The Early Industrial and
Transportation Revolution
1.
•
•
•
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 48er’s
• Hated by “Nativists”
3. Transformation of American Industry
• Industrial Revolution – why?
• American System
• Sectionalism
• Industrial pioneers
City growth
Westward expansion
Growth of cities and states by
1850
The March of the Millions
 High birthrate accounted for population
growth
 Population doubling every 25 years
 Near 1850s, millions of Irish, German came
 Beginning in 1830, immigration in the US
soared
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
american
Henry
Clay, US
John
C. Calhoun,
Congressmen
from
Senator from South
Kentucky
Carolina
system
Promote nationalism was internal
improvements to unite the US.
•Transportation system of roads,
canals, steamships and rivers.
•1800 to 1850 roads, canals and
rivers first forms of transportation
•1860, the railroad is added
Provide economic growth
•Americans buying American goods
•American self-sufficiency.
•Protective tariff (allows US factories to grow)
•2nd Bank of the United States
3 Sections working together to build the country
NORTHEAST
•Business and
Economy
Manufacturing
Leader
•Daniel Webster
____________
__________
•Wanted Tariffs
Role of
Government
•Backed
internal
improvements
•Wanted end to
cheap public
land
•Increasingly
nationalistic
•Against Slavery
and believed the
U.S. Govt. must
abolish it.
SOUTH
Economy •Cotton growing
•John C.
Leader
Calhoun
__________
_____________
•Opposed tariffs
Role of
Government and government
spending on
American
System
•Increasingly
supportive of
states’ rights
•Pro-slavery and
opposed any
steps of the U.S.
Govt. to try and
abolish it.
WEST
•Frontier
Economy
agriculture
Leader
•Henry Clay
__________ _____________
•Supported
Role of
internal
Government improvements
•Wanted cheap
land
•Loyal to the
U.S. Govt.
•Against
slavery but
some supported
letting the
people decide
the slavery
issue
 Population shift because of westward expansion
the West demanded transportation.
The Land Act of 1820, gave the West its wish by
authorizing a buyer to purchase 80 acres of land at a
minimum of $1.25 an acre in cash
 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 follow
 Navigable rivers and the steamboat
the first steamboat on western waters was in 1811.
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
Conestoga Covered Wagons
Conestoga Trail, 1820s
•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.
The Railroad Revolution,1850s
 1850 to 1860, RR proved most
significant development toward
national economy
 Americans demanded transcontinental
railroad to California.
Completed by 1869.
Pioneer Railroad Promoters
 1800 to 1850: Roads, canals, navigable
rivers with steamboats were the main
modes of transportation.
 1850 to 1860, RR proved most significant
development toward national economy
 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
 1860-61, Pony Express connected EastWest
 Telegraph instantly sent messages across
US
 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
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




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
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)