Social & Economic
Change
1800-1860
Westward Migration
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People moving to find greater opportunity
Land ownership
Hard lifestyle—especially women
“Rugged Individualism”
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Independent
Self Sufficient
Yet, relied on neighbors and government
The Early West
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Mountain Men
Rendezvous
Exploiting the natural resouces
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Yellowstone 1872
American wilderness makes a truly American
identity
Immigration
& Migration
Who do you think the
following quote is about?
“They may soon so outnumber
us, that all the advantages we have
will in my opinion, be not able to
preserve our language and even our
government will become
precarious.”

Stated by Ben Franklin
 about the Germans
Immigration


Population Increase in the U.S.:
 High birthrate (greatest increase)
 1840s & 1850s, 3 million German & Irish
 60 million abandoned Europe between 1840 &
1940; 35 million to the U.S.
Why did immigrants come to the U.S.?
 Irish?
 Germans?
Effects of Irish Immigration
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Roman Catholicism
Competition for jobs
NINA
Molly Maguires
Cultivation of Irish vote
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Political machines– New York (Tammany Hall)
Spoils system
Why mostly in cities?
Improved standard of living over time
Effects of German Immigration

Settled in Midwest, particularly Wisconsin
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More money than Irish immigrants
Less political influence– spread out
Contributions:
 Conestoga wagon
 Christmas trees
 Public schools– Kindergarten
Beer drinkers & casual churchgoers
Immigration from Germany, 1820-2008
Source: Department of Homeland Security, Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, 2008.
Figures include only immigrants who obtained legal permanent resident status.
Reactions to Immigrants
Fear of Roman Catholicism & its
influence
 Wage competition
 1849, Know-Nothing/American Party
 Violence
 Economic expansion– prevented this
from getting worse

FRQ

Compare the Experiences of the
following groups of immigrants
during the period 1830-1860.
Irish
 German

Industrialization
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Transformations in agriculture, communication,
and transportation
U.S. lacks resources necessary to industrialize (at
first):
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Labor– scarce; land was plentiful
Capital– scarce
Raw materials– undiscovered & undeveloped
Difficult to compete w/ British products
U.S. did have consumers
Your FRQ (2008)

Analyze the impact of the market
revolution (1815-1860) on the
economies of thefollowing regions
The Northeast
 The Midwest
 The South

Market
Revolution
Inventions

Samuel Slater & Moses Brown
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Eli Whitney
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Sewing machine
Samuel Morse
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Cotton gin
Interchangeable parts– mass production
Elias Howe & Isaac Singer
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Spinning machine
Telegraph
Concept of limited liability– encouraged investing
Why the North?
New England, NJ, NY, Pennsylvania
 Rocky soil– little farming;
manufacturing attractive
 Rapid rivers– water power
 More capital
 More labor (immigrants, etc.)
 Protective tariffs

Effects of Industrialization
Horrible working conditions
 Child labor
 Universal male suffrage– workers
made demands
 Labor unions– 300,000 trade
unionists by 1830
 Commonwealth v. Hunt

Women & Industrialization
Lowell System
 Unskilled labor
 Workingwomen were single
 Cult of Domesticity for married
women
 Separate sphere for women
 Domestic feminism
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Agricultural Improvements
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John Deere
 Steel Plow
Cyrus McCormick
 Mower-Reaper (mechanized)
Production increased; need for more
markets
 Need for better transportation
More machinery = more debt
Effects of Improvements
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Economic specialization by region.
 Sectionalism
Separate spheres for men and women
Increased standard of living
Increased gap between rich and poor
Social mobility existed (not as prevalent
though)
Wages increased
Transportation Improvements
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Turnpikes (Lancaster Turnpike– PA)
Stagecoach
Conestoga Wagon
Cumberland (National) Road (1811)
Robert Fulton– steamboat
Canals
 Erie Canal (1825)-- Clinton’s Big Ditch
Railroad (1828)
Clipper ships
Pony Express (for mail delivery)
Religious Change
Deism
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Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason
Reason over revelation
Rejected original sin
Rejected Christ’s divinity
God doesn’t intervene except according to natural
law; clockmaker theory
Human beings– moral creatures
Events happen– natural law– scientific
explanations
Unitarianism
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Doesn’t accept the Trinity
Denies divinity of Christ
Humans– naturally good
Free will
Salvation by good works
Loving God
Appeals to intellectuals
Rational & optimistic– based on ideals of
Enlightenment
Second Great Awakening
Religious revivalism
 Camp meetings
 Increased church membership
 Methodists & Baptists
 Personal conversion & Emotion
 Democratic control of church

Second Great Awakening

Peter Cartwright
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Methodist circuit rider
Masculine Christianity
Charles Finney
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Religious revivals
Anxious benches
Role of women– praying in public
Denounced alcohol & slavery
Second Great Awakening
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Role of women
 Church membership & beliefs
 Bring families to God
 Reformers
 Charitable organizations—salvation by good
works
Burned-out district
Itinerant preachers
Emotional & participatory
Mormons
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Joseph Smith
 Personal revelation
 The Book of Mormon– gold plates
Persecuted because:
 Communal & sometimes isolated
 Voting block
 Viewed as a threat to U.S. values
Mormons
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Brigham Young
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Trek to Utah
Theocracy & Commonwealth
Immigration– missionary movement
Prophet– receives revelation
Conflicts w/ federal govt.
Polygamy
Delayed statehood
Effects of Second
Great Awakening
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New denominations:
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Mormons (Joseph Smith)
Adventists (William Miller)
Doesn’t effect traditional religions
Influences less wealthy, less educated segments
Participation in reform movements

Led to some church divisions
Reform Movements
Reform Movements
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Education Reform
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Free public education—promote patriotism
Horace Mann, Noah Webster, & William McGuffey
Higher education
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State-sponsored universities
Females admitted or colleges for women est.
Catherine Beecher
Prison Reform
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Abolition of debtors’ prisons
Capital offenses limited
Reformatories
Reform Movements
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Dorothea Dix
 Improved conditions for mentally ill
Temperance
 Role of alcoholism
 American Temperance Society (1826)
 Maine Law of 1851
 Neal S. Dow
 Father of Prohibition
 Connected to Second Great Awakening
Feminist Movement
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Cult of domesticity & separate spheres
Lucretia Mott
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Susan B. Anthony
Grimke Sisters (Sarah & Angelina)
Lucy Stone
Amelia Bloomer
Seneca Falls Conference (1848)
 All men and women are created equal
 Declaration of Sentiments
National Woman Suffrage Association formed
Utopian Communities
Robert Owen– New Harmony, Indiana
 Brook Farm in Massachusetts
 Oneida Community in New York
(1848)
 Shakers– Mother Ann Lee
 Mormons

Some historians claim the
reform movements in the mid1800s upheld the ideals of the
“common man” of Jacksonian
Democracy. Assess the validity
of this statement.

American reform movements between 1820 and
1860 reflected both optimistic and pessimistic
views of human nature and society.” Assess the
validity of this statement in reference to reform
movements in THREE of the following areas.
Education
 Temperance
 Woman’s rights
 Utopians experiments
 Penal institutions
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Art, Literature, &
Science
Art & Literature
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Monticello & University of Virginia
Charles Wilson Peale & John Trumbull
Hudson River School
Daguerreotypes
Distinctly American literature
 James Fenimore Cooper
 Washington Irving
Literature
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Transcendentalism:
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Ralph Waldo Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Walt Whitman
Herman Melville
Emily Dickinson
Edgar Allen Poe
Science
Practical science versus
theoretical science
 Inventions
 John James Audobon

John Tyler (1841-1845)
Democrat in Whig’s clothing
 Vetoed “Fiscal Bank”
 Vetoed Whig Tariff Scheme
 Rates finally dropped to 32%
 Webster-Ashburton Treaty
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Cold War w/ Britain
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Panic of 1837– defaulting on bonds
Caroline Incident (1837)
Asylum to slaves (1840)
Webster-Ashburton Treaty (1842)
Oregon Dispute (1846)
 Columbia River or 54°40’
 49th parallel
James K. Polk (1845-1849)
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Polk (Democrat) vs. Clay (Whig)
Manifest Destiny
4-point program:
 Lowered tariff (25%)– Walker Tariff of 1846
 Restore Independent Treasury (1846)
 Gain Oregon at 49th parallel
 British offered a compromise & Senate accepted
(1846)
 54°40’ or Fight died out quickly
 Gain California and Texas (1848)
Mexican War-- Causes
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Manifest Destiny
Tyler signed joint resolution to annex Texas
Polk’s election
Prior acquisition of territory
Westward expansion
Mexico refuses to recognize Texan
independence
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Rio Grande vs. Nueces River
Fears of Britain seizing California
Mexican War-- Events
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General Zachary Taylor marched from Nueces to Rio
Grande
 Mexicans attacked Taylor’s forces
 U.S. declared war (1846)– American blood on
American soil ??
 Lincoln’s spot resolutions
Blockade of Mexico
Santa Anna’s betrayals
Stephen Kearny & John Fremont– California
General Winfield Scott– Mexico City
 Difficulties but won
Mexican War-- Effects
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Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo– 1848
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Texas
California
Paid over $18 million
Condemned– those who didn’t want Mexico and
those who wanted all of it.
More territory added than LA Purchase
Training ground for and precursor to Civil War
Colossus of the North
Wilmot Proviso