Review
 As we progress in history, we must look at where
we have come from.
 Following the voyages of Columbus, we saw that
there was this tremendous era of exploration from
Europe to the North American continent.
 As more Europeans arrived they displaced the native people and forced
them to relocate to the west.
 The evolution of societies, communities and a unified culture developed
at a rapid pace on the East coast until explorers became the natives.
 Once that happened, they attained their own identity and established
their own form of government.
 Once the government stabilized, the population exploded from with and
from immigration.
 With the expanding communities and populations the need to improve
the quality of life increased. This leads us to the Industrial Revolution
What is a Revolution?
 A Revolution is a fundamental change in political power
that takes place over a relatively short period of time.
 Revolutions have occurred throughout human history for
many different reasons.
 Their results include major changes in culture, economy and sociopolitical institutions.
 So how is the Industrial Revolution different?
 Whereas the American Revolution was about political power and change,
the Industrial Revolution was about technological change
 The term Industrial Revolution refers to the change from the hand and
home production to machine and factory.
 The Industrial Revolution was important for the many new inventions
including spinning and weaving machines operated by water power
which was eventually replaced by steam.
 This helped increase America’s growth which changed American
society and economy into a modern industrial state.
How Did the Industrial
Revolution Begin?
 The Industrial Revolution, which took place from the
18th to 19th centuries, was a period during which predominantly
agrarian, rural societies in Europe and America became industrial and
urban.
 Prior to the Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the late
1700s, manufacturing was often done in people’s homes, using hand
tools or basic machines.
 Industrialization marked a shift to powered, special-purpose
machinery, factories and mass production.
 The iron and textile industries, along with the development of the
steam engine, played central roles in the Industrial Revolution, which
also saw improved systems of transportation, communication and
banking.
 While industrialization brought about an increased volume and variety
of manufactured goods and an improved standard of living for some, it
brought about a wider gap between social classes.
How Did the Industrial
Revolution Begin?
The assembly line was a major symbol of the Industrial
Revolution as it signifies individuals running machines
to speed up the process of building something.
 Other major innovations that occurred were making water power more
efficient, taking steam power to a new level, and developing all kinds of
new tools using machines.
 Coal became the fuel of choice instead of wood, and machines were
powered by the coal.
 As new innovations developed the Industrial Revolution sparked
advancements in many aspects of society.
 Better transportation methods were created and better standards of
living were achieved.
 Most historians agree that the Industrial Revolution in America was the
most important advancement in human history since people
domesticated animals.
The American Industrial
Revolution
 The cause of the Industrial Revolution for America
started with the passage of the Embargo Act of 1807
and then the War of 1812.
 The ongoing conflict with England made it apparent that America needed
to be independent of the British. America needed to be more self
sustaining.
 They needed to improve their own manufacturing abilities and improve
their transportation system.
 Industrialization in America therefore, experienced three important
developments.
 First, transportation was expanded.
 Second, the use of electricity was greatly improved.
 Third, improvements were made to industrialization process.
The Factory System Rises
 In America, the Industrial Revolution
began in 1793, when the Englishman
Samuel Slater built the first spinning
mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
 The year before, he had sailed to the
United States, under a false name
because it was illegal for British
textile workers to leave the country.
 Britain did not want another nation to copy its machines for
making thread and cloth. But Slater brought the secrets to
America.
 At first, Slater hired a small group of children and paid them a low
wage. Later, he built a larger mill and employed whole families. As
Slater influenced others to start mills, his family system of
employment spread through Rhode Island, Connecticut, and
southern Massachusetts.
The Factory System Rises
 New England was a good place to
build factories.
 The mills needed water power, and
New England had many fastmoving rivers.
 For transportation, it had ships and
access to the ocean. The region also had a ready labor force of
farmers who were tired of scraping together a living from stony
fields.
 The factory system brought many workers and machines together
under one roof.
 People left their family farms and crowded into cities to take jobs in
factories. They worked for wages on a set schedule.
 Their way of life changed and not always for the better
Interchangeable Parts
 New manufacturing methods changed work in
other industries as well.
 In 1797, the U.S. government hired the inventor
Eli Whitney to make 10,000 muskets for the army.
 Before this time, guns were made one at a time by a gunsmith. Each
gun differed slightly. If a part broke, a new part had to be created to
match the broken one.
 Whitney sought a better way to make guns. In 1801, he went to
Washington and laid out several piles of musket parts. He took a part
from each pile and quickly assembled a musket.
 Machines that produced identical parts soon became standard. Interchangeable parts speeded up production, made repairs easy, and
allowed the use of less-skilled workers.
 Suddenly things that took a long time and a skilled man to make were
being produced by the hundreds or even thousands
Impact on Farming - Food
 As industries and factories arose, people moved from
farms to cities. Advances were made in agriculture to
help feed the growing population.
 These new agricultural inventions including better machines and
cultivators.
 In 1837, blacksmith John Deere invented a lightweight plow with a
steel cutting edge. Deere’s new plow made preparing ground to
plant crops much less work. As a result, more farmers began to
move to the Midwest.
 The threshing machine mechanically separated kernels of wheat
from husks.
 In 1831, Cyrus McCormick developed a mechanical reaper that cut
ripe grain quickly and efficiently.
 New technologies linked regions and contributed to a feeling of
national unity.
The Cotton Gin and the
Slave Industry
 In 1794, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin which
made the separation of cotton seeds from fiber much faster.
The South increased its cotton supply sending raw cotton north to be
used in the manufacture of cloth.
 Francis C. Lowell increased the efficiency in the manufacture of cloth
by bringing spinning and weaving processes together into one factory.
This led to the development of the textile industry throughout New
England.
 In 1846, Elias Howe created the sewing machine which revolutionized
the manufacture of clothing. All of a sudden, clothing began to be made
in factories as opposed to at home.
 The Cotton Gin invention also had the by-product of increasing the
number of slaves needed to pick the cotton thereby strengthening the
arguments for continuing slavery. Cotton as a cash crop became so
important that it was known as King Cotton and affected politics up
until the Civil War.
Transportation
 New inventions improved transportation,
communication, and production. They also
quickened the pace of life.
 Robert Fulton developed a steamboat that could move against the
current or a strong wind.
 Some cities, however, were not on rivers that could be navigated by
steamship. Traders in these cities needed a way to ship goods. Steampowered trains were the answer.
 1830, Peter Cooper built America’s first successful steam-powered
locomotive, called the Tom Thumb.
 The Cumberland Road, the first national road, was begun in 1811. This
eventually became part of the Interstate 40
 The creation of the Erie Canal created a route from the Atlantic Ocean
to the Great Lakes thereby helping stimulate the economy of New York
and making New York City a great trading center.
Communication
 With the increased size of the United States,
better communication networks became
extremely important and necessary.
 Around 1837, Samuel F. B. Morse first
demonstrated his telegraph.
 This machine sent long and short pulses of
electricity along a wire. These pulses could
be translated into letters spelling out
messages.
 With the telegraph, it took only seconds to communicate with someone
in another city.
 In 1844, the first long-distance telegraph line carried news from
Baltimore to Washington, D.C., about who had been nominated for
president.
 Telegraph lines spanned the country by 1861, bringing people closer as a
nation.