Early U.S. Industrialization

Industrial Revolution Time of change in business and industry in which manufacturing shifted

from hand tools to large, complex machines.

Goods were made in factories instead of workshops in homes. Manufactured

goods were sold nationwide and overseas.

The “Industrial Revolution" began in Great Britain.

Free Enterprise

Industry developed quickly in the United States in the early 1800s. An

important factor was free enterprise.

In this system:

1. Americans could make money and make their own choices about how to

use it.

2. Encouraged industrialization because companies were in competition

made goods cheaper.

3. New technologies to make faster.

Rise of Large Cities

Industrialization caused the rise of large cities. Thousands of people moved

from farms and villages to towns and cities in search of factory jobs and

better pay. By 1860 eight cities in the U.S. had populations of more than

100,000. The growth of cities led to opportunities for many kinds of jobs.

Samuel Slater

Slater was the supervisor of machinery in a textile factory in England. He

left England illegally in 1790 to come to Rhode Island, where, in 1793, he

founded the first permanent mill in America for spinning cotton into yarn.

In doing this, Slater founded the cotton textile industry in America.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rauJq_LTMYI

Francis C. Lowell After touring British textile mills, Francis Lowell established a textile factory in

1813 near Boston, Massachusetts. It was a cotton textile mill that mass produced

finished cotton cloth, eliminating the need for cottage industries. Lowell factory

hired mainly young girls, separating these girls from their families.

“Lowell Factory Girls” were young, unmarried women, usually between 15 and 30 years old, working in textile

factories such as the Lowell factory. Most of these girls left their families’ farms in order to gain independence or to

help their families financially. In the factories, they found poor working conditions and strict discipline. Lowell

paid them lower wages than men, but offered benefits that many girls were eager to earn. Mill girls lived in clean

company boardinghouses with chaperones, were paid cash, and benefitted from religious and educational activities.

America’s Natural Highways

Rivers were a faster, easier, and cheaper way to move goods than were

roads. The only problem was that loaded boats and barges could travel

only downstream or with the current.

American System

Plan proposed by Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky which was meant to

improve the nation's infrastructure, promote U.S. businesses, and unite the

country.

Infrastructure

What provides the framework and connections for holding something

together (canals, railroads, roads, etc.)

National Road The National Road was the largest federally funded transportation project of

its time. Construction began in 1811 on the National Road, a major east-west

highway that started in Cumberland, Maryland, and ended in Wheeling,

Virginia (now West Virginia). The road progressed west during early 1800s,

advancing father west with each year.

Conestoga wagons carried pioneers west on this road. Farmers

traveled east on this road to bring their livestock and farm

products to markets in the East.

Robert Fulton

In 1807, Robert Fulton introduced a steamship, the Clermont, on the Hudson

River and obtained a monopoly on ferry service there until 1824. Steamships

created an efficient means of transporting goods upstream, and this led to an

increase in the building of canals.

Use of the steamboat caused an increase in river travel and canal building. This increased trade

between regions created economic growth.

Canals

Man-made waterways meant to make travel faster and easier.

Canal Locks

Canal boats use a system of locks to bypass areas

wherever a change in altitude appear along a waterway.

Erie Canal

Construction began in 1817 and was completed in 1825. It stretched about 365

miles from Albany to Buffalo and provided a shipping route from Lake Erie to

the Hudson River. It helped make New York a dominant commercial center by

expanding its markets and also sped up western migration by allowing people

to travel much more cheaply and easier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-gIFYOCIfE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQE2sNfYXpg

New York City

Northeastern city which became a key economic center of the country in

the years following the War of 1812.

Railroads Railroads were built in America in the early 1800s. Trains were faster than

stagecoaches or wagons, and they could go more places than steamboats could.

Railroads helped settle the West and expand trade among the nation’s regions.

Sectionalism

Refers to the economic, social, cultural, and political differences that exist

between different parts of the country.

• The North and Midwest were industrial, increasingly educated, and

populated by a growing immigrant population.

• The Southern states relied heavily on agriculture and slave labor for

all aspects of its economy. Politics were dominated by wealthy

plantation owners.

South- Agriculture Based on Slavery

West- Agriculture

North- Industrial

Northern Economy

Industrialization began in the Northeast. The swift-flowing streams

provided waterpower for the factories. The Northeast had entrepreneurs

and merchants who had money to invest in industry.

Family Farms

Industry and cities grew in the Northeast during the early 1800s. Farming,

however, was the country’s main economic activity and had the most

workers until the late 1800s. Farming was more important in the South than

in the North. The South had few cities and industries. The North began to

focus on manufacturing.

Southern Economy

The economy of the South was based on the farming of several major cash

crops. The cash crops included tobacco, rice, and sugarcane. The major cash

crop was cotton. It was grown in a wide area stretching from inland South

Carolina, west through Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and into eastern

Texas.

With its focus on agriculture, the South did not industrialize as quickly as

the North. The South had to import most of its manufactured goods.

Eli Whitney

He revolutionized the South's economy with the invention of his cotton gin

and greatly impacted the northern economy with his innovative concept of

interchangeable parts.

Interchangeable Parts

Whitney was an inventor who introduced the concept of interchangeable parts

in 1798. The tools and machines he invented allowed unskilled workers to build

absolutely uniform parts for guns, so that the whole gun no longer had to be

replaced if a single part malfunctioned or broke. This was the beginning

of mass production.

Cotton Gin

In 1793 Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, which removed the seeds from

cotton bolls. The cotton gin greatly increased the production of cotton in the

South. At this same time, textile mills in Europe were expanding and wanted all

the cotton they could get. The cotton gin made Southern planters rich.

The demand for cotton created a

huge demand for slave labor.

Between 1820 and 1860, the

number of enslaved people in the

South rose from 1.5 million to

nearly 4 million.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eT4bNxkv-c

Cotton Kingdom

Nickname given to the South as cotton became its most profitable crop and

the basis of the South's economy during the 1800s.

In 1860 Southern cotton made up almost two-thirds of the total export trade for the United States.

John Deere

In 1837 John Deere designed a plow with sharp-edged steel blades that

were able to cut cleanly through the tough Midwestern sod and cut in half

the labor needed to farm an acre.

Cyrus McCormick

Prior to the reaper, people used a

hand-held scythe, a device that

had remained basically unchanged

for 5000 years.

McCormick was an inventor who improved upon previous designs for the

mechanical reaper. He patented his reaper in 1834 and built a factory to

mass produce it in 1847. This invention lessened the work of western

farmers by mechanizing the process of harvesting wheat.

Samuel Morse

Morse invented the telegraph in 1844. This invention was enthusiastically

accepted by the American people; telegraph companies were formed and

lines erected quickly. The telegraph allowed rapid communication across

great distances.