Industry and the North1790s - 1840s

The Transportation Revolution• Between 1800 and 1840, the building of roads and canals, and

the steamboat stimulated the transportation revolution that:• Encouraged growth (both economic and population)• Promoted mobility of people and goods• Fostered the growing commercial spirit

Roads• The National Road, was the greatest federally funded

transportation expense at the time (1808)• Tied the East and West together providing strong evidence of

the nation’s commitment to expansion and cohesion

Canals and Steamboats• Water transport was quicker and less expensive than land travel• The Erie Canal stimulated east-west travel and was built with New York state

funds, the brainchild of NY gov. DeWitt Clinton• Connected Buffalo on Lake Erie to Albany, along the Hudson River• Vast engineering challenge that required a huge labor force (mostly immigrant

Irish)• Finished in 1825, the Seneca Chief was the first boat on the canal• Western farmers became a part of the national market; promoted movement

westward; less homemade production and more store-bought goods; • Towns became cities (Buffalo, Utica); and NYC quickly gained commercial and

financial supremacy that no other city could match• Canal boom followed the success of the canal• Steamboats were made functionally acceptable by Robert Fulton, which made

upstream travel possible• Steamboats helped to stimulate trade along the western rivers and turned

frontier outposts like Cincinnati into commercial centers

Railroads• Probably the most remarkable innovation of the

Transportation Revolution• Early problems: locomotives were heavy, requiring lots of iron,

had to be imported from England (forced American iron industry to modernize); and standardization of track width (gauge)

• By the 1850s consolidation of rail lines facilitated standardization and tens of thousands of miles of laid track

Effects of the Transportation Revolution• Fueled economic growth by making distant markets

accessible, and lured foreign investors into canal and railroad industries

• Fostered a risk-taking mentality that promoted invention and innovation

• Provided Americans with much greater mobility and linked them beyond local communities (though diseases spread as people spread, no longer keeping epidemics like cholera localized)

The Market Revolution• The most fundamental change in American communities was

caused by three factors: the transportation revolution, commercialization, and industrialization

• Commercialization involved the replacement of household self-sufficiency and barter with the production of goods for a cash market

• Industrialization involved the use of power-driven machinery to produce goods once made by hand

The Accumulation of Capital• Merchants made up the business community of the northern

seaboard accumulating great wealth• The conflicts of the early 1800s disrupted trade with Europe

leading merchants to invest in local enterprises supplemented by banks and the government

• Southern cotton provided the wealth and capital for the continuing developments and the industrialization of the North (causing resentment from the South)

• Indirectly, cotton production produced by slave labor bankrolled the industrial revolution

The Putting-Out System• The production of goods at home under the supervision of a

merchant who put out the raw materials, paid a certain sum per finished piece, and sold the completed item to a distant market

• This system gave the merchant capitalists control of production, labor costs, production goals

• The putting-out system allowed these capitalists to have control over the workforce and the flexibility to respond to changing economic conditions

• The centralization of workshops and the putting-out system led to the decline of the artisan shops and apprenticeships

The Spread of Commercial Markets• As more workers became part of the putting-out system,

wages for piecework replaced bartering, families bought mass-produced goods rather than making them at home

• Commercialization did not happen immediately or in the same way across the nation

Commercial Agriculture in the Old Northwest• Between 1830 and 1850 the population of the Old Northwest

quadrupled, migrants from New England accounted for 40% of that population

• The transportation revolution helped farmers sell in previously unreachable markets; government policy encouraged commercial agriculture by keeping land cheap; regional specialization enabled farmers to concentrate on growing a single crop, but made them dependent on distant markets and credit

• Innovations in farm tools greatly increased productivity (John Deere’s steel plow and Cyrus McCormick’s horse-drawn reaper)

Transportation Changes Affect the Cities• Railroads and the Erie

Canal dramatically changed local economies, linking the Northwest and Northeast• Cities like Cincinnati

grew in importance as New Orleans lost influence in this economic redistribution

British Technology and American Industrialization• The Industrial Revolution began in the British textile industry and

required workers to concentrate in factories and pace themselves to the rhythms of the machines

• American knew the fastest way to industrialize was to copy the British

• Samuel Slater slipped out of England bringing plans for a cotton-spinning factory

• Slater’s mill opened in 1790 hiring women and children (the British custom) and was the most advanced cotton mill in America

• New England was soon dotted with factories along its rivers wherever water power could be tapped

• After the War of 1812, the British drastically cut prices to kill the competition, but Congress passed the first of many protective tariffs in 1816 to ensure the growth of the new industry

The restored site of Slater’s Mill

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The Lowell Mills• Francis C. Lowell studies the British spinning machine and helped to

invent a power loom• Built the first integrated cotton mill near Boston in 1814, driving

smaller competitors out of business• Lowell’s successors built an entire town to house the new enterprise• The town of Lowell grew from 2,500 in 1823 to 17,000 in a decade• The town combined factories, boarding houses, hotels, churches,

and municipal buildings into one planned city• The people of Lowell and factory employees were able to attend

classes, church, and work all within the same community• This created a lower employee turnover, and established a carefully

managed community and intelligent and independent workforce

Family Mills• Factories developed elaborate divisions of labor that set up a

hierarchy of value and pay• Relations between the small mill communities and the local

farmers were often difficult• Slater’s mills provided a substantial amount of work for local

people and industrial work led to new social distinctions• The farming communities resented the destitute workers that

the mills brought (destroying their sense of community) and resented the “undemocratic” newer ways of acquiring wealth

The American System of Manufactures• The American system of manufacturing was based on

interchangeable parts in the manufacturing of rifles developed by Eli Whitney, Simeon North, and John Hall. Standardization spread into other areas like sewing machines by the 1870s (Singer sewing machine)

• The availability of these goods affected American thinking about democracy and equality (as goods were cheaper, more readily available for anyone)

From Artisan to Worker• Before Lowell, 97% of Americans still lived on farms and most

work was done near or in the home• Industrialization posed a major threat to the status and

independence of skilled male workers• The breakdown of the family work system harmed the

independent urban artisans, as apprenticeships were replaced essentially by child labor

• The rise of the garment industry led many women to work, sewing ready-made clothing for piecework (though women were so poorly paid that working 15-18 hours a day was common)

• Industrialization helped fuel the slavery debate as Southerners defended slavery as more benevolent than the heartless Northern factory owners who did not care for their “wage slaves”

Time, Work, Pay, and Leisure• Workers did not readily adjust to the regimented demands of

factory life• Absenteeism was common among workers whose interests

differed from their employers• A very rigid separation between work and leisure developed

as work overshadowed leisure• Thus leisure time became more “intensified” as spectator

sports like baseball, boxing, and horse racing grew in popularity and across all social classes

• The tavern emerged as the number one leisure spot for the workingman

Free Labor and Early Strikes• The introduction of the cash economy led to the decline of the

barter system• Worker contact with employers came through a pay envelope • Workers took advantage of the lack of ties to move about in

search of better jobs, hence seeing themselves as “free” (able to move about to new jobs, possessing the individualistic characteristics needed for success)

• Some criticize this as simply “the freedom to starve”• In terms of strikes, most were unsuccessful• Most early strikes were led by women (Lowell, 1834-36),

causing many to just pack up and leave• Cheap labor was readily available (Irish immigrants, French

Canadians)—easily replaceable

The New Middle Class• The market revolution ended the natural fixed social order

that previously existed, creating a social order with class mobility

• The upper class stayed about the same, whilst the “middling sorts” grew rapidly

• Emphasizing hard work, sobriety, steadiness, and responsibility, these new middle class “values” were not only self-enforced, but adopted by their very employers

Religion and Personal Life• The Second Great Awakening moved from the frontier to the

new market towns stressing salvation through personal faith• The movement was more democratic and enthusiastic as

original sin was replaced by more optimistic beliefs like the willingness to be saved ensured salvation

• Preachers like Charles G. Finney urged businessmen to convert and accept self-discipline and individualism that religion brought

• Evangelism became the religion of the new middle class, as achievement was based on individual character, thus one was responsible for making their own way

The New Middle-Class Family• Women managed the homes and provided a safe haven for their husbands• Male and female roles hardened: men were seen as steady, industrious, and

responsible as women were nurturing, gentle, and moral• Together, these divisions worked together to raise successful middle-class

children• Housekeeping guides became popular as they underscored the radical

changes occurring in middle class families• Couples limited their family size through birth control, abstinence and

abortion• Physicians urged that sexual impulses be controlled, and focused on women

due to their superior morality• Mothers were seen as primarily responsible for teaching their children self-

discipline• Children prolonged their education and professional training, as mothers

made contacts to help further their children’s development• Thus, a man’s success was very much the result of his family’s efforts

Sentimentalism and Transcendentalism• The competitive spirit led many Americans to turn to

sentimentalism and nostalgia• Publishers found a lucrative market for novels of this genre,

particularly written by women• Sentimentalism became more concerned with maintaining

social codes • Transcendentalism was the intellectual response to middle

class morality, stressing individualism, self-reliance, and communion with nature

• Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were the chief spokespersons of this new philosophy