The Antebellum Period Technology, Culture, and Everyday life 1840-1860 Introduction In the 1840’s and 1850’s, most Americans believed God had ordained that man should progress (morally and materially) • The means to progress of both kinds was through technology • – Americans defined as “the application of science to improve the conveniences of life” We will look at the changes in the everyday life of ordinary citizens brought about by the new technology of the period of 1840-1860 • Also looking at the ways people responded to those transformations • Introduction (cont.) 1.) How did technology transform the daily lives of middle-class Americans between 1840 and 1860? 2.) How did American pastimes and entertainment change between 1840 and 1860? 3.) How did Americans express their distinctiveness in their literature and art? Technology and Economic Growth Introduction ◦ Pre-Civil War decades were affected and transformed American life by: The steam engine Cotton gin Reaper Sewing machine Telegraph ◦ This new technology increase productivity and eased travel and communication ◦ Also it brought down costs and prices Introduction (cont.) Most Americans between 1840 and 1860 enjoyed improved standards of living But the new technology hurt other Americans ◦ The cotton gin encouraged the expansion of the plantation-slave economy ◦ Sewing machines and new manufacturing techniques rendered traditional crafts and the artisans who practiced them obsolete Agricultural Advancement Between 1830 and 1860, settlers moved onto the grasslands of IN, MI, and IL John Deer’s steel-tipped plow was developed in 1837 Used to break up the tough prairie soil Agricultural Advancement (cont.) Cyrus McCormick ◦ 1847 ◦ Massed produced mechanical reapers ◦ Farmers could harvest grain 7 times faster than before and use 1/2 the labor Wheat became the dominate crop of the Midwest Agricultural Advancement (cont.) Americans quickly adopted these laborsaving inventions But they generally farmed wastefully ◦ Rapidly depleted the soil ◦ Then moved on to virgin land In the East some farmers introduced fertilizers ◦ Increased their yields so they could compete with the new western fields In the South farmers had little incentive to invest in laborsaving machinery (used slaves) Technology and Industrial Progress Americans of the antebellum period readily invested in new technology Eli Whitney ◦ Interchangeable parts ◦ Greatly facilitated by improved machine tools Europeans called interchangeable parts “American System of Manufacturing Technology and Industrial Progress (cont.) Readiness to invest in innovations, interchangeable parts, and better machine tools Resulted in: ◦ Rapid acceptance ◦ Mass production ◦ Use of the new inventions Samuel Colt’s revolving pistol Elias Howe’s sewing machine Samuel F. B. Morse’s telegraph The Railroad Boom By 1860, the United States had 30,000 miles of track ◦ More than the rest of the world combined. Most of the new rail lines linked the East and Midwest. Much of the produce of the Midwest was now shipped via railroads radiating from Chicago eastward. The Railroad Boom (cont.) Positives of the railroad growth: ◦ simulated the settlement of the Midwest ◦ Growth of wheat farming ◦ Aided the development of cities, towns, and industry Several states barred funding of the railroads ◦ Encouraged a shift toward private investment The Railroad Boom (cont.) Railroad was America’s 1st big business Railroads pioneered new forms of financing in the 1850’s ◦ Sale of stock and other securities ◦ Many of the transactions were handled through Wall Street ◦ Made NY the nation’s leading capital market Rising Prosperity Technological improvements reduced the price of commodities to consumers ◦ Contributed to an average 25% rise in the real income of American workers between 1840 and 1860 The increased annual income of working families also was attributable to the use of steam power ◦ Allowed factories to operate in all seasons ◦ Offer work to more laborers Rising Prosperity (cont.) The growth of towns and cities that accompanied industrialization opened new employment opportunities for women and children ◦ Often had to work to supplement the inadequate wages of the husband/father There was a steady stream of American to cities ◦ economic opportunities plus the comforts and conveniences of urban life The Quality of Life Introduction ◦ Technological advances improved the quality of life in the middle class Now enjoyed luxuries formerly reserved for the rich ◦ These changes were slower to reach the poor Increasingly came to congregate in cramped urban tenements Introduction (cont.) Medical knowledge lagged behind the strides made in industry and agriculture ◦ Many Americans looked to popular health fads for the prevention and cure of illness Dwellings In the cities the typical dwellings of the period were row houses Middle class row houses became elaborate Poor were forced into crowded row houses that were further subdivided by several families and boarders Dwellings (cont.) Log cabins ◦ On the frontier ◦ Often times 1 room As the communities matured and prospered ◦ Log cabins were replaced by more comfortable houses ◦ Larger homes Dwellings (cont.) Upper class and middle classes favored ornate home furnishings in the rococo style rococo furniture Wealthy imported furniture from Europe Middle class bought massproduced imitations from new furniture manufacturing centers ◦ Cincinnati ◦ Grand Rapids Conveniences and Inconveniences Industrialization and improved affected home heating, cooking, and diet By 1840’s, coal-burning stoves were replacing fireplaces for heating and cooking ◦ These stoves were more convenient ◦ Made it possible to cook several dishes at once ◦ Coal burning contributed to fouling the urban environment Conveniences and Inconveniences (cont.) Railroads brought fresh produce to city dwellers ◦ Only the rich could afford fruits out of season Home iceboxes were rare before 1860 ◦ Most Americans still ate meat preserved by salting rather than fresh meat Ice Boxes Conveniences and Inconveniences (cont.) By the 1840’s and 1850’s, cities such as New York began to construct aqueducts, reservoirs, and water works ◦ Brought pure water to street hydrants The majority of houses were not yet hooked up to the water main ◦ Americans of the time bathed infrequently Few cities had sanitation departments ◦ Most people used outdoor privies (outhouses) American cities often stunk Disease and Health Transportation boom increased and widened the risks of epidemics ◦ Recurring epidemics of cholera, yellow fever, and other diseases The medical profession was held in low esteem ◦ Divided and uncertain about the causes and cures of epidemic diseases Disease and Health (cont.) Anesthetics were developed in 1840’s ◦ Crawford Long ◦ William T.G. Morton ◦ Allowed advances in the field of surgery ◦ Still failed to recognize the importance of disinfection Popular Health Movements Neither public-health boards nor doctors seemed able to prevent disease Many Americans put their faith in various popular therapies ◦ Hydropathy ◦ Grahamite regimen Phrenology Most popular of the scientific fads of the antebellum period An accurate analysis of an individual’s character Examining the contours of his skull Promised to teach the principles of life Give the individual control over his/her own fate Science was believed to be a tool to improve ones life Democratic Pastimes Introduction ◦ New technology transformed leisure as well as work between 1830-1860 ◦ Imaginative entrepreneurs used new inventions and advances in manufacturing to sell the kinds of entertainment they believed the public wanted Newspapers James Gordon Bennett Publisher of New York Herald Used new techniques in paper making and printing Used the telegraph Build a mass circulation Newspapers (cont.) Realized you could make $$$$ by building a mass circulation Slashed the price of the paper to a penny Used newspaper boys to sell hundreds of thousands of copies daily The number of weekly papers grew from 65 to 138 (between 1830 and 1840) Newspapers (cont.) The penny papers filled their columns with human-interest stories of crime and sex Bennett’s New York Herald and Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune also pioneered in modern financial and political reporting The Theater Antebellum theaters were filled with large, rowdy audiences from all social classes People liked romantic melodramas best William Shakespeare’s plays were performed the most of any other dramatist Minstrel Shows Minstrel shows=performances of songs, dances, and skits by white men in blackface Minstrel shows became popular in the 1840’s with the white working-class audiences Catered to and reinforced the prejudices of whites Depicted blacks as stupid, comical, musical, and irresponsible P.T. Barnum Displays of curiosities Flair for publicity Development of the American Museum in New York The ultimate “entrepreneur of popular entertainment” in the antebellum era The Quest for Nationality in Literature and Art Introduction ◦ Europeans in the early 19th century looked down on American writing ◦ Washington Irving ◦ Most successful American writing in early 1800’s “Rip Van Winkle” “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” Biography Introduction (cont.) “American Renaissance” ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ After 1820 “a flowering of literature” James Fenimore Ralph Waldo Emerson Walt Whitman Some sought to develop a new, unique American literature Introduction (cont.) The painters of the Hudson River School and Frederick Law Olmsted in his landscape design also offered distinctively American visions Roots of the American Renaissance 1820’s and 1830’s 2 things transformed the writing of fiction in the U.S.A. The transportation revolution ◦ Opened a nationwide market for books Spread of the romantic movement ◦ Romanticism stressed feelings rather than learning ◦ Suited fiction well Roots of the American Renaissance (cont.) Women still were not admitted to most colleges Women could publish best-selling romantic novels ◦ Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin Cooper, Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller and Whitman James Fenimore Cooper The 1st of the “new” writers Introduced frontiersman Natty Bumppo ◦ Particularly American character Cooper's works Ralph Waldo Emerson Wrote mostly essays Transcendentalism American brand of romanticism Emerson' works Ralph Waldo Emerson (cont.) Emerson rejected the importance of education and reason in seeking the truth He contented that every individual is capable of knowing God, truth, and beauty by following his feelings Young, democratic America had nothing to learn from Europe ◦ American could produce its own great literature and art Henry David Thoreau Emerson’s disciple Not only expressed his radical insights but lived them He went to jail rather than pay taxes to support what he considered the “evil” Mexican War He defended the right to defy unjust govt. policies in his essay “Civil Disobedience” (1849) Henry David Thoreau (cont.) Thoreau's works “he seems to have wanted most to use words to force his readers to rethink their own lives” Margaret Fuller Emerson discipline Combined transcendentalism and feminism Women in the Nineteenth Century (1845) Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass Broke new ground in poetry ◦ “lusty” and “bold” ◦ Free verse ◦ Celebrated the American common man Whitman's works Hawthorne, Melville, and Poe Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne works Herman Melville Moby Dick Melville's works Edgar Allen Poe Poe's works Poems and short stories The Raven Hawthorne, Melville, and Poe (cont.) They were more interesting in writing in analyzing moral dilemmas and probing psychological states Shared an “underlying pessimism about the human condition” Explored questions of human nature Literature in the Marketplace Most 19th century U.S. authors hoped to gain recognition and a living from their writings. Poe sold short stories to popular magazines Emerson, Thoreau, Melville made $$$ by lecturing for lyceums ◦ Most lyceum speakers were men Literature in the Marketplace (cont.) Women could and did earn excellent livings by turning out sentimental novels ◦ Susan Warner’s The Wide,Wide World Neither the writers nor most of the female readers who consumed the sentimental novels were active feminists Many of the works did illustrate the moral that “women could overcome trials and improve their worlds.” American Landscape Painting American artists sought to depict their native land Especially in its primitive grandeur before pioneers deforested and plowed it American Landscape Painting (cont.) George Catlin Catlin exhibit Portrayed Indians as “noble savages” doomed by the “march of progress” American Landscape Painting (cont.) Thomas Cole Painted allegorical scenes on themes of importance to a young republic Cole's works American Landscape Painting (cont.) Hudson River School Cole, Asher Durand, and Frederic Church ◦ Subordinated realism to emotional effect ◦ Reflected the romanticism of the period PBS Hudson River School American Landscape Painting (cont.) New York’s Central Park ◦ Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Clavert Vaux ◦ Shared a romantic view of nature ◦ They aimed to refresh the souls of harried urbanites by creating an idealized pastoral landscape in the midst of the city Central Park History Central Park map Conclusion Between 1840 and 1860, new technology changed the lives of Americans Advances in transportation and manufacturing helped the following: ◦ improved the American diet ◦ made a greater variety of necessities and luxuries available at lower prices ◦ transformed leisure pursuits ◦ encouraged efforts to diffuse and popularize culture Conclusion (cont.) Negative effects of technology: ◦ Increased the gap between the lifestyles of the reasonably affluent and the poor ◦ Increased the gap between middle-class men and women ◦ Led to assaults on America’s beautiful natural environment Conclusion (cont.) The despoliation troubled writers such as Thoreau and artists such as the painters of the Hudson River school Hawthorne’s and Melville’s fiction showed that material progress and political democracy did not liberate man from the dark places in his own soul