SPRING 2012
CHAPTER TEN
America’s Economic Revolution
1840s locomotive built in Philadelphia
HISTORY 3401
AMERICA TO 1877
BROOKLYN COLLEGE
BRENDAN O’MALLEY, INSTRUCTOR
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America’s Economic Revolution
THE CHANGING AMERICAN POPULATION
 Population Growth: The expanding population of the United States was a significant factor the
industrial revolution.
 U.S. Population Growth
 1790: 4 million
 1820: 10 million
 1830: 13 million
 1850: 17 million
 1860 31 million
 Why? What were some of the key
factors driving this explosive
growth?
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THE CHANGING AMERICAN POPULATION
 KEY FACTORS
 Less frequent epidemics and improved public health lead to lower death
rate (still had major cholera outbreaks in 1832, 1849 & 1866)
 High birth rate among white women: according to the 1840 census, white
women bore on average 6.14 children each.
 Immigration: After 1830, immigration from Europe escalates.
 AFRICAN AMERICAN POPULATION: Slower growth rate among black
population: higher death rate due to mostly impoverished living conditions.
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America’s Economic Revolution
THE CHANGING AMERICAN POPULATION
 IMMIGRATION BEFORE 1830
 1800-1830s: Limited immigration due to wars in Europe.
 1830 Population: Of 13 million, fewer that 500,000 are foreign born.
 IMMIGRATION POST-1830
 Immigration from Europe takes off in the 1830s and skyrockets in the
1840s.
 Improved trans-Atlantic transportation is an important factor; makes fares
cheaper (indentured servitude no longer exists in part due to cheaper fares)
 More economic opportunity opening up in the U.S.
 Previous immigration had been dominated by Protestant Northern
Europeans; new immigration is largely Irish and German with many
Catholics.
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America’s Economic Revolution
IMMIGRATION TO U.S.: 1820 to 1860 (in thousands)
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America’s Economic Revolution
THE CHANGING AMERICAN POPULATION
 IMMIGRATION AND URBAN GROWTH, 1840-1860
 Between 1840 and 1860, northeastern cities grow rapidly:
City
1840
1860
New York
312,000
805,000
Philadelphia
220,000
565,000
Boston
93,000
177,000
 Free States: 26 percent of the population lived in towns (2,500 or more)
by
1860; up from 14 percent ion 1840
 Slave South: 6 percent in 1840 and 10 percent in 1860
 Growth of Western Cities: St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Louisville go from
small outposts to significant cities in this period. New port cities along the Great
Lakes emerge: Buffalo, Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago.
 Internal Migration: Domestic migration, not just foreign immigration, also drives
urbanization: For example, many New Englanders move to NYC.
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THE CHANGING AMERICAN POPULATION
American population density in 1820
American population density in 1860
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America’s Economic Revolution
THE CHANGING AMERICAN POPULATION
 IRISH AND GERMAN IMMIGRANTS
 By 1860, there were roughly 1.5 million people of Irish birth in
the U.S.
 By 1860, there were about 1 million people of German birth.
 Irish tended to come with less money and to stay in the
Northeastern cities.
 Germans tended to come with a bit more money, and headed out
to the Northwest to buy land and become farmers, or started
small businesses.
 Few immigrants interested in settling in the South.
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America’s Economic Revolution
THE CHANGING AMERICAN POPULATION
 IRISH AND GERMAN IMMIGRANTS
 Germans came for the most part as families.
 Young, single Irish women came in large numbers and mostly
worked as
families than
domestic servants. Irish were less likely to migrate as
Germans.
 “Push” Factors from Ireland: Potato famine of 1845-1849 and unpopular
English rule.
 “Push” Factors from the German Lands: Beginning of industrial revolution
lead to economic upheaval and job loss; failed revolutions of 1848 lead
to many political refugees leaving.
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THE CHANGING AMERICAN POPULATION
 SOURCES OF IMMIGRATION: 1820 and 1860
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THE CHANGING AMERICAN POPULATION
 Pro-Immigration Forces
 Democrats tended to support the new arrivals, and sought to
cultivate their political loyalty.
 Industrialists favored immigration since they wanted to maintain a
source of cheap labor.
 Land speculators and developers favored immigration since they
wanted to quickly populate the West.
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America’s Economic Revolution
THE CHANGING AMERICAN POPULATION
 The Rise of Nativism
 Political and cultural anxiety increases over new immigrants in the
1830s: many “old stock” Americans fear that the newcomers cannot
assimilate; fear that Catholics will follow political orders of the pope;
fear that immigrants will corrupt the political system; dislike their
sympathies with the Democratic Party; dislike their alcohol
consumption.
 The Native American Association was founded in Washington, D.C. in
1837; it develops into the Native American Party in 1845.
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THE CHANGING AMERICAN POPULATION
 The Rise of Nativism
 Native Americans join with the Supreme Order of the Star-Spangled
Banner in NYC in 1850; secret society who became known as the “Know
Nothings.”
 Know-Nothings create a national party in 1852 called the “American Party,”
which has great success in the 1854 elections.
o Did well in Pennsylvania and New York
o Won control of Massachusetts state government
o Did not do as well outside of the Northeast; party disappears quickly
after 1854. Many nativists join the new Republican Party.
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THE CHANGING AMERICAN POPULATION
 THE RISE OF NATIVISM
Political cartoon from 1855
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America’s Economic Revolution
THE TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION
 Turnpike Era: The 1790s through 1820s were known as the “turnpike era,” with much
governments-sponsored road construction. Yet they soon proved inadequate to the nation’s
overall needs.
 River Systems and Steamboats: Rivers became increasingly significant as
steamboats replace slow animal-pulled barges. River
systems help to integrate a national market. New
Orleans becomes a significant port as the West develops.
 Canals: Rivers often took indirect routes, and no direct
connection existed between the Eastern Seaboard and the
inland system of river and lakes. Overland transportation
over mountain ranges was very expensive. These
problems drove a wave of canal construction.
 Erie Canal: This connection between the Hudson River
and the Great Lakes system, built by the State of New York
under the leadership of Gov. Dewitt Clinton, was
started in July 1817 and completed in Oct. 1825. Other
New York Governor Dewitt Clinton
Atlantic seaboard cities sought to connect to the Ohio Valley by water, but did not succeed.
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America’s Economic Revolution
THE TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION
1852
Erie
Canal
Map
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America’s Economic Revolution
THE TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION
Erie Canal
Packet Boat
of the 1830s
and 1840s
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America’s Economic Revolution
THE TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION
Canals built in
the Northeast
between 1823
and 1860
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THE TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION
 The Early Railroads: Relatively small
role through the 1830s.
 New Jersey inventor John Stevens has
an experimental engine running on a
circular track by 1820.
 First Commercial Service: The
Baltimore and Ohio opens a 13-mile
stretch of track in May 1830 between
Baltimore and what is now Ellicott City,
Maryland. The race between Peter
Cooper’s Tom Thumb locomotive and a
horse-drawn vehicle took place on
these tracks in August 1830.
Replica of Peter Cooper’s Tom Thumb
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THE TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION
 The Triumph of the Rails: Railroads superseded canals as the primary mode of





inland transport by the 1850s. circular track by 1820. circular track by 1820.
1840: Total trackage in the U.S. was 3,000 miles.
1860: Total trackage was 27,000 miles, mostly concentrated in the Northeast
Building a Network: Tendency for short lines to be consolidated into longer
“trunk lines.”
Trans-Mississippi: Iron bridges begin to cross the Mississippi by the late 1850s;
the first opened in 1856, connecting Rock Island, Illinois, to Davenport, Iowa.
Chicago: This city eventually became the West’s dominant city on account of its
role as a railroad hub, and also had frontage on Lake Michigan.
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THE TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION
 The Triumph of the Rails
 Federal Funding: Railroads required a massive amount of capital to
build; private sources were important, but much aid came from state and
local governments. Most important was federal aid, especially in the form
of land grants: By 1860, the federal government had allotted 30 million
acres in 11 states for railroad land grants.
 Economic Effects: Markets became year-round, and travel times were
cut enormously. New York to Chicago took three weeks by water, but two
days by rail. Railroads not only created a truly national market for goods,
but also gave birth to the modern corporate form of business organization.
They also became the most visible symbol of American progress.
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America’s Economic Revolution
THE TRANSPORTATION AND
COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION
 The Telegraph
 Invention: In 1832, Samuel Morse,
(1791-1872), an art professor with an interest in science, began experimenting
with the technology.
 Federal Funding: Congress provided $30,000 in 1843 for an experimental
telegraph between Baltimore and Washington; it is completed the following year.
 In Tandem with Railroads: Lines go up alongside railroad tracks to provide
clear communication. Low cost of construction made it ideal solution to longdistance communication.
 1860: By this time, there is over 50,000 miles of wire connection people.
 Western Union Telegraph Company: Founded in 1851, this company
completed the first transcontinental telegraph line by 1861.
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THE TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION
 NEW FORMS OF JOURNALISM
 New Printing Press: Richard Hoe’s 1846 steam cylinder rotary press
allowed rapid and cheap newspapers, telegraph increased news speed.
 Associated Press: Organization formed in 1846 formed to share
reporting over the wires.
 New York as Media Capital: The city’s major papers included Horace
Greeley’s Tribune, James Gordon Bennett’s Herald, and Henry Raymond’s
Times. Most major magazines and newspapers were located in North and
fed sectional differences. The biggest paper of the 1830s, the New York Sun,
had 8,000 readers in 1834; the Herald had 77,000 in 1860.
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America’s Economic Revolution
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
 The Expansion of Business, 1820-1840
 Factors in Growth: Business grew with expanding population, the
transportation revolution, and new practices.
 Retailing: Distribution became more efficient with specialty stores in cities
 Corporations Emerging: Individual and small merchant capitalist companies
still dominated the nation’s economy, but in some areas, larger businesses had
given way to corporations, which combined resources of large number of
shareholders.
 1830s: States pass easier incorporation laws, as well as limited liability laws.
 Bank failures remain frequent; deposits are lost in failures. Dearth of credit
thwarts economic development.
 Financial Panics in 1815, 1819, 1825, and 1837
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America’s Economic Revolution
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
 The Emergence of the Factory
 Before War of 1812 most manufacturing occurred in private households in
small workshops. Technology and demand led to factories beginning in New
England textile industry, where large water-driven machines increased
production.
 By the 1830s, a factory system in the shoe industry had spread throughout
Northeast. By 1860, the value of manufactured goods roughly equaled that of
agricultural goods produced in the U.S. Largest manufacturers were located in
the Northeast, with a large number of people employed.
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COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
 Advances in Technology
 Developed industries remained relatively immature through the 1830s; fine items came
from England. But by 1840s rapid, U.S. machine technology advances, especially with
devices used for the textile industry.
 Manufacture of machine tools—tools used to make machinery—were vastly improved by
government supported research for military, such as that at the Springfield Armory in
Massachusetts). Engineers had perfected the turret lathe and universal milling machine in
early 19th century, followed by a precision grinder at a later date.
 Better machine tools allowed for wide use of interchangeable parts, creating new uses
for products.
 Industrialization aided by new energy sources: coal replacing wood + water in factories.
Allowed mills to be located away from streams, easier expansion
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America’s Economic Revolution
COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY: ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGY
 1840s to 1860s: American inventors generate a vast increase in the yearly
number of patents. These included Goodyear vulcanized rubber (1847) and
Howe-Singer sewing machines (mass production starts in the 1850s).
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COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
 Innovations in Corporate Organization
 Merchant capitalists were still prominent in the 1840s; their clippers were fastest
sailing ships afloat at time and their counting houses and warehouses filled the
streets of lower Manhattan.
 By mid-century merchant capitalism was declining because of foreign competition
in the export trade and greater profits found in manufacturing than trade. But
industry grew in the Northeast because this older merchant class had the money
to finance factories
 By 1840s corporations spreading rapidly. Company ownership moved from
families and individuals to many shareholders.
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America’s Economic Revolution
MEN AND WOMEN AT WORK
 Recruiting a Native Workforce
 In the factory system’s early years, recruiting labor was difficult because there was
so much competition with agricultural labor. But new farmlands in Midwest and
new farm machinery and techniques increased food production and decreased
need for labor. New transportation allowed importation of food from other
regions. All of this created a surplus of labor and forced many people to move to
urban areas.
 Some recruitment brought whole families from farms to the mills with parents
and children, but the Lowell/Waltham system enlisted only young women. The
Lowell women often contributed to a newspaper called The Lowell Offering and
formed a proto-union, the Lowell Factory Girls Association.
CHAPTER TEN
America’s Economic
Revolution
MEN AND WOMEN
AT WORK
First issue of the
Lowell Offering
(1840)
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America’s Economic Revolution
MEN AND WOMEN AT WORK
 Recruiting a Native Workforce
 Labor conditions were relatively good in early years of system, certainly better
than in Europe. The young, unmarried women in Lowell had relatively good
housing and food.
 Even well-treated workers found transition from life on farm to life in a factory
difficult: regimented environment and repetitive tasks. Factory work became one
of the few options for lower-class women.
 In the competitive textile market of 1830s and 1840s, manufactures had difficulty
maintaining good working conditions and wages fell. The Lowell Factory Girls
Association struck twice (they called it a “turn out”) in 1834 and 1836 over
reductions in wages. Both failed; eventually native girls were replaced with
immigrants to fill the factory jobs.
CHAPTER TEN
America’s Economic Revolution
MEN AND WOMEN AT WORK
 The Immigrant Workforce
 Increasing supply of immigrant workers after 1840 is a boon for manufacturers: a
large and inexpensive labor source. They had little leverage with employers: lack
of skills, native prejudice, and oversupply of workers led to low wages and greater
poverty among factory workers.
 Irish workers predominated 1840s textile industry, and their arrival led to
deteriorating working conditions, with less social pressure on owners to maintain
a decent environment. Piece rates instead of daily wages helped to speed
production.
 Factories becoming large, noisy, unsanitary, and dangerous places to work, with
long hours and declining wages. Conditions, however, were still better better than
they were in England and Europe.
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America’s Economic Revolution
MEN AND WOMEN AT WORK
 The Factory System and the Artisan Trade
 Factory system displaces many skilled artisans, who had been the embodiment of
the “republican” independent worker. Artisans were unable to compete with
factory-made goods, which could be sold for fraction of artisan’s prices.
 In the early 19th-century, artisans began to form the first labor organizations to
protect their position. In the 1820s and 1830s, trade unions developed in cities.
 Interconnected economies of cities made national unions or federations of local
unions increasingly possible; an early attempt was the National Trade’s Union in
1834.
 Yet labor leaders struggled with hostile laws and courts; common law made
worker “combinations” illegal, considered an unfair conspiracy. The Panic of 1837
also weakened this early movement.
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America’s Economic Revolution
MEN AND WOMEN AT WORK
 Fighting for Control
 Workers at all levels in the industrial economy tried to improve their position by pushing
for ten-hour workday laws or restricting child labor, but laws changed little in these areas.
 One significant victory was the 1842 Massachusetts Supreme Court decision Commonwealth
v. Hunt: declared that unions were legal and strikes lawful; other states gradually agreed.
But unions of factory workers were still largely ineffective in the 1840s and 50s.
 Artisans and skilled workers unions were more successful in the 1850s, but their unions
more like preindustrial guilds that restricted admission to skilled trades.
 The working class of 1840s and 50s had only modest power; their leverage was limited by
the influx of immigrant laborers who could replace strikers; ethnic divisions led to worker
disunity. Industrial capitalists had great economic, political, and social power
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America’s Economic Revolution
PATTERNS OF INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
 The Rich and the Poor
 Commercial and industrial growth raised average income of Americans, but wealth was
distributed unequally; for slaves, Indians, landless farmers, and many unskilled workers,
there was little change. A small percentage of families owned majority of wealth.
 There had been a class who enjoyed inherited wealth dating from the colonial era, but the
character of that class was changing. Wealthy industrialists, financiers, and professionals in
cities found new ways to display wealth publicly: mansions, social clubs, fine clothing, etc.
 A large population of the destitute grew in urban areas: little resources, often homeless.
This group included recent immigrants, widows, orphans, and people with mental illness.
Most free blacks could obtain only menial jobs with little pay; they generally had no vote
and no access public schools (some exceptions).
CHAPTER TEN
America’s Economic Revolution
PATTERNS OF INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
 The Rich and the Poor
 Commercial and industrial growth raised average income of Americans, but wealth was
distributed unequally; for slaves, Indians, landless farmers, and many unskilled workers,
there was little change. A small percentage of families owned majority of wealth.
 There had been a class who enjoyed inherited wealth dating from the colonial era, but the
character of that class was changing. Wealthy industrialists, financiers, and professionals in
cities found new ways to display wealth publicly: mansions, social clubs, fine clothing, etc.
 A large population of the destitute grew in urban areas: little resources, often homeless.
This group included recent immigrants, widows, orphans, and people with mental illness.
Most free blacks could obtain only menial jobs with little pay; they generally had no vote
and no access public schools (some exceptions).
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PATTERNS OF INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
 Social Mobility
 Class conflict quelled because working standards declined but living standards
improved; to some extent, opportunity for social mobility helped to defuse largescale social unrest.
 Geographic mobility of the population was far more extensive than in Europe;
Western lands acted as a “safety valve” for discontent. Travel from city to city to
search for new opportunities also helped in this regard.
 Opportunity to participate in politics expanded in this period; the ballot did tie
people to communities as politics was far more participatory than it is now.
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America’s Economic Revolution
PATTERNS OF INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
 Middle-Class Life
 Fastest growing group in America in the decades before the Civil Wae was the
middle class. Economic development offered new opportunities to own and work
for businesses. Land ownership was no longer the only major source of wealth.
 Middle class life became the most influential cultural form in American cities and
towns: the ethos of the “good neighbor,” women staying in the home to care for
children.
 Better nutrition: Cast-iron stoves used to cook, diets improved with new access to
meats, grains, and dairy.
CHAPTER TEN
America’s Economic Revolution
PATTERNS OF INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
 Middle-Class Life
 Fastest growing group in America in the decades before the Civil War was the
middle class. Economic development offered new opportunities to own and work
for businesses. Land ownership was no longer the only major source of wealth.
 Middle class life became the most influential cultural form in American cities and
towns: the ethos of the “good neighbor,” women staying in the home to care for
children.
 Better nutrition: Cast-iron stoves used to cook, diets improved with new access to
meats, grains, and dairy.
CHAPTER TEN
America’s Economic Revolution
PATTERNS OF INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
 The Changing Family
 Families moved from farms to cities where jobs, not land, was most
important. Patriarchal system of inherited farm land largely disappeared.
 Work moved out of home and into shop, mill, factory, and office. The family as the
principal economic unit gave way to individual wage earners. Even farms became
commercialized because larger lands required more labor than just family.
 The changing family role led to decline in birth rate by the mid-19th century.
Deliberate effort to limit family size was the result of family planning, which
became more secular and rationalized.
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America’s Economic Revolution
PATTERNS OF INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
 Women and the “Cult of Domesticity”
 Growing distinction between the workplace and home led to distinction in societal roles of
men and women. Women had long been denied legal and political rights, little access to
business, and less access to education at high levels.
 Middle-class husbands increasingly viewed as the wage earner, while the wife was seen as
engaging in domestic activities: “guardians of domestic virtues” whose central role was to
nurture the young.
 A “Separate sphere” female culture emerged. Women were seen as having special qualities than
men: custodians of morality who shaped the home as a refuge from the male sphere of the
competitive marketplace. Were seen as providing religious moral instruction to children.
 By 1840s, few genteel women considered working, which was seen as “lower class.” Business
owners rarely hired women anyway. But working-class women couldn’t afford to stay home;
many went into domestic service.
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PATTERNS OF INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
 Leisure Activities
 Leisure time was generally scarce for all but wealthy; vacations were rare
even for the middle class. Sundays were often the only day of rest, and often
used to attend long church services.
 Print cultures expanded: new newspapers, magazines, and books targeted
the affluent.
 Dramatic theater, opera, minstrel shows, and public sporting events became
increasingly popular. Some theaters had relatively affordable seating.
 Traveling circuses and lectures also became very popular.
CHAPTER TEN
America’s Economic Revolution
THE AGRICULTURAL NORTH
 Northeastern Agriculture
 After 1840, there was an overall decline and transformation in the
northeast. Farmers couldn’t compete with the new rich soils of the
Northwest. Rural population in the Northeast declined.
 Some farmers moved west for new farms, while others moved to mill
towns and became laborers. Others turned to providing eastern urban
centers with vegetables, fruit, and dairy products.
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America’s Economic Revolution
THE AGRICULTURAL NORTH
 The Old Northwest
 The region developed some industry (more than in South), but industrial growth before the Civil
War was limited as the area was initially better suited to agriculture.
 Rising world farm prices gave incentive for commercial agriculture: growing single crop for both the
international and American market. Grains from the Northwest were shipped to via the Erie Canal
to New York City, where it was shipped overseas.
 Growth of factories and cities increased demand for farm goods. Northwest farmers sold most goods
to the Northeast and were dependent on the purchasing power of that region. Likewise, Eastern
industry found markets for its products in the prosperous Northwest.
 To expand production, Northwesterners expanded into prairie regions during the 1840s and 1850s;
new farm techniques and inventions were used to cultivate these grasslands: John Deere’s steel plow
could cut through the tough top layer of the prairie
 Cyrus McCormick’s automatic reaper and thresher revolutionized grain production
 Northwestern politics were largely based on defense of economic freedom and rights of property.
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THE AGRICULTURAL NORTH
 The Old Northwest
The McCormick
Reaper
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THE AGRICULTURAL NORTH
 The Rural Life
 Religion becomes a powerful force drawing farm communities together. Also joined
together to share tasks that were difficult for single family, such as house building and barn
raising.
 Rural life was not always isolated, but there was less contact with popular culture and
public social life than in towns and cities. Many rural people cherished the autonomy of
farm life.