REGIONAL SOCIETIES
GROUP 7
By: Deanna Neiser, Aj
McGuire, Chris Dixon
Differences in Lifestyles:
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Wealthy:

Lavish homes with elegant furnishings including running water

Attended expensive parties and balls
Poor

Lived crowded in small apartments, attics, or cellars with few convinces
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Neighborhoods plagued with crime, disease, and filth
Middle Class

Lived in simple but comfortable homes with convinces

Had enough money to buy clothes, food, and other products

Men worked outside of the home and the women were expected to stay in the
home
Factory System:
Lowell wanted to build a water powered
loom to produce cotton textiles like
those Lowell had seen in Britain
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With help, Lowell designed and constructed a power loom that
he set up in a factory in Massachusetts
The system of manufacturing by machines doing everything
under one roof- from spinning the thread to weaving the cloth,
is known as the factory system
Technology Transforming Life:



Americans now call in the aid of machinery in almost every
department of industry
New farming technology included improvements to the plow
(John Deere steel plow) and the development of the
mechanical reaper
For a home, a new sewing machine, cooking utensils, butter
churns, better stoves, pots and pans, water pumps
Difficulties Do To The Industrial
Revolution:



Women worked so hard and they barely made
enough money to get by
Manufacturers took advantage of child laborfaced grim working conditions
The organization of unions fought for the interests of
labors (shorter workdays)
Northern Factory Workers:


The poor working conditions, low wages, and child labor caused many
workers to organize unions*
 *groups who fight for the interests of workers
Many unions used a tactic called strike*
 *a refusal to work until employers meet union demands
Two Largest Groups of Immigrants in
the mid 1800’s:


Irish Immigrants
Largest group of immigrants (came during the Irish Potato Famine in the 1840’s.

Roman Catholic

Most couldn’t afford land in the U.S. so they settled in crowded slums

Faced major prejudice and therefore lived in separate communities (Eastern Cities)
German Immigrants
Second largest group of immigrants (of the mid 1800’s)

Most were Protestant, 1/3 were Roman Catholic, and 250,000 were Jewish

Faced prejudice and many therefore lived in separate communities (Schools that taught in
German, German Newspapers)
Nativism:

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Favoring native-born Americans over the foreign-born; viewed them as inferior.

Nativists blamed immigrants for taking jobs

Nativists blamed immigrants for the poor city slum conditions

Many nativists were Protestant and disliked the Roman Catholics (1830’s-1850’s: AntiCatholic Riots)
Know-Nothings: Political party formed in 1849 by nativists who opposed the Catholic Church
and supported measures making it difficult for foreigners to become citizens and hold office