Chapter 11:
Technology, Culture, & Everyday Life
Section 1
• Focus Question: What technological
improvements increased industrial productivity
between 1840-1860?
• Big Picture:
▫ Technology improves lives, agriculture, and the
economy at a price.
Just Think About It
• How does technology improve our daily lives?
• How does technology improve our lives, but
comes at a price (consequences)?
Agriculture
• 1834: Cyrus McCormick—Mechanical Reaper
• 1837—John Deere—Steel Tipped Plow
▫ Both assisted farmers harvest “frontier”
▫ Civil War
• Farmers could work more land
▫ Downfall: purchased land & loans = debt
▫ Farm land without conservation
Technology & Industry
• 1800—Eli Whitney began metal tool production
▫ Cotton gin & interchangeable parts
▫ Most parts still purchased from BR
• 1840-1860’s—U.S. creates “American System”
(H.Clay)
▫ U.S. less reliant on European goods
▫ Tariffs for manufacturing (N)
 Encouraged entrepreneurs & inventions
▫ RR & Canals for trade (W)
 Communications for business—telegraphs
▫ No plans for agricultural south
Railroad Boom
•
1850’s—American rail 3x’s faster than BR
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
•
Dangerous Conditions
Improvements: Time zone invented +
1860—Chicago major RR shipping hub to
connect East to Midwest (replaced NO)


Depression of 1830’s slowed down RR creation
1850’s led to RR boom = stock exchange
Prosperity
• New technologies = more efficient working =
lower prices
▫
▫
▫
▫
Small artisans could not compete
More wages = more buying = more demand
Growth of cities (more $ = expanding)
Women & children had opportunities to work and
supplement farming family income
▫ Urbanization in N & W = economic opportunites
for all
Section 2
• Focus Question: How did American pastimes
and entertainment change between 1840-1860?
• Big Picture:
▫ People have more educated, have more leisure
time, and are forming social groups.
Dwellings
• Urban Setting: Brick row-homes
▫ Working class homes sectioned off and popular
among immigrants (Irish) and free blacks
• Middle class: building odd shaped houses
▫ Fancy, lots of wood, & upholstered
• Rural poor class: poorly constructed cabins
1840-1850 Life Improves
Conveniences
Inconveniences
•
•
•
•
• Coal dust & carbon monoxide
• Fresh fruits/veggies only
available to wealthy
• Salted pork
• Lack of running water
• Conditions
▫ Body odor
▫ Hogs as street cleaners
▫ Poor sanitation
Transportation & industry
Coal stoves
Railroads
Pipes & aqueducts for fresh
water in urban areas
▫ NY
Diseases & Health
• Epidemics—rapidly spreading diseases
▫ Cholera & Yellow Fever killed 1/5 of New Orleans
▫ High infant mortality
▫ Distrusted doctors b/c they could not cure
• Quarantine—separate sick from society
Diseases & Health
• 1840—Health Advancements
▫ Nitrous Oxide (laughing gas) anesthetic
▫ Sulfuric Ether in surgery
▫ Lack of sterilizing equipment
• Health Movements
▫ Water Cure 1840s (Europe)
▫ 1832—Sylvester Graham
▫ Abstinence & utopian communities
Phrenology
• Orson & Lorenzo Fowler 1830s
▫ “bumps” in head are connected towards
personality
▫ Exercising “bumps” = improved character
▫ Popular for helping pick mates & employees
Section 3
• Focus Question:
• Big Picture: 1830-1860 allowed Americans
higher wages = more leisure time
Newspapers
• 3-4 pages, paid for by political supporters
• 1830s—steam driven press
▫ James Gordon Bennett & penny press
▫ NY Sun & NY Herald
• Included daily events & “stories "of crime
Theater
•
•
•
•
50 cents/seat & crowded
All classes, even prostitution allowed
Astor Place Riots
Melodramas like Shakespeare & short
performances
Minstrel Shows
• 1840-1850—shows depicting stereotypical blacks
▫ “dancing, stumbling, poor language”
▫ Whites painted faces
▫ Popular shows traveled across the U.S., even the
White House
P.T. Barnum
• From CT, journalist, & “crook”
• 1834—began career in “circus shows”
▫ Books 80 yo black woman who claimed to be GW
nurse (169 yo!)
• 1841—purchased the American Museum in NY
▫ Typical museums had stuffed animals
▫ Barnum displayed “oddities”
 Magicians, Tom Thumb, Mermaid, albinos
Tom Thumb
Section 4
• Focus Question: How did Americans express
their distinctiveness in their literature in art?
• Big Picture: Move from “fancy” writing/art to
more accessible material for the masses/
Roots of the Renaissance
Economic & Philosophical
Fiction & Poetry
• Transportation Revolution =
ideas of fiction and unknown
• Prior to 1800s
▫ Classicism—educated
writers showing off
understanding of Ancient
literature.
• During 1800’s
▫ Romanticism
▫ Popular b/c more were
educated and now had
access to new type of
literature.
▫ Books taught morals with
interesting and identifiable
characters
Focus on Novels
Authors
Subject
Titles
Cooper
Focused on adventure &
saving nature
Last of the Mohicans
Emerson
Nationalism (pride in
nation )
Transcendentalism—God
& nature is in writing
Poetry with optimism
Thoreau
“Civil Disobedience”
1849– defending rights
against unjust laws.
Walden 1845
Fuller
Free thinking/spirit,
inspired by Emerson
Whitman
Democratic thinker,
against slavery
Leaves of Grass
Focus on Poetry and Essays
Authors
Subject
Titles
Hawthorne
Fiction 1840-1850,
explored human
motivation
Scarlett Letter 1850—NE
witch trials
Melville
Pessimistic writer,
interested in psychology
v society
Moby Dick
Poe
Short stories & poetry,
connection to human
struggle
The Fall of the House of
Usher
Central Park
Painters
Hudson River School
• Interpreted nature &
landscapes
• NA & Hudson River
• 1858
• Frederick Law Olmsted &
Calvert Vaux
• Nature inside a city
Changes in Society Reflected in Literature