Maddie Seidel, Safa Khan, Caitlyn Davis, Amy Strong, Jake Thrasher, Esmé Shields, Raiden Worley,

and Justin Nail

3rd Block

Chapter 10: America’s Economic Revolution

The Changing American NationThe American Population (1820-1840), Immigration and Urban Growth (1840-1860), and The Rise of Nativism

Population increased and concentrated in industrial center in the Northeast and Northwest.

3 major trends in population growth: rapid increase, moving West, and moving into towns and cities

Populations1790: 4 million1820: 10 million1830: 13 million1840: 17 million

There was a decline in epidemics and a higher birth rate

The American Population (1820-1840)

In 1830, about 500,000 citizens were immigrants

Immigration boomed due to a decrease in transport cost and an increase in opportunities in the U.S.

Farms became less successful, so people moved to the cities

By 1810, New York was the largest city in the U.S.

The American Population (1820-1840)(Continued)

The booming agricultural economy of the West produced Urban growth

The Mississippi River was used to transport goods and materials

After 1830, a majority of shipping moved to the Great Lakes

Immigration and Urban Growth

America’s population grew from 23 million to 31 million in the 1850’s

1840-1850: 1.5 million Europeans moved to America

Almost 10% of Americans in 1850 were born in a foreign country

Immigrants came from England, France, Italy, Scandinavia, Poland, and Holland.

45% of immigrants were Irish due to the Potato Famine

Immigration and Urban Growth(Continued)

11%

18%

27%

43%

1%

Other Northern EuropeanEnglishGermanIrishAll others

Sources of Immigration (1820-1840)

*in thousands

Total Immigration (1820-1840)

1821-1825 1826-1830 1831-1835 1836-18400

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

Immigration affected political lifeMany states allowed foreigners to vote after

becoming a citizen and living in the U.S. for a certain period of time

Some feared the political influence of the immigrants

Nativists believed that immigrants were…Physically and mentally defectiveCorrupting politicians by selling their voteBreeding urban slumsStealing jobsIntroducing radical philosophies

The Rise of Nativism

Many societies, mostly in the Northeast, formed to combat the “alien menace”

1845: the Native American Party is formed in Philadelphia

Nativist groups came together to form the Supreme Order and the Star Spangled Banner

These groups tried to restrict voting qualifications and create harsher naturalization laws

Members of this movement were known as the Know-Nothings and gained considerable power in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts

The Rise of Nativism(Continued)

Transportation, Communications, and TechnologyThe Canal Age, Early Railroads, The Triumph of the Rails, and Innovations in Communications and Journalism

From 1790 to 1820s, roads were generally used, but were becoming inadequate 

Larger rivers such as Mississippi and Ohio had flatboat traffic

Flatboats were essentially rafts that were floated downstream and broken up because they couldn’t go upstream

Trade usually returned upstream by landThese rivers became far more important with the

improvement of steamboat designTrade ran down the Mississippi and then through

the ocean to the coast

The Canal Age

This method was very roundabout, and so interest developed in the construction of canals

The most successful of these was the Erie Canal constructed by New York, which connected the Hudson River to Lake Erie

Governor of New York was De Witt Clinton; digging began July 4, 1817; massive project; over 350 miles; opened October 1825

Ohio and Indiana connected Lake Erie and the Ohio River, allowing trade from New York to New Orleans 

Lots of trading went on, the population of the Northwest grew, and New York grew very powerful

The Canal Age (Continued)

1804: English and Americans had experimented with steam engines

1820: John Stevens ran a small train in a circular track on his New Jersey estate

1825: Stockton and Darlington Railroad in England opened a short track

First American company that opened was Baltimore and Ohio in 1830 with 13 miles of track

1831: Mohawk and Hudson ran 16 miles between Schenectady and Albany in New York

1836: Over 1000 miles of track in 11 states

The Early Railroads

Lines were short, most rails simply connected water routes, cars from one line usually couldn’t fit on another, schedules were erratic, wrecks were frequent

In 1830s and 40s improved with heavier iron rails, locomotives became more powerful, cars became larger and more comfortable

Rails and canals soon competedChesapeake and Ohio Canal Company blocked the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad for a timeNew York prohibited rails from competing with

Erie

The Early Railroads(Continued)

1840: The rails gradually won1840: 2,818 miles of rail 1850: 9,021 miles of rail1850-1860: The amount of rails tripledNortheast had the most, 2x as much as

Northwest and 4x as much as the SouthShort lines consolidated into longer “trunk

lines”

The Triumph of the Rails

By 1853, 4 major trunk lines connected Northeast and Northwest

Railroads touched the Mississippi at 8 pointsChicago major rail center, 15 lines and over 100

trains per dayThese lines diverted traffic from the canals and

less use of the Mississippi weakened connections between the South and Northwest

Railroads received private funding and public from local governments and land grants from the federal government

The Triumph of the Rails

Telegraph completed in 1844 by Samuel F. B. Morse

Low cost made telegraphs ideal1860: Over 50,000 miles of wire connected countryPacific telegraph connected New York and San

Francisco, 3,595Nearly all independent lines joined the Western

Union Telegraph CompanyLines ran along rail tracks and helped coordinate

the train system.Telegraph helped deepen the schism between the

North and South because the South had few wires

Innovations in Communications and Journalism

•1846 Richard Hoe invented steam

cylinder rotary press, allowing the

fast and cheap printing of papers

•1846 newspaper publishers formed

Associated Press to share news by

wire

•Major metropolitan newspapers

emerged

• Most papers were in the North and

contributed to the South feeling

subjugated, and the improved

communication raised awareness of

the differences between North and

South

Innovations in Communications and Journalism

Commerce and IndustryThe Expansion of Business (1820-1840), The Emergence of the Factory, and The Expansion of Industry and Technology

(1840-1860)

American Business grew rapidly in the 1820s and 1830s for three primary reasons:

Population GrowthThe Transportation RevolutionDaring imagination of entrepreneurs

Retail Distribution of goods became more efficient, especially in large cities, because specialized stores (i.e. grocery or hardware stores) began to take the place of general stores

Individuals or limited partnerships continued to operate most businesses, and the dominating figures in those businesses were merchant capitalists.

Larger businesses were giving way to corporations, which were beneficial because they had the ability to combine the resources of a large number of shareholders

The Expansion of Business (1820-1840)

Corporations began to grow in the 1830s as a result of reformed state laws. Previously, large corporations could only obtain a charter by a special act of state legislature, but because of new general incorporation laws that were passed, charters could be secured by merely paying a fee.

This is significant because it meant stockholders risked only the fee to obtain a charter if the corporation failed, which led to more daring business ventures among stockholders.

Large businesses relied on credit, and their borrowing often led to dangerous instabilities, due to the fact that the gold and silver standards of the government led to too little money to support the growing demands for credit.

Led to private banks issuing less stable notes, and thus frequent bank failures and insecure deposits.

The Expansion of Business(Continued)

•Prior to the War of 1812, most

American manufacturers worked

within private households or in small

workshops using the putting-out

system.

•Improved technology and increased

product demand led to the

emergence of factories

•First factories were in New

England, and they produced textile-

based goods.

•These factories began to rely on

large water-powered machines for

increased production

The Emergence of the Factory

By the 1820s, factories began to produce shoes, which were still largely handmade

By the 1830s, factories began to produce more than just textile-based products, and began to spread throughout the entire Northeastern United States

By the 1840s, American technology had become so advanced that Industrialists from Europe visited the United States to learn new techniques

The Emergence of the Factory(Continued)

In 1840, the total value of manufactured goods in the United States was roughly $483 Million. By 1860, that number had quadrupled—reaching close to $2 Billion.

Most manufacturing establishments were in the Northeast, and the plants there were so large that the region produced more than two-thirds of the nation’s manufactured goods.

In the early 1840s, even the most advanced industries were still immature and couldn’t completely meet the demands of Americans. For example, the cotton industry could only produce coarse products, and the fine items continued to be imported from England; however, technology and ingenuity helped clear up this problem

Better machine tools allowed for wide use of interchangeable parts, and thus there were better functional uses for already-advanced machinery

New power sources began to develop and aid in industrialization Coal replaced wood as an industrial fuel, and it was also generating power in

steam engines. This allowed mills and factories the ability to generate power away from running water sources, and thus factories spread even more into the interior of the US.

The Expansion of Industry and Technology (1840-1860)

Great Technological advances were due to American inventors Charles Goodyear vulcanized rubber, which revolutionized the rubber

industry Elias Howe and Isaac Singer combined to produce the Howe-Singer sewing

machine, which was useful in manufacturing ready-to-wear clothing By the 1850s, the Merchant Capitalists were declining due to British

competition stealing export trade. Merchants themselves found that there were greater opportunities for

profit in manufacturing than in trade Merchant capitalists left their mercantile operations and invested in

factories, often becoming the operators of them Industries developed in the Northeast because the Merchant capitalists

could finance factories there Ownership of American enterprise began to move away from

individuals and towards a collection of stockholders, each owning a small portion of the enterprise

Industrial capitalists, the aristocrats of the Northeast, became the new ruling class

The Expansion of Industry andTechnology (Continued)

Men and Women at WorkRecruiting a Native Work Force, The Immigrant Work Force, The Factory System and the Artisan Tradition, and Fighting for Control

90 percent of people in the 1820s lived or worked on farms Many skilled artisans in the urban areas owned small businesses.

There were few who lived in cities to work in factories. Transformation of agriculture brought about industrial workers New farmland in Midwest improved transportation systems, and

new farm machinery all worked to increase food productions Food could be imported from other regions Bad farming areas in East declined People from the New England area moved to factories because of

farming limits Recruiting labor for textile mills:

Mid-Atlantic states- whole families worked in factories Massachusetts- Young women brought to work

Factory conditions, in the early years, better than that of England’s factories

Working children usually supervised by parents

Recruiting a Native Work Force

“Lowell mills a female paradise by comparison” to conditions in England Clean boarding and dormitories, maintained by Lowell factory Strict curfews and rules for attending church Women fed well and supervised Published monthly magazine, Lowell Offspring Paid low wages, but sufficient for the time

Women were not allowed to perform strenuous manual labor, so factory work was their only option

Over time, factory conditions became worse, wages were lowered, and hours increased

The Factory Girls Association, a union of Lowell workers, went on strike because of 25 percent wage cuts in 1834, and again in 1836 because of increased boarding costs. Both strikes failed, and the association dissolved over time. The new association went to state governments for legislatorial changes.

Women later shifted into new jobs, while immigrants began working in factories

Recruiting a Native Work Force (Continued)

The Lowell Mills

In the 1840s, there was a great influx of immigrant workers

This caused lower wages and longer work hours for workers.

The factories became unsanitary, noisy, and obsessed with efficiency.

The Immigrant Work Force

Irish immigrants worked in textile mills in the mid nineteenth century. 

They accepted lower wages and made organizing unions more difficult

Because they were unfamiliar to the country and there were so many of them, immigrants had less leverage than women did to good working conditions in factories.

The Immigrant Work Force(Continued)

In response to factories, artisans began to ban together in unions in order to protect their businesses.

Soon after, factory workers began making unions.

In the 1830s, national unions and federations of local unions started to form.

In 1834, the National Trades’ Union was founded by delegates from six cities.

The Factory System and the Artisan Tradition

In 1842, Massachusetts was involved in the landmark court case Commonwealth v. Hunt.

This declared unions lawful and strike a lawful weapon

Massachusetts was the first state to do so.

Fighting For Control

Many factory unions found it difficult to incite change

This was due to the influx of immigrants in the US, workers’ inability to work together, and the lack of members in the unions.

Most craft unions excluded womenThis caused women to form their own unions.

Fighting for Control(Continued)

Patterns of SocietyThe Rich and the Poor, Social Mobility, Middle-Class Life, The Changing Family, Women and the “Cult of Domesticity,” and Leisure Activities

The Industrial Revolution made America very wealthy, but the wealth was not distributed equally, creating large gaps between social classes.

Slaves, unskilled workers, Indians, and landless farmers gained experienced no benefits from the economic growth.

In America in 1860, 5% of the population controlled 50% of the wealth.

Many industrialists and merchants became extremely wealthy and created a high society in the cities.

The Rich and the Poor

At the same time, a large population of “paupers” began to develop in urban areas.

These people were often entirely dependent on charity and crime as a way of survival.

Many died from exposure or starvation.Paupers were often immigrants experiencing

prejudice, free blacks, orphans, or widows.

The Rich and the Poor(Continued)

Though there was a greater gap between the classes, there was less class conflict because of an overall higher standard of living.

There were opportunities for workers to move up the economic ladder. Few succeeded, but enough to fuel the dreams of others and prevent unrest.

Social Mobility

For those who had enough money, it was possible to move out west and buy land.

Those who could not afford to move west often traveled from one urban center to another. They were called “people in motion.”

Mobility made protests and unrest virtually impossible to organize.

Hope for the future also helped prevent any uprisings.

Social Mobility(Continued)

RuralInstead of the family working as an economic

unit, many farmers began to hire workers.Because of the workers, women began to

participate in more domestic tasks.

Middle Class Life

UrbanAs people moved from rural to urban areas

and jobs become more important than land, the original patriarchal system of family began to change.

Sons and daughters began to leave the house for work.

Public and Private spheres began to develop.The birth rate in middle class families began

to decrease as more people thought about the future when considering having a child.

Middle Class Life(Continued)

The farms in the Northwest became more commercialized and relied less on family labor, giving women a more domestic role

The economic family unit started to disappear with the rise of factories

Women who did not have a job in the factories were usually in charge of domestic issues

The Changing Family

•Families had fewer children during

this time due to increased family

planning, organization, and increased

abstinence.

•This painting shows an ideal middle-

class family during this time in

American History

The Changing Family

Women were expected to be obedient and benevolent to their husbands

Middle Class men became the primary sources of income, leaving the women to rear the children, cook, and clean.

Women protected the “domestic values” and family unit

Women and the “Cult of Domesticity”

During this time, the “cult of domesticity” governed their actions and activities

The Cult of Domesticity: The role and outlook on middle-class women during the 1800’s. Women were expected to be homemakers who were obedient to their husbands. They protected the “domestic values” of the time. Women were also not supposed to communicate without the permission or supervision of their husbands, leaving many cut off from the outside world.

Many women were cut off from the outside worldLower-class and unmarried women were expected to

work or be supported by a wealthier family member

Women and the “Cult of Domesticity”(Continued)

The working class had little time for leisure, but took advantages of holidays like the Fourth of July

Reading was one of the most popular pastimes in the upper classes, leading to the rise of newspapers and the ladies’ “sentimental novels.”

Women were very avid readers, particularly of “sentimental novels” and magazines like Godey’s Lady’s Book. These were two types of manuscripts that were deemed appropriate for women

Leisure Activities

Theater, public sporting events, and lectures were popular among all classes

P.T. Barnum’s American Museum indulged in the American fascination with the wild and exotic with freak shows that included Siamese twins and midgets.

Barnum drew more people to his museum with lectures by scientists, world travelers, and clergy.

Leisure Activities (Continued)

The Agricultural NorthNortheastern Agriculture, The Old Northwest, and Rural Life

The Northeast region produced wheat, corn, grapes, cattle, sheep and hogs

After 1840, agriculture in the region underwent change and declined.

The soil in the area was not as rich as that in the Northwest, so farmers could not compete.

Northeastern Agriculture

The rural population decreased as some farmers moved west, and others joined the labor force in mills.

Some began truck farming and provided vegetables and fruit for the growing urban areas

Others responded to the demands for dairy products and began supplying milk, butter, and cheese.

Northeastern Agriculture(Continued)

In the mid-nineteenth century, the Northwest had more industry than the South. Industry began to develop steadily in the two decades before the Civil War, with high concentrations along the shore of Lake Erie and Cleveland. The meat packing industry developed in and around Cincinnati. The city of Chicago began to grow toward becoming the national center for agriculture and meatpacking.

Most of the industries served agriculture (farm tools, for example) or used agricultural products (whiskey distilleries, flour mills, leather manufacture).

The areas around the upper third of the Great Lakes states were predominately populated by Native Americans. Hunting, fishing, and small-scale farming dominated. The Native Americans did not become integrated into the emerging commercial economy of the Northwest.

A typical inhabitant of the agricultural region was a prosperous owner of a family farm; the average size was 200 acres. Rising prices for farm products worldwide provided incentives for commercial agriculture.

The Old Northwest

A strong commercial connection grew between the Northwest and the Northeast: The Northwest sold the majority of its products to Northeastern households; the Northeast sold industrial products to the Northwest.

As demands for Northwestern agricultural products increased, people began to expand into the large unsettled land tracts during the 1840s and 1850s.

New farming methods were developed and new inventions were developed such as the John Deere steel plow; Cyrus McCormick invented the automatic reaper; the two machines, together with the threshing machine, helped bring about a “revolution” in grain production.

The Northwest came to consider itself the leading democratic section of America. Its democracy was based on economic freedom and defense of property, the white, middle class definition that was becoming common in other parts of the U.S.

The Old Northwest (Continued)

Farm life differed from that in urban areas, and it differed among farming areas, also. In the more densely settled areas, farm families participated in many social activities. In the less populated area, families were often isolated.

Religion was a powerful force in drawing communities together. Communal tasks such as barn raisings and quilting bees were also popular.

Many cherished the autonomy offered by farm life because it gave them more control over their daily lives than those who lived in urban areas

Rural Life