Chapter 14: Forging the
National Economy (17901860)
The Westward Movement
• US marched quickly
toward west
• Pioneer life is very hard
w/ isolation, disease &
loneliness
• Frontier people were
individualistic,
superstitious & illinformed because new
information was slow to
reach them
Shaping the Western Landscape
• Westward movement
molded environment
• Tobacco exhausted land
& moved on, but
“Kentucky blue grass”
thrived
• Ecological imperialism
• Trapped beavers, sea
otters, and Bison to
manufacture for East
Shaping the
Western
Landscape
• Spirit of nationalism led to
appreciation of American
wilderness
• Catlin pushed for national park
& achieved it with Yellowstone
in 1872
The March of the Millions
• Mid-1800s, pop cont’d to
double every 25 years
• 1860-orginial 13 states now
has 33 states; pop 4th in the
world (Russ, Fra, Austria)
• Urban growth cont’d
explosively
• 1790-only New York &
Philadelphia had >20,000
people, but 1860, 43 had
• Brought bad sanitation 
sewage system & pipe-in
water
• High birthrate had accounted
for pop growth, but near
1850s, millions of Irish,
German came
• A surplus pop. in Euro but not
all came to US 25/60 million
• Appealing of US (land,
freedom from church,
aristocracy, 3 meat meals a
day)
• Intro of transoceanic
steamship (reduce traveling to
12 days, death rate high not as
bad)
The Emerald Isle Moves
West(1830s-1960s-2 million)
• Irish potato famine in mid-1840s
led to death of 2 million & many
flee to US
• Illiterate, discriminated
• Hated by Protestants because
they were Catholic and it was
feared that the Powerful Church
may get a foot hold in America
• Hated competition w/ blacks for
job
• Ancient Order of Hibernians
(serve to aid Irish)
The Emerald Isle
Moves West (1830s1960s-2 million)
• Because of rules of
“enfranchisement” (granting voting
citizenship) they slowly gain power
• Gradual property owning (grand
success), children educated.
• Attracted to politics, filled police
dept.
• Politicians tried to appeal to Irish by
yelling at London
The German FortyEighters
• 1 million poured in bet 1830s-1860s
because of crop failures (economic failures)
and an autocratic government (does not take
public’s opinions to mind)
• Liberals such as Carl Schurz contributed to
elevation of US politics
• They easily assimilate and thrive in the U.S.
having brought more $ than Irish and
possessing better skills. Many bought land
in west esp. in Wisconsin.
• Votes crucial so wooed by US politicians but
not as potent because they spread out
• Contributed to US culture (Christmas tree);
isolationism
• Urged public education & freedom (enemies
of slavery)
• Still subject of resentment from nationalists
because they are a group & brought beers to
US.
Flare-ups of Anti-foreignism
• “Nativists” prejudiced
newcomers in jobs,
politics, religion
• Catholic became major
religious group because
of immigration of 1840s,
50s & set out to build
catholic school
Flare-ups of Antiforeignism
• Nativists feared that Catholicism would
build on Protestantism (popish idols) so
formed “Order of star-spangled Banner”
• Met in secrecy-“Know-Nothing” party
• Fought for restriction on immigration,
naturalization & deportation of alien
paupers
• Wrote fiction books about corruption of
churches
• Mass violence, ex. Philadelphia 1844burned churches, schools, people killed
• Made America pluralistic society w/
diversity
• No longer hated because they were
crucial to economic expansion & more
availability of jobs
The March of
Mechanization
• Industrial revolution spread to US & US
destined to be an industrial giant
because:
1. Land was cheap, labor available, $ for
investment plentiful, raw available
BUT: We Lacked consumer for factoryscale manufacturing
• British long-established factory was our
major competition
• Kept textile to own monopoly (forbade
travel of crafts men & export of
machine)
• US remained very rural to farming
Whitney Ends the
Fiber Famine
• Samuel Slater – “Father of the Factory
System”
• Learned machinery when working in
British Factory escaped to US, aided
by Moses Brown build 1st cotton
thread spinner in US (1791)
• Eli Whitney built a cotton gin (50 times
more effective than hand picking
cotton)
• Cotton economy now profitable, saved
the South to King Cotton
• South flourished & expanded cotton
kingdom toward west
• Northern factories manufactured, esp.
New England (w/ poor soil, dense
labor, access to sea, river for water
power)
• West produced the food to feed the
people in the northeaster factories.
Marvels in Manufacturing
• Embargo of war of 1812 encouraged
home manufacture
• With peace of Ghent, British poured in
surplus in cheap $, forcing close of
American factories
• Congress passed Tariff of 1816 to
protect US economy
• Eli Whitney introduced machine made
replaceable parts (on muskets-1798)
universal in manufacturing by1850
• Base of assembly line (flourished
North); cotton gin flourished south
• England will be the #1 purchaser of
American Grown Cotton
Marvels in Manufacturing
• Elias Howe & Issac Singer (1846)
made sewing machine (foundation
of clothing industry) and the textile
mills (cloth) will be the first mass
industry to take off in America
• Decade of 1860 had 28,000 patents
while 1800 only had 306
• Principle of limited liability (can’t
lose more than invested) stimulate
economy
• Laws of “free incorporation” (1848)no need to apply for charter from
legislature to start corp.
• Samuel Morse’s telegraph
connected business world -“What
hath god wrought?”…..the first
message typed from Washington to
Baltimore-by Morse.
Workers and “Wage Slaves”
• Factory system led to
impersonal relations
• Benefit went to factory
owner, labors were long,
wages low, meals bad,
no union
• Child labor heavy
• Adult working condition improved in
1820s & 30s w/ mass vote to workers
• 10 hour day, higher $, tolerable
condition, public education, ban of
imprisonment for debt
• 1840s president Van Buren made 10
hour day for Federal Workers
• Many struck but lost because
employers import more workers (so
hated immigrants)
• Unions formed in 1830s but hit by
panic of 1837
• Case of Commonwealth vs. Hunt in
Supreme court of MA (1842)
• Legalized union on peaceful &
honorable protest
Women and the Economy
• Women were toiled in factory
under bad conditions
• Opportunities rare & women
mainly in nursing, domestic
service, teaching
• Women usually worked
before marriage, after
marriage they were house
wives (made more decisions
in family)
Women and the Economy
• Arrange marriages died
down; marriage w/ love
tied family closer
• Family grew smaller
(avg. 6); fertility rate
dropped sharply
“domestic feminism”
• Child-centered w/ less
children & discipline not
physically
Western Farmers Reap a
Revolution in the Fields
• Trans-Allegheny region (OhioIndiana-Illinois) became nation’s
breadbasket
• Planted corn & raised hogs (known
as “porkopolis” of the west”
• Inventions that boomed agriculture
• John Deere -steel plow that cut
through hard soil & can be pulled by
horses
• Cyrus McCormick -mechanical
mower-reaper
• Led to large-scale production & cash
crops
• Produced more than south; product
flow N to S in rivers, not E & Wneeded transportation rev,
Highways and Steamboats
• Improvements in
transportation needed for
raw material transport
• Lancaster turnpike-hard road
from Philadelphia &
Lancaster; brought economic
expansion to west
• Federal gov’t constructs
Cumberland Road (Maryland
-Illinois) (1811-1852 ) w/
state & federal $
• Robert Fulton invents steam
engine (Steam boats)-1807
• Contributed to development
of S & W economy
“Clinton’s Big Ditch” in New York
• Clinton’s Big Ditch-Erie Canal
between Great Lakes &
Hudson River(1817-1825)
• Annoys many New England
farmers because it forces them
to move for construction (some
give up farming all together)
• Impact is enormous on
economy as it shortens
expense & time of
transportation & cities grew
along the side,
– Price of food reduced
approx 70%
Pioneer Railroad Promoters
• 1st railroad in US (1828); by
1860-30,000 mi. railroad
tracks in US (3/4 at north)
• Railroad 1st opposed bec.
financier afraid to loose $ from
Erie canal & also caused fire
to houses
• Trains were badly constructed
(brakes bad) & gauge of
traveling varied
The Transport Web Binds the
Union
• Steamboat allowed reverse
transport of S to E to bind them
together
• New York became the Queen
port of the country goods
distributed
• Principle of divided labor-each
region specialize in own
economic activity
• Transformed the home: no
longer the center of industry now
a restful place to tend to the
Family
Wealth and Poverty
• The industrial revolution
widens the gap bet. rich &
poor
• Unskilled workers were
“drifters” who went from
town to town for jobs
– (1/2 of industrial pop) forgotten
• Social mobility existed but
not in proportion, rags-toriches were rare
• Standard of living did
raise, wage rose too
(helped diffuse potential
class conflict)
Cables, Clippers, and Pony Riders
• Cotton accounted for ½ of exports
• After repeal of Corn Law of 1846,
wheat became imp role in trade w/
Eng.
• American imported more than
exported (substantial debt to foreign
creditors)
• 1858-Cyrus Field laid Cable between
US & Euro (but died in 3 weeks);
better one in 1866
• Golden age of naval commerce came
in 1840s, 50s
• Mckay builds clipper ships (fast, long)
• Tea trade w/ British flourishes &
carried many to CA
• Crushed by British’s iron tramp
steamers
• Speedy communication-roads from
Missouri to CA, Pony Express