ECONOMY FROM
1800-1860
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
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Slow to come to America
 Need for land, labor, capital, consumers
Samuel Slater-”Father of the factory
system”
Eli Whitney-cotton gin & interchangeable
parts
Textile Industry
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Headquarters in Lowell, Massachusetts
“Factory girls”
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Single farm girls
Put in corporate boarding houses
Held to very high morals and expectations
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
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1834-Mower-Reaper
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Cyrus McCormick
1837-Steel Plow
 John Deere
1844-Telegraph
 Samuel Morse
1846-Sewing Machine
 Isaac Singer
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
IMMIGRATION
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“Old Immigration”
Western Europe
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Settled
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Irish & Germans
Irish-in cities (NY & Boston), worked in factories & on
railroad
Germans-moved west (Wisconsin), farmed
“Political Machines”
 Wooed & helped new immigrants in exchange for
vote
 Most famous-”Boss Tweed”, NY
 Captured in political cartoons by Thomas Nast
IMMIGRATION
IMMIGRATION
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“Nativism”
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Fear & dislike of immigrants
1849-American “Know Nothing” Party
 Restrictions on immigration
 Deportation of poor
IMMIGRATION
TRANSPORTATION
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Roads
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1790s-first paved roads
Invention of “turnpike”
1852-First national road from Maryland to Illinois
Waterways
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1807-Steamboat invented-Robert Fulton
1825-Erie Canal
1840s-Clipper ships-international trading
Mostly helped the west and south to trade goods
and bring in manufactured goods
TRANSPORTATION
TRANSPORTATION
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Railroads
 Most significant contribution to economy
 Better than water ways
 Fast & reliable
 Cheaper to construct
 Did not freeze in winter
 1828-first railroad
 By 1860-30,000 miles of track
 75 % in the North
 1833-passenger travel becomes popular
 1859-Pullman’s “sleeping palace”
TRANSPORTATION
TRANSPORTATION
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1858-Stagecoaches available for
western travel-Missouri to California
COMMUNICATION
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1860-Pony Express-mail delivery, Missouri
to California in 10 days
1861-Telegraph wires spread west
1866-Telegraph wire crossed Atlantic Ocean
to permanently link America & Europe