Chapter 15
Forging the National Economy
The Westward Movement
“Europe stretches to
the Alleghenies;
America lies beyond.”
– Ralph Waldo
Emerson
► Frontier people were
individualistic,
restless, energetic &
ill-informed.
►
Settlers travel westward
Courtesy, Library of Congress
The Center of
Population in the
Country Moves
WEST
George Catlin
►
Smithsonian American Art
Museum
In 1832, realizing that the
American Indians were dying
out, George Catlin resolved to
rescue their types and customs
from oblivion. With this object
he spent many years among the
Indians in North and South
America. He lived with them,
acquired their languages, and
studied very thoroughly their
habits, customs and mode of
life, making copious notes and
many studies for paintings.
The March of the Millions
1860
►
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33 states in the Union
U.S. the 4th most populist nation in the western world
Many big cities
As cities grew the biggest problem was
sanitation caused by sewer problems
► High birthrate had accounted for most of the
population growth, but in the 1850s, millions of
Irish, Germans immigrated to the U.S.
►
Immigration to the U.S.
Sources: US Census Bureau; Statistical
Yearbook, Immigration and Naturalization
Service
Irish Immigration
►
►
►
►
►
In Ireland during the 1840s millions died because of a
disease in the potato crop.
Tens of thousands of Irish flocked to the U.S. in search of a
better life.
Most settled in the cities because they were too poor to
travel to the frontier.
Most lived in slums, were discriminated against, and had
the toughest jobs.
NINA – No Irish Need Apply.
 Irish were hated by other workers and caused resentment because
they drove down wages.
►
Irish became a powerful political force in places like New
York and Boston
Potato Famine
►
A famine in Ireland in
the nineteenth century
caused by the failure of
successive potato crops
in the 1840s. Many in
Ireland starved, and
many emigrated. More
than a million Irish
came to the United
States during the
famine.
A potato infected with
the fungus phytophtera
infestans
Irish Immigration
Irish immigrants arriving in the United States
in 1902.
German Immigration
► Germans
came to the U.S. because of crop
failures, political unrest and wars.
► Political liberals like Carl Schurz helped elevate
American political life.
► Generally came to the U.S. with more money than
most immigrants, therefore they oftentimes moved
west.
► German contributions:
 Conestoga wagon, the Kentucky rifle, the Christmas
tree, and Kindergarten
German Immigrants in North Dakota
Between 1890 and 1910 North Dakota’s population more
than doubled in part due to immigrants from abroad and in
part due to settlers from the east eager for their own piece
of land. These turn-of-the-century settlers often lived in sod
houses like the one pictured here.
North Dakota State Hist. Society
German Immigration
Rise of the Know-Nothing Party
►
The influx of immigrants in the
wake of Ireland’s potato famine
in the 1840s sparked the nativist
political movement of the
American Party. Also known as
the “Know-Nothing Party” for its
staunch denial of participating in
anti-immigrant activities and
secret societies, the party
sought to limit immigration and
require that all elected officials
be native-born Americans.
Industrial Revolution
►
►
Change from handmade to machine made goods.
Industrial Revolution came to the U.S. late because of the
following reasons:
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►
Land was cheap therefore most did not need to find factory work
Labor was scare
Money for capital investment was not plentiful
Raw materials were not discovered
Few consumers
Reliance on British factories
Know-how – British were top secret about construction of factories
U.S. was a land of farmers
Industrial Revolution hit America in the mid 1800s because
of the Embargo Act, the British blockade and the War of
1812
Industrial Revolution
Samuel Slater
“Father of the Industrial Revolution”
►
►
Britain naturally wanted to maintain its monopoly on textile
production and prohibited the exportation of machinery
and the emigration of mechanics or engineers with
knowledge of those machines.
Slater recognized that his information had great value and
left England in disguise for New York City in 1789. He later
met Moses Brown, a prominent Quaker merchant in Rhode
Island. With Brown providing the capital and Slater the
carefully memorized specifications for the equipment, the
two opened a small mechanized mill in Providence in 1790.
Samuel Slater
Old Slater Mill, Pawtucket, RI (1793), Samuel Slater
Eli Whitney
►
►
Eli Whitney was the
inventor of the cotton gin
and a pioneer in the mass
production of cotton.
Eli Whitney's invention of
the cotton gin
revolutionized the cotton
industry in the United
States. Prior to his
invention, farming cotton
required hundreds of manhours to separate the
cottonseed from the raw
cotton fibers.
National Museum of American
History Behring Center: An
original model of an Eli Whitney
cotton gin (c. early 1800s) is on
display in Communities in a
Changing Nation: The Promise of
19th-Century America.
Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney’s
Mass Produced Interchangeable Parts.
►
►
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Eli Whitney made one
more important innovation.
He invented
interchangeable parts.
The process involved
standardization of parts of
a machine so that they
could easily be replaced.
Whitney's innovation
allowed him to win a
contract for the production
of muskets. It was the first
step in the era of mass
production
Lock parts for 1842 musket
[SmithM1985, p 85]. Drawing by
Steve Foutz
New England Factories
► Poor
soil, fast moving
rivers, an abundance
of labor, and deep
harbors made New
England an ideal place
for factories during the
Industrial Revolution.
Sewing Machine
►
In 1846, Elias Howe of
Spencer, Massachusetts,
received a patent for his
hand-cranked sewing
machine. Isaac Singer
patented one five years
later. Howe sued Singer for
infringement and
won...but by that time
Singer was well ahead in
the sewing machine
business.
Samuel F. B. Morse
► Morse
refined (1838) and patented (1854)
the telegraph and developed the telegraphic
code that bears his name.
► In 1844 Morse demonstrated to Congress
the practicability of his instrument by
transmitting the famous message “What
hath God wrought” over a wire from
Washington to Baltimore.
Morse’s Telegraph
►
this signaling device was
quite simple. It consisted
of a transmitter
(containing a battery and a
key), a small buzzer as a
receiver and a pair of
wires connecting the two.
Samuel Morse improved it
by adding a second switch
and a second buzzer to
enable transmission in the
opposite direction as well.
Creation of Corporations
► The
Boston Associates was one of the
earliest investment capital companies in
America. It was founded by fifteen families
in Boston, Massachusetts. Over time, they
came to dominate the textile, railroad,
insurance and banking business of
Massachusetts.
► Provided limited liability
Workers and “Wage Slaves”
► Factory
system created “wage slaves”
► Wages were low, hours were long, meals
were skimpy, conditions were dangerous
and unionization was next to impossible.
► Child labor common
► Factory owners held all the power.
► President Martin Van Buren established the
ten-hour day for federal employees
Featuring the original photo
captions by Lewis W. Hine.
Commonwealth v. Hunt
► In
Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842) the
Massachusetts Supreme Court provided an
important precedent in labor relations by
arguing that members of labor unions were
not engaging in criminal conspiracies
against their employers.
Women and the Economy
Many factories preferred to hire women because they
could pay them less.
► Overall though, factory jobs were usual for women.
► The vast majority of working women were single.
► In the home women were enshrined in a “cult of
domesticity,” a widespread cultural creed that glorified the
customary functions of the homemaker.
► Arranged marriage died down; marriage because of love
made family closer.
► Families grew smaller and more child-centered
►
Lowell Factory
►
Named after Francis Cabot
Lowell, was a paternalistic
textile factory system of the
early 19th century that relied
almost exclusively on young,
unmarried women laborers and
purported to increase efficiency,
productivity and profits in ways
different from other methods.
Emphasis was placed on
mechanization and
standardization; the entire
textile industry used this as a
model, and machines using this
system were sold to other mills.
Inventions That Helped Farmers
► Steel
Plow – John
Deere in 1837
► McCormick Reaper –
Cyrus McCormick in
1830s
Transportation Revolution
►
Industrial Revolution + Transportation Revolution = Continental Economy
Roads
2. Steamboats
3. Canals
4. Railroads
1.
Roads
► 1790s
the Lancaster turnpike was
completed.
 62 mile highway that connected Philadelphia to
Lancaster
 Travels paid a toll - Turnpike
► 1811
completion of the National Road
 591 miles from Cumberland, Maryland to
Vandalia, Illinois.
Lancaster Turnpike
1795 - The Philadelphia and
Lancaster Turnpike Road
Carl Rakeman
National Road
Steamboats
► Started
by Robert
Fulton who installed a
powerful steam engine
in a vessel that came
to be known as the
Clermont.
► Allowed for two-way
travel on rivers
Canals
►
Erie Canal
 Built with New York state money with no help from the federal
government
 New York Governor Dewitt Clinton provided the leadership.
 “Clinton’s Big Ditch”
 From Buffalo on Lake Erie to the Hudson River and on to New York
Harbor
 Profitablility of farming in the Old Northwest increased
 Great Lakes cities like Buffalo, Cleveland and Toledo prospered
 Immigrants rushed to the Old Northwest states
 Competition for New England farmers
 Less traffic on the Mississippi River
Erie Canal
Historic waterway, northern U.S. It stretches from Buffalo, N.Y., on Lake Erie
to Albany, N.Y., on the Hudson River. Commissioned by Gov. DeWitt Clinton of
New York, it opened in 1825. It connected the Great Lakes with New York City
and contributed greatly to the settlement of the Midwest, allowing for the
transport of people and supplies. Enlarged several times, the canal is 340 mi
(547 km) long, 150 ft (46 m) wide, and 12 ft (4 m) deep. Now used mainly
for pleasure boating, it is part of the New York State Canal System.
1825 Erie Canal
Erie Canal in 1890
Railroads
► Fast,
reliable, cheaper
than canals, and not
frozen over in the
winter
► First railroad appeared
in the U.S. in 1828
Stourbridge Lion
"The Delaware & Hudson" (D&H
collection)
Continental Economy
► South
– Produced cotton
► West – Produced grain and livestock
► East – Produced manufactured goods,
machines and textiles
► Roads, steamboats, canals and railroads
allowed for transportation of goods
throughout the country.
► Widened gap between rich and poor
Transatlantic Cable
On midnight, 28 July, 1858 H.M.S.
Agamemnonand U.S.N.S. Niagara, each
loaded with a suitable length of cable,
met in mid-ocean, and proceeded to pay
out the spliced cable in opposite
directions towards their respective home
ports. .
►
On 5 August, a total of 3240 km had
been laid, the Agamemnon now
anchored in Dowlas Bay, Valentia,
Ireland and the Niagara anchored in
Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. At 2.45 a.m.
of that day the first telegraphic message
passed across the Atlantic Ocean. It
merely announced to the Niagara that
the Agamemnon had landed the cable."
► (From Semaphore to Satellite, Published
by the International Telecommunication
Union, Geneva 1965)
►
Transatlantic Cable
The H.M.S. Agamemnon Laying Cable (1858)
Pony Express
► Established
in 1860 to
carry mail speedily
from St. Joseph,
Missouri, to
Sacramento, California.