Cover Slide
The American
Pageant
Chapter 14
Forging the National
Economy, 1790-1860
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A View of Lockport, N.Y. 1836
A View of Lockport, N.Y. 1836
The town of Lockport, New York, owed its existence to the Erie Canal, and serving
boats, freight, and passengers was its major industry. This view of the town was
rendered in 1836, eleven years after the canal was opened. (Library of Congress,
hand-colored by Sandi Rygiel, Picture Research Consultants, Inc.)
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Agricultural ad, 1859
Agricultural ad, 1859
The manufacture of agricultural implements was becoming a major industry by
1860. Now the farmers shown on the fringe could put down their scythes and let the
mechanical reaper do the work. (Library of Congress)
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American Anti-Slavery Almanac, 1840
American Anti-Slavery Almanac, 1840
Northern antislavery propagandists
indicted the southern way of life, not just
slavery. These illustrations depict the
South as a region of lynchings, duels,
cockfights, and everyday brawls. Even
northerners who opposed the abolition of
slavery resolved to keep slaveholders out
of the western territories. (Library of
Congress)
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Daguerreotype of a young mill girl, c. 1850, Massachusetts
Daguerreotype of a young mill girl, c.
1850, Massachusetts
This young girl probably worked at a
mill in Waltham or Lowell during the
late 1840s. Her swollen and rough hands
contrast with her youth, neat dress, and
carefully tied, beribboned hair. Her
hands suggest that she worked, as did
most 12- and 13-year-olds, as a warper,
straightening the strands of cotton or
wool as they entered the looms.
(Courtesy of Jack Naylor)
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Middlesex Company Woolen Mills, Lowell, Massachusetts, c. 1848, artist unknown
Middlesex Company Woolen Mills, Lowell, Massachusetts, c. 1848, artist
unknown
In the 1830s an unknown artist painted Middlesex Company Woolen Mills,
portraying the hulking mass of the mill buildings. The company organized all the
manufacturing processes at a single location, in Lowell, Massachusetts, on the
Merrimack River. (Museum of American Textile History)
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Model of McCormick reaper, 1850s
Model of McCormick reaper, 1850s
The horse-drawn McCormick reaper was a relatively simple device. A cutting bar
separated the wheat from the chaff. Reels then pushed the cut grain onto the platform
for collection and tying into shocks. (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.)
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W. J. Morgan Sewing Machine Company ad, 1882
W. J. Morgan Sewing Machine Company ad,
1882
How do historians know that traditional gender roles
pervaded American consumer society in the late
nineteenth century? Advertising, which developed
into a powerful medium in the late nineteenth
century, offers useful insights into prevailing social
and cultural values, and advertisers, eager to sell
new consumer products, helped shape those values
with strong visual images. This 1882 advertisement
for the W. J. Morgan Sewing Machine Company
uses both explicit and implicit domestic images to
reinforce a wife's role as homemaker. From the very
onset of her family career, the ad implies, a woman
assumes domestic tasks and obligations such as
sewing and mending clothing, and her husband
guides her into this role. The ad conveys other
symbols and values as well, such as the devoted
look on the woman's face and the strong and
superior pose of the man. The clothing also implies a
middle-class standard. Newspapers and magazine
advertisements of the late nineteenth century are rich
with clues about this period of flourishing
consumerism. (Library of Congress)
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Woman with sewing machine
Woman with sewing machine
Asked to repair a sewing machine that
did not do continuous stitching, Isaac M.
Singer invented one that did. Patented in
1851, the Singer machine quickly
dominated the market. Although most
early sewing machines were used in
factories, some had made their way into
households by 1860. (Library of
Congress)
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Map: Election of 1840
Election of 1840
Although the difference in popular votes between William Henry Harrison and Martin Van Buren was small in the election of
1840, Harrison won a landslide victory in the Electoral College. This map shows why. After floundering through several
elections, the Whig Party was finally able to organize a national coalition, giving it solid victories in all of the most populous
regions of the country. Only the Far West, which was still sparsely settled, voted as a block for Van Buren.
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Map: Major American Cities in 1830 and 1860
Major American Cities in 1830 and 1860
The number of Americans who lived in cities increased rapidly between 1830 and 1860, and the number of large cities grew
as well. In 1830 only New York City had a population exceeding one hundred thousand; thirty years later, eight more cities
had surpassed that level.
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Map: Major Roads, Canals, and Railroads, 1850
Major Roads, Canals, and Railroads, 1850
A transportation network linked the seaboard to the interior. Settlers followed those routes westward, and they sent back
grain, grain products, and cotton to port cities.
Map: Origin and Settlement of Immigrants, 1820-1850
Origin and Settlement of Immigrants, 1820-1850
Rail ties between the East and the Midwest greatly increased during the railroad "boom" of the 1850s.
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Map: Population Distribution, 1790 and 1850
Population Distribution, 1790 and 1850
By 1850 high population density characterized parts of the Midwest as well as the Northeast.
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Map: Railroad Growth, 1850-1860
Railroad Growth, 1850-1860
Rail ties between the East and the Midwest greatly increased during the railroad "boom" of the 1850s.
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Map: U.S. Manufacturing Employment, 1820 and 1850
U.S. Manufacturing Employment, 1820 and 1850
In 1820 manufacturing employment was concentrated mostly in the Northeast, where the first textile mills appeared. By
1850 the density of manufacturing in the Northeast had increased, but new manufacturing centers arose in Baltimore,
Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati.