FORGING THE NATIONAL
ECONOMY
1790 - 1860
OVERVIEW
• The First Industrial Revolution
• “2nd Industrial Rev” would be post-Civil War, with Carnegie,
Rockefeller, etc.
• Americans look to western territories and states for new
economic opportunities
• Innovations in transportation make distant markets
accessible
• Links North and West economically
• West absorbs large number of immigrants
• “Market Revolution” relation to cult of domesticity, that ”a
woman’s place is in the home”
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POPULATION INCREASES
• Population “whitened” over time – why?
• Total population increases tenfold (3.9 mil to 31 mil)
• Immigration & anti-immigration movements
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INDUSTRIALIZATION & ITS EFFECTS
• Industrialization transforms nation from Jeffersonian
small farmers to wage laborers
• Wage labor: at mercy of factory owner, cheap form of
labor
• Rise of organized labor
• Women in the industrial workplace
• Factory jobs attract large numbers of immigrants
• Immigrants play significant role in politics
• Industrialization focused in North, while southern
economy remains agrarian
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THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT
• “demographic center” of nation keeps moving west
• Young country – in 1850, 50% of Americans were under
age 30
• Frontier life often led to isolation, self-reliance, “Rugged
Individualism”
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THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT
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SHAPING THE WESTERN LANDSCAPE
• Western movement affected physical landscape
• Tobacco farming exhausted soil, and then people moved
on
• Kentucky Bluegrass made for ideal pasture, lured many
pioneers into Kentucky
• Ecological Imperialism: exploitation of nature’s resources
• In West, almost near-extinction of beaver, buffalo, and
sea otter
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GEORGE CATLIN
• Famous painter of West and of Native American life
• Feared the destruction of natural beauty
• Beauty of the untamed west = symbol of American
identity
• One of the first advocates of National Parks
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GEORGE CATLIN PAINTINGS
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THE MARCH OF MILLIONS
• As Americans moved west, population doubled each 25
years
• 1860: US was 4th most populated country in western
world
• Growth of Cities:
• 1790: only NY and Philadelphia had more than 20,000 pop
• 1860: 43 cities claimed population of over 20,000
• Problems of urbanization: slums, sanitation nightmares,
inadequate police/high crime, disease
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IMPACT OF IMMIGRATION
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1830s: about 60,000 immigrants per year
1840s: 180,000 immigrants per year
1850s: 240,000 immigrants per year
During this time period, approximately 3 million Irish and
German immigrants came to US.
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WHY SUCH AN INCREASE?
• Europe was running out of room
• 1800-1900: European population doubled
• Opportunities in America, “land of freedom and
opportunity”
• No aristocracy, no state religion, low taxes, no
compulsory military service
• Political changes in Germany
• Potato famine in Ireland
• “Hibernian” is an adjective for “Irish” (Latin word for Ireland was
Hibernia)
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IRISH IMMIGRATION
• Potato famine in mid 1840s
• 2 million Irish (about 25% of population) died due to
starvation and disease
• New Irish immigrants were poor, did not have money to
move west
• Settled in Eastern cities, mainly New York and Boston
• Work on canals and railroads
• “An Irishman lay buried under every railroad tie”
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THE IRISH AND POLITICS
• Especially in New York, politicians competed for the Irish
vote
• Growth of urban “political machines” e.g. Tammany Hall
(run by Boss Tweed)
• Irish helped by political machines
• Irish later become prevalent in law enforcement
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ANTI-IRISH SENTIMENT
• Until Irish immigration, Catholic population in US had
been a very, very small minority
• Many Protestant Americans scorned the Irish Catholic
“menace”
• Many factories outwardly discriminated against hiring the
Irish
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GERMAN IMMIGRATION
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1830-1860: over 1.5 million Germans immigrate to US
Displaced by economic and political conditions
Typically pro-democracy, anti-slavery
Most Germans had more money to start with, so they
tended to head west
• Scattered population, no significant political bloc like Irish
Introduced Christmas tree,
Kindergarten, and made beer
really popular
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ANTI-CATHOLICISM IN AMERICA
• All Irish and a significant minority of Germans were
Catholic
• 1840s: beginning of Catholic schools in US
• Anti-Catholic sentiment was exceptionally strong in US
at this time (and still is to some degree)
• Fears of Irish and Germans introducing ‘popish idols’
• Anti-Catholic propaganda – “diary” of Maria Monk,
circulated widely
• 1834: anti-Catholic riot in Boston, convent burned
• 1844: anti-Catholic riot in Philadelphia, 2 churches
burned down, 13 killed and 50 wounded
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ANTI-CATHOLICISM IN AMERICA
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NATIVIST RIOT IN PHILADELPHIA, 1844
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NATIVISM
• “Native” Americans: of old Protestant stock, families had
been established in America for some time
• Anti-Catholic, also feared Irish were taking jobs and
depressing wages in cities
• Formation of “Know Nothing Party” in US
• Nickname from secretiveness
• Platform of rigid restrictions on immigration and
naturalization, and deportation of poor immigrants
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NATIVIST CARTOON
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CREEPING MECHANIZATION
• Industrial Revolution began in Britain in 1750s, but
carefully protected secrets (and 2 wars!) made spread of
technology to America very slow
• British developed factory system
• Americans early on followed Jeffersonian ideal of small
farmers (and land was cheap)
• Embargo of 1807 and War of 1812 helped boost
industry/factories in America
• Samuel Slater: Father of Factory System in America,
escaped with plans from England.
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ELI WHITNEY
• 1793: Eli Whitney invents cotton gin (short for “cotton
engine”)
• Made it really inexpensive to process cotton
• Indirectly increased demand for slavery
• Southern Agriculture began to focus less on tobacco and
rice and more on cotton
• Later, South will be called “King Cotton”
• Also a reason factories did not take off in the south…
cotton was so profitable.
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MARVELS IN MANUFACTURING
• 1798: Eli Whitney and interchangeable parts
• Basis of modern mass-production and assembly line
• Helped North produce more weapons, which helped
them defeat the cotton dependent South in Civil War. Eli
Whitney had a hand in both!
• Singer & Howe: sewing machine – made clothes making
a factory job, took it out of the home
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MORSE AND TELEGRAPH
• 1844: Samuel Morse: telegraph – instant communication
• Telegraph would be another northern advantage in Civil
War
• Telegraph = Twitter of its time. Lincoln was obsessed
with it, while the South ignored it.
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WORKERS AND “WAGE SLAVES”
• Industrial Revolution moved work from small shops to
large, city-based factories
• Unions were illegal
• Child workers were vulnerable to exploitation
• Jacksonian democracy: extended right to vote to the
working man (not just property owner)
• Jackson & Van Buren Democrats: fought for ten hour
work day, higher wages, better working conditions
• 1842 Supreme Court: Commonwealth v. Hunt: Unions
are not illegal
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WOMEN AND THE ECONOMY
• Textile mills of New England employed women
• Example: Lowell Factory Girls. Bad conditions but did
gain economic independence
• 1850: 10% of white women worked
• Catherine Beecher: urged women to go into teaching
profession
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THE CULT OF DOMESTICITY
• Industrial Revolution creates separation between work
and home
• Home looked at as “women’s sphere”
• Cult of domesticity: Woman completely runs the home,
but no rights/influence outside of it
• Worked well with “Republican Motherhood” – women
responsible for raising good, moral citizens
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AGRICULTURAL ADVANCES
• 1837: John Deere invents Steel Plow to replace wooden
plow
• Stronger and can be pulled by horses rather than oxen
• 1830s: Cyrus McCormick invents the “McCormick
Reaper”
• Allows one man to do what previously took 5 men to accomplish
• West was now producing more crops, but needed a way
to transport it to the East
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HIGHWAYS
• Turnpikes: People invest in building a road and make
money back from tolls
• Lancaster Turnpike in Pennsylvania
• 1811 Federal government constructs Cumberland Road
from MD to IL.
• War of 1812 and veto of Clay’s American System
eventually put federally funded internal improvements to
a halt.
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STEAMBOATS
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1807: Robert Fulton – steamboat up Hudson River
Steam powered, can go up or down current
Turned rivers into “two way streets”
Major influence on Mississippi… now ships could travel
North, rather than only South
• Major influence on economic development of the West
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CANALS
• “Clinton’s big Ditch” = Erie Canal, led by NY governor
DeWitt Clinton
• Linked Hudson River to Great Lakes
• Land along canals became valuable
• Western crops could be transported to eastern cities
• Helped spur growth of Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland
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CANALS: NORTH & WEST
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CANALS & RAILROADS
• Canals mainly facilitated east-west traffic
• No comparable network of canals existed in the South--a
disparity that helps to explain northern superiority in the
Civil War
• Note the explosion of new railroad construction in the
1850s and its heavy concentration in the North.
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RAILROADS
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The “Iron Horse”
Fast, reliable, cheaper than canals
No weather limitations (canals froze in winter)
Lots of early technological problems (accidents, brake
failures, fires, etc)
• Eventually stitched country together
• Most railroads concentrated in North – a decided
advantage in Civil War
• Troops from Maine could be on the battlefield in a matter
of days, where it used to take months
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RAILROADS
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TRANSPORT WEB BINDS THE UNION
• South raised cotton to export to New England and Britain
• West grew grain and livestock to feed factory workers in
the East and in Europe
• East made machines and textiles (clothing) for the South
and West
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THE MARKET REVOLUTION
• American economy matures and diversifies – trade,
industry, and commercial farming
• From isolated farms to a national network of industry and
commerce
• Greater investment in big companies
• Less self-sufficient households
• Store-bought goods replace homemade products
• Home becomes the special sphere of women, as men
are “at work” now
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END OF MARSHALL COURT
• Chief Justice John Marshall died in 1835
• New Court became less federalist as rise of mass
democracy/Jacksonian
• Old court: would force states to grant monopolies
• New court: rights of the community more important than
rights of corporations
• Increased investment and competition
• Famous case: Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge
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CRASHCOURSE: MARKET REVOLUTION
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNftCCwAol0
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