Chapter 8
Toward a National Economy
Gentility and the Consumer
Revolution
• The democratic revolution
was accompanied by
widespread emulation of
aristocratic behavior
• In Europe, gentility was the
product of ancestry and
cultivated style
• In America, gentility was
largely defined by
possession of material goods
• This culture eventually
extended even to frontier
homes
Gentility and the Consumer
Revolution
• Demand for products resulted in
expansion of workshops, increase in
numbers of artisans, and desire for laborsaving machines
• Need for capital and ways to get raw
materials to factories and products to
consumers
• Market revolution followed by industrial
revolution
Birth of the Factory
• Industrial Revolution in Britain by 1770’s
• Textiles – cheap and good quality
• US wanted British technology – offered
bonus
• Britain guarded secrets of machinery
Birth of the Factory
• Samuel Slater
 Left England
secretly
 Depended on
memory to construct
machines
 Helped establish
first American
factory in Rhode
Island 1790
Birth of the Factory
• First factory
 Only made cotton thread
 Cloth made by cottage industry
 Machines worked by nine children
 By 1812, 213 factories in existence
• Francis Cabot Lowell
 Smuggled plans for power loom
 Waterpower
 Successful factory – changed face of New England
An Industrial Proletariat?
• Decrease in skilled labor
= decrease in ability of
workers to influence
working conditions
• Gap widening between
owners/workers and
skilled/unskilled workers
• Very little class conflict.
Why?
• Labor – women and
children. Good thing?
Lowell’s Waltham System
• Employed young, unmarried
women
 Salaries $2.50 - $3.25 per
week
• Company boardinghouses
 Strict rules
 No cards or alcohol
• Developed social life amidst
factory
 Were not supporting
themselves
 Established sewing circles
 Wrote periodicals and
attended lectures
Lowell’s Waltham System
• Women made up 85 percent of workforce
but no women in management
• Some “strikes” protested lowered wages
and rising boarding costs
• By 1840’s, women moving to new jobs as
teachers and clerks – mill jobs increasingly
going to new Irish immigrants
Irish and German Immigrants
• US population doubled to 9.6 million
between 1790 and 1820 through natural
increase
• After 1812, immigration increased
dramatically
• By 1850, US population 23 million – more
than 10 percent immigrant
• Most came from Germany and Ireland, but
also from Britain and Scandinavia
Irish and German Immigrants
• Push and Pull factors – describe
• Poor immigrants had to settle in eastern
cities
• Immigration stimulated the American
economy
• Irish caused resentment as they took jobs
for lower wages
Rise of Corporations
• The modern method of organizing large
enterprises was through corporations
• General opinion that only public
infrastructure were entitled to incorporation
• Incorporation only possible through act of
state legislature
• Corporations equated with monopoly and
corruption
Cotton and the South
• Demand fueled by
Britain’s Industrial
Revolution
• 1786 - Introduction of
“sea-island” cotton
• South needed new
commercial crop -hardy
“green-seed” cotton not
economically viable
• Eli Whitney – cotton gin
• High profits = more
production – spread to
other states
Revival of Slavery
• Cotton boom revived slavery
• Concept of property rights held back many
from demanding manumission
• Increased fears of slave revolts – fear led
to repression
• Increased restrictions on free blacks.
Why?
Revival of Slavery
• The Colonization Movement
Black leaders saw colonization as way to
escape discrimination – black nationalism
White leaders either saw colonization as way
to escape slavery – others did not want free
blacks around (deportation)
1817- American Colonization Society founded
Republic of Liberia established
Little enthusiasm by blacks
Revival of Slavery
• Cotton boom put brake on movement –
need for labor
• Price of slaves doubled – severe decline
of manumissions
• Clandestine slave trade / increase in
domestic trade
• Pre-existing state laws barring inter-state
slave trade ignored or repealed
• Northern blacks experienced segregation
Assignment 1
• Make a poster that shows
Three problems facing America due to its
primitive infrastructure
Solutions introduced to enhance commerce
Outcomes due to these solutions
Use pages 235-243
Assignment 2
• How did the following court cases impact
America? Use pages 244-245.
Court Case
Dartmouth College v.
Woodward
McCullough v. Maryland
Gibbons v. Ogden
Issue Involved
Ruling
Impact