Growth and Expansion
• Population shift because of westward expansion
– The Land Act of 1820 authorized a person to purchase 80
acres of land at a minimum of $1.25 an acre in cash
• This helped 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.
Henry Clay’s Bright Idea
Henry Clay,
Congressmen from
Kentucky
Congress’s attempt to
unite the US
• Build a National
transportation system
• 1800 to 1850: Roads,
canals and rivers are
the first major forms of
transportation
Cumberland (National Road), 1811
 Bad roads made transportation highly unreliable
 The National Road was built in 1811 and completed by 1832
Connected Maryland to Illinois.
Built by US government
First Turnpike- 1790 Lancaster, PA
By 1832, nearly 2400 mi. of road connected
most major cities.
Conestoga Covered Wagons
Conestoga Trail, 1820s
Clipper ships
• “Greyhounds of the
Sea”
• Faster & sleeker than
other ships
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.]
Robert Fulton
& the Steamboat
1807: The Clermont
Navigable rivers and the steamboat
- The first steamboat on western waters was in
1811.
Erie Canal System
* 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 followed
The Erie Canal was a huge economic
success! Indeed, the Canal…
• Opened the northwest to new markets and people, thus
stimulating a national market economy.
• Linked the west with the east, thereby changing the primary
transportation axis from north to south to east to west.
• Created canal towns that offered a wide range of economic
activities and welcomed business entrepreneurs.
• Contributed to the pace of technological innovation,
especially through the sharp rise of patents along the Canal
route.
• Transformed New York City into the Empire State.
• Provided a viable model for a successfully financed and
operated public works project.
Principal Canals in 1840
The
Railroad
Revolution,
1850s
 Immigrant labor
built the No. RRs.
 Slave labor
built the So. RRs.
Pioneer Railroad Promoters
• 1800 to 1850: Roads, canals, navigable rivers
with steamboats were the main modes of
transportation.
• 1850 to 1860, railroads started to become the
major method of transporting goods
• At first there was competition between Railroads
and Canals
• Obstacles
–
–
–
–
opposition from canal backers
danger of fire
poor brakes
difference in track gauge meant changing trains
Map rr
Effects of the
Transportation Revolution
• 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
(1869)
Population shift from the east to the West
Acquisition of Native Americans’ lands
Land easy to obtain
Economic pressures
Improved transportation
Immigration
Resourcefulness &
Experimentation
 Americans were willing to try
anything.
 They were first copiers, then
innovators.
1800  41 patents were approved.
1860  4,357 “
“
“
CHAPTER
9
Time Line
The United States
1825 The Erie Canal connects the East to the
regions west of the Appalachians.
1832 Chief Black Hawk leads Sauk in
rebellion against the United States.
1836 Sam Houston is elected president of the
Republic of Texas.
1837 John Deere invents the steel plow.
1844 Samuel F.B. Morse sends first long distance
telegraph message.
1847 Brigham Young and the Mormons found Salt
Lake City.
1848 Gold is discovered in California.
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends U.S. war
with Mexico.
Eli Whitney’s Gun Factory
Interchangeable Parts Rifle
Oliver
Evans
First automated flour
mill
First prototype of the locomotive
John Deere & the Steel Plow
(1837)
Cyrus McCormick
& the Mechanical Reaper: 1831
Samuel F. B. Morse
1840 – Telegraph
Cyrus Field
& the Transatlantic Cable, 1858
Elias Howe & Isaac Singer
1840s
Sewing Machine
SECTION
1
The Market Revolution
Section 1 Assessment
HOM
E
SUMMARIZING
What are some of the important innovations in
transportation, communication, and manufacturing during
the early 19th century.
1825
Erie Canal
opens.
1839
Goodyear
develops
vulcanized
rubber.
1846
Howe patents
sewing machine.
1825
1850
1837
Deere invents
steel plow.
1844
Morse sends
first telegraph
message.
During the 1830s and 1840s, transportation and
communication linked the country more than ever
before. How did these advances affect ordinary
Americans?
Think about:
The new types of transportation
Changes in communication
The “American Dream”
z
They all regarded material advance as
the natural fruit of American
republicanism & proof of the country’s
virtue and promise.
A German visitor in the 1840s, Friedrich
List, observed:
Anything new is quickly introduced here,
including all of the latest inventions.
There is no clinging to old ways. The
moment an American hears the word
“invention,” he pricks up his ears.
Creating a Business-Friendly Climate
Supreme Court Rulings:
* Fletcher v. Peck (1810)
* Dartmouth v. Woodward (1819)
* McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
* Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
* Charles Rivers Bridge v. Warren
Bridge (1835)
General Incorporation Law  passed
in New York, 1848.
Laissez faire  BUT, govt. did much
to assist capitalism!
Distribution of Wealth
v
v
v
v
During the American Revolution,
45% of all wealth in the top 10% of
the population.
1845 Boston  top 4% owned over
65% of the wealth.
1860 Philadelphia  top 1% owned
over 50% of the wealth.
The gap between rich and poor was
widening!
Samuel Slater
(“Father of the Factory System”)
• Brought British textile
technology to America
The Lowell Mills
Industry, Labor, and Culture
1823-1860
Lowell in 1850
Lowell Mill
Early Textile Mill Loom Floor
Early Textile Loom
Rising power of industry
Water power from the Merrimack River made
Lowell a prime site for the building of woolen
and cotton mills. The Merrimack
Manufacturing Mill was operating by 1823.
Lowell Girls
The early needs for laborers at the mills were met by
employing young women, primarily the daughters of
New England farmers. These workers, pictured in
drawings from the 1820s-40s, and in photographs by
the 1850s, were among the first concentrations of
women in American industry.
Lowell Girls
Lowell Boarding Houses
Strictly regulated lives
“Lowell Girls,” as they came to be called, lived in tightly
regulated conditions, housed in company dormitories and
under carefully enunciated rules. They were paid less than
male workers.
Lowell Mills
Time Table
Vital insights preserved
Historians know
much about the lives
of female workers in
the mills – from
letters written by
some of them, from
company records and
magazines like the
Lowell Offering – a
company publication
that featured fiction,
short stories, news
and information about
activities in the mills
and dormitories.
Lords 0f Loom and Lash
The mill-owner’s hunger for
ever more cotton to process
served to accelerate the
cultivation of cotton in the
south. This in turn spread
slavery across the southern
states.
By 1848, anti-slavery leaders
like Charles Sumner of
Massachusetts (left) were
decrying an immoral alliance
between “the lords of the lash
and the lords of the loom.”
Impressed visitors
"I cannot recall or
separate one young face
that gave me a painful
impression; not one young
girl whom, assuming it to
be a matter of necessity
that she should gain her
daily bread by the labour
of her hands, I would have
removed from those works
if I had had the power.“
Charles Dickens, on visit
to Lowell, 1842
Pay and Expenses
Cloth workers were traditionally paid by
“piece work” -- so much per finished item.
Those who worked at the power looms were
generally paid a daily wage:
1836 – 40 to 80 cents a day
1842 -- $14.50 for 4 weeks (6 days at 12 hours
a day).
Workers pressed for a 10 hour work day
during the 1840s and 1850s. Only a few mills
granted it for “skilled jobs.”
Strike
Oh! isn't it a pity, such a pretty girl as I
Should be sent to the factory to pine away and die?
Oh! I cannot be a slave, I will not be a slave,
For I'm so fond of liberty,
That I cannot be a slave.
From 1836 strike song sung at Lowell
In 1834, as more mills led to overproduction of cotton and
woolen goods, the mill owners reduced the pay of the
workers – less money for each piece they completed. Some
800 women reacted by striking. The strikes failed, but left a
legacy on which some unions were eventually built.
I’m a Factory Girl Filled with Wishes
I'm a factory girl
Everyday filled with fear
From breathing in the poison air
Wishing for windows!
I'm a factory girl
Tired from the 13 hours of wok each day
And we have such low pay
Wishing for shorten work times!
I'm a factory girl
Never having enough time to eat
Nor to rest my feet
Wishing for more free time!
I'm a factory girl
Sick of all this harsh conditions
Making me want to sign the petition!
So do what I ask for because I am a factory girl
And I'm hereby speaking for all the rest!
The Factory Girls Association
The Lowell Female Labor Reform Association
petitioned the State of Massachusetts for
action to obtain a 10 hour day and in the late
1840s the Legislature held pubic hearings.
This was the first time a legislature
investigated labor conditions in American
history. But the Legislature declined to act –
“in a matter of private contract.”
In 1853 most mills adopted an 11 hour day.
But they also began to hire immigrants – who
took lower wages. The “Lowell Girls” began
to disappear from the labor force after the
Civil War.
The Factory Girl’s Garland
February 20, 1845 issue.
Irish Immigrant Girls at Lowell
American View of the Irish Immigrant
The Early Union Movement
Workingman’s Party (1829)
* Founded by Robert Dale Owen and
others in New York City.
Early unions were usually local, social,
and weak.
Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842).
Worker political parties were
ineffective until the post-Civil War
period.
Regional Specialization
EAST  Industrial
SOUTH  Cotton & Slavery
WEST  The Nation’s “Breadbasket”
New England
Textile
Centers:
1830s
New England Dominance in
Textiles
American Population Centers in
1820
American Population Centers in
1860
National Origin of Immigrants:
1820 - 1860
Why now?
Changing Occupation Distributions:
1820 - 1860
“Manifest Destiny”
 First coined by newspaper editor, John O’Sullivan in 1845.
 ".... the right of our manifest destiny to over spread and
to possess the whole of the continent which Providence
has given us for the development of the great experiment of
liberty and federaltive development of self-government
entrusted to us. It is right such as that of the tree to the
space of air and the earth suitable for the full expansion of
its principle and destiny of growth."
 A myth of the West as a land of romance and adventure
emerged.
Manifest Destiny in 1840s America
•Once the concept had been given the
name 'Manifest Destiny' it became
widely used, appearing in newspapers,
debates, paintings and advertisements.
It became the leading light for
westward expansion
76
“American Progress” by John Gast, 1872
What is Manifest Destiny?
1. Belief that white Americans had a God-given right to occupy the
entire North American continent.
2. Manifest Destiny was exercised in 1492 by Christopher Columbus
and the Spanish monarchs.
3. Pilgrim Fathers when they landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620.
4. Any act of colonization and settlement at the expense of another
race can be said to be an expression of Manifest Destiny.
5. American expansion was divinely ordained.
78