The Market Revolution 1800 - 1860

Rise of the factory system

• Most profound movement of early 19th c.

– Take a raw material and turn it into a finished product all in one place

• Industrialization began in earnest because of Embargos & War

• Samuel Slater– Father of the Factory System

• Emigrated in 1791• Brought designs

from England

Interchangeable parts• Allowed for mass production of high

quality goods

• Invented by Eli Whitney in 1798

• First used for Rifles

Eli Whitney’s Gun Factory

Eli Whitney’s Gun Factory

The Textile Industry• Began the IR in the U.S.

• Ideas for machines smuggled out of England

• 1st major factory was owned by the Boston Associates in Waltham, MA– Run by Francis Cabot Lowell

• 1st all in one factory– Spun, wove, dyed, & printed

• 1823 – Lowell, MA establishedEarly Textile LoomEarly Textile Loom

• New England was the industrial center– Soil made farming difficult– Dense population for labor

and markets– Shipping and seaports for

transportation of raw materials and finished goods

– Rivers provided an early power source

Resourcefulness & Experimentation

• Americans were willing to try anything

• They were first copiers, then innovators– Stole England’s ideas, then developed their

own

• 1800 41 patents were approved

• 1860 4,357 patents were approved

OliverEvansOliverEvans

First prototype of the First prototype of the locomotivelocomotive

First automated First automated flour millflour mill

Cyrus McCormick& the Mechanical Reaper:

1831

Cyrus McCormick& the Mechanical Reaper:

1831

Samuel F. B. MorseSamuel F. B. Morse

1840 – Telegraph1840 – Telegraph

Elias Howe & Isaac SingerElias Howe & Isaac Singer

1840s1840sSewing MachineSewing Machine

Growth of Cities• Urbanization occurred

– people looking for jobs in factories

• 1820: only 12 cities with a pop. over 5,000

• 1860: 150 cities• 1860: 6 million people lived

in urban areas

Developments in the 1820’s & 1830’s

• Protective Tariffs– As more industries develop → more tariffs are created to

protect them from competition

• Transportation Revolution – improvement in the distribution of goods

• Emergence of new general incorporation laws– Makes it easier to start a business

Favorable Supreme Court Decisions

• Fletcher v. Peck (1810)– Secured contracts

• Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819)– Government could not alter contracts/charters

• Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)– Fed. Government ONLY can control interstate trade

• Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge (1837)– Monopolies are illegal

Changing Occupation Distributions: 1820 - 1860

Regional Specialization• Northeast → Industrial

– 1860: had 81% of country’s industrial capacity– Most populous region

• West → Agriculture– Country’s Breadbasket

• South → Cash Crops– Does not industrialize b/c capital is tied up in slavery

• Political Implications:– West and NE tied together– South is isolated

Effects on slavery in the South

Textile mills had a high demand for cotton

Increased Southern reliance on slavery

Factory WorkersWages: paid per hour not on the product they produced

By 1860 40% of the population were “wage slaves”

Working conditions were atrocious:– Low wages, few breaks & long hours– Poor lighting & ventilation, unsanitary conditions– Dangerous machinery– Exploitation of child workers

Labor UnionsLabor Unions are against the law– Seen as conspiracies– Dozens of strikes erupted during the 1830’s & 1840’s– Most lost– Union membership grew to 300,000 by 1830– Panics will hurt union numbers

Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842): MA Supreme Court– Ruled that unions are not conspiracies– Union influence very limited until after the Civil War

Women and the EconomyWomen found employment in factories BEFORE they married

The Lowell System:– Offered chaperoned boarding

houses to young female workers

Factory jobs were scarce

Main jobs were nursing, domestic service, and teaching

TurnpikesTurnpikes = Paved Toll Roads

1832: U.S. had 2,400 miles of road

“Shunpikes”– People did not want

to pay the toll– Built detours around

toll booths

Cumberland (National Road), 1811-1839

Cumberland (National Road), 1811-1839Cumberland Road (National Road) completed in

1839

Became vital highway to the west

SteamboatDeveloped by Robert Fulton

1807: sailed the Clermont up the Hudson River

Importance: 2 way transportation on rivers

Increased speed & decreased cost

CanalsErie Canal was 1st

major canal built

Began in 1817 – completed in 1825

Gov. DeWitt Clinton approved financing

Dropped shipping costs from $100 to $5 from Buffalo to NYC

Dropped shipping time from 20 days to 6

Erie Canal SystemErie Canal System

Canal building began in earnest after Erie

By 1837 over 3,000 miles of canals built

NY Harbor becomes more important than New Orleans

Iron HorseMost important transportation improvement was the Railroad

Fast, reliable, easy to construct, didn’t freeze in the winter

1830: 1st RR built by the Baltimore & Ohio Company (B&O)

By 1860: 31,000 miles of RR lines

¾ of the RR lines in the North

TheRailroad

Revolution

TheRailroad

Revolution

Immigrant laborImmigrant laborbuilt the No. built the No. RRs.RRs.

Slave laborSlave laborbuilt the So. built the So. RRs. RRs.

Inland Freight RatesInland Freight Rates

Westward Ho!New transportation will open the West

Between 1790-1840 4.5 million people cross the Appalachian mountains

Conestoga Covered Wagons

Conestoga Covered Wagons

Immigration• No records kept until 1820

• 1820 → 8,385

• 1830 → 23, 322

• 1854→ 430,000

• Industries welcomed

immigrants– Needed workers– Without them, IR would have been impossible

• Immigrants settled in ethnic neighborhoods

National Origin of Immigrants:1820 - 1860

National Origin of Immigrants:1820 - 1860

Irish Immigrants• Large numbers began to

immigrate in the 1840’s

– To settle Canada, Britain offered a reduced passage (100 shillings → 5shillings)

– Irish took advantage of it, but hated the British so came to the U.S.

• 1845-1849: Potato Famine– Over 1.5 million emigrated

to the U.S

• Arrived in NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, & Baltimore

• Destitute: stayed in cities because they could not move west

• In Boston – ran into problems– Highly educated, Puritan

Bostonians did not like the illiterate Irish Catholic peasants

– Hung signs “No Irish Need Apply”

– Later hatred towards Irish common in all cities

German Immigrants

• Large numbers began to emigrate in the early 1850’s because of political & economic instability

• Weren’t as poor as the Irish

• Settled mainly in the West in German enclaves

Nativist Reaction• Not happy about the Irish

• Created a political party to show their anti-Catholic beliefs

• Know-Nothing Party

• Believed Catholics in office took orders straight from the Pope and that the Irish were creating violent cities