Cultural & Economic Changes in the Early 1800s Education: Crusade against ignoranceJefferson believed in nationwide public schools Wanted all male citizens to have free education Not achieved Education: Girls Republican motherhood led to girls schools for the wealthy Few strides for most Education: Minorities Indians seen as noble savages which missionaries could convert Blacks no education for slaves; few opportunities in the north (or segregated) Education: Higher level Increase in number of colleges by 1800 Limited to the wealthy Cultural Independence: American literary and artistic life American Schoolbooks textbooks Noah Websters English dictionary Cultural Independence: American literary and artistic life National Literature Washington Irving Romanticism Landscape paintings; emphasis on the supernatural Emergence of Industrialism Samuel Slater water powered spinning mill, 1793 New England Textile Centers: 1830s Lowell Girls What was their typical profile? Lowell Boarding Houses Why did the Lowell system die out? Communication Innovations Samuel Morses telegraph Daily newspapers An improved postal system Transportation Innovations Improved transportation between states Age of turnpikes, canals, and steamboats Robert Fulton steamboat The Clermont Erie Canal connected the Great Lakes to NYC Cumberland (National Road), Erie Canal System Agricultural Inventions Oliver Evans flour mill Eli Whitneys cotton gin - led to increased slavery & sectionalism The steel plow and mechanical reaper also transformed farming Rising Cities Majority of Americans lived on farms and plantations, but there were signs of change Philadelphia, NYC, Baltimore, Boston, Charleston Affluence & social ills Do these changes promote nationalism or sectionalism?