America’s Economic Revolution Brinkley text Chapter 10.

America’s Economic Revolution

Brinkley text Chapter 10

America’s Economic Revolution

Between the War of 1812 and the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, the United States underwent a radical transition

It was largely agrarian in 1812 By 1861, manufacturing had become the major

part of the economy – at least in the North The US was part of a national (and

increasingly international) economy

America’s Economic Revolution

Still, regional differences remained The North was developing large cities,

manufacturing operations, commercial enterprises, dependent on free (wage) labor

In the South and Southwest, The plantation system was becoming increasingly entrenched

It was dependent on slave labor

America’s Economic Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was transforming and uniting the nation

But it was also dividing it, largely along regional lines

The Changing American Population

Total US population increased dramatically between 1820 and 1840

The population also became more concentrated in the urban industrial centers in the North and Northwest

1790: 4 million1820: 10 million1830: 13 million1840: 17 million

The Changing American Population

Immigration increased significantly Immigration was particularly strong among

Germans, Irish Catholics Irish immigration continued and increased

greatly during the potato famine, 1845-1852

The Irish Diaspora

Between 1845 and 1852, one million Irish people died of starvation

Another million emigrated, mostly to the US

Ireland lost about 25% of its population

This, while Ireland was an exporter of food

Immigration and Urban Growth, 1840-1860

Internal migration also generated growth in industrial centers, primarily in the Northeast

New York City, Philadelphia, Boston more or less doubled in population during a 20-year period

Immigration and Urban Growth, 1840-1860

In 1840, 14% of US free state population living in cities

By 1860, it was 24% By 1860, the US population was greater

than that of Great Britain Mississippi River and Great Lakes shipping

also spurred growth

The booming agricultural economy of the West contributed to significant urban growth

Communities that had once been small villages or trading posts became major cities

They became centers of the growing carrying trade that connected the farmers of the Midwest with New Orleans, and through it, the cities of the Northeast

The booming agricultural economy of the West contributed to significant urban growth

The growing urban population was due in part to the flow of native Northeastern farmers who had been forced off the land by farmers in the West

It was also due to immigrants from Europe, many of whom settled in the West

The White Population grew rapidly between 1820 and 1840

One reason was improvements in public health

The number and ferocity of epidemics decline, as did the mortality rate as a whole

The birth rate remained highOn average, women had about 6 children

each

The Black Population grew more slowly than the White Population

Blacks had a comparatively high death rate

This was mostly due to the enforced poverty in which nearly all blacks lived

The Immigration Boom

Reduced transportation costs and increasing opportunities in American helped stimulate the immigration boom

Deteriorating conditions in Europe were also a factor

Industrial Revolution, urbanization, wars, revolutions, famines, etc.

The Changing American Population

Irish immigrants tended to arrive penniless, settle in cities, and engage in unskilled labor

Most of the Irish stayed in the Eastern cities where they landed, and became part of the unskilled labor force

The largest group of Irish immigrants were young single women, who worked in factories or domestic service

Irish and German immigrants

German immigrants usually arrived with at least a little money

They generally moved to the Northwest, where they became farmers or went into business

The Rise of Nativism

Some native-born Americans (especially business interests) saw foreign immigration as beneficial

Provided a large supply of cheap labor which would hold down wages

The Rise of Nativism

Land speculators hoped immigrants would migrate west

Urban political organizations also courted new immigrants as potential voters

The Rise of Nativism

Many politicians argued that immigrants were racially inferior, or that they corrupted politics by selling their votes

Others complained that they were stealing jobs from the native work force

Protestants worried that the growing Irish population would increase the power of the Catholic Church

The Rise of Nativism

Older Americans feared that immigrants would become a radical force in politics

“Nativism” arose out of these fears and prejudices

The Rise of Nativism

Generally, Nativism favors the interests of certain established inhabitants of an area or nation as compared to claims of newcomers or immigrants

Typically, it manifests itself in opposition to immigration, and suspicion and fear of recent immigrants

Native American Party

The Native American Association became the Native American Party in 1845

The Native American Party merged with other nativist groups in 1850 to form the Supreme Order of the Star-Spangled Banner

Native American Party

The demands of the Supreme Order of the Star-Spangled Banner included:– Banning Catholics or aliens from holding

public office– Enacting more restrictive naturalization laws– And establishing literacy tests for voting

They adopted a strict code of secrecy

The Know-Nothings in Politics

Their password was "I Know Nothing" They became known as the Know-Nothings After the 1852 elections, the Know-Nothings

created a political organization that they called the American Party

The Growth of Canals

The costs of hauling goods overland by way of turnpikes was still too high for anything except for the most compact and valuable merchandise

The Erie Canal provided a water route from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes

330 miles, much faster and cheaper than moving goods by road

Albany to Buffalo

Erie Canal

The Impact of the Erie Canal

By providing a route to the Great Lakes, the Erie Canal gave New York access to Chicago and the growing markets of the West

It also contributed to the decline of agriculture in New England

Now that it was so much cheaper for western farmers to ship their crops East, people farming marginal land in the Northeast found themselves unable to compete

Some cities along the Atlantic seaboard were alarmed by the Erie Canal

Rival cities were alarmed at the prospect of New York acquiring access to and control over the vast western market through the Erie Canal

They had limited success in catching up, but they tried

Philadelphia, Baltimore, Richmond, and Charleston tried to build water routes to the Ohio Valley, but never completed them

Some cities along the Atlantic seaboard were alarmed by the Erie Canal

Some cities saw opportunity in railroads The era of the railroad began even before the

canal age reached its zenith

The Emergence of Railroads

Railroads emerged from a combination of technological and entrepreneurial innovations:

The invention (development) of tracks The development of steam-powered

locomotives The development of trains as public carriers of

passengers and freight

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

The B&O (Baltimore and Ohio) Railroad was the first company to begin actual operations

It opened a 13-mile track in 1830

The Emergence of Railroads further weakened the connection between the North and the South

Traffic was diverted from the main water routes of the Erie Canal and the Mississippi

The Mississippi became less important as a shipping corridor

The Northeast developed four times as much railroad trackage as the South

The lack of tracks in the South further isolated it from the Northeast

Importance of Government Funding in Railroads

Railroad construction required massive amounts of capital

Some money came from private sources, but most came from government funding

The federal government gave public land grants

State and local governments invested in the railroads

Economic Effects of the Railroad

Towns, ranches, and farms grew up rapidly along the routes of the railroad

Areas once cut off from markets during winter/bad weather found that the railroad could transport goods to and from them at any time of year

Railroads also cut the time of shipment and travel

Homework Assignment

Primary Source Reading: The American Past Volume I #7, “Away from Home: The Working Girls of Lowell.” Primary source documents examined include rulebook for a Lowell Boarding House, 1845; Orestes Brownson’s warnings about the loss of virtue of the Lowell women; the daily schedule for a Lowell Mill; a copy of the young women’s newspaper, The Lowell Offering; letters written home by the Lowell girls, and early photographs of several of the young women. Students’ task is to analyze the lives of the working girls and contrast their situation to the contemporary “cult of domesticity” in the world outside Lowell life.

Morse Code

Developed by Samuel F. B. Morse “Invented” by Alfred Vail Alternating long and short bursts of electrical

current represent individual letters Morse also developed the single-wire telegraph

system

Telegraph

Used Morse Code to transmit messages Telegraph wires often ran along railroad tracks

with telegraph offices located in railroad stations

Telegraph

The telegraph allowed railroad operators to communicate directly with stations to alert them to schedule changes, warn them about delays and breakdowns, and convey other information about the movement of trains

It also helped prevent accidents by alerting stations to problems that in the past engineers had to discover for themselves

Western Union Telegraph Company

A company that organized almost all the independent telegraph lines in the country It laid the first transatlantic cable in 1866

After over 100 years, Western Union no longer handles telegrams today

Changes in Journalism

Telegraphs were used to get news from around the country and the world very quickly

It became possible for papers to share their reporting

In 1846, newspaper publishers nationwide founded the Associated Press, in order to promote cooperative newsgathering by telegraph

Changes in Journalism

The invention of the steam cylinder rotary press made it possible to print newspapers rapidly and cheaply

This spurred the dramatic growth of mass-circulation newspapers

The Rise of Corporations

Corporations had the advantage of combining the resources of a large number of shareholders

They developed rapidly in the 1830s, when states began passing general incorporations laws

These allowed a group to secure a charter by paying a fee

The Rise of Corporations

These laws also permitted limited liability, in which individual stockholders risked losing only the value of a their own investment if a corporation should fail

They were not liable for the corporation's larger losses

The Importance of Machine Tools

Machine tools are tools used to make machinery parts

The government supported much the research and development of machine tools, often in connection with supplying the military

The creation of better machine tools allowed the principle of interchangeability of parts to enter many industries

New Sources of Energy

Coal began replacing wood and water power Coal power made it possible for factories/mills

to be located away from running streams Industry was thus able to expand even more

widely

The Rise of the Industrial Ruling Class

There were greater opportunities for profit in manufacturing than in trade

The emerging industrial capitalists soon became the new ruling class of the Northeast

Lowell System

Young women, usually farmers' daughters in their late teens or early twenties, were enlisted to work in factories

Many of these women worked for several years in the factories, saved their wages, and then returned home to marry and raise children

Lowell System

Others married men they met in the factories or in town

Most eventually stopped working in the mills and took up domestic roles instead

Labor Conditions of Early Factories

Lowell workers lived in clean boardinghouses and dormitories, which the factory owners maintained

They were well fed and carefully supervised Wages were relatively generous by the

standards of the time

Changes in Labor Conditions

The competitive factory system made it difficult for manufacturers to maintain high living standards and attractive working conditions

Wages declined, hours of work lengthened, and the conditions of the boardinghouses deteriorated

Factory Girls Association

In 1834, mill workers in Lowell organized a union

They staged a strike to protest a 25% wage cut Two years later, they had another strike, this

one against a rent increase in the boardinghouses

Both strikes failed, and a recession in 1837 destroyed the organization

Female Labor Reform Association

Organized by Sarah Bagley They agitated for a ten-hour workday and for

improvements in conditions in the mills The association turned to state governments

and asked for legislative investigation of conditions in the mills

Female Labor Reform Association

At this point, however, many mill girls were gradually moving into other occupations, and textile manufacturers were turning to a less demanding labor supply:

Immigrants

Immigrant Labor

Because of their growing numbers and their unfamiliarity with the country, immigrants had even less leverage than women

Thus, they usually encountered worse working conditions

Poorly paid construction gangs, made up of Irish immigrants, performed heavy, unskilled work on turnpikes, canals, and railroads

Immigrant Labor

Employers began paying piece rates rather than a daily wage, and used other devices to speed production and exploit the labor force more efficiently

The factories were becoming large, noisy, unsanitary, and dangerous places to work

The average workday extended to 14 hours, and wages declined

Deskilling

Some artisans made successful transitions into small-scale industry

Others found themselves unable to compete with the new factory-made goods

Skilled workers began to form societies for mutual aid

Deskilling

During the 1820s and 1830s, these craft societies began to combine on a citywide basis

They set up central organizations known as trade unions

1834, delegates from six cities founded the National Trades' Union

Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842)

The Massachusetts Supreme Court declared that unions were lawful organizations and that a strike was a lawful tactic

Other state courts gradually accepted the principle of this decision

But employers continued to resist the influence of organized labor

Females' Protective Unions

Almost all early craft unions excluded women Women began establishing their own unions by

the 1850s These protective unions had little power in

dealing with employers But they did serve an important role as mutual

aid societies for women workers

The Growth of Effective Labor Resistance

The immigrant laborers were willing to work for lower wages than native workers

Because they were so numerous, it was easy to replace striking or disgruntled native workers with immigrants, eager for any kind of work

The Growth of Effective Labor Resistance

Ethnic divisions led workers to channel their resentments into internal bickering rather than into their shared grievances against employers

The sheer strength of the industrial capitalists, who had not only economic but political and social power, was another obstacle

Unequal Distribution of Wealth

The commercial and industrial growth of the US greatly elevated the average income of Americans

But slaves, Indians, landless farmers, and many unskilled workers hardly shared in the increased wealth at all

Among the rest of the population, disparities of wealth were increasingly marked

Merchants and industrialists were accumulating enormous fortunes

The Urban Culture of Wealth

Wealthy people gathered together in opulent neighborhoods

They founded clubs and developed elaborate social rituals

They looked for ways to display their wealth They did so in the great mansions they built,

the showy carriages in which they rode, and the elegant social establishments they frequented

The Urban Poor

A significant population of genuinely destitute people emerged in the urban centers

These people were not merely poor, but almost entirely without resources

They were homeless and dependent on charity or crime for survival

Many people died of starvation or exposure

Free Blacks

Many free blacks in urban areas were descendants of blacks who had lived in the North for generations

Others were former slaves who had escaped or been freed

Most blacks had, at best, access to menial jobs They couldn't vote, couldn't attend public

school, and couldn't use any public services available to whites

Social Mobility in the US

A few workers managed to move from poverty to riches by work, ingenuity, and luck

It didn't occur often, but it was enough to support the dreams of those who watched them

Most people managed to move at least one notch up the ladder – such as becoming a skilled worker rather than an unskilled laborer

Geographical Mobility in the US

Some workers saved money, bought land, and moved west

However, few could afford to make such a move

It was very common for laborers to move from one industrial town to another

Geographical Mobility in the US

These migratory workers were often the victims of layoffs who were looking for better opportunities elsewhere

Their search rarely led to a large improvement in their circumstances

The rootlessness made effective organization and protest more difficult

The Expanding Middle Class

Middle-class life in the years prior to the Civil War established itself as the most influential cultural form in urban US

Middle-class families lived in solid and substantial homes

The Expanding Middle Class

Their houses were larger in size and extravagance than cramped rowhouses of the working-class, but they were far less lavish than the wealthy

Middle-class people tended to own their homes, while workers and artisans typically rented

New Household Inventions

The Cast-Iron Stove Replaced fireplaces as the principal vehicle for

cooking in the 1840s They gave cooks more control over the

preparation of food and allowed them to cook several things at once

The Diets of the Middle Class

The expansion and diversification of US agriculture and the ability of farmers to ship goods to urban markets by rail from distant regions greatly increased the variety of available food

Fruits and vegetables were difficult to ship, but most families had access to a variety of meats, grains, and dairy products

The Diets of the Middle Class

Most people didn't have iceboxes, so . . . NOTE: an icebox was an insulated box with a

block of ice in it, used to keep food cold – the predecessor of the refrigerator

Most people didn’t have iceboxes, so preserving food meant curing meat with salt and preserving fruits in sugar

Diets were generally much heavier and starchier than they are today

“I wish somebody would invent something to keep the sun out of my eyes.”

Declining Patriarchy

In the past, powerful fathers had controlled their children's futures by controlling the distribution of land to them

This system couldn't survive the move to a city or a town

Declining Patriarchy

Sons and daughters in urban households were much more likely to leave the family in search of work than they had been in the rural world

Because of this, the power of fathers declined

Emergence of the Public and Private Spheres

Income earners left home each day to work somewhere else

Because of this, a sharp distinction began to emerge between the public world of the workplace and the private world of the family

The world of the family was now dominated not by production but by housekeeping, child rearing, and other primarily domestic concerns

Roles of Women in the Household

The wife was expected to remain in the home and to engage in largely domestic activities

The image of women changed from one of contributors to the family economy to one of guardians of the "domestic virtues"

Middle class women learned to place a higher value on keeping a clean, comfortable, and well-appointed home, on entertaining, and on dressing elegantly and stylishly

Women's Separate Sphere

Middle-class women began to develop their own distinctive culture

"Ladies' Literature” began to emerge: romantic novels focused on the private sphere that middle-class women now inhabited

Women's magazines focused on fashion, shopping, and homemaking

The Cult of Domesticity

Women had greater material comfort than they had enjoyed in the past

A greater value was placed on "female virtues" Women were left increasingly detached from

the public world, with few outlets for their interests and energies

Except for teaching and nursing, work by women outside the household became a lower-class preserve

Importance of Holidays

For most people, Sunday was the only respite from work

And it was to be reserved for religion Holidays took on a special importance because

of their scarcity This is one reason for the elaborate 4th of July

celebrations

The Culture of Public Leisure

Theatres became popular Some catered to particular social groups Most attracted audiences that crossed class

lines

The Culture of Public Leisure

Much of the popular theatre of the time consisted of melodrama based on popular novels or American myths

Much of it also reflected the great love of Shakespeare that extended through all levels of society