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TRANSCRIPT
Ch. 14 –
Forging the National
Economy
The Westward Movement &
Landscapes
George Catlin
American painter
Author
Traveler
Specialized in portraits
of Native Americans in
the OldWest.
He was one of the early
advocates of
preserving nature
(including the Indians)
as a national policy.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
•May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882
•An American essayist,
philosopher and poet
•Best remembered for leading
the Transcendentalist
movement of the early 19th
century.
•“Because of his Self Reliance”
lecture-essay, he was seen as a
champion of individualism.
Frontier life/Fur Trappers
Jedediah Smith’s travels
Frontier life has been glorified: It
was a harsh existence with poverty,
disease, boredom & premature
death.
Population GrowthWestward
movement
• Population
doubling every
25 years
• High birth rate
Urban growth
• 43 cities over
20,000
• New York,New
• Orleans,Chicago
• Problems:Slums,
lighting, police,
water, sewage, rats,
garbage
Population Growth
Did all really have this when they came?
National Origin of Immigrants:
1820 - 1860
Why
now?
Irish Immigrants
• “Black Forties”—Potato
famine
• 1845-50: ¼ died (2 million)
• By 1860: 2 million
• immigrated here
• Big Cities:
eastern
seaboard
• Too poor to move west
• Unskilled jobs—wage
• depression
Irish
Immigrants• 1.5 Million – greatest
export to US
• Distrusted by “old
stock”
• Americans:• Reasons:
• Most were RomanCatholic
• Lived in squalor:Uneducated; unskilled
Look how the Irish &
Blacks are stereotyped
Irish
Immigrants• Response:
• NINA – “No Irish need
apply” signs on
businesses
• led to Nativism
• Ancient order of the
Hibernians
• Irish Catholic Fraternal
• Organization
• Started the“Molly
Maguires:” a coal
miners union blamed
for some violence in the
1860’s & 70’s
German Immigrants
• Refugees: 1830-1860s
• 1.5 million
• Left Germany:
• Religiousstrife
• Fall of democratic governments
• Kept to themselves
• Kept own language and culture
• Contributions:• ConestogaWagon
• Kentuckyrifle
• Christmastree
• Kindergarten
• “Bier”Beer
Anti-foreignism—“Nativists”
Anti-foreignism—“Nativists”
• Middle class
• Protestants:
• Fear Irish-Catholic
immigrants
• “Nativism”
• Favors the interest
of the native born
over that of
immigrants
Occasional violence:
Baltimore riots of 1856
left about 16dead
Order of The Star Spangled
Banner Part of the nativist
movement
Originated in NY in 1843 as the America Republican Party.
Spread to other states as: Native American Party
Became a national party in 1845.
In 1855renamed:
AmericanParty.
• “Know Nothing Party”:
• semi-secret organization in
the party.
• If a member was asked about its activities, he was
supposed to reply, "I know nothing”.• Hence…The Know Nothing
Party
• Goals:
• Rigid restrictions on
• immigration & naturalization
• Deportation of poor foreigners
• Spread false literature
Order of the Star Spangled
Banner
Know-
Nothin
g
Party:“The
Supreme
Order of
the
Star-
Spangled
Banner”
Industrial Revolution--Factories
England—Industrial
Revolution--1790s• U.S. slow to catch on
• Still had land so could move
• west
• Scarcity of labor in U.S.
• Couldn’t compete w/Europe quality & prices
Samuel Slater—”Father of
FactorySystem”
• Memorized British textile
• machinery (illegal)
• Recreated it in Rhode
Island—1791
Samuel Slater
“Father of the Factory System”
Industrial Revolution--Factories
EliWhitney
Cotton Gin(1793)
50 times faster than handpicked cotton
Industrial Revolution--Factories
Revived “dying” slavery – most Southern cotton was sold
to Britain (big issue later on)
Industrial Revolution--Factories
Cotton Kingdom - “King Cotton”—chief
crop
inSouthAnother Single-Crop economy for the South (Tobacco
had depleted the soil by now.)
“Interchangeable parts” also invented by Whitney
Muskets: will lead to Massproduction
Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin, 1791
Gin is short for
engine
Eli Whitney’s Gun Factory
Interchangeable Parts Rifle
Industrial Revolution--Factories
Factory growth
Populous areas—NY,NJ
New England—ideal for factories: first factories were Textilemills
Rocky soil, good harbors
Fast rivers (power), largecities (labor)
Helped by War of 1812; slowed by treaty – as the British dumped cheap good on the US to destroy US manufacturing
Industrial Revolution:
Investment
“Limited Liability”
Only liable for
individual’s portion
“Free
Incorporation”—
NY,1848
Can create
corporations w/out
charters from
government.
Other Inventions
Robert Fulton – Steamboat
Cyrus McCormick – mower-reaper
Elias Howe & Isaac Singer—Sewing
machine
Samuel F.B.Morse—telegraph
Elias Howe & Isaac Singer
1840s
Sewing
Machine
Samuel F. B. Morse
1844 – Telegraph
Industrial Revolution: Unions
Collective bargainingUsed the total worker union
to gain contracts & better working conditions
Strikes last-resort tactic
would stop work
form picket lines
try to gain their goals
mixed results
Strikebreakers “Scabs”Crossed the picket lines and
worked anyway
Hurt the strikers in their efforts to gain better payetc.
Commonwealthv.Hunt
Massachusetts
SupremeCourt
Ruled that labor unions were not illegal conspiracies,if…
Their methods were“honorable and peaceful”
Industrial Revolution: Unions
Charles River Bridge vs. Warren
Bridge Supreme Court & business so far:
Chief Justice John Marshall protected
contract rights
States uphold charters
But there is a change:Charles River Bridge vs. Warren Bridge:
About sanctity of contracts
Charles River Bridge had an original
contract
(New) Chief Justice Roger Taney sided
with Warren Bridge builders
„ “Rights of the community”outweigh
exclusive corporate rights.
Result: opened greater competition in
industry
Lowell, Massachusetts
1814, businessmanFrancis
Cabot Lowell
Formed a company: Boston Manufacturing Company
Built a textile mill next to the Charles River in Waltham, Massachusetts
The Waltham mill
First integrated mill in the United States
Transformed raw cottoninto cotton cloth in onebuilding
Lowell Girls
Lowell Mill Girls or Factory Girls: Female textile workers in Lowell, Massachusetts
Lowell textile mills workforce was three quarters female
Most from New England farms
The Lowell female textile workers wrote andpublished several literary magazines: I.E. LowellOffering
Featured essays, poetry and fiction written by female
workers
Also participated in early labor reform Legislative petitions
Labororganizations
Essays and articles to a pro-labor newspaper the Voice of Industry
Protesting through "turn-outs" or strikes
New England Dominance in
Textiles
The Lowell/Waltham System:
First Dual-Purpose Textile Plant
Francis Cabot Lowell’s town - 1814
Lowell in 1850
Lowell Mill
Early Textile Loom
Starting for Lowell
Lowell
Girls
What was their typical “profile?”
Lowell Boarding Houses
Lowell
Mills
Time Table
Early
“Union”
Newsletter
The Factory Girl’s Garland
February 20, 1845 issue
Irish Immigrant Girls at
Lowell
Cult of Domesticity
Domesticity
A division between work and home
Encouraged by the Industrial Revolution
Men went out in the world to earn a living
Home became the woman's domain
She created a "haven in a heartless world" for her
husband and children.
Domestic feminism
Growing power & independence of women
Glorified women’s role in the home
Families were getting smaller &more
child- centered
John Deere & the Steel Plow
(1837)
Cyrus McCormick
& the Mechanical Reaper: 1831
Transportation
Revolution 1800’s – National Road
Improved roadways
1820’s – Canal EraReduced transportationcosts
1830’s – Steam BoatsEasier to travel againstcurrent up the Mississippi
Had their most use on western & southernrivers
1840’s – RailRoadsYear-round commerce toany desired spot
Lancaster Turnpike First used in 1795
Long-distance, paved (crushed gravel) road built in the United States
First to use
engineered plans
and specifications
Links Lancaster Pennsylvania and Philadelphia
62 miles long.
Helped link the East
to the trans-
AlleghenyWest
First Turnpike- 1790 Lancaster,
PA
By 1832, nearly 2400 mi. of road connected
most major cities.
Conestoga Covered Wagons
Conestoga Trail, 1820s
Cumberland (National Road),
1811
Robert Fulton
& the Steamboat
1807: The
Clermont
Erie Canal
Funded by the state of NewYork
Built from 1817-1825
Insured the growth and success of New York City
Led to the building of several other canals
Barges were pulled by mules on “tow paths”
It was faster than carts pulled by draft animals
Cut transport costs about 95%
Not suitable for other craft like steamboats
First transportation system between eastern seaboard NYC & the western interior (GreatLakes)
Erie Canal
Erie Canal
o Immigrant labor
built the northern RRs.
o Most RR’s built in
North
o Slave labor built the
southern RRs.
The “Iron Horse” Wins!
(1830)
1830 13 miles of track built by Baltimore & Ohio RR
By 1850 9000 mi. of RR track [1860 31,000mi.]
Cyrus Field
& the Transatlantic Cable,
1858
Clipper Ships
A clipper was a very
fast sailing ship of the
19th century that had
multiple masts and a
square rig. They were
generally narrow for
their length, could carry
limited bulk freight,
small by later 19th
century standards, and
had a large total sail
area.
Were replaced by
Steamships.
Pony Express
Communication from St.Joseph,Missouri, to Sacramento,California
April 1860 to October 1861 (just 18 months)
Became the nation's most direct means of east-west communication before the telegraph
Was vital for tying California closely with the Union just before the American CivilWar
Pony Express
Market
Economy
Division of labor:
Increased productivity & profits in thefactory
Each region now specialized in a specific type of economicactivity:
South = supply cotton
to North an Britain
West = grain to East andEurope
Northeast = manufacturing goods for the South andWest
Note: Very Close to Clay’s American System
Market Revolution
Economic revolution that
changes the US from a
subsistence economy of
scattered farms into a national
network of industry and
commerce.
One result = increasing
farmer indebtedness.
However: wages did increase
and so did the American’s
standard of living.
John Jacob Astor
Made millions from fur
trade – The American
Fur Trading Company
Became America’s
first millionaire
He then began to deal in
real estate in NY
Worth 30 Billion $$
(a billionaire in
today’s money)