CHAPTER 9
THE DYNAMICS OF GROWTH
TRANSPORTATION, COMMUNICATION,
AND THE MARKET REVOLUTION
• New roads
• As the population moved west, farmers needed easy
access to markets so they could sell their products. This
prompted a dramatic increase in new roads.
• Water transportation
• The 1820s saw the introduction of new forms of
transportation, such as the steamboat. Steam ships were
able to move upstream much faster than were oarpowered boats. Canals were dug between major bodies of
water to connect interior farms with coastal markets, thus
crops were able to get to market much quicker and with
less risk of spoiling.
TRANSPORTATION WEST 1840
TRANSPORTATION, COMMUNICATION,
AND THE MARKET REVOLUTION
• Railroads
• The first rail line was created in 1825, and by the 1850s, the railroad
would supplant all other forms of shipping of goods to market. As
you can see from the maps, vast amounts of railways would be
built across the United States by 1860.
• Ocean transportation
• The emergence of the clipper ships expedited ocean travel by
applying American ingenuity to shipbuilding techniques. These
ships were able to get perishable goods to markets unimaginable
before their creation; during the gold rush of 1849, they kept
California markets stocked with products that could not be
transported overland.
• The role of government
• Government investment in improving the infrastructure generated
fierce debate in Congress. A precedent set in 1850 established a
method for providing land to compensate the companies building
rail lines into the interior.
TRANSPORTATION, COMMUNICATION,
AND THE MARKET REVOLUTION
• A communications revolution
• Mass communication had not advanced in thousands of
years and still took the form of mail or newspapers. The
invention of the telegraph would break this barrier and
would in effect draw the country closer together.
AGRICULTURE AND THE NATIONAL
ECONOMY
• Cotton
• Cotton was a labor-intensive crop, requiring extensive
manual labor. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, however, was able
to remove the seeds at high speed. By the 1860s, cotton
represented over 50 percent of the total U.S. exports per
year.
• Farming the west
• Overproduction of farmland in the east began to drain the
soil of necessary nutrients. This coupled with cheap land in
the west and the economic panic of 1819 caused many
farmers to move west to start over.
POPULATION DENSITY 1820
1860
RAILROADS 1860
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
• Early textile manufactures
• As a member of the mercantilist society of Great Britain, the
American colonies were forbidden to develop manufacturing
facilities. They were to be concerned only with providing the
raw materials the mother country needed for its industrial
base. When the American Revolution ended, the United
States was well behind the curve in developing this area.
What little base existed before Jefferson’s embargo in 1807
was well supplanted by the increase in demand for finished
goods.
• American technology
• The Lowell system
• The Lowell system of mills involved placing the entire weaving
process under one roof. It was powered by a nearby river.
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
• Industrialization and the environment
• The demand for water to power the new factories
challenged old rules about the control of waterways for
commercial uses. Dams and canals to guide water to
factories angered downstream farmers and fishermen.
• Industry and cities
• The growth of massive factories required large numbers of
workers, and soon after a factory was established, a city
would be built to house and support the labor force.
THE POPULAR CULTURE
• Urban recreation
• During the 1830s, boxing became a popular form of
entertainment. Taverns and saloons also sprang up to meet
the desires of the social drinker.
• The performing arts
• Theaters still provided the primary outlet for America’s
entertainment.
IMMIGRATION
• European turmoil during the first part of the nineteenth century
contributed to a major influx of immigrants to the United States.
• The Irish
• In 1845, an epidemic of potato rot in Ireland resulted in the
death of 1 million people. By 1850, 43 percent of the foreignborn population of America were Irish. They would settle in the
cities and provide cheap unskilled labor.
• The Germans and other immigrants
• German immigrants were usually more educated than their Irish
counterparts. They tended to move to the interior of the country
and establish themselves in communities with other Germans.
During this same time period, British citizens continued to
immigrate to the United States. By 1869, Scandinavians
numbered in excess of 70,000, and the Chinese, settling primarily
in California numbered 35,000 by 1860.
IMMIGRATION
• Nativism
• Many of the new immigrants in the first half of the
nineteenth century were Catholic. This caused Protestant
Americans to fear that the nation was at risk of being
converted to Catholicism. Unfounded as this would prove,
the scare created a surge in nativism, or the fear of all
things not American.
• Immigrant labor
• Another factor in the rise of nativism was the fact that
immigrants often competed for jobs with native-born
Americans and were willing to accept a lower pay rate.
ORGANIZED LABOR
• Early unions
• To help the cause of working men, labor organizations were
created in form of trade unions.
• Labor politics
• A few third political parties would specifically represent the
working classes, but they found little electoral support. After
they disappeared, groups of workers organized under the
auspices of the Democrats and worked within that system
to get their demands met.
ORGANIZED LABOR
• The revival of unions
• After the financial crisis of 1837, labor unions began to emerge
again. By the mid-nineteenth century, workers began to place an
increasing importance on joining unions and ensuring only
members from their union be hired for similar jobs.
• The rise of professions
• Teaching was the fastest growing of the new professions during
this time, and often it was used as a stepping-stone for young men
to study law. Young attorneys and doctors had very little formal
training, which was usually not regulated. The Industrial Revolution
spurred the development of the new profession of engineer. By
the time of the Civil War, engineering had become one of the
largest professions in the nation.
• Women’s work
• Although it was a period of scientific and political improvement,
the role of women in the United States had not changed much.
Women were still considered to be the primary caregivers at
home. However, women began to seek careers in the maledominated professions.
JACKSONIAN INEQUALITY
• Few who started off poor became self-made men
• Although this age has been considered a promotion of the
common man, the facts belie conventional wisdom. Very
few who started out poor were able to become self-made
men.