Chapter 14
Forging the National Economy
1790-1860
1.
•
•
•
Population growth
1800 = 5.5 million to 33 million by 1861
13 states to 33 states by 1861
Expansion of cities
2. Flow of Immigration – 1830’s to 1860’s
• Why? Potato famine and European problems
• Irish
• German 48er’s
• Hated by “Nativists”
3. Transformation of American Industry
• Industrial Revolution – why?
• American System
• Sectionalism
• Industrial pioneers
Westward Movement
•
Americans marched quickly toward west
– very hard w/ disease & loneliness
•
•
Frontier people were individualistic,
superstitious & ill-informed
Westward movement molded
environment
– tobacco exhausted land
– “Kentucky blue grass” thrived
5.3 million
Population Growth
from 1620 to 1860
City growth
Westward expansion
Growth of cities and states by
1850
The March of the Millions
•
High birthrate accounted for population
growth
– Population doubling every 25 years
•
•
Near 1850s, millions of Irish, German
came
Beginning in 1830, immigration in the US
soared
Causes
Irish escape famine
in their country
Settled mostly in
urban areas of
the Northeast
Millions of Germans
arrived and settled
in the Midwest
Event
U.S. experiences
Huge influx
Of immigrants.
Effects
Produced feelings
Of nativism among
Many Americans
Know-Nothing Party
Was started to prevent
Immigrants from
Holding office
Irish Immigration
•
•
•
Irish Potato Famine 1845-1849
Main ports of entry – New York, Philadelphia,
Baltimore, and Boston
Irish were too poor to move inland and farm so
they stayed in the cities
–
–
•
Ancient Order of Hibernians
–
–
•
Boston did not particularly like the Irish – catholic,
illiterate, poor
“No Irish need apply!”
Benevolent society to help Irish
Spawned “Molly Maguires” (miners union)
Gradually improved and became active
politically
–
NY’s Tammany Hall, Irish political machine
German Immigration
• Most Germans came due to crop failures
– Germans better off than Irish, came west, many to
Wisconsin
• A few were political refugees from collapse of
democratic revolutions in 1848
• German contributions include Kentucky rifle,
Christmas tree, kindergarten, and abolitionists
• Some Americans were suspicious because they
tried to preserve language, culture and lived in
separate communities, and drank beer
Sources of
Immigration,
1820-40
Sources of
Immigration,
1840-60
Settlements of Immigrants
•Irish in Northeastern cities:
New York and Boston
•Germans would settle in
Midwest
Early Nativism
•
American “nativists” feared 1840s & 1850s
invasion of immigrants
–
–
•
Took jobs, grew Roman Catholicism
Catholics built their own schools, were #1
denomination by 1850
1849: Nativists form Order of the Star-Spangled
Banner, developed into “Know-Nothing” party
–
–
Wanted immigration restrictions
Nativists occasionally violent, burned Boston convent
(1834)
–
Philadelphia Irish fought back, 13 killed in several
days of fighting (1844)
The “Know-Nothings” [The
American Party]
ß Nativists.
ß AntiCatholics.
ß Antiimmigrants.
1849  Secret Order of the StarSpangled Banner
created in NYC.
KnowNothing
Party:
“The Supreme
Order of the
Star-Spangled
Banner”
• A shift from goods made by hand to factory
and mass production
• Technological innovations brought
production from farmhouse to factories
– Invented in Britain in 1750; smuggled to U.S.
– Beginning of US Factory System
• US slow to embrace factory system
– Scarce labor
– Little capital
– Superiority of British factories
Resourcefulness & Experimentation
 Americans were willing to try
anything.
 They were first copiers, then
innovators.
1800  41 patents were approved.
1860  4,357 “
“
“
The invention
which changed
the South, cotton
and slavery.
•Eli Whitney’s cotton gin
revolutionized the cotton industry.
•He is also noted for the concept
of mass production and
interchangeable parts by creating
dyes for pistols and rifles.
•Very important early pioneer in
America’s industrial revolution.
Whitney Ends the Fiber Famine
• Cotton gin invented in 1793
– 50 times more effective than hand picking
• Raising cotton more profitable
– South needs slavery more than ever for “King
Cotton”
 New England factories
flourish with Southern
cotton
Effects
Increased exports for the South
Planters became rich
Cotton Gin
Increased demand for slaves
Eli Whitney’s Gun Factory
Interchangeable Parts Rifle
•1830s,
Industrialization
grew throughout the
North…
•Southern cotton
shipped to Northern
textile mills was a
good working
relationship.
•Built first textile mill in 1793 in
Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Samuel Slater was
•Born in England on June 9, 1768
the "Father of the
and worked in British factories.
American Factory
•Slater came to US to make his
System."
fortune in the textile industry.
•Slatersville Mill was the largest and
most modern industrial cotton mill
of its day
Workers & Wage Slaves
• With industrial revolution, large
impersonal factories surrounded by slums
full of “wage slaves” developed
• Long hours, low wages, unsanitary
conditions, lack of heat, etc.
–Labor unions illegal
• 1820: 1/2 of industrial workers were
children under 10
Workers & Wage Slaves
• 1820s & 1830s: right to vote for laborers
– Loyalty to Democratic party led to improved
conditions
– Fought for 10-hour day, higher wages, better
conditions
• 1830s & 1840s: Dozens of strikes for higher
wages or 10-hour day
– 1837 depression hurt union membership
• Commonwealth v. Hunt
– Supreme Court ruled unions not illegal conspiracies
as long as they were peaceful
The Lowell Mills
• Americans beat the British at their own
game, made better factories
• Francis C Lowell (a British “traitor”)
came over here to build British factories
met up with Boston mechanic, Paul
Moody
– Together they improved the mill and
invented a power loom that revolutionized
textile manufacturing
Lowell Mill
Starting for Lowell
Lowell Girls
What was their typical “profile?”
Lowell Boarding Houses
What was boardinghouse life like?
Lowell Mills
Time Table
Early
“Union”
Newsletter
Irish Immigrant Girls at Lowell
Early Textile Loom
The Lowell System
Lowell, Massachusetts, 1832
•
•
•
•
Young New England farm girls
Supervised on and off the job
Worked 6 days a week, 13 hours a day
Escorted to church on Sunday
Women & the Economy
• 1850: 10% of white women working for pay
outside home
– Vast majority of working women were single
– Left paying jobs upon marriage
• “Cult of domesticity”
– Cultural idea that glorifies homemaker
• Empowers married women
– Increased power & independence of women in
home led to decline in family size
Industrialists and
Inventors
Robert Fulton
Samuel Slater
Francis C. Lowell
Eli Whitney
Samuel F.B. Morse
Development or
Invention
steamboat
Textile machine
Mass production
of textiles
Interchangeable parts
Telegraph; Morse code
John Deere & the Steel Plow
Cyrus McCormick
& the Mechanical Reaper
Samuel F. B. Morse
1840 – Telegraph
“WHAT GOD HATH WROUGHT”
Cyrus Field
& the Transatlantic Cable, 1858
Elias Howe & Isaac Singer
1840s
Sewing Machine
Perfected by Singer
Gave boost to northern industry
Became foundation for ready-made clothing industry
Led many women into factories
From left to right: Eli Whitney (cotton gin, interchangeable parts),
Robert Fulton (steam boat), Thomas Edison (light bulb), Cyrus
McCormick (reaper), Richard Hoe (automatic printing press)
Transportation
Railroads: enabled trains to
travel fast and go wherever
track was laid
Steamboats: made river
travel more reliable
Erie canal: connected the
Hudson River at Albany to Lake
Erie at Buffalo N.Y
National Road: major east-west
Highway that reached from
Cumberland, Maryland to
Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia)
Industrialization
Manufacturing went from hand
tools to large complex machines
Interchangeable parts transformed
One-by-one process into a factory
Process. Telegraph quickly sent
Messages over long-distances
Skilled artisans gave way to
Workers organized by tasks
Factories replaced home- based
Work manufactures sold wares
nationwide
Highways
• Bad roads made transportation highly unreliable
• The National Road begun in 1811 and completed
by 1832
– Connected Maryland to Illinois.
– Built by US government
Cumberland (National Road), 1811
Conestoga Covered Wagons
Conestoga Trail, 1820s
• Population shift because of westward expansion
– the West demanded transportation.
– The Land Act of 1820, gave the West its wish by
authorizing a buyer to purchase 80 acres of land at a
minimum of $1.25 an acre in cash
• Erie Canal started in 1817 and completed in 1825
– NY Governor DeWitt Clinton built the Erie Canal
– Connected New York City from Hudson River with the
Great Lakes and the West
• Clinton’s Big Ditch--------Other canals follow
• Navigable rivers and the steamboat
– the first steamboat on western waters was in 1811.
1807, Fulton's Clermont, was the first
commercially successful and reliable
steamboat. Steam boat would revolutionize
water travel.
The steamboat was often the only mechanical
means of river travel and freight transportation
from 1808 through 1930.
Erie Canal System
Principal Canals in 1840
Inland Freight Rates
•Help unite the
country as well
as improve the
economy and
the infant
industry.
•Because of the
British
blockade
during the War
of 1812, it was
essential for
internal
transportation
improvements.
The Railroad Revolution,1850s
• 1850 to 1860, RR proved most
significant development toward
national economy
• Americans demanded
transcontinental railroad to
California.
–Completed by 1869.
The “Iron Horse” Wins! (1830)
1830  13 miles of track built by Baltimore & Ohio RR
By 1850  9000 mi. of RR track [1860  31,000 mi.]
Pioneer Railroad Promoters
• 1800 to 1850: Roads, canals, navigable rivers
with steamboats were the main modes of
transportation.
• 1850 to 1860, RR proved most significant
development toward national economy
• Competition between Railroads and Canals
• Obstacles
– opposition from canal backers
– danger of fire
– poor brakes
– difference in track gauge meant changing trains
Map rr
Clipper Ships
Effects of the
Transportation Revolution
• 1860-61, Pony Express connected East-West
• Telegraph instantly sent messages across US
• Attraction of many large capital investments and
encouraged risk taking in the US economy
• People moved faster and country expanded
– Unifying spirit among fellow country men
– A need for a transcontinental railroad that connected
east to west
•Telegraph
revolutionized
communication
•Would replace the
Pony Express by
1861
Trails
ECONOMIC?
POLITICAL?
SOCIAL?
FUTURE
PROBLEMS?