Chauncey Jerome clocks are
now worth almost as much
as time. Jerome’s “one-day”
clocks used brass works
rather than wood.
The Opening of America
The Market Revolution
Growth of a domestic market—spurred by embargo, War of 1812, bottled-
up European capital
National Bank—1st gone after charter expired (1811): financial chaos, 2nd BUS
with 20-year charter (even old enemies approve); internal improvements will
help, too
Protective tariff—West and North—yea!; South—nay!
Erie Canal—“Clinton’s Big Ditch,”Eli Whitney
and his
ginErie to NYC
Irish immigrant labor, cannons in earshot: 81cotton
minutes
(1:50 ratio).
End of canal era—Depression of 1839 slowed building, then RR’s
Erie Canal then and as it looks today—now used for
recreation instead of transportation and cargo.
Western steamboats
—Twain: one steamboat wreck per
mile between St. Louis and Cairo
Railroads later
Influence—expensive
but versatile, and finally
dominate in 1850’s
Travel Times
in 1800 and
1830.
Navigable portions
of rivers in purple;
Roads in red; and
you can almost see
the canals in light
blue. Anyway, they
connect rivers and
Great Lakes in
Northeast, but are
non-existent in
lower South.
John Marshall’s Supreme Court made
early momentous decisions establishing
federal dominance and concern for
contracts, property, and commerce.
Constitutionality of national bank—McCulloch v.
Maryland: 2nd BUS okay—strikes down Maryland’s tax on bank;
“power to tax is power to destroy”
Interstate commerce—Gibbons v. Ogden: state had granted a
monopoly but competition is king
Protection of contracts—Fletcher v. Peck, Dartmouth College v.
Woodward: contracts are sacred basis of capitalism
Importance of corporations—immortal, capital magnets, limited
liability
A high-speed society— “pitch-forked,” speed, cheap
Immigration rises after 1830—wars interrupted influx; Irish potato famine in
1840’s
Speculators help settle western lands—government’s best customers
who sold to others on credit, including tools
On the road again—in 1850, nearly half
lived outside state where they were born
Urban centers, old and new—one-third
of people in Northeast lived in cities; new cities in
West were Cincinnati and St. Louis
End of Reading
New immigrants on the docks were often
preyed upon by people wanting to take
advantage of them monetarily or politically.
The Rise of Factories
Small-scale manufacturing—artisans: master,
apprentice, journey man; putting-out system
Acceptance of technology—American ingenuity
improves European ideas
Interchangeable parts—rigid specifications to
assemble products: guns, clocks, etc.
Samuel
Slater, who
stole the
plans, and
his original
Old Slater
Mill
Eli Whitney,
Communication—Samuel F.B. Morse, mechanical genius
who developed
telegraph; Robert Hoe, power press
the cotton gin and
introduced
Lowell—Boston Associates, pre-marriage
concept of
women in “model community,” 2 or
interchangeable
parts
3 X’s wages
Hard work in the mills —“paternalism”
and 12-hr. grueling days
Transformation of Lowell—desire
for more profit reduces paternalism, speeds up machines, Lowell offered
introduces more immigrant labor
Reshaping the area’s waterscape
—harnessing water, which is seen more as property
opportunities
for young
women to get
off the farm,
but the work
was full of
drudgery and
monotony
Damaging effects—initial ideals forgotten
Artisan system—based on home: benefits
Transformation of work—factories: labor on the clock minus pride, advancement
Lynn as the center of shoemaking—non-factory, but not a craft either
Social Structures of the Market Society
Decline of women’s traditional work—labor-saving specialization
Wealth and status—sharp business practices to get “almighty dollar”
Separation of middle class from manual laborers—white/blue
collar: salary/hourly wage
Material goods as emblems of success— “keep up with the Joneses”
Limits of social mobility—rung or two
The market transforms Kingston, New York—canal to coal
Sugar Creek, Illinois—agriculture to cities
Mountain men and the fur trade—furs to Europe (isolated but usually
rejoined society)
Prosperity and Anxiety
Boom-bust cycle—roller coaster: prosperity, recession,
depression, recovery and repeat every decade or so
Popular anxiety—“it can’t last” mentality: psychological
aspect of economy
National depression—cotton
collapse (or any other major loss) and
there it all goes—1819 et. al.
Missouri Compromise—Maine,
Missouri and 36-30
Henry Clay, the
“Great
Compromiser,” as a
young politician
(above) and as an
elder statesmen
around the time of the
Compromise of 1850