Forging the National Economy 1790-1860

Chapter 14

The Westward Movement

• 19th century highlighted by march toward a dynamic, market-oriented, national economy

• America on the move

• Population – young, restless, energetic

• The realities of frontier life

Shaping the Western Landscape

• Westward movement also impacted the physical environment

• Crops exhaust soil; abandon and move on

• Fur trade

• Some species almost wiped out

• Ecological imperialism

Shaping the Western Landscape

• Not all bad…

• Western frontier viewed as one of the nation’s defining attributes

• Wilderness inspires literature, painting, conservation movement

• Origins of the national park system

The March of the Millions

• By mid-century, American population IS STILL DOUBLING every 25 years

• 1860 – 33 states

• U.S. has 4th largest population in the world

• In 1790, there were two cities over 20k – by 1860 there were 43

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Population Increase, Including Slaves and

Indians, 1790-1860

The March of the Millions

• Rapid urbanization leads to problems

• Problems: slums, inadequate policing, foul sewage, rats, etc.

• Urban growth contributed to by immigration (Irish, Germans)

• Immigrants come to “land of freedom and opportunity”

The Emerald Isle Moves West

• 1840s – potato famine in Ireland kills around 2 million people (1/4 of population)

• Many left Ireland for America during this period

• Too poor to move west, Irish immigrants flooded eastern cities

• Boston and New York

The “Luck” of the Irish

• Lived in slums

• Looked down upon as Catholics

• Hated by native workers (Why?)

• Molly Maguires

• Politics

• The Irish and politics

• New voting block

• Political machines

The German Forty-Eighters

• Between 1830 and 1860, around 1.5 million Germans arrived in America

• Mostly displaced farmers, some political refugees

• Failure of democratic revolutions

The German Forty-Eighters

• Unlike Irish, many came with SOME material goods; pushed west (Wisconsin)

• Contributions: Kindergarten, Kentucky rifle, Christmas tree

• While less potent politically, Germans still formed an influential voting body

• Active in abolitionist movement

Flare-Ups of Antiforeignism

• Large influx of immigrants outraged many American “nativists”

• Feared that immigrants would overwhelm America, dilute culture, shift politics, take jobs, etc.

• Large # are Catholics; Americans in large part resented, distrusted Catholic Church

Flare-ups of Antiforeignism

• Catholic immigrants sought to protect their culture in America

• New educational system (Catholic)

• 1840 – Catholics 5th largest religious group in America

• 1850 - #1

Flare-Ups of Antiforeignism

• 1849 – Order of the Star Spangled Banner formed (eventually evolved into the Know-Nothing party)

• Calls for immigration restrictions

• Violence toward immigrants…

• The inevitability of cultural clashes

• Robust economy softens the blow; workers NEEDED

Creeping Mechanization

• Mid-1700s – Industrial Revolution begins in England

• Steam power, mass production, modern factory system

• 1840s – I.R. arrives in America. Why so late?

• 1.

• 2.

• 3.

Samuel Slater

• Samuel Slater – “Father of the Factory System”

• Slater memorizes machine plans, escapes to America, reconstructed machine for spinning cotton thread

Eli Whitney: The Man Who Started the Civil War?

• Cotton picking and cleaning is a laborious process

• 1793 – Eli Whitney constructs cotton gin; 50 times more effective than hand picking

• Significance: Increased cotton production leads to increased demand for _______________.

• SOUTH NOW DEPENDENT UPON COTTON CROP; EXPANSION OF SLAVERY

Eli Whitney’s cotton gin.

· Whitney never became

wealthy from his invention.

· Whitney applied for a patent on the cotton gin.

· People ignored the patent

and built their own.

American Manufacturing (Review)

• Embargo Act and War of 1812 ended shipping and stimulated American manufacturing

• After War of 1812, British “dump” goods on American markets; Congress passes tariff to protect American manufacturing (Tariff of 1816)

• Whitney’s cotton gin, while widely used, made him little money. So, he turned to other things.

• Interchangeable parts (1798) • Basis of modern mass-production

• Whitney helped BOTH the North and South!!!!!

• EXPLAIN:

Marvels in Manufacturing

• Elias Howe = Sewing machine

• Age of Invention – 28,000 patents issued by 1860

• Nothing left to invent!!!!

An Age of Invention

Telegraph patented by Samuel Morse. Morse developed a code of short and long electrical impulses to represent letters in the alphabet (Morse code).

By 1900, 63 million telegraphs sent per year

“What hath God wrought?”

Morse Code Conversion

•http://www.glassgiant.com/geek/morse/

Patents Issued, by Decade, 1850–1899

Workers and “Wage Slaves”

• Manufacturing becomes more “impersonal”

• Rich get richer…

• Long hours, low wages, poor working conditions

• Workers forbidden by law from forming labor unions

• Only 24 recorded strikes before 1835

Workers and “Wage Slaves”

• Exploitation of child workers

• Growth stunted, physical abuse, hazardous conditions, etc.

• Conditions improve for adult workers

• Goals

• 10 hour day

• Higher wages

• Tolerable working conditions

• Demand for public education

Workers and “Wage Slaves”

• Employers were against reduced hours; workers would have too much time on their hands!

• 1840 – Van Buren established 10 hr. day for federal employees

• # of strikes increase in 1830s-40s

• Role of “scabs”

• Commonwealth v. Hunt • Major step for legality of unions

Women and the Economy

• Factory jobs promised women more economic independence

• “Factory girls” – 6 days a week, 12-13 hrs. a day

• Teaching, nursing, etc.

• Most female workers were single

• Families becoming smaller, more tightly knit

• “Domestic feminism” and the “cult of domesticity”

A Revolution in the Fields

• Corn and hogs emerge as major agricultural products

• 1837 – John Deere invents the steel plow; easier to break-up soil

• 1830s – Cyrus McCormick patents mechanical reaper; leads to increase in wheat production

A Revolution in the Fields

• Subsistence farming gives way to commercial farming

• Farming for PROFIT

• Profit leads to want for new land, debt

• New markets…

Transportation Revolution

• New markets, mass productions ushers need for new transportation

• 1790s – Lancaster Turnpike (Highway from Philadelphia to Lancaster)

• 1811 – Cumberland Road (AKA National Road)

• Maryland to Illinois

Transportation Revolution

• Robert Fulton and the steamboat (1807)

• Boats now able to defy wind, tide, and downstream currents

• Makes transportation quicker and cheaper

• Played vital role in linking West and South

“Clinton’s Big Ditch” in New York

• New Yorkers seek to link Great Lakes with the Hudson River by constructing a canal (Erie Canal)

• Construction begins in 1817, ends in 1825

• Under leadership of Gov. DeWitt Clinton

• Cut TIME and EXPENSE dramatically

• Land values near canal increased

The Iron Horse

• Most important transportation development = railroad

• Fast, reliable, cheaper to construct than canals, did not freeze over

• First track appeared in 1828; 1860 = 32,000 miles of track

The Iron Horse

• Railroads had some opposition at first. From whom?

• DANGERS – Fire, unreliable brakes, accidents

• Pullman sleeping car introduced in 1859

Cables, Clippers, and Pony Riders

• 1858 – Cyrus Field and the transatlantic cable

• Speedy clipper ships emerge in 1840s

• Clippers rapidly succeeded by slower but larger steamers

• Pony Express (1860)

• Made obsolete by telegraph

The Transport Web Binds the Union

• All forms of transportation exploded between 1830 and 1860

• Effects:

• Economy expands dramatically; binds nation together economically

• Southern economic control diminishes

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Map 14.7: Main Routes West Before the Civil War

The Market Revolution

• Largely subsistence economy transformed into a market economy for the world

• New questions surface…

• Gulf between rich and poor widens

• Millionaires emerge

• Social mobility???

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Map 14.6: Industry and Agriculture, 1860