Industrial Transformation in the North, 1800–1850
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Industrial Transformation in the North , FIGURE Five Points ( 1827 ) by George Catlin , depicts the infamous Five Points neighborhood of New York City , 50 called because it was centered at the intersection of streets . Five Points was home to a polyglot mix of recent immigrants , formerly enslaved people , and other members of the working class . CHAPTER OUTLINE Early Industrialization in the Northeast A Vibrant Capitalist Republic On the Move The Transportation Revolution A New Social Order Class Divisions INTRODUCTION By the , the United States had developed a thriving industrial and commercial sector in the Northeast . Farmers embraced regional and distant markets as the primary destination for their products . Artisans witnessed the methodical division of the labor process in factories . Wage labor became an increasingly common experience . These industrial and market revolutions , combined with advances in transportation , transformed the economic and social landscape . Americans could now quickly produce larger amounts of goods for a nationwide , and an international , market and rely less on foreign imports than in colonial times . As American economic life shifted rapidly and modes of production changed , new class divisions emerged and , resulting in previously unknown economic and social inequalities . This image of the Five Points district in New York City captures the turbulence of the tim . Five Points began as a settlement for
218 Industrial Transformation in the North , freed formerly enslaved people , but it soon became a crowded urban world of American day laborers and wage workers who lived a precarious existence that the economic of the new economy largely bypassed . An of immigrant workers swelled and an already crowded urban population . By the 18305 , the area had become a slum , home to widespread poverty , crime , and disease . Advances in industrialization and the market revolution came at a human price . Early Industrialization in the Northeast LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end ofthis section , you will be able to Explain the role of the system in the rise of industrialization Understand industrialization impact on the nature of production and work Describe the effect of industrialization on consumption Identify the goals of workers organizations like the Working Men Party Cyrus McCormick invents Barnum mechanical American Robert Fulton reaper Museum build Mohawk and Hudson opens in successful Railroad New York steamboat begins service City 1807 183 1841 18 13 18 19 1838 Francis Bank panic Samuel Morse Cabal Lowell leads to found Boston depression demonstrates Manufacturing the telegraph Company FIGURE ( credit 1807 photo Project Archives ) Northern industrialization expanded rapidly following the War of 1812 . Industrialized manufacturing began in New England , where wealthy merchants built textile mills ( and mill towns to support them ) along the rivers of the Northeast . These mills introduced new modes of production centralized within the of the mill itself . As never before , production relied on mechanized sources with water power , and later steam , to provide the force necessary to drive machines . In addition to the mechanization and centralization of work in the mills , specialized , repetitive tasks assigned to wage laborers replaced earlier modes of handicraft production done by artisans at home . The operations of these mills irrevocably changed the nature of work by tasks , breaking down the process of production to its most basic , elemental parts . In return for their labor , the workers , who at were young women from rural New England farming families , received wages . From its origin in New England , manufacturing soon spread to other regions of the United States . FROM ARTISANS WAGE WORKERS During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries , experienced craft goods by hand . The production of shoes provides a good example . In colonial times , people bought their shoes from master shoemakers , who achieved their status by living and working as apprentices under the rule of an older master artisan . An apprenticeship would be followed by work as a journeyman ( a skilled worker without his own shop ) After time as , a shoemaker could at last set up his own shop as a master artisan . People came to the shop , usually attached to the back of the master artisan house , and there the Access for free at .
Early Industrialization in the Northeast 219 shoemaker measured their feet in order to cut and stitch together an individualized product or each customer . In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century , merchants in the Northeast and elsewhere turned their attention as never before to the of using unskilled wage labor to make a greater by reducing labor costs . They used the system , which the British had employed at the beginning of their own Industrial Revolution , whereby they hired farming families to perform tasks in the production process for a set wage . In the case of shoes , for instance , American merchants hired one group ers to cut soles into standardized sizes . A different group of families cut pieces of leather for the uppers , whi still another was employed to stitch the standardized parts together . This process proved attractive because it whittled production costs . The families who in the system were not skilled artisans . They had not spent years learning and perfecting their craft and did not have ambitious journeymen to pay . Therefore , they could not did not wages . Most of the year they tended and orchards , ate the food that they produced , and sold the surplus . work proved a welcome source of extra income for New England farm families 10 saw their dwindle from new competition from midwestern farms with lands . Much of this production was done under contract to merchants . Some farming families engaged in shoemaking ( or shoe assemblage ) as noted above . Many made brooms , plaited hats from straw or palm leaves ( which merchants imported from Cuba and the West Indies ) crafted furniture , made pottery , or wove baskets . Some , especially those who lived in Connecticut , made parts for clocks . The most common occupation , however , was the manufacture of textiles . Farm women spun woolen thread and wove fabric . They also wove blankets , made rugs , and knit stockings . All this manufacturing took place on the farm , giving farmers and their wives control over the timing and pace of their labor . Their domestic productivity increased the quantity of goods available for sale in country towns and nearby cities . THE RISE OF MANUFACTURING In the late and early , Great Britain boasted the most advanced textile mills and machines in the world , and the United States continued to rely on Great Britain for goods . Great Britain hoped to maintain its economic advantage over its former colonies in North America . So , in an effort to prevent the knowledge of advanced manufacturing from leaving the Empire , the British banned the emigration of mechanics , skilled workers who knew how to build and repair the latest textile machines . Some skilled British mechanics , including Samuel Slater , managed to travel to the United States in the hopes of from their knowledge and experience with advanced textile manufacturing . Slater Figure ) understood the workings of the latest textile mills , which British industrialist Richard had pioneered . In the in , Rhode Island , Slater convinced several American merchants , including the wealthy Providence industrialist Moses Brown , to and build a cotton mill based on the British models . Slater knowledge of both technology and mill organization made him the founder of the truly successful cotton mill in the United States .
220 Industrial Transformation in the North , FIGURE Samuel Slater ( a ) was a British migrant who brought plans for English textile mills to the United States and built the nation successful mill in , Massachusetts ( The success of Slater and his partners Smith Brown and William , relatives of Moses Brown , inspired others to build additional mills in Rhode Island and Massachusetts . By 1807 , thirteen more mills had been established . President Jefferson embargo on British manufactured goods from late 1807 to early 1809 ( discussed in a previous chapter ) spurred more New England merchants to invest in industrial enterprises . By 1812 , new textile mills had been built in rural New England towns . More than half turned out woolen goods , while the rest produced cotton cloth . Slater mills and those built in imitation of his were fairly small , employing only seventy people on average . Workers were organized the way that they had been in English factories , in family units . Under the Rhode Island system , families were hired . The father was placed in charge of the family unit , and he directed the labor of his wife and children . Instead of being paid in cash , the father was given credit equal to the extent of his family labor that could be redeemed in the form of rent ( of housing ) or goods from the store . The Embargo of 1807 and the War of 1812 played a pivotal role in spurring industrial development in the United States . Jefferson embargo prevented American merchants from engaging in the Atlantic trade , severely cutting into their . The War of 1812 further compounded the woes of American merchants . The acute economic problems led some New England merchants , including Francis Cabot Lowell , to cast their gaze on manufacturing . Lowell had toured English mills during a stay in Great Britain . He returned to Massachusetts having memorized the designs for the advanced textile machines he had seen in his travels , especially the power loom , which replaced individual hand weavers . Lowell convinced other wealthy merchant families to invest in the creation of new mill towns . In 1813 , Lowell and these wealthy investors , known as the Boston Associates , created the Boston Manufacturing Company . Together they raised and , in 1814 , established a textile mill in and a second one in the same town shortly thereafter Figure ) Access for free at .
Early Industrialization in the Northeast 221 . an Inn . FIGURE The Boston Manufacturing Company , shown in this engraving made in , was headquartered in , Massachusetts . The company started the northeastern textile industry by building textile mills along suitable rivers and developing mill towns around them . At , cotton was carded and drawn into coarse strands of cotton called . The were then spun into yarn , and the yarn woven into cotton cloth . Yarn no longer had to be put out to farm families for further processing . All the work was now performed at a central factory . The work in Lowell mills was both mechanized and specialized . Specialization meant the work was broken down into tasks , and workers repeatedly did the one task assigned to them in the course of a day . As machines took over labor from humans and people increasingly found themselves to the same repetitive step , the process of began . The Boston Associates mills , which each employed hundreds of workers , were located in company towns , where the factories and worker housing were owned by a single company . This gave the owners and their agents control over their workers . The most famous of these company towns was Lowell , Massachusetts . The new town was built on land the Boston Associates purchased in 1821 from the village of East at the falls of the River , north of Boston . The mill buildings themselves were constructed of red brick with large windows to let in light . boarding houses to shelter employees were constructed near the mills . The mill owners planted and trees to maintain the appearance of a rural New England town and to forestall arguments , made by many , that factory work was unnatural and unwholesome . In contrast to many smaller mills , the Boston Associates enterprises avoided the Rhode Island system , preferring individual workers to families . These employees were not to . The competition New England farmers faced from farmers now settling in the West , and the growing scarcity of land in dense New England , had important implications for farmers children . Realizing their chances of inheriting a large farm or receiving a substantial dowry were remote , these teenagers sought other employment opportunities , often at the urging of their parents . While young men could work at a variety of occupations , young women had more limited options . The textile mills provided suitable employment for the daughters of Yankee farm families . Needing to reassure anxious parents that their daughters virtue would be protected and hoping to avoid what they viewed as the problems of and Boston Associates established strict rules governing the lives of these young workers . The women lived in boarding houses to which they paid a portion of their wages . They woke early at the sound of a bell and worked a day during which talking was forbidden . They could not swear or drink alcohol , and they were required to attend church on Sunday . Overseers at the mills and keepers kept a close eye on the young behavior workers who associated with people of questionable reputation or acted in ways that called their virtue into question lost theirjobs and were evicted .
222 Industrial Transformation in the North , DEFINING AMERICAN Michel Chevalier on Mill Worker Rules and Wages In the , the French government sent engineer and economist Michel Chevalier to study industrial and affairs in Mexico and the United States . In 1839 , he published Society , Manners , and Politics in the United States , in which he recorded his impressions ofthe Lowell textile mills . In the excerpt below , Chevalier describes the rules and wages ofthe Lawrence Company in 1833 . All persons employed by the Company must devote themselves assiduously to their duty during . They must be capable of doing the work which they undertake , or use all their efforts to this effect . They must on all occasions , both in their words and in their actions , show that they are penetrated by a laudable love of temperance and virtue , and animated by a sense of their moral and social obligations . The Agent of the Company shall set to all a good example in this respect . Every individual who shall be notoriously dissolute , idle , dishonest , or intemperate , who shall be in the practice of absenting himself from divine service , or shall violate the Sabbath , or shall be addicted to gaming , shall be dismissed from the service of the Company . All ardent spirits are banished from the Company grounds , except when prescribed by a physician . All games of hazard and cards are prohibited within their limits and in the . Weekly wages were as follows For picking and carding , to For spinning , For weaving , to For warping and sizing , to For measuring and folding , 312 What kind of world were the factory owners trying to create with these rules ?
How do you think those who believed all White people were born free and equal would react to them ?
CLICK AND EXPLORE Visit the Textile Industry ( site to explore the mills of New England through its collection of history , images , and ephemera . The mechanization of formerly handcrafted goods , and the removal of production from the home to the factory , dramatically increased output of goods . For example , in one period , the numerous Rhode Island women who spun yarn into cloth on hand looms in their homes produced a total of thousand yards of fabrics of different types . In 1855 , the women working in just one of Lowell mechanized mills produced more than thousand yards . The Boston Associates cotton mills quickly gained a competitive edge over the smaller mills established by Samuel Slater and those who had imitated him . Their success prompted the Boston Associates to expand . In Massachusetts , in addition to Lowell , they built new mill towns in , Lawrence , and . In New Hampshire , they built them in Manchester , Dover , and . And in Maine , they built a large mill in Saco on the Saco River . Other entrepreneurs copied them . By the time of the Civil War , 878 textile factories had been built in New England . All together , these factories employed more than people and produced more than 940 million yards of cloth . Success in New England was repeated elsewhere . Small mills , more like those in Rhode Island than those in northern Massachusetts , New Hampshire , and Maine , were built in New York , Delaware , and Pennsylvania . By , three hundred textile mills were located in and near Philadelphia . Many produced specialty goods , such as silks and printed fabrics , and employed skilled workers , including people working in their own Access for free at .
Early Industrialization in the Northeast 223 homes . Even in the South , the region that otherwise relied on slave labor to produce the very cotton that fed the northern factory movement , more than two hundred textile mills were built . Most textiles , however , continued to be produced in New England before the Civil War . Alongside the production of cotton and woolen cloth , which formed the backbone of the Industrial Revolution in the United States as in Britain , other crafts increasingly became mechanized and centralized in factories in the half of the nineteenth century . Shoe making , leather tanning , papermaking , hat making , clock making , and gun making had all become mechanized to one degree or another by the time of the Civil War . Flour milling , because of the inventions of Oliver Evans Figure , had become almost completely automated and centralized by the early decades of the nineteenth century . So were mills that two employees were able to do work that had originally required , and mills using Evans system spread throughout the states . FIGURE Oliver Evans was an American engineer and inventor , best known for developing ways to automate the flour milling process , which is illustrated here in a drawing from a 1785 instructional book called The Young Wright Miller Guide . THE RISE OF CONSUMERISM At the end of the eighteenth century , most American families lived in candlelit homes with bare and unadorned walls , cooked and warmed themselves over , and owned few changes of clothing . All manufactured goods were made by hand and , as a result , were usually scarce and fairly expensive . The automation of the manufacturing process changed that , making consumer goods that had once been thought of as luxury items widely available for the time . Now all but the very poor could afford the necessities and some of the small luxuries of life . Rooms were lit by oil lamps , which gave brighter light than candles . Homes were heated by parlor stoves , which allowed for more privacy people no longer needed to huddle together around the hearth . Iron with multiple burners made it possible for housewives to prepare more elaborate meals . Many people could afford carpets and upholstered furniture , and even farmers could decorate their homes with curtains and wallpaper . Clocks , which had once been quite expensive , were now within the reach of most ordinary people . THE WORK EXPERIENCE TRANSFORMED As production became mechanized and relocated to factories , the experience of workers underwent changes . Farmers and artisans had controlled the pace of their labor and the order in which things were done . If an artisan wanted to take the afternoon off , he could . If a farmer wished to rebuild his fence on Thursday instead of on Wednesday , he could . They conversed and often drank during the workday . Indeed , journeymen
224 Industrial Transformation in the North , were often promised alcohol as part of their wages . One member of the group might be asked to read a book or a newspaper aloud to the others . In the warm weather , doors and windows might be opened to the outside , and work stopped when it was too dark to see . Work in factories proved to be quite different . Employees were expected to report at a certain time , usually early in the morning , and to work all day . They could not leave when they were tired or take breaks other than at designated times . Those who arrived late found their pay clocked minutes tardiness could result in several hours worth of lost pay , and repeated tardiness could result in dismissal . The monotony of repetitive tasks made days particularly long . Hours varied according to the factory , but most factory employees toiled ten to twelve hours a day , six days a week . In the winter , when the sun set early , oil lamps were used to light the factory , and employees strained their eyes to see their work and coughed as the rooms with smoke from the lamps . In the spring , as the days began to grow longer , factories held celebrations to mark the extinguishing of the oil lamps . These often featured processions and dancing . Freedom within factories was limited . Drinking was prohibited . Some factories did not allow employees to sit down . Doors and windows were kept closed , especially in textile factories where could be easily disturbed by incoming breezes , and mills were often unbearably hot and humid in the summer . In the winter , workers often shivered in the cold . In such environments , workers health suffered . The workplace posed other dangers as well . The presence of cotton bales alongside the oil used to lubricate machines made a common problem in textile factories . Workplace injuries were also common . Workers hands and were maimed or severed when they were caught in machines in some cases , their limbs or entire bodies were crushed . Workers who didn die from such injuries almost certainly lost theirjobs , and with them , their income . Corporal punishment of both children and adults was common in factories where abuse was most extreme , children sometimes died as a result of injuries suffered at the hands of an overseer . As the decades passed , working conditions deteriorated in many mills . Workers were assigned more machines to tend , and the owners increased the speed at which the machines operated . Wages were cut in many factories , and employees who had once labored for an hourly wage now found themselves reduced to piecework , paid for the amount they produced and not for the hours they toiled . Owners also reduced compensation for piecework . Low wages combined with regular periods of unemployment to make the lives of workers , especially for those with families to support . In New York City in 1850 , for example , the average male worker earned 300 a year it cost approximately 600 a year to support a family of . WORKERS AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT Many workers undoubtedly enjoyed some of the new wage opportunities factory work presented . For many of the young New England women who ran the machines in , Lowell , and elsewhere , the experience of being away from the family was exhilarating and provided a sense of solidarity among them . Though most sent a large portion of their wages home , having even a small amount of money of their own was a liberating experience , and many used their earnings to purchase clothes , ribbons , and other consumer goods for themselves . The long hours , strict discipline , and low wages , however , soon led workers to organize to protest their working conditions and pay . In 1821 , the young women employed by the Boston Manufacturing Company in went on strike for two days when their wages were cut . In 1824 , workers in struck to protest reduced pay rates and longer hours , the latter of which had been achieved by cutting back the amount of time allowed for meals . Similar strikes occurred at Lowell and in other mill towns like Dover , New Hampshire , where the women employed by the Manufacturing Company ceased working in December 1828 after their wages were reduced . In the , female mill operatives in Lowell formed the Lowell Factory Girls Association to organize strike activities in the face of wage cuts ( Figure and , later , established the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association to protest the workday . Even though strikes were rarely successful and workers usually were forced to accept reduced wages and increased hours , work stoppages as a form of labor Access for free at .
Early Industrialization in the Northeast protest represented the beginnings of the labor movement in the United States . or nu Lou , org FIGURE New England mill workers were often young women , as seen in this early tintype made ca . 1870 ( a ) When management proposed rent increases for those living in company boarding houses , female textile workers in Lowell responded by forming the Lowell Factory Girls constitution is shown in image ( 1836 and organizing a or strike . Critics of industrialization blamed it for the increased concentration of wealth in the hands of the few the factory owners made vast while the workers received only a small fraction of the revenue from what they produced . Under the labor theory of value , said critics , the value of a product should accurately the labor needed to produce it . from the sale of goods produced by workers should be distributed so laborers recovered in the form of wages the value their effort had added to the product . While factory owners , who contributed the workspace , the machinery , and the raw materials needed to create a product , should receive a share of the , their share should not be greater than the value of their contribution . Workers should thus receive a much larger portion of the than they currently did , and factory owners should receive less . In Philadelphia , New York , and cities that experienced dizzying industrial growth during the nineteenth united to form political parties . Thomas , from Connecticut , was the outspoken organizer of the Working Men Party , which lodged a radical protest against the exploitation of workers that accompanied industrialization . took his cue from Thomas Paine and the American Revolution to challenge the growing inequity in the United States . He argued that inequality originated in the unequal distribution of property through inheritance laws . In his 1829 treatise , The Rights of Man to Property , called for the abolition of inheritance and the redistribution of property . The Working Men Party also advocated the end of imprisonment for debt , a common practice whereby the debtor who could not pay was put in jail and his tools and property , if any , were . vision of radical equality extended to all women and men , no matter their race , should be allowed to vote and receive property , he believed . died in 1832 when a cholera epidemic swept New York City , but the state of New York did away with imprisonment for debt in the same year . Worker activism became less common in the late and . As German and Irish immigrants poured 225
226 Industrial Transformation in the into the United States in the decades preceding the Civil War , laborers found themselves competing for jobs with new arrivals who were willing to work longer hours for less pay . In Lowell , Massachusetts , for example , the daughters of New England farmers encountered competition from the daughters of Irish farmers suffering the effects of the potato famine these immigrant women were willing to work for far less and endure worse conditions than women . Many of these daughters of freemen , as they referred to themselves , left the factories and returned to their families . Not all wage workers had this luxury , however . Widows with children to support and girls from destitute families had no choice but to stay and accept the faster pace and lower pay . Male German and Irish immigrants competed with men . Germans , many of whom were skilled workers , took jobs in furniture making . The Irish provided a ready source of unskilled labor needed to lay railroad track and dig canals . American men with families to support grudgingly accepted low wages in order to keep their jobs . As work became increasingly , no worker was irreplaceable , and no one job was safe . A Vibrant Capitalist Republic LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end ofthis section , you will be able to Explain the process of selling western land Discuss the causes ofthe Panic of 1819 Identify key American innovators and inventors By the , the United States economy bore little resemblance to the economy of colonial days . It was now a market economy , one in which the production of goods , and their prices , were unregulated by the government . Commercial centers , to which job seekers , mushroomed . New York population skyrocketed . In 1790 , it was by 1820 , it had reached and by 1825 , it had swelled to . New opportunities for wealth appeared to be available to anyone . However , the expansion of the American economy made it prone to the cycle . Market economies involve prices for labor , raw materials , and consumer goods and depend on credit and one of which can be the source of an imbalance and an economic downturn in which businesses and farmers default , wage workers lose their employment , and investors lose their assets . This happened for the time in the United States in 1819 , when waves of enthusiastic speculation ( expectations of rapidly rising prices ) in land and commodities gave way to drops in prices . THE LAND OFFICE BUSINESS In the early nineteenth century , people poured into the territories west of the eastern seaboard . Among them were speculators seeking to buy cheap parcels from the federal government in anticipation of a rise in prices . The Ohio Country in the Northwest Territory appeared to offer the best prospects for many in the East , especially New Englanders . The result was Ohio fever , as thousands traveled there to reap the of settling in this newly available territory ( Figure . Access for free at .
A Vibrant Capitalist Republic 227 FIGURE Cartographer John Cary drew this map exhibiting The Western Territory , Kentucky , Pennsylvania , Maryland , Virginia for his 1808 atlas it depicted the huge western territory that fascinated settlers in the early nineteenth century . The federal government oversaw the orderly transfer of public land to citizens at public auctions . The Land Law of 1796 applied to the territory of Ohio after it had been wrested from Native people . Under this law , the United States would sell a minimum parcel of 640 acres for an acre . The Land Law of 1800 further encouraged land sales in the Northwest Territory by reducing the minimum parcel size by half and enabling sales on credit , with the goal of stimulating settlement by ordinary farmers . The government created land offices to handle these sales and established them in the West within easy reach of prospective landowners . They could thus purchase land directly from the government , at the price the government had set . Buyers were given low interest rates , with payments that could be spread over four years . Surveyors marked off the parcels in straight lines , creating a landscape of checkerboard squares . The future looked bright for those who turned their gaze on the land in the West . Surveying , settling , and farming , turning the wilderness into a commodity , gave purchasers a sense of progress . A uniquely American story of settling the land developed hardy individuals wielding an axe cleared it , built a log cabin , and turned the frontier into a farm that paved the way for mills and towns ( Figure ) FIGURE Thomas Cole , who painted Home in the Woods in 1847 , was an American artist . Cole founded the
228 Industrial Transformation in the North , Hudson River School , a style renowned for portrayals of landscapes and wilderness influenced by the emotional aesthetic known as romanticism . In what ways is this image realistic , and how is it idealized or romanticized ?
MY STORY A New Englander Heads West A native of Vermont , Flagg was one of thousands of New Englanders who caught Ohio fever . In this letter to his brother , Flagg , dated August , 1817 , he describes the hustle and bustle of the emerging commercial town of Cincinnati . DEAR BROTHER , Cincinnati is an incorporated City . It contained in buildings of different descriptions among which are above 20 of Stone 250 of brick 800 of Wood . The population in 1815 was . There are about 60 Mercantile stores several of which are wholesale . Here are a great share of Mechanics of all kinds . Here is one Woolen Factory four Cotton factories but not now in operation A most stupendously large building of Stone is likewise erected immediately on the bank ofthe River for a steam Mill . It is nine stories high at the Waters edge is 87 by 62 feet . It drives four pair of Stones besides various other Machinery as Wool carding There is also a valuable Steam Saw Mill driving four saws also an inclined Wheel ox Saw Mill with two saws , one Glass Factory . The town is Rapidly increasing in Wealth population . Here is a Branch of the United States Bank and three other banks two Printing offices . The country around is rich . That you may all be prospered in the world is the anxious wish of your affectionate Brother FLAGG What caught Flagg attention ?
From your reading of this letter and study of the engraving below Figure ) what impression can you take away of Cincinnati in 1817 ?
FIGURE This engraving from A Topographical Description of the State of Ohio , Indiana Territory , and Louisiana ( 1812 ) by Jervis Cutler , presents a view of Cincinnati as it may have looked to Flagg . CLICK AND EXPLORE Learn more about settlement of and immigration to the Northwest Territory by exploring the National Park Service Historic Resource Study ( related to the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial . According to the guides maps , what lands were available for purchase ?
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A Vibrant Capitalist Republic 229 THE PANIC OF 1819 The major economic crisis in the United States after the War of 1812 was due , in large measure , to factors in the larger Atlantic economy . It was made worse , however , by land speculation and poor banking practices at home . British textile mills voraciously consumed American cotton , and the devastation of the Napoleonic Wars made Europe on other American agricultural commodities such as wheat . This drove up both the price of American ural products and the value of the land on which staples such as cotton , wheat , corn , and tobacco were grown . Many Americans were struck with land Farmers strove to expand their acreage , and those who lived in areas where land was scarce sought holdings in the West . They needed money to purchase this land , however . Smal merchants and factory owners , hoping to take advantage of this boom time , also sought to borrow money to their businesses . When existing banks refused to lend money to small farmers and others without a credit history , state legislatures chartered new banks to meet the demand . In one legislative session , Kentucky . As loans increased , paper money from new state banks flooded the country , creating in lation that drove the price of land and goods still higher This , in turn , encouraged even more people to borrow money with which to purchase land or to expand or start their own businesses . Speculators took advantage of this boom in the sale of land by purchasing property not to live on , but to buy cheaply and resell a exorbitant prices . During the War of 1812 , the Bank of the United States had suspended payments in specie , hard money usually in the form of gold and silver coins . When the war ended , the bank continued to issue only paper banknotes and to redeem notes issued by state banks with paper only . The newly chartered banks also adopted this practice , issuing banknotes in excess of the amount of specie in their vaults . This shaky economic scheme worked only so long as people were content to conduct business with paper money and refrain from demanding that banks instead give them the gold and silver that was supposed to back it . If large numbers of people , or banks that had loaned money to other banks , began to demand specie payments , the banking system would collapse , because there was no longer specie to support the amount ofpaper money the banks had put into circulation . So were bankers that customers would demand gold and silver that an irate bank employee in Ohio stabbed a customer who had 18 audacity to ask for specie in exchange for the banknotes he held . In an effort to bring sta to the nation banking system , Congress chartered the Second Bank of the United States ( a revival of Alexander national bank ) in 816 . But this new institution only compounded the problem by making ris loans , opening branches in the South and West where land fever was highest , and issuing a steady stream of Bank of the United States notes , a move that increased and speculation . The economic bubble burst in 1819 , resulting in a economic depression or severe downturn in the economy called he Panic of 1819 . It was the economic depression experienced by the American public , who panicked as they saw the prices of agricultural products fall and businesses fail . Prices had already begun falling in 1815 , at the end of the Napoleonic Wars , wien Britain began to dump its surplus manufactured goods , tie result of wartime overproduction , in American ports , where they were sold for low prices and competed with goods . In 1818 , to make the economic situation worse , prices for American agricultural products began to fall both in the United States and in Europe the overproduction of stap es such as wheat and cotton ed with the recovery of European agriculture , which reduced for American crops . Crop prices tumbled by as much 75 percent . This dramatic decrease in the value of agricultural goods left farmers unable to pay their debts . As they defaulted on their loans , banks seized their property . However , because the drastic fall in agricultural prices had greatly reduced the value of land , the banks were left with farms they were unable to sell . Land speculators lost the value of their investments . As the countryside suffered , farmers ceased to purchase manufactured goods . Factories responded by cutting wages or employees .
230 Industrial Transformation in the North , In 1818 , the Second Bank of the United States needed specie to pay foreign investors who had loaned money to the United States to enable the country to purchase Louisiana . The bank began to call in the loans it had made and required that state banks pay their debts in gold and silver . State banks that could not collect loan payments from farmers could not , in turn , meet their obligations to the Second Bank of the United States . Severe consequences followed as banks closed their doors and businesses failed . quarters of the work force in Philadelphia was unemployed , and charities were swamped by thousands of newly destitute people needing assistance . In states with imprisonment for debt , the prison population swelled . As a result , many states drafted laws to provide relief for debtors . Even those at the top of the social ladder were affected by the Panic of 1819 . Thomas Jefferson , who had cosigned a loan for a friend , nearly lost Monticello when his acquaintance defaulted , leaving Jefferson responsible for the debt . In an effort to stimulate the economy in the midst of the economic depression , Congress passed several acts modifying land sales . The Land Law of 1820 lowered the price of land to per acre and allowed small parcels of eighty acres to be sold . The Relief Act of 1821 allowed to return land to the government if they could not afford to keep it . The money they received in return was credited toward their debt . The act also extended the credit period to eight years . States , too , attempted to aid those faced with economic hard times by passing laws to prevent mortgage foreclosures so buyers could keep their homes . Americans made the best of the opportunities presented in business , in farming , or on the frontier , and by 1823 the Panic of 1819 had ended . The recovery provided ample evidence of the vibrant and resilient nature of the American people . ENTREPRENEURS AND INVENTORS The volatility of the economy did nothing to dampen the creative energies of its citizens in the years before the Civil War . In the , a frenzy of entrepreneurship and invention yielded many new products and machines . The republic seemed to be a laboratory of innovation , and technological advances appeared unlimited . One of the most advancements of the early nineteenth century was the cotton engine or gin , invented by Eli Whitney and patented in 1794 . Whitney , who was born in Massachusetts , had spent time in the South and knew that a device to speed up the production of cotton was desperately needed so cotton farmers could meet the growing demand for their crop . He hoped the cotton gin would render slavery obsolete . Whitney seemingly simple invention cleaned the seeds from the raw cotton far more quickly and than could enslaved workers by hand ( Figure . The raw cotton with seeds was placed in the cotton gin , and with the use of a hand crank , the seeds were extracted through a carding device that aligned the cotton in strands for spinning . FIGURE The First , an 1869 drawing by William Sheppard , shows the first use of a cotton gin at the close of the last century . Enslaved African Americans handle the gin while White men conduct business in the Access for free at .
A Vibrant Capitalist Republic 231 background . What do you think the artist was trying to convey with this image ?
credit Library of Congress ) Whitney also worked on machine tools , devices that cut and shaped metal to make standardized , interchangeable parts for other mechanical devices like clocks and guns . Whitney machine tools to manufacture parts for muskets enabled guns to be manufactured and repaired by people other than skilled gunsmiths . His creative genius served as a source of inspiration for many other American inventors . Another new technology of the early was the steamship engine , invented by Robert Fulton in 1807 . Fulton steamship , the , used paddle wheels to travel the 150 miles from New York City to Albany in a record time of only hours ( Figure . Soon , a of steamboats was traversing the Hudson River and New York Harbor , later expanding to travel every major American river including the mighty Mississippi . By the there were over one thousand of these vessels , radically changing water transportation by ending its dependence on the wind . Steamboats could travel faster and more cheaply than sailing vessels or , which downriver and had to be poled or towed upriver on the return voyage . Steamboats also arrived with much greater dependability . The steamboat facilitated the rapid economic development of the massive Mississippi River Valley and the settlement of the West . FIGURE Fulton steamboat the transformed the speed , cost , and dependability of water transportation in the United States . credit Project Archives ) Cyrus McCormick wanted to replace the laborious process of using a scythe to cut and gather wheat for harvest . In 1831 , he and the enslaved workers on his family plantation tested a mechanical reaper , and over the next several decades , he made constant improvements to it Figure . More farmers began using it in the 18405 , and greater demand for the McCormick reaper led McCormick and his brother to establish the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in Chicago , where labor was more readily available . By the , McCormick mechanical reaper had enabled farmers to vastly increase their output . also John , who improved on the design of the prairies to agriculture . McCormick bigger machine could harvest grain faster , and plow could cut through the thick prairie sod . Agriculture north of the Ohio River became the pantry that would lower food prices and feed the major cities in the East . In short order , Ohio , Indiana , and Illinois all become major agricultural states .
232 Industrial Transformation in the North , FIGURE This sketch is from the 1845 patent for an improved grain reaper invented by Cyrus Hall McCormick . The reaper mechanized the use of scythes to harvest wheat . Samuel Morse added the telegraph to the list of American innovations introduced in the years before the Civil War . Born in Massachusetts in 1791 , Morse gained renown as a painter before turning his attention to the development ofa method of rapid communication in the . In 1838 , he gave the public demonstration of his method of conveying electric pulses over a wire , using the basis of what became known as Morse code . In 1843 , Congress agreed to help fund the new technology by allocating for a telegraph line to connect Washington , and Baltimore along the route of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad . In 1844 , Morse sent the telegraph message on the new link . Improved communication systems fostered the development of business , economics , and politics by allowing for dissemination of news at a speed previously unknown . On the Move The Transportation Revolution LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end ofthis section , you will be able to Describe the development of improved methods of domestic transportation ways in which roads , canals , and railroads impacted Americans lives in the nineteenth century Americans in the early were a people on the move , as thousands left the eastern coastal states for opportunities in the West . Unlike their predecessors , who traveled by foot or wagon train , these settlers had new transport options . Their trek was made possible by the construction of roads , canals , and railroads , projects that required the funding of the federal government and the states . New technologies , like the steamship and railroad lines , had brought about what historians call the transportation revolution . States competed for the honor of having the most advanced transport systems . People celebrated the transformation of the wilderness into an orderly world of improvement demonstrating the steady march of progress and the greatness of the republic . In 1817 , John Calhoun of South Carolina looked to a future of rapid internal improvements , declaring , Let us . bind the Republic together with a perfect system of roads and canals . Americans agreed that internal transportation routes would promote progress . By the eve of the Civil War , the United States had moved beyond roads and canals to a established and extensive system of railroads . ROADS AND CANALS One key part of the transportation revolution was the widespread building of roads and . In 1811 , construction began on the Cumberland Road , a national highway that provided thousands with a route from Maryland to Illinois . The federal government funded this important artery to the West , beginning the creation of a transportation infrastructure for the of settlers and farmers . Other entities built , which ( as today ) charged fees for use . New York State , for instance , chartered turnpike companies that dramatically Access for free at .
On the Move The Transportation Revolution 233 increased the miles of state roads from one thousand in 1810 to four thousand by 1820 . New York led the way in building . Canal mania swept the United States in the half of the nineteenth century . Promoters knew these rivers could save travelers immense amounts of time and money . Even short waterways , such as the canal going around the rapids of the Ohio River near Louisville , Kentucky , proved a huge leap forward , in this case by opening a water route from Pittsburgh to New Orleans . The preeminent example was the Erie Canal Figure ) which linked the Hudson River , and thus New York City and the Atlantic seaboard , to the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River Valley . With its central location , large harbor , and access to the hinterland via the Hudson River , New York City already commanded the lion share of commerce . Still , the city merchants worried about losing ground to their competitors in Philadelphia and Baltimore . Their search for commercial advantage led to the dream of creating a water highway connecting the city Hudson River to Lake Erie and markets in the West . The result was the Erie Canal . Chartered in 1817 by the state of New York , the canal took seven years to complete . When it opened in 1825 , it dramatically decreased the cost of shipping while reducing the time to travel to the West . Soon 15 million worth of goods ( more than 200 million in today money ) was being transported on the waterway every year FIGURE Although the Erie Canal was primarily used for commerce and trade , in on the Erie Canal ( 1837 ) George Harvey portrays it in a pastoral , natural setting . Why do you think the painter chose to portray the way ?
CLICK AND EXPLORE Explore the Erie Canal on ( via an interactive map . Click throughout the map for images of and artifacts from this historic waterway . The success of the Erie Canal led to other , similar projects . The Wabash and Erie Canal , which opened in the early , stretched over 450 miles , making it the longest canal in North America Figure ) Canals added immensely to the country sense of progress . Indeed , they appeared to be the logical next step in the process of transforming wilderness into civilization .
234 Industrial Transformation in the North , FIGURE This map ( a ) shows the route taken by the Wabash and Erie Canal through the state of Indiana . The canal began operation in 1843 and boats operated on it until the . Sections have since been restored , as shown in this 2007 photo ( from Delphi , Indiana . CLICK AND EXPLORE Visit Southern Indiana Trails ( to see historic photographs of the Wabash and Erie Canal As with highway projects such as the Cumberland Road , many canals were federally sponsored , especially during the presidency of John Quincy Adams in the late . Adams , along with Secretary of State Henry Clay , championed what was known as the American System , part of which included plans for a broad range of internal transportation improvements . Adams endorsed the creation of roads and canals to facilitate commerce and develop markets for agriculture as well as to advance settlement in the West . RAILROADS Starting in the late , steam locomotives began to compete with locomotives . The railroads with steam locomotives offered a new mode of transportation that fascinated citizens , buoying their optimistic View of the possibilities of technological progress . The Mohawk and Hudson Railroad was the to begin service with a steam locomotive . Its inaugural train ran in 1831 on a track outside Albany and covered twelve miles in minutes . Soon it was traveling regularly between Albany and Schenectady . Toward the middle of the century , railroad construction kicked into high gear , and eager investors quickly formed a number of railroad companies . As a railroad grid began to take shape , it stimulated a greater demand for coal , iron , and steel . Soon , both railroads and canals crisscrossed the states ( Figure ) providing a transportation infrastructure that fueled the growth of American commerce . Indeed , the transportation revolution led to development in the coal , iron , and steel industries , providing many Americans with new job opportunities . Access for free at .
A New Social Order Class Divisions FIGURE This 1853 map of the Empire State shows the extent of New York canal and railroad networks . The entire country transportation infrastructure grew dramatically during the half of the nineteenth century . AMERICANS ON THE MOVE The expansion of roads , canals , and railroads changed people lives . In 1786 , it had taken a minimum of four days to travel from Boston , Massachusetts , to Providence , Rhode Island . By 1840 , the trip took half a day on a train . In the century , this may seem intolerably slow , but people at the time were amazed by the railroads speed . Its average of twenty miles per hour was twice as fast as other available modes of transportation . By 1840 , more than three thousand miles of canals had been dug in the United States , and thirty thousand miles of railroad track had been laid by the beginning of the Civil War . Together with the hundreds of steamboats that plied American rivers , these advances in transportation made it easier and less expensive to ship agricultural products from the West to feed people in eastern cities , and to send manufactured goods from the East to people in the West . Without this ability to transport goods , the market revolution would not have been possible . Rural families also became less isolated as a result of the transportation revolution . Traveling circuses , peddlers , and itinerant painters could now more easily make their way into rural districts , and people in search of work found cities and mill towns within their reach . A New Social Order Class Divisions LEARNING OBJECTIVES By the end ofthis section , you will be able to shared perceptions and ideals of each social class Assess different social classes views of slavery The profound economic changes sweeping the United States led to equally important social and cultural transformations . The formation of distinct classes , especially in the rapidly industrializing North , was one of the most striking developments . The unequal distribution of newly created wealth spurred new divisions along class lines . Each class had its own culture and views on the issue of slavery . THE ECONOMIC ELITE Economic elites gained further social and political ascendance in the United States due to a economy that enhanced their wealth and allowed distinctive social and cultural characteristics to develop among different economic groups . In the major northern cities of Boston , New York , and Philadelphia , leading merchants formed an industrial capitalist elite . Many came from families that had been deeply engaged in colonial trade in tea , sugar , pepper , enslaved Africans , and other commodities and that were familiar with 235
236 Industrial Transformation in the North , trade networks connecting the United States with Europe , the West Indies , and the Far East . These colonial merchants had passed their wealth to their children . After the War of 1812 , the new generation of merchants expanded their economic activities . They began to specialize in types of industry , spearheading the development of industrial capitalism based on factories they owned and on commercial services such as banking , insurance , and shipping . Junius Spencer Morgan Figure , for example , rose to prominence as a banker . His success began in Boston , where he worked in the import business in the . He then formed a partnership with a London banker , George Peabody , and created Peabody , Morgan Co . In 1864 , he renamed the enterprise Morgan His son , Morgan , became a noted in the later nineteenth and early twentieth century . FIGURE Junius Spencer Morgan of Boston was one of the fathers of the American private banking system , credit Project Archives ) CLICK AND EXPLORE Visit the Internet Archive ( to see scanned pages from Hunt Merchant Magazine and Commercial Review . This monthly business review provided the business elite with important information about issues pertaining to trade and commodity prices , new laws affecting business , statistics regarding imports and exports , and similar content . Choose three articles and decide how they might have been important to the northern business elite . Members of the northern business elite forged close ties with each other to protect and expand their economic interests . Marriages between leading families formed a crucial strategy to advance economic advantage , and the homes of the northern elite became important venues for solidifying social bonds . Exclusive neighborhoods started to develop as the wealthy distanced themselves from the poorer urban residents , and cities soon became segregated by class . Industrial elites created chambers of commerce to advance their interests by 1858 there were ten in the United States . These networking organizations allowed top bankers and merchants to stay current on the economic activities of their peers and further strengthen the bonds among themselves . The elite also established social clubs to forge and maintain ties . The of these , the Philadelphia Club , came into being in 1834 . Similar clubs soon formed in other cities and hosted a range of social activities designed to further bind together the leading economic families . Many northern elites worked hard to ensure the transmission of their inherited wealth from one generation to the next . Politically , they exercised considerable power in local and state elections . Most also had ties to the cotton trade , so they were strong supporters of slavery . Access for free at .
A New Social Order Class Divisions 237 The Industrial Revolution led some former artisans to reinvent themselves as manufacturers . These enterprising leaders of manufacturing differed from the established commercial elite in the North and South because they did not inherit wealth . Instead , many came from very humble origins and embodied the dream of achieving upward social mobility through hard work and discipline . As the of the economic transformations sweeping the republic , these newly established manufacturers formed a new economic elite that thrived in the cities and cultivated its own distinct sensibilities . They created a culture that celebrated hard work , a position that put them at odds with southern planter elites who prized leisure and with other elite northerners who had largely inherited their wealth and status . Peter Cooper provides one example of the new northern manufacturing class . Ever inventive , Cooper dabbled in many different moneymaking enterprises before gaining success in the glue business . He opened his Manhattan glue factory in the and was soon using his to expand into a host of other activities , including iron production . One of his innovations was the steam locomotive , which he invented in 1827 Figure 917 . Despite becoming one of the wealthiest men in New York City , Cooper lived simply . Rather than buying an ornate bed , for example , he built his own . He believed respectability came through hard work , not family pedigree . FIGURE Peter Cooper , who would go on to found the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City , designed and built the Tom Thumb , the steam locomotive , a replica of which is shown here . Those who had inherited their wealth derided men like Cooper , and he and others like him were excluded from the social clubs established by the merchant and elite of New York City . northern manufacturers , however , created their own organizations that aimed to promote upward mobility . The Providence Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers was formed in 1789 and promoted both industrial arts and education as a pathway to economic success . In 1859 , Peter Cooper established the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art , a school in New York City dedicated to providing education in technology . Merit , not wealth , mattered most according to Cooper , and admission to the school was based solely on ability race , sex , and family connections had no place . The best and brightest could attend Cooper Union , a policy that remained in place until 2014 . THE MIDDLE CLASS Not all enterprising artisans were so successful that they could rise to the level of the elite . However , many artisans and small merchants , who owned small factories and stores , did manage to achieve and maintain respectability in an emerging middle class . Lacking the protection of great wealth , members of the middle
238 Industrial Transformation in the North , class agonized over the fear that they might slip into the ranks of wage laborers thus they strove to maintain or improve their status and that of their children . To this end , the middle class valued cleanliness , discipline , morality , hard work , education , and good manners . Hard work and education enabled them to rise in life . children , therefore , did not work in factories . Instead they attended school and in their free time engaged in activities , such as reading or playing the piano , or they played with toys and games that would teach them the skills and values they needed to succeed in life . In the early nineteenth century , members of the middle class began to limit the number of children they had . Children no longer contributed economically to the household , and raising them correctly required money and attention . It therefore made sense to have fewer of them . women did not work for wages . Theirjob was to care for the children and to keep the house in a state of order and cleanliness , often with the help of a servant . They also performed the important tasks of cultivating good manners among their children and their husbands and of purchasing consumer goods both activities proclaimed to neighbors and prospective business partners that their families were educated , cultured , and successful . Northern business elites , many of whom owned or had invested in businesses like cotton mills that from slave labor , often viewed the institution of slavery with ambivalence . Most members of the middle class took a dim view of it , however , since it promoted a culture of leisure . Slavery stood as the antithesis of the view that dignity and respectability were achieved through work , and many members of this class became active in efforts to end it . This class of upwardly mobile citizens promoted temperance , or abstinence from alcohol . They also gave their support to Protestant ministers like Charles Finney , who preached that all people possessed free moral agency , meaning they could change their lives and bring about their own salvation , a message that resonated with members of the middle class , who already believed their worldly efforts had led to their economic success . THE WORKING CLASS The Industrial Revolution in the United States created a new class of wage workers , and this working class also developed its own culture . They formed their own neighborhoods , living away from the oversight of bosses and managers . While industrialization and the market revolution brought some improvements to the lives of the working class , these sweeping changes did not laborers as much as they did the middle class and the elites . The working class continued to live an often precarious existence . They suffered greatly during economic slumps , such as the Panic of 1819 . Although most men sought to emulate the middle class by keeping their wives and children out of the work force , their economic situation often necessitated that others besides the male head of the family contribute to its support . Thus , children might attend school for a few years or learn to read and write at Sunday school , but education was when income was needed , and many children went to work in factories . While the wives of wage laborers usually did not work for wages outside the home , many took in laundry or did piecework at home to supplement the family income . Although the urban working class could not afford the consumer goods that the middle class could , its members did exercise a great deal of over popular culture . Theirs was a festive public culture of release and escape from the drudgery of factory work , catered to by the likes of Phineas Taylor Barnum , the celebrated circus promoter and showman . Taverns also served an important function as places to forget the long hours and uncertain wages of the factories . Alcohol consumption was high among the working class , although many workers did take part in the temperance movement . It is little wonder that manufacturers attempted to abolish alcohol . Access for free at .
A New Social Order Class Divisions 239 AMERICANA Barnum and the Mermaid The Connecticut native Barnum catered to the demand for escape and cheap amusements among the working class . His American Museum in New York City opened in 1841 and achieved great success . Millions flocked to see Barnum exhibits , which included a number of fantastic human and animal oddities , almost all of which were hoaxes . One exhibit in the 18405 featured the Mermaid , which Barnum presented as proof of the existence of the mythical mermaids of the deep ( Figure ) In truth , the mermaid was a , stitched together . FIGURE Spurious though they were , attractions such as the mermaid ( a ) from Barnum American Museum in New York City ( drew throngs of wage earners in the middle of the nineteenth century . CLICK AND EXPLORE Visit The Lost Museum ( to take a virtual tour of Barnum incredible museum . Wage workers in the North were largely hostile to the abolition of slavery , fearing it would unleash more competition for jobs from free Black people . Many were also hostile to immigration . The pace of immigration to the United States accelerated in the and as Europeans were drawn to the promise of employment and land in the United States . Many new members of the working class came from the ranks of these immigrants , who brought new foods , customs , and religions . The Roman Catholic population of the United States , fairly small before this period , began to swell with the arrival of the Irish and the Germans .
240 Key Terms Key Terms artisan skilled , experienced worker who produces specialized goods by hand Cumberland Road a national highway that provided thousands with a route from Maryland to Illinois breaking an artisanal production process into smaller steps that unskilled workers can perform Erie Canal a canal that connected the Hudson River to Lake Erie and markets in the West free moral agency the freedom to change one own life and bring about one own salvation labor theory of value an economic theory holding that from the sale of the goods produced by workers should be equitably distributed to those workers land sites where prospective landowners could buy public land from the government machine tools machines that cut and shape metal to produce standardized , interchangeable parts for mechanical devices such as clocks or guns Mohawk and Hudson Railroad the locomotive railroad in the United States system a labor system whereby a merchant hired different families to perform tasks in a production process specie hard money , usually in the form of gold and silver coins Working Men Party a political group that radically opposed what they viewed as the exploitation of workers Summary Early Industrialization in the Northeast Industrialization led to radical changes in American life . New industrial towns , like , Lowell , and countless others , dotted the landscape of the Northeast . The mills provided many young women an opportunity to experience a new and liberating life , and these workers relished their new freedom . Workers also gained a greater appreciation of the value of their work and , in some instances , began to question the basic fairness of the new industrial order . The world of work had been fundamentally reorganized . A Vibrant Capitalist Republic The selling of the public domain was one of the key features of the early nineteenth century in the United States . Thousands rushed west to take part in the bounty . In the wild frenzy of land purchases and speculation in land , state banks advanced risky loans and created unstable paper money not backed by gold or silver , ultimately leading to the Panic of 1819 . The ensuing economic depression was the in history . Recovery came in the 18205 , followed by a period of robust growth . In this age of entrepreneurship , in which hose who invested their money wisely in land , business ventures , or technological improvements reaped vast , inventors produced new wonders that transformed American life . On the Move The Transportation Revolution A transportation infrastructure rapidly took shape in the as American investors and the government building roads , canals , and railroads . The time required to travel shrank vastly , and people marveled at their ability to conquer great distances , enhancing their sense of the steady advance of progress . The transportation revolution also made it possible to ship agricultural and manufactured goods throughout he country and enabled rural people to travel to towns and cities for employment opportunities . A New Social Order Class Divisions he creation of distinctive classes in the North drove striking new cultural developments . Even among the wealthy elites , northern business families , who had mainly inherited their money , distanced themselves from he newly wealthy manufacturing leaders . Regardless of how they had earned their money , however , the elite ived and socialized apart from members of the growing middle class . The middle class valued work , consumption , and education and dedicated their energies to maintaining or advancing their social status . Wage workers formed their own society in industrial cities and mill villages , though lack of money and long Access for free at .
Review Questions 241 working hours effectively prevented the working class from consuming the fruits of their labor , educating their children , or advancing up the economic ladder . Review Questions . How were the New England textile mills planned and built ?
A . Experienced British builders traveled to the United States to advise American merchants . New England merchants paid French and German mechanics to design factories for them . New England merchants and British migrants memorized plans from British mills . Textile mills were a purely American creation , invented by Francis Cabot Lowell in 1813 . Which is the best characterization of textile mill workers in the early nineteenth century ?
male and female indentured servants from Great Britain who worked hard to win their freedom young men who found freedom in the rowdy lifestyle of mill work experienced artisans who shared their knowledge in exchange for part ownership in the company young farm women whose behavior was closely monitored . What ef ect did industrialization have on consumers ?
Most people who migrated within the United States in the early nineteenth century went . nor toward Canada wes toward Ohio sou toward Georgia eas across the Mississippi River . Which of the following was nota cause of the Panic of 1819 ?
A . The Second Bank of the United States made risky loans . Sta es chartered too many banks . Prices for American commodities dropped . Banks hoarded gold and silver . Robert is known for inventing the cotton gin the mechanical reaper the steamship engine machine tools . What did federal and state governments do to help people who were hurt in the Panic of 1819 ?
Which of the following was nota factor in the transportation revolution ?
the locomotive the canal system the combustion engine the road system . What was the of the Cumberland Road ?
A . It gave settlers a quicker way to move west . It reduced the time it took to move goods from New York Harbor to Lake Erie . It improved trade from the Port of New Orleans . It was the first paved road . 10 . What were the of the transportation revolution ?
242 Critical Thinking Questions 11 . Which of the following groups supported the abolition of slavery ?
12 . 13 . northern business elites southern planter elites wage workers northerners Which social class was most drawn to amusements like Barnum museum ?
wage workers northerners southern planter elites northern business elites What did Peter Cooper envision for the United States , and how did he work to bring his vision to life ?
Critical Thinking Questions 14 . 15 . 16 . 17 . 18 . Industrialization in the Northeast produced great and also major problems . What were they ?
Who and who suffered ?
Did the outweigh the problems , or vice versa ?
What factors led to the Panic of 1819 ?
What government regulations might have prevented it ?
Would the Industrial Revolution have been possible without the use of slave labor ?
Why or why not ?
What might have been the advantages and disadvantages of railroads for the people who lived along the routes or near the stations ?
What were the values of the middle class ?
How did they differ from the values of those above and below them on the socioeconomic ladder ?
In what ways are these values similar to or different from those held by the middle class today ?
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