Maddie Seidel, Safa Khan, Caitlyn Davis, Amy Strong, Jake
Thrasher, Esmé Shields, Raiden Worley, and Justin Nail
3rd Block
The American Population (1820-1840), Immigration and Urban
Growth (1840-1860), and The Rise of Nativism
 Population increased and concentrated in industrial
center in the Northeast and Northwest.
 3 major trends in population growth: rapid increase,
moving West, and moving into towns and cities
 Populations
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1790: 4 million
1820: 10 million
1830: 13 million
1840: 17 million
 There was a decline in epidemics and a higher birth
rate
 In 1830, about 500,000 citizens were immigrants
 Immigration boomed due to a decrease in transport
cost and an increase in opportunities in the U.S.
 Farms became less successful, so people moved to the
cities
 By 1810, New York was the largest city in the U.S.
 The booming agricultural economy of the West
produced Urban growth
 The Mississippi River was used to transport goods and
materials
 After 1830, a majority of shipping moved to the Great
Lakes
 America’s population grew from 23 million to 31
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million in the 1850’s
1840-1850: 1.5 million Europeans moved to America
Almost 10% of Americans in 1850 were born in a
foreign country
Immigrants came from England, France, Italy,
Scandinavia, Poland, and Holland.
45% of immigrants were Irish due to the Potato
Famine
1%
11%
18%
43%
Other Northern European
English
German
Irish
All others
27%
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
1821-1825
*in thousands
1826-1830
1831-1835
1836-1840
 Immigration affected political life
 Many states allowed foreigners to vote after becoming
a citizen and living in the U.S. for a certain period of
time
 Some feared the political influence of the immigrants
 Nativists believed that immigrants were…
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Physically and mentally defective
Corrupting politicians by selling their vote
Breeding urban slums
Stealing jobs
Introducing radical philosophies
 Many societies, mostly in the Northeast, formed to
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combat the “alien menace”
1845: the Native American Party is formed in
Philadelphia
Nativist groups came together to form the Supreme
Order and the Star Spangled Banner
These groups tried to restrict voting qualifications and
create harsher naturalization laws
Members of this movement were known as the KnowNothings and gained considerable power in
Pennsylvania and Massachusetts
The Canal Age, Early Railroads, The Triumph of the Rails, and
Innovations in Communications and Journalism
 From 1790 to 1820s, roads were generally used, but were
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becoming inadequate
Larger rivers such as Mississippi and Ohio had flatboat
traffic
Flatboats were essentially rafts that were floated
downstream and broken up because they couldn’t go
upstream
Trade usually returned upstream by land
These rivers became far more important with the
improvement of steamboat design
Trade ran down the Mississippi and then through the
ocean to the coast
 This method was very roundabout, and so interest
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developed in the construction of canals
The most successful of these was the Erie Canal
constructed by New York, which connected the Hudson
River to Lake Erie
Governor of New York was De Witt Clinton; digging began
July 4, 1817; massive project; over 350 miles; opened
October 1825
Ohio and Indiana connected Lake Erie and the Ohio River,
allowing trade from New York to New Orleans
Lots of trading went on, the population of the Northwest
grew, and New York grew very powerful
 1804: English and Americans had experimented with
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steam engines
1820: John Stevens ran a small train in a circular track
on his New Jersey estate
1825: Stockton and Darlington Railroad in England
opened a short track
First American company that opened was Baltimore
and Ohio in 1830 with 13 miles of track
1831: Mohawk and Hudson ran 16 miles between
Schenectady and Albany in New York
1836: Over 1000 miles of track in 11 states
 Lines were short, most rails simply connected water
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routes, cars from one line usually couldn’t fit on
another, schedules were erratic, wrecks were frequent
In 1830s and 40s improved with heavier iron rails,
locomotives became more powerful, cars became
larger and more comfortable
Rails and canals soon competed
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company blocked the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad for a time
New York prohibited rails from competing with Erie
 1840: The rails gradually won
 1840: 2,818 miles of rail
 1850: 9,021 miles of rail
 1850-1860: The amount of rails tripled
 Northeast had the most, 2x as much as Northwest and
4x as much as the South
 Short lines consolidated into longer “trunk lines”
 By 1853, 4 major trunk lines connected Northeast and
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Northwest
Railroads touched the Mississippi at 8 points
Chicago major rail center, 15 lines and over 100 trains
per day
These lines diverted traffic from the canals and less use
of the Mississippi weakened connections between the
South and Northwest
Railroads received private funding and public from
local governments and land grants from the federal
government
 Telegraph completed in 1844 by Samuel F. B. Morse
 Low cost made telegraphs ideal
 1860: Over 50,000 miles of wire connected country
 Pacific telegraph connected New York and San
Francisco, 3,595
 Nearly all independent lines joined the Western Union
Telegraph Company
 Lines ran along rail tracks and helped coordinate the
train system.
 Telegraph helped deepen the schism between the
North and South because the South had few wires
Innovations in
Communications
and Journalism
•1846 Richard Hoe invented steam
cylinder rotary press, allowing the fast
and cheap printing of papers
•1846 newspaper publishers formed
Associated Press to share news by wire
•Major metropolitan newspapers
emerged
• Most papers were in the North and
contributed to the South feeling
subjugated, and the improved
communication raised awareness of the
differences between North and South
The Expansion of Business (1820-1840), The Emergence of the
Factory, and The Expansion of Industry and Technology
(1840-1860)
 American Business grew rapidly in the 1820s and 1830s for
three primary reasons:
 Population Growth
 The Transportation Revolution
 Daring imagination of entrepreneurs
 Retail Distribution of goods became more efficient, especially
in large cities, because specialized stores (i.e. grocery or
hardware stores) began to take the place of general stores
 Individuals or limited partnerships continued to operate most
businesses, and the dominating figures in those businesses
were merchant capitalists.
 Larger businesses were giving way to corporations, which were
beneficial because they had the ability to combine the
resources of a large number of shareholders
 Corporations began to grow in the 1830s as a result of
reformed state laws. Previously, large corporations could
only obtain a charter by a special act of state legislature,
but because of new general incorporation laws that were
passed, charters could be secured by merely paying a fee.
 This is significant because it meant stockholders risked
only the fee to obtain a charter if the corporation failed,
which led to more daring business ventures among
stockholders.
 Large businesses relied on credit, and their borrowing
often led to dangerous instabilities, due to the fact that the
gold and silver standards of the government led to too little
money to support the growing demands for credit.
 Led to private banks issuing less stable notes, and thus
frequent bank failures and insecure deposits.
The Emergence of
the Factory
•Prior to the War of 1812, most American
manufacturers worked within private
households or in small workshops using the
putting-out system.
•Improved technology and increased
product demand led to the emergence of
factories
•First factories were in New England, and
they produced textile-based goods.
•These factories began to rely on large
water-powered machines for increased
production
 By the 1820s, factories began to produce shoes, which
were still largely handmade
 By the 1830s, factories began to produce more than just
textile-based products, and began to spread
throughout the entire Northeastern United States
 By the 1840s, American technology had become so
advanced that Industrialists from Europe visited the
United States to learn new techniques
 In 1840, the total value of manufactured goods in the United States was
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roughly $483 Million. By 1860, that number had quadrupled—reaching
close to $2 Billion.
Most manufacturing establishments were in the Northeast, and the
plants there were so large that the region produced more than twothirds of the nation’s manufactured goods.
In the early 1840s, even the most advanced industries were still
immature and couldn’t completely meet the demands of Americans.
For example, the cotton industry could only produce coarse products,
and the fine items continued to be imported from England; however,
technology and ingenuity helped clear up this problem
Better machine tools allowed for wide use of interchangeable parts, and
thus there were better functional uses for already-advanced machinery
New power sources began to develop and aid in industrialization
 Coal replaced wood as an industrial fuel, and it was also generating power in
steam engines. This allowed mills and factories the ability to generate power
away from running water sources, and thus factories spread even more into the
interior of the US.
 Great Technological advances were due to American inventors
 Charles Goodyear vulcanized rubber, which revolutionized the rubber industry
 Elias Howe and Isaac Singer combined to produce the Howe-Singer sewing
machine, which was useful in manufacturing ready-to-wear clothing
 By the 1850s, the Merchant Capitalists were declining due to British
competition stealing export trade.
 Merchants themselves found that there were greater opportunities for profit in
manufacturing than in trade
 Merchant capitalists left their mercantile operations and invested in factories,
often becoming the operators of them
 Industries developed in the Northeast because the Merchant capitalists could
finance factories there
 Ownership of American enterprise began to move away from
individuals and towards a collection of stockholders, each owning a
small portion of the enterprise
 Industrial capitalists, the aristocrats of the Northeast, became the new
ruling class
Recruiting a Native Work Force, The Immigrant Work Force, The
Factory System and the Artisan Tradition, and Fighting for
Control
 90 percent of people in the 1820s lived or worked on farms
 Many skilled artisans in the urban areas owned small businesses. There
were few who lived in cities to work in factories.
 Transformation of agriculture brought about industrial workers
 New farmland in Midwest improved transportation systems, and new
farm machinery all worked to increase food productions
 Food could be imported from other regions
 Bad farming areas in East declined
 People from the New England area moved to factories because of farming limits
 Recruiting labor for textile mills:
 Mid-Atlantic states- whole families worked in factories
 Massachusetts- Young women brought to work
 Factory conditions, in the early years, better than that of England’s
factories
 Working children usually supervised by parents
 “Lowell mills a female paradise by comparison” to conditions in England
 Clean boarding and dormitories, maintained by Lowell factory
 Strict curfews and rules for attending church
 Women fed well and supervised
 Published monthly magazine, Lowell Offspring
 Paid low wages, but sufficient for the time
 Women were not allowed to perform strenuous manual labor, so factory
work was their only option
 Over time, factory conditions became worse, wages were lowered, and
hours increased
 The Factory Girls Association, a union of Lowell workers, went on strike
because of 25 percent wage cuts in 1834, and again in 1836 because of
increased boarding costs. Both strikes failed, and the association dissolved
over time. The new association went to state governments for legislatorial
changes.
 Women later shifted into new jobs, while immigrants began working in
factories
 In the 1840s, there was a great influx of immigrant
workers
 This caused lower wages and longer work hours for
workers.
 The factories became unsanitary, noisy, and obsessed
with efficiency.
 Irish immigrants worked in textile mills in the mid
nineteenth century.
 They accepted lower wages and made organizing
unions more difficult
 Because they were unfamiliar to the country and there
were so many of them, immigrants had less leverage
than women did to good working conditions in
factories.
 In response to factories, artisans began to ban together
in unions in order to protect their businesses.
 Soon after, factory workers began making unions.
 In the 1830s, national unions and federations of local
unions started to form.
 In 1834, the National Trades’ Union was founded by
delegates from six cities.
 In 1842, Massachusetts was involved in the landmark
court case Commonwealth v. Hunt.
 This declared unions lawful and strike a lawful weapon
 Massachusetts was the first state to do so.
 Many factory unions found it difficult to incite change
 This was due to the influx of immigrants in the US,
workers’ inability to work together, and the lack of
members in the unions.
 Most craft unions excluded women
 This caused women to form their own unions.
The Rich and the Poor, Social Mobility, Middle-Class Life, The
Changing Family, Women and the “Cult of Domesticity,” and
Leisure Activities
 The Industrial Revolution made America very wealthy,
but the wealth was not distributed equally, creating
large gaps between social classes.
 Slaves, unskilled workers, Indians, and landless
farmers gained experienced no benefits from the
economic growth.
 In America in 1860, 5% of the population controlled
50% of the wealth.
 Many industrialists and merchants became extremely
wealthy and created a high society in the cities.
 At the same time, a large population of “paupers”
began to develop in urban areas.
 These people were often entirely dependent on charity
and crime as a way of survival.
 Many died from exposure or starvation.
 Paupers were often immigrants experiencing
prejudice, free blacks, orphans, or widows.
 Though there was a greater gap between the classes,
there was less class conflict because of an overall
higher standard of living.
 There were opportunities for workers to move up the
economic ladder. Few succeeded, but enough to fuel
the dreams of others and prevent unrest.
 For those who had enough money, it was possible to
move out west and buy land.
 Those who could not afford to move west often
traveled from one urban center to another. They were
called “people in motion.”
 Mobility made protests and unrest virtually impossible
to organize.
 Hope for the future also helped prevent any uprisings.
 Rural
 Instead of the family working as an economic unit,
many farmers began to hire workers.
 Because of the workers, women began to participate
in more domestic tasks.
 Urban
 As people moved from rural to urban areas and jobs
become more important than land, the original
patriarchal system of family began to change.
 Sons and daughters began to leave the house for work.
 Public and Private spheres began to develop.
 The birth rate in middle class families began to
decrease as more people thought about the future
when considering having a child.
 The farms in the Northwest became more
commercialized and relied less on family labor, giving
women a more domestic role
 The economic family unit started to disappear with the
rise of factories
 Women who did not have a job in the factories were
usually in charge of domestic issues
The Changing Family
•Families had fewer children during this time
due to increased family planning,
organization, and increased abstinence.
•This painting shows an ideal middle-class
family during this time in American History
 Women were expected to be obedient and benevolent
to their husbands
 Middle Class men became the primary sources of
income, leaving the women to rear the children, cook,
and clean.
 Women protected the “domestic values” and family
unit
 During this time, the “cult of domesticity” governed their
actions and activities
 The Cult of Domesticity: The role and outlook on
middle-class women during the 1800’s. Women were
expected to be homemakers who were obedient to their
husbands. They protected the “domestic values” of the
time. Women were also not supposed to communicate
without the permission or supervision of their husbands,
leaving many cut off from the outside world.
 Many women were cut off from the outside world
 Lower-class and unmarried women were expected to work
or be supported by a wealthier family member
 The working class had little time for leisure, but took
advantages of holidays like the Fourth of July
 Reading was one of the most popular pastimes in the
upper classes, leading to the rise of newspapers and
the ladies’ “sentimental novels.”
 Women were very avid readers, particularly of
“sentimental novels” and magazines like Godey’s
Lady’s Book. These were two types of manuscripts that
were deemed appropriate for women
 Theater, public sporting events, and lectures were
popular among all classes
 P.T. Barnum’s American Museum indulged in the
American fascination with the wild and exotic with
freak shows that included Siamese twins and midgets.
 Barnum drew more people to his museum with
lectures by scientists, world travelers, and clergy.
Northeastern Agriculture, The Old Northwest, and Rural Life
 The Northeast region produced wheat, corn,
grapes, cattle, sheep and hogs
 After 1840, agriculture in the region underwent
change and declined.
 The soil in the area was not as rich as that in the
Northwest, so farmers could not compete.
 The rural population decreased as some farmers
moved west, and others joined the labor force in
mills.
 Some began truck farming and provided
vegetables and fruit for the growing urban areas
 Others responded to the demands for dairy
products and began supplying milk, butter, and
cheese.
 In the mid-nineteenth century, the Northwest had more industry than
the South. Industry began to develop steadily in the two decades before
the Civil War, with high concentrations along the shore of Lake Erie
and Cleveland. The meat packing industry developed in and around
Cincinnati. The city of Chicago began to grow toward becoming the
national center for agriculture and meatpacking.
 Most of the industries served agriculture (farm tools, for example) or
used agricultural products (whiskey distilleries, flour mills, leather
manufacture).
 The areas around the upper third of the Great Lakes states were
predominately populated by Native Americans. Hunting, fishing, and
small-scale farming dominated. The Native Americans did not become
integrated into the emerging commercial economy of the Northwest.
 A typical inhabitant of the agricultural region was a prosperous owner
of a family farm; the average size was 200 acres. Rising prices for farm
products worldwide provided incentives for commercial agriculture.
 A strong commercial connection grew between the Northwest and the
Northeast: The Northwest sold the majority of its products to
Northeastern households; the Northeast sold industrial products to the
Northwest.
 As demands for Northwestern agricultural products increased, people
began to expand into the large unsettled land tracts during the 1840s
and 1850s.
 New farming methods were developed and new inventions were
developed such as the John Deere steel plow; Cyrus McCormick
invented the automatic reaper; the two machines, together with the
threshing machine, helped bring about a “revolution” in grain
production.
 The Northwest came to consider itself the leading democratic section
of America. Its democracy was based on economic freedom and
defense of property, the white, middle class definition that was
becoming common in other parts of the U.S.
 Farm life differed from that in urban areas, and it
differed among farming areas, also. In the more
densely settled areas, farm families participated in
many social activities. In the less populated area,
families were often isolated.
 Religion was a powerful force in drawing
communities together. Communal tasks such as
barn raisings and quilting bees were also popular.
 Many cherished the autonomy offered by farm life
because it gave them more control over their daily lives
than those who lived in urban areas