American History I
Unit 6- Industry and Reform
Industry and Innovation
Adam Smith
-Wrote The Wealth of Nations (1776)
-Free economy and free markets
-Economic liberty = economic progress
-Laissez-Faire Economics= government should not interfere with the economy
Three Natural Laws of Economics
1. Law of self interest - People work for their own good.
2. Law of competition - Competition forces people to make a better product.
3. Law of supply & demand - enough goods would be produced at the lowest possible price to meet the demand
in a market economy.
Economics
-In the 1800’s people specialize in goods and services- making just one good
-Especially farmers
-Led to more interdependence among farmers and industry
-Led to growth in the economy
-Capitalism= means of production (stores and factories) controlled by private business and people
1st Industrial Revolution
-Development of new machinery and tools
-Inventions make work easier-early 1800’s
-Textiles (cloth, thread)
-Instead of making cloth at home, it starts to be made by machines (Increase production)
-Iron production
-Steam Engines
Eli Whitney
-Cotton Gin: invented by Eli Whitney in 1793; northerner
-De-seeded cotton faster than people could; made cotton profitable
-Expanded the need for slaves
-Expanded the Cotton Kingdom of the south
-Interchangeable Parts: parts can be replaced rather than entire products
-Fueled the Industrial Revolution in the North
-Increased production, made repairs easier, and allowed the use of lower-paid, less skilled workers
Charles Goodyear
-Vulcanized rubber (1844)
-Created by accident
-Accidentally dropped some rubber mixed with sulfur on a hot stove
-He noticed this wouldn’t melt or freeze
-He wanted to make everything of rubber: banknotes, musical instruments, flags, jewelry, ship sails, even ships
themselves. He had his portrait painted on rubber, his calling cards engraved on it, his autobiography printed on
and bound in it. He wore rubber hats, vests, ties.
-Died poor
Elias Howe
-Sewing machine (1846)
-I.M. Singer added the foot pedal
-Makes clothing more affordable and led to more production
Samuel Morse
-Given credit for the telegraph (1837), faster communication
-Made improvements on an existing invention by Joseph Henry
-Important for business and railroads
-1840’s
Robert Fulton
-Steamboat (1807)
-The Clermont
-Made a 150 mile trip in 32 hours (fast for the time)
-Easier to travel, can go upstream and against the wind
-Steam engines applied to railroads
Transportation Revolution
-Railroads start
-Become stronger around the Civil War
Help for Farmers
-1837: John Deere-The Steel plow
-Cyrus McCormick= mechanical reaper, (1834) harvester
-Did the work of 5 people; farmers can produce more as a result
Factories and Workers
Cottage System
-Piece work at home
-Carded wool (turned to thread), spun thread to yarn, wove into cloth
-Each process was done in 1 home (specialization)
Advantages
-Excellent craftsmanship
-Allowed for childcare
-Minor disruption to family
Disadvantages
-Slow, high cost
Rhode Island System
-Developed by Samuel Slater
-Brought factories to the US
-Poor families
-Employed whole families
-Child labor for very little pay
-Lived in company housing
-Paid with credit at the company store
-Company built schools, churches, etc.
Lowell System
-Starts in Waltham, MA, near Lowell in 1813
-1822, Lowell became preferred because of its access to the Merrimack River which fell 35 feet at Lowell,
providing a perfect source of both water power and transport.
-“The Manchester of America”
-By 1850, Lowell used steam power
-Produced 20% of the nation’s cloth
-Large Capital Investment
-All processes under one roof
-Specialization required minimal management
-Labor was mostly female
Women of Lowell
-Most workers were young women from New England farms
-Supervised by housemothers and subject to curfews, the girls worked 12 – 14 hr. days and 70 hr. work weeks
-Church attendance was compulsory
-Factory work replaced farm work. While farm work was difficult, there were seasonal lulls. Not so for the
factory. Life was lived according to the time clock, not the seasons.
-While conditions were spartan by modern standards, conditions were better than their British counterparts
-Working at the mills was a way an early 19th century woman could achieve some independence
-Many women availed themselves of schooling activities available in the evening
Working Conditions
-Bad!
-Poor ventilation
-Windows kept closed in cotton factories
Dangerous
Long hours: 15 hour days; 6 days a week
-Child labor; women
-Why hire them?
-Women at Lowell started to strike and organize unions to protest working conditions
-Eventually, immigrant families (Rhode Island System) replaced the Lowell system
-At the turn of the century, the textile industry moved south in search of cheaper labor. The southern system
initially -copied the original Lowell system of hiring farm girls.
Immigrants
-Irish
-Potato Famine (1840s)
-Most worked as servants
-70% servants in Boston were Irish
-Discriminated against
-Catholic
-Viewed as angry, alcoholic, illiterate, greedy, bumbling, brawlers
-NINA (No Irish Need Apply)
-Germans
-Farmers, craftsmen fleeing the Industrial Revolution; political & religious refugees
-Accepted
-Viewed as hardworking, thrifty, good additions
-Add many things to American culture
-Gymnastics, bowling, frankfurters, hamburger, kindergarten, music
Reform Movements
Women’s Rights
Background
-Limited rights, couldn’t be on a jury, hold office, vote, when married your property became your husbands, no
laws against abuse
-Women began to call for reforms
Republican Motherhood
-A republic can only succeed if citizens were virtuous and educated.
-Women must be schooled in virtue so they could teach their children.
-The first American female academies were founded in the 1790s.
Cult of Domesticity
-Women were pious, submissive wives and mothers concerned exclusively with home and family
-White, upper-class, Protestant, lived in New England or the Northeast
-Women are the center of the family or the “light of the home”
Suffrage Movement
-Right to vote for women
-Many female abolitionists were also suffragettes
-Grimke Sisters, Sojourner Truth
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
-Abolitionist
-Helped organize the Seneca Falls Convention-world’s first women’s rights convention (1848)
-Est. the National Woman Suffrage Association (1869)
Lucretia Mott
-Quaker Abolitionist
-Denied a seat at the World Antislavery Convention (1840)
-Organized Seneca Falls
-Launched US women’s rights movement
Susan B. Anthony
-Abolition and temperance
-Women needed the right to vote
-Amendment for suffrage
-National Woman Suffrage Association (1869)
-Toured the country giving speeches for women’s suffrage
-Illegally voted in the 1872 Presidential election, arrested, put on trial and fined $100
Lucy Stone
-Abolitionist and suffragette
-1st woman from MA to earn a college degree
-Stone, Anthony, and Stanton are the 19th c. “triumvirate of women’s suffrage and feminism”
Seneca Falls Convention (1848)
-1st women’s rights convention
-Meeting of women to declare their grievances
-Beginning of the women’s rights movement
Declaration of Sentiments
-Declaration of Independence for women
-Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Many things agreed on, but the right to vote wasn’t supported as much as some had hoped
-100 of 300 delegates signed it
-“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal”
-Won’t get their rights for almost a hundred years, but the movement will not die.
-Voting rights will continue to be controversial.
Reform Movements
2nd Great Awakening, Religious and Literary Movements
Second Great Awakening
1820-1859, religious revival
Camp meetings
Many split over theology (beliefs) including slavery
More focus on individual responsibility for salvation
People could improve themselves and society
Influenced reform movements
Charles G. Finney
Revivalist preacher of the Great Awakening
“Burned Over District” in NY
"When he opened his mouth he was aiming a gun. When he spoke bombardment began.”
Utopias
Some people were not happy with their own status and tried to create utopian communities or perfect societies
Brook Farm, Oneida, New Harmony
Shakers
Generally shared characteristics of cooperation, harmony, hard work, and simplicity.
Some were social experiments (communal property, reformed family roles, no government).
Most failed within a few years. Why?
Lived in communities with gender dorms
Well known for craftsmanship, simple life, common property, and equal labor
Transcendentalism
Faith in the individual; look to nature; living a simple life
Also associated with utopianism
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Northern writer
Transcendentalist author
Focus on a simple life and the truth found in nature
Self Reliance
Nature
Henry David Thoreau
Transcendentalist author
Walden
Put the idea of self-reliance to practice by living alone for two years in a cabin on Walden pond in Mass.
Opposed slavery and the Mexican War
Civil Disobedience (1849)
Citizens should not obey unjust laws
Nonviolent resistance
Influences MLK and Gandhi