The Market Revolution
(1820-1850)
1.
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•
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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 problem
• Irish
• German
• Hated by “Nativists”
3. Transformation of American Industry
• Industrial Revolution – why?
• American System
• Sectionalism
• Industrial pioneers
5.3 million
Population Growth
from 1620 to 1860
City growth
Westward expansion
Growth of cities and states by
1850
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
 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
Erie Canal System
Principal Canals in 1840
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
•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.
Map rr
•Telegraph
revolutionized
communication
•Would replace the
Pony Express by
1861
Trails
•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
Early Textile Loom
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
The Lowell System
Lowell, Massachusetts, 1832

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
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
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
•1830s,
Industrialization
grew throughout the
North…
•Southern cotton
shipped to Northern
textile mills was a
good working
relationship.
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.
Cotton Production
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
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.
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)