Chapter 9
The US – After War of 1812
• Three historical processes unleashed by the Revolution accelerated
after War of 1812
 Spread of Market Relations
 Westward movement of population
 Rise of vigorous political democracy
• Processes helped reshape idea of freedom – economic opportunity,
physical mobility, and vibrant democratic political system
• US also shaped by presence of slavery
Assignment
• Make a poster that
Discusses three problems facing the American economy due to its primitive
infrastructure
Discusses solutions introduced to address those problems and enhance
commerce
Discusses the impact on the American economy and society due to these
solutions
Use individual textbook, Give Me Liberty, pages 320-324 as a minimum
resource
Rise of the West
• Migration West intensified after War
of 1812
• Settlers moved west in groups – areas
they settled tended to resemble areas
they left
• Settlers also moved into areas under
foreign jurisdiction such as Florida,
Texas, and Oregon
• Americans in West Florida rebelled
against Spain and US annexed region
• Spain unable to withstand migrant
tide – sold Florida to US Adams-Onis
Treaty of 1819
The Cotton Kingdom
• Early Industrial Revolution focus on
textiles increased demand for cotton
• 1793 Cotton Gin – Eli Whitney
• New Western lands + demand for cotton
+ cotton gin = rising demand for slaves
• End of international slave trade in 1808 =
rise in interstate slave trade
• Older Southern states adapting to crops
like wheat – sold slaves to lower South
“down the river”
• Sales broke up families and long-standing
slave communities
• Many marched to new regions in chained
groups called “Slave Coffles”
Market Society
• The South remained mostly rural with
about 80% of Southerners working
the land in 1860 – same number as in
1800
• South’s transportation and banking
systems geared towards cotton
economy
• The North experienced dynamic
change – moved to integrated
economy of commercial farms and
manufacturing cities
• Economic web linked North w/West Western farmers bound to Eastern
markets
Factory System
• 1790 First Factory – Samuel
Slater
• Embargo act and War of 1812
stimulated domestic
manufacturing – relied on
female and child labor
• Lowell / Waltham system
 Factory town on fall line (why?)
 Young female labor
 Supervised lives
Immigration
• Economic expansion fueled
demand for labor
• 1840-1860 >4 million immigrants
entered US
• Majority from Ireland & Germany
• Most stayed on East Coast – very
few migrated to Southern states
• Push-Pull Factors
 Revolutions of 1820, 1830, and 1848
 Industrial Revolution disrupted craft
worker traditions
 Introduction of steamship made
travel cheaper
Immigration
• German push factors - revolutions,
rigid class systems, and repressive
governments
• Germans tended to migrate west –
establish farms, shops, crafts
• Irish push factors – potato famine
• 4/5 of Irish remained in northern
urban areas
• Immigration ended Waltham
system in favor of low wage labor
• Scandinavian immigrants – farms in
Mid-west
Carl Eriksson and Anna Britta Eriksson
(nee Larsdotter) immigrated to US 1882
Anglicized name to Stone
Nativism
• Irish encountered discrimination
• Rise in anti-Catholicism
• US history of anxiousness over
immigration swells
• Americans calling for restrictions or
outright bans on immigration
called Nativists
• Irish deemed unfit for republican
freedom
• Blacks & Irish competed for jobs –
conflicts arose
The Second Great Awakening
• Church attendance had dropped
dramatically
• Series of revivals – Charles Grandison
Finney most popular preacher
• Religion spread throughout US
• Methodists and Baptists (evangelicals) saw
huge growth – religion became central to
US culture
• Stressed right of private judgement in
religious matters and moral behavior
• Revivalists used new infrastructure to
spread word
Mormonism
• Church of Latter-Day Saints
emerged during Second Great
Awakening
• Founded in 1820s by Joseph Smith
in upstate New York
• Led by angel to golden plates – The
Book of Mormon
• Focused on family & rejected
alcohol
• Smith’s adoption of polygamy
caused Mormons to be ousted out
of several locations – settled in
Nauvoo, Illinois
Mormonism
• Smith arrested for inciting riot
against anti-Mormon paper
• Smith murdered in jail while
awaiting trial
• Succeeded by Brigham Young –
led Mormons to Salt Lake, Utah
• Practice of posthumous baptism
– genealogical records