Forging the National Economy, 1790-1860

Forging the National Economy, 1790-1860Chapter 14

Manifest Destiny• Belief the U.S. had a God given mission to spread

civilization by conquest to the entire western hemisphere ▫no matter who it harmed

• Technological innovations like the telegraph, steamship and railroad linked distant places like Oregon and California

• Belief that democracy must continue to grow in order to survive

• Desire to expand benefits of American civilization• Southerners were anxious to acquire new lands for

additional slave states• A need to develop new markets made the acquisition of

Pacific ports a priority• Fear that Great Britain would try and block American

annexation of Texas and might expand her own holdings in North America

Agricultural Boom• Post war of 1812 farm prices

high• Move west for better farm land

▫ Demand in Europe for corn and wheat

• Urbanization builds dependence on commercial farms

• Mississippi River natural highway from midwest to Gulf

• Cotton Gin▫ 1793, Eli Whitney from 1 slave

cleaning 1 pound per day to 50 pounds per hour

▫ Large demand in Europe for cotton cloth

▫ 1815 - MS and AL half nation’s cotton production

▫ By 1836 cotton 2/3 of all US exports “King Cotton”

Land Policy • Early preference for orderly settlement of Public Domain▫ Ordinance of 1785 - orderly

procedures for survey and sales

▫ Federalists wanted to slow westward movement (eroded their northeastern powerbase)

• Federalists encouraged sales to speculators▫ Republicans (Jefferson)

reduced minimum purchase amount from 640 acres (a section) which most farmers couldn’t afford to 320 in 1800, @ $2/acre

▫ 160 acres in 1804 @ $1.64/acre

▫ 80 acres in 1820, 40 acres in 1832 @ $1.25/acre

Land Boom (cont.)• Speculators

▫bought sections, subdivided as small as 40 acres▫could clear only 10 to 12 acres annually anyway▫US Bank recharter spurred bank note production▫Plethora of speculation 1815-1819

• 1819 Panic crashed the economy• Squatters

▫settled on unimproved land regardless of ownership▫generally gained right of “preemption” (allowed to

purchase and register land at minimum $ that they had settled and improved)

▫Had to forgo subsistence crops to pay off debts ▫forced to produce cash crops to make money,

exhausted land, moved on

Panic of 1819 • Land boom collapsed▫ State banks poor

management caused much of it

▫ Proliferation of bank notes, farmers borrowed heavily to buy more land

• US Bank insisted on specie instead of paper to repay loans to state banks

• Land prices from $69/acre to $2/acre▫ Farm market prices bottomed▫ Farmers couldn’t repay loans,

went bust• Horribly bad press for US

Bank, (Jackson lost money in the crash too)

Why was it difficult for the Industrial Revolution to come to America?

• people wanted to be farmers, plenty of land

• had raw materials but not machines

• a lot of people had technological ingenuity, but very little specialized knowledge

• most people didn't have money or leisure to worry about luxuries

• England wanted to prevent industrialization in America

• negative attitude about impact of factories on society

• people invested their money in trade

Jefferson didn’t think factories were a good idea, though he liked gadgets

•The new nation was to be a republic, which required a balance of power, liberty, and virtue

•Who makes a good voter? a farmer--independent, self-respecting ▫“ You can't have republic without a virtuous

citizenry.” -Jefferson •The workers in British factory cities were clearly

degraded •The trade embargo by the British in 1807 that led

eventually to the war of 1812 convinced Jefferson to change his mind

•The new nation couldn't afford to be dependent on England for imported goods

Equality and Inequality• Widening rich-poor gap in early

1800s▫ Small % control majority of wealth

• Rich ▫ Exhibit conspicuous consumption,

flaunt wealth▫ Live among peers, isolated from

poverty▫ Many Attempt to look ordinary in

public, keep appearances of equality▫ paying minimal wages

inadequate for male workers to provide sufficiently from factory work for family

• Poor▫ Close to poverty▫ More affected by panics - laid off,

wages reduced▫ Paupers (aged, sick) considered the

“deserving” poor▫ Drunks, loafers considered the

“undeserving” poor

Immigrants • Numerous, increasing in number as century progressed

• Irish poorest, evicted by English landlords, many came to US▫ most canal diggers on Erie

were Irish• Five Points district in NYC

horrible slum, predominately Irish (“Gangs of New York”)

• Catholic as well as poor, double whammy for the Irish

• Widely discriminated against (“dogs and Irish keep off the grass”, “Help wanted Irish need not apply”)

Free Blacks in the North• Bottom of non slave social scale• Many discriminative laws in

North• Most lost vote between 1800-

1850, or had restrictions which didn’t apply to whites

• Segregation widely practiced in schools, hospitals, etc ▫ Barred from many municipal

facilities open to whites▫ Forced into lowest paying jobs▫ Paid less than whites for same

work in most cases• Churches

▫ Blacks form own churches▫ African Methodist Episcopal

(A.M.E.) Founded 1816, in Philadelphia by Richard Allen (first A.M.E. bishop)

Changing Social Relationships• Principal motives

▫ questioning authority▫ more than any other world culture

• Notion of women’s “separate sphere” in the home▫ no social rights to speak of outside

home▫ more authority inside home, family

circle• Attacking the professions

▫ decrease in respect for educated professionals among middle, lower classes

▫ value of training, degrees minimized by many

• Value of the “self made” man emphasized

• Made ministers more transient, subject to dismissal by congregations

• Frontier respected authority little, titles assumed by anyone who cared to, “judge”, “colonel”, “squire”

Family Authority Questioned• More choice of spouses by women• Working outside home by choice• Longer engagements• Women remained single rather than forfeit

independence• Wives and husbands

▫ Separate spheres▫ mothers expected to be the experts in child

rearing▫ father provider role unchanged, mother

role increased in scope▫ Idealized home, provider father, expert

child rearing mother in a safe haven away from trials and evils

• Women’s issues▫ birthrate gradually decrease - farming

becomes less prevalent in northeast• Various forms of pregnancy prevention,

including unnamed abortions in many cases• Separate spheres seen by many (mostly

men) as an alternate to real equality of rights