Economic Revolution and Sectional Strife

Chapter 9

Entrepreneurial Spirit

• Factors of Production:

“If movement and the quick succession of

sensations and ideas constitute life, here one lives a hundred

fold more than elsewhere; here, all is

circulation, motion, and boiling agitation.”

“Experiment follows experiment; enterprise follows enterprise, riches and

poverty follow.”

• economic system in which the means of production are controlled by private individuals/business

Another Revolution Affects America

• Manufacturing moved from homes and small workshops to factories– Power-driven machinery– Specialized workers

• Industrial Revolution– Social and economic reorganization

• Started in Great Britain

• – The major change in the US economy produced by people

beginning to buy and sell goods rather than make them for themselves

Transportation

• Canals– 1816 100 miles of

canals– 1831 3,300+ miles of

canals

• Railroads– Began replacing canals in

1840s– 1850 about 10,000 miles– 1860 about 31,000 miles

IR in USA

• Embargo of 1807 & War of 1812 helped IR start in USA

• 1793 - established first textile mill in America

• 1813 - Francis Cabot Lowell, Nathan Appleton, and Patrick Tracy Jackson opened mills

Early Textile LoomEarly Textile Loomhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/history/industrial_era/the_industrial_revolution/revision/9/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/launch_ani_spinning_mill.shtml

The Lowell/Waltham System:

First Dual-Purpose Textile Plant

The Lowell/Waltham System:

First Dual-Purpose Textile Plant

Francis Cabot Lowell’s town - 1814Francis Cabot Lowell’s town - 1814

Lowell in 1850Lowell in 1850

Lowell MillLowell Mill

Starting for LowellStarting for Lowell

Lowell GirlsLowell Girls

Lowell Boarding HousesLowell Boarding Houses

Lowell Mills Time Table

Lowell Mills Time Table

Average 11 hour work day (12+ hour day)

New England Dominance in Textiles

New England Dominance in Textiles

New EnglandTextile

Centers:

1830s

New EnglandTextile

Centers:

1830s

Two Economic Systems Develop

• North– Invested more money into manufacturing– Farms were more subsistence than profit-

driven• Climate prevented cash-crops from being

profitable– Less demand for slavery

• South– Growth of cotton + cotton gin = “King Cotton”

• Plantation slave system spread and grew

Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin, 1791

Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin, 1791

Eli Whitney’s Gun FactoryEli Whitney’s Gun Factory

Interchangeable Parts* RifleInterchangeable Parts* Rifle

Cumberland (National Road), 1811

Erie Canal SystemErie Canal System

Robert Fulton & the Steamboat

Robert Fulton & the Steamboat

1807: The 1807: The ClermontClermont

Principal Canals in 1840Principal Canals in 1840

Inland Freight RatesInland Freight Rates

Be careful reading the Y axis!