Chapter 14: Forging the National Economy (1790-

1860)

The Westward Movement

• US marched quickly toward west

• Pioneer life is very hard w/ isolation, disease & loneliness

• Frontier people were individualistic, superstitious & ill-informed because new information was slow to reach them

Shaping the Western Landscape

• Westward movement molded environment

• Tobacco exhausted land & moved on, but “Kentucky blue grass” thrived

• Ecological imperialism• Trapped beavers, sea

otters, and Bison to manufacture for East

Shaping the Western

Landscape• Spirit of nationalism led to

appreciation of American wilderness

• Catlin pushed for national park & achieved it with Yellowstone in 1872

The March of the Millions

• Mid-1800s, pop cont’d to double every 25 years

• 1860-orginial 13 states now has 33 states; pop 4th in the world (Russ, Fra, Austria)

• Urban growth cont’d explosively

• 1790-only New York & Philadelphia had >20,000 people, but 1860, 43 had

• Brought bad sanitation sewage system & pipe-in water

• High birthrate had accounted for pop growth, but near 1850s, millions of Irish, German came

• A surplus pop. in Euro but not all came to US 25/60 million

• Appealing of US (land, freedom from church, aristocracy, 3 meat meals a day)

• Intro of transoceanic steamship (reduce traveling to 12 days, death rate high not as bad)

The Emerald Isle Moves West(1830s-1960s-2 million)

• Irish potato famine in mid-1840s led to death of 2 million & many flee to US

• Illiterate, discriminated

• Hated by Protestants because they were Catholic and it was feared that the Powerful Church may get a foot hold in America

• Hated competition w/ blacks for job

• Ancient Order of Hibernians (serve to aid Irish)

The Emerald Isle Moves West (1830s-

1960s-2 million)• Because of rules of

“enfranchisement” (granting voting citizenship) they slowly gain power

• Gradual property owning (grand success), children educated.

• Attracted to politics, filled police dept.

• Politicians tried to appeal to Irish by yelling at London

The German Forty-Eighters

• 1 million poured in bet 1830s-1860s because of crop failures (economic failures) and an autocratic government (does not take public’s opinions to mind)

• Liberals such as Carl Schurz contributed to elevation of US politics

• They easily assimilate and thrive in the U.S. having brought more $ than Irish and possessing better skills. Many bought land in west esp. in Wisconsin.

• Votes crucial so wooed by US politicians but not as potent because they spread out

• Contributed to US culture (Christmas tree); isolationism

• Urged public education & freedom (enemies of slavery)

• Still subject of resentment from nationalists because they are a group & brought beers to US.

Flare-ups of Anti-foreignism

• “Nativists” prejudiced newcomers in jobs, politics, religion

• Catholic became major religious group because of immigration of 1840s, 50s & set out to build catholic school

Flare-ups of Antiforeignism • Nativists feared that Catholicism would

build on Protestantism (popish idols) so formed “Order of star-spangled Banner”

• Met in secrecy-“Know-Nothing” party• Fought for restriction on immigration,

naturalization & deportation of alien paupers

• Wrote fiction books about corruption of churches

• Mass violence, ex. Philadelphia 1844-burned churches, schools, people killed

• Made America pluralistic society w/ diversity

• No longer hated because they were crucial to economic expansion & more availability of jobs

The March of Mechanization

• Industrial revolution spread to US & US destined to be an industrial giant because:

1. Land was cheap, labor available, $ for investment plentiful, raw available

BUT: We Lacked consumer for factory-scale manufacturing

• British long-established factory was our major competition

• Kept textile to own monopoly (forbade travel of crafts men & export of machine)

• US remained very rural to farming

Whitney Ends the Fiber Famine

• Samuel Slater – “Father of the Factory System”

• Learned machinery when working in British Factory escaped to US, aided by Moses Brown build 1st cotton thread spinner in US (1791)

• Eli Whitney built a cotton gin (50 times more effective than hand picking cotton)

• Cotton economy now profitable, saved the South to King Cotton

• South flourished & expanded cotton kingdom toward west

• Northern factories manufactured, esp. New England (w/ poor soil, dense labor, access to sea, river for water power)

• West produced the food to feed the people in the northeaster factories.

Marvels in Manufacturing• Embargo of war of 1812 encouraged

home manufacture• With peace of Ghent, British poured in

surplus in cheap $, forcing close of American factories

• Congress passed Tariff of 1816 to protect US economy

• Eli Whitney introduced machine made replaceable parts (on muskets-1798) universal in manufacturing by1850

• Base of assembly line (flourished North); cotton gin flourished south

• England will be the #1 purchaser of American Grown Cotton

Marvels in Manufacturing• Elias Howe & Issac Singer (1846)

made sewing machine (foundation of clothing industry) and the textile mills (cloth) will be the first mass industry to take off in America

• Decade of 1860 had 28,000 patents while 1800 only had 306

• Principle of limited liability (can’t lose more than invested) stimulate economy

• Laws of “free incorporation” (1848)-no need to apply for charter from legislature to start corp.

• Samuel Morse’s telegraph connected business world -“What hath god wrought?”…..the first message typed from Washington to Baltimore-by Morse.

Workers and “Wage Slaves”

• Factory system led to impersonal relations

• Benefit went to factory owner, labors were long, wages low, meals bad, no union

• Child labor heavy

• Adult working condition improved in 1820s & 30s w/ mass vote to workers

• 10 hour day, higher $, tolerable condition, public education, ban of imprisonment for debt

• 1840s president Van Buren made 10 hour day for Federal Workers

• Many struck but lost because employers import more workers (so hated immigrants)

• Unions formed in 1830s but hit by panic of 1837

• Case of Commonwealth vs. Hunt in Supreme court of MA (1842)

• Legalized union on peaceful & honorable protest

Women and the Economy

• Women were toiled in factory under bad conditions

• Opportunities rare & women mainly in nursing, domestic service, teaching

• Women usually worked before marriage, after marriage they were house wives (made more decisions in family)

Women and the Economy

• Arrange marriages died down; marriage w/ love tied family closer

• Family grew smaller (avg. 6); fertility rate dropped sharply “domestic feminism”

• Child-centered w/ less children & discipline not physically

Western Farmers Reap a Revolution in the Fields

• Trans-Allegheny region (Ohio-Indiana-Illinois) became nation’s breadbasket

• Planted corn & raised hogs (known as “porkopolis” of the west”

• Inventions that boomed agriculture• John Deere -steel plow that cut

through hard soil & can be pulled by horses

• Cyrus McCormick -mechanical mower-reaper

• Led to large-scale production & cash crops

• Produced more than south; product flow N to S in rivers, not E & W-needed transportation rev,

Highways and Steamboats • Improvements in transportation

needed for raw material transport• Lancaster turnpike-hard road

from Philadelphia & Lancaster; brought economic expansion to west

• Federal gov’t constructs Cumberland Road (Maryland -Illinois) (1811-1852 ) w/ state & federal $

• Robert Fulton invents steam engine (Steam boats)-1807

• Contributed to development of S & W economy

“Clinton’s Big Ditch” in New York• Clinton’s Big Ditch-Erie Canal

between Great Lakes & Hudson River(1817-1825)

• Annoys many New England farmers because it forces them to move for construction (some give up farming all together)

• Impact is enormous on economy as it shortens expense & time of transportation & cities grew along the side, – Price of food reduced approx

70%

Pioneer Railroad Promoters

• 1st railroad in US (1828); by 1860-30,000 mi. railroad tracks in US (3/4 at north)

• Railroad 1st opposed bec. financier afraid to loose $ from Erie canal & also caused fire to houses

• Trains were badly constructed (brakes bad) & gauge of traveling varied

The Transport Web Binds the Union

• Steamboat allowed reverse transport of S to E to bind them together

• New York became the Queen port of the country goods distributed

• Principle of divided labor-each region specialize in own economic activity

• Transformed the home: no longer the center of industry now a restful place to tend to the Family

Wealth and Poverty• The industrial revolution

widens the gap bet. rich & poor

• Unskilled workers were “drifters” who went from town to town for jobs – (1/2 of industrial pop) -

forgotten• Social mobility existed but

not in proportion, rags-to-riches were rare

• Standard of living did raise, wage rose too (helped diffuse potential class conflict)

Cables, Clippers, and Pony Riders• Cotton accounted for ½ of exports• After repeal of Corn Law of 1846,

wheat became imp role in trade w/ Eng.

• American imported more than exported (substantial debt to foreign creditors)

• 1858-Cyrus Field laid Cable between US & Euro (but died in 3 weeks); better one in 1866

• Golden age of naval commerce came in 1840s, 50s

• Mckay builds clipper ships (fast, long)• Tea trade w/ British flourishes &

carried many to CA• Crushed by British’s iron tramp

steamers• Speedy communication-roads from

Missouri to CA, Pony Express