837

1840s|Irish potato famine brings immigrant workers

1842|Court ruling of Common-wealth v. Hunt

1844|First Telegraph

1845|Female Labor Reform Assoc.

1846|Rotary Press

1847|Steel Plow

1848|Seneca Falls Women’s Rights

1849|California Gold Rush

1850|Compro-mise of 1850

1850s|Est. of Labor Union organizations

B O L D C H A P T E R E V E N T S | L I G H T H I S T O R I C A L U S E V E N T S | A N T I - F E D E R A L I S T S D E M O C R A T I C - R E P U B L I C A N S & D E M O C R A T S | F E D E R A L I S T S W H I G S

A N U S H A S E D E N R K Y E T M I N T A S

1820-1850 American Urbanization

$INDUSTRIALIZATION OF THE NORTH BROUGHT ON NUMEROUS CHANGES IN THE ROLES OF WOMEN OF AMERICAN SOCIETY.

INDUSTRY PLAYED AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN CHARACTERIZING THE NORTHERN ECONOMY OF THE 1800s.

The F i rst Industr ial Age o f Amer i ca ’ s E c onom ic Revolut i on

Women’s Rights & Social Reform Changing Industry & Labor Economic Growth & Decline

WORKING WOMEN | The Lowell Mill Girls were young ladies who worked in the mills in Lowell, MA and were a part of the “lot of working women”. Due to society's initial concerns for the morality of the female workers, the factories created a “system of paternalistic supervision” for their employees, enforced curfews, and required church attendance. However, despite the relatively good living environments, women still suffered of “loneliness and disorientation.” Factory work itself was repetitive and uncomfortable, but the English factory system made the American factories look like a safe haven. European conditions were "horrifyingly bad" and this influenced the immigration of many Europeans to America in search of factory jobs later on in the 1840s.

FAMILY CHANGES | Changes in the “nature and function of the family” took shape as industrializa-tion spread. Children from rural areas would no longer depend on their land inheritance and would often leave the family in search of work. The most intense change occurred in the definition of the “principle unit of economic activity.” In rural areas, this used to be the farmer and his family. However, due to the farmer's reliance on male workers instead of their families, women became domestic housewives. In urban settings, the lives of family members were defined by the public world of commerce and the private world of family. Families' center of dependency was the woman, and females rapidly became the leaders of the industrial work force as far as factory jobs went.

SOCIAL EXPECTATIONS | As women acquired more significant roles in society, a “distinctive female culture” took shape to create the conditions that put women in a “separate sphere.” Women began gathering together to form female clubs and societies that participated in various reform movements. Assorted forms of art and media took on distinct feminine tones, such as romantic novels and women's magazines. Most of the female media centered on “fashion, shopping, homemaking advice, and other purely domestic concerns,” as political or religious controversies were inappropriate for the proper housewife.

CULT OF DOMESTICITY | By the time of industrialization, the powerless wife became the center of the household. The “Cult of Domesticity” revolved around women being the center of the family. Housewives were extremely important and respected because it was the women’s job to care for their spouse and children. Unmarried middle-class women couldn't afford to stay home and cultivate the “domestic virtues”. Instead, they had to provide income for their families by working in factories and mills. Factory conditions for those of lower rank were generally worse than what more upper class woman workers enjoyed. Oftentimes, having a wife stay at home was a status symbol of wealth, since it meant the man could provide for his family on his own.

GROWTH OF LABOR | The first labor organizations were formed not by women protesting living conditions in industrial factories, but the skilled artisan workers who were being economically displaced by the rising factory systems. The capitalist economy threatened the artisan's traditions and means of income. As early as the 1790s, craftsmen were banding together to form the first American labor unions in order to “resist the new economic order in which they sensed they would have no role.” Not only were the traditional artisans' livelihoods endangered, but their “indepen-dence and their status in their communities.” The first unions to emerge consisted of the printers and cordwainers (shoe makers) whose industries were being taken over by New England factories. In the end, the competition of capitalism was too great to sustain the artisan traditions.

THE FACTORY SYSTEM | The factory system was a method of manufacturing that created a highly competitive market vulnerable to instability. Change from craftsman labor to mechanized production factories created a division of labor and severe wealth disparity. Factories produced products on a much larger scale in comparison to the putting out or crafts systems because they used less manpower and lowered product costs to increase profits. Since factories were able to efficiently produce a supply of goods for a high profit, the American artisan traditions were pushed aside by larger corporations. Traditional skilled artisans were known for their sense of "moral community" in economics; principles very different from the capitalist economy. In order to save their positions in the "new economic order," artisans formed labor unions to preserve their traditional ways. Unfortunately, industrial capitalists would overcome the artisan efforts; gaining support as the urbanization of America pushed for a more progressive industrial growth.

FACTORY CONDITIONS | As competition in industry rapidly increased, factory conditions deteriorat-ed. Manufacturing companies made wage cuts and working environments lost their paternalistic nature. The less than desirable living standards resulted in the organization of numerous labor unions to protest. The organizations were usually run by women, and their staged labor strikes generally failed. The Lowell mill Factory Girls Association of 1834 is one example of a labor union whose two protests in 1834 and 1836 were ultimately unsuccessful. Later, the Lowell women formed the Female Labor Reform Association and advocated for improvements in living standards and cuts on working hours. This time, the factory girls not only addressed the company management, but also went to the state legislature. However, industry was already undergoing a new shift in labor. Immigrants fleeing the 1840s Irish potato famine had arrived and were much more compliant to the low standards of living in the factories.

WEALTH DISPARITY | Class division and wealth disparity became much more pronounced as industrialization took hold in America. Most of America's wealth was concentrated in a fraction of the total population—the merchants and industrialists, while the rest of the population was poor or “entirely without resources.” This inequality stemmed from social prejudices influencing the division in the working class; some members of society—orphans, alcoholics, and certain ethnical groups—were barred from decent paying jobs and these people made up the poorest classes. However, for those within the working class, limited opportunities to work one's way up the social ladder did exist. Mobility depended on where one began on the ladder and experience.

DECLINE IN AGRICULTURE | Northeast soil couldn't compete with the nutrient rich earth of the Northwest, and centers of agricultural production were gradually shifting westward. In contrast, some Eastern farmers remained on their land and supplied food to the growing population in the cities. Dairy and truck farming became common practices for Eastern farmers who decided to keep their land. Dairy farming proved very profitable in that farmers could provide dairy products to local urban centers. Truck farmers similarly supplied their local towns with fruits and vegetables. As the new capitalist economy stimulated the growth of industry in the northeast, those with agricultural based lifestyles had to adapt or move westward.

NORTHWEST INDUSTRIES | America's Northwest was characterized by agricultural based activities, such as the production of farming machinery or agricultural products. Overall, this meant the Northwest was much more dependent and focused on agriculture, rather than industry. The rural equivalent of the industrial working class was the farm family unit, which was a much more prosperous job in comparison to city workers. The rising farm prices due to industrialization influenced Northwest farmers to practice commercial agriculture. In addition, Europe was also in great need of food imports due to the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars and a growing urban population. This meant more mouths to feed but less farmers to provide for them in Europe. The American Northwest farmers took advantage of these needs and focused their efforts on agricultural based production instead of industry like the rest of the North.

SECTIONAL ALIGNMENTS | A majority of the Northwest goods were marketed in the Northeast, their industrial neighbors. This created a “dependency on Eastern puchasing power.” In turn, the Northeast found the Northwest a prosperous market for their own product, creating a strong economic bond between the northern American territories and alienating the South. This division further increased tensions between the North and South sectional alignment.

The revivalism that spread across the country during the first industrial era within America also gave rise to numerous social reform movements, which challenged Americans to improve themselves and their communities. Because revivalism and reform went hand in hand, many prominent reformers were women. Denied roles in politics or in the new market economy, women found that they could make a difference through championing social change. These women reformers often fought for a variety of causes at the same time; the women’s suffrage movement was generally closely tied to the abolitionist movement.

The new industrial age and the resulting growth of the U.S. economy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries deeply affected America. Industrial combination and concentration became the norm, with huge trusts appearing in numerous industries. The workplace was changing as machines became common and the demand for unskilled workers brought new groups into the workforce, including immigrants, women, and children. The abundance of laborers available for these unskilled factory jobs made individual workers expendable and led to decreased wages. Class division between the corporate giants and laborers became increasingly apparent throughout America as industrialization took over the north.

Economic growth in the Northeast slowly transitioned from agriculture to industrializa-tion. Northeast farmers started to lose money with the growth of industrialization, so many farmers moved west of the Appalachian Mountains to continue farming. Some, however, remained on their land and supplied food to the growing population in the cities using truck and dairy farming. Goods produced in the Northwest were sold in the Northeast, and it became a strong economic relationship between the two sides. In comparison, the South mainly kept to themselves and were heavily dependent on slave labor for their economic growth.

RAPID ECONOMIC GROWTH & DECLINE CHARACTERIZED THE EMERGING CAPITALIST ECONOMY OF INDUSTRIAL AMERICA.

THE BEGINNINGS of urbanization in America took root in the early 1820s, when most of the population still lived and worked on farms. While urban centers had begun attracting people from rural areas, cities were home to craftsmen and small business-es. The industrial labor supply did not come about until American agriculture

experienced a shift in technology in the early nineteenth century. As American borders expanded westward, transportation and farm machinery improved to create an increase in food production. These advancements meant that farms were less labor intensive and fewer farms were needed to produce food to sustain an area. In the less

fertile areas of the eastern seaboard, rural farmers left their land for the promise of jobs in the city. As the factories expanded with the new work force, city populations skyrocketed. New socio-economic cultures shaped the growing American cities, and by the 1850s, the American Industrial Age was in full swing.

C H A P T E R T E N P A R T T W O R E V I E W