the north

The NorthThe Industrial North

Before the War of 1812• Americans would rather buy and farm their own

land rather than work in a factory.• Britain didn’t have excess land for people to

move onto so they had a lot of factory workers. • This meant that foreign goods were cheaper

than goods from America• America only manufactured cotton

goods, flour, weapons and iron.

We need to fix this.

The North – Industry Changes due to the War of 1812

After the War of 1812• Since America couldn’t trade with Britain,

America had to rely on American goods during the war so American factories expanded.

• Even Thomas Jefferson, who used to oppose business, began to believe that Americans

needed to be more self reliant including manufacturing.

The North – Industry Changes due to the War of 1812

Thanks, England! You actually helped us!

Problem: Workers would tire and want to leave the mill.Solution: Samuel Slater hired families and build them housing and shops and they will stay. • Most kids worked farms at this point in

history so working in a mill wasn’t bad.• Kids were cheap and made in one week

what an adult made in a day.• Owners went into poor neighborhoods to

attract families.

Soon other Mill ownerscopied this idea.

Samuel Slater and Mills

Lowell didn’t follow Slater’s idea. He employed young, unmarried women from local farms and constructed boardinghouses for the women. They were give room and meals along with their jobs.

Lowell girls were paid $2 - $4 a week and worked from 6:30am to 6:30 pm with a 35 minute lunch. It was better pay than doing domestic work. Girls usually worked there for 4 years.

Francis Cabot LowellAnd the

Lowell System

The conditions were not good. Long hours, stuffy conditions, poor air, and no ventilation lead to problems. Cotton dust causes chronic coughing in factory workers.

Working Conditions

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory FireNew York City, March 25, 1911

146 women and girls diedThe 4th highest loss of life in an industrial accident

With more immigrants moving to America and competing for jobs, people feared losing their jobs. They started to form trade unions, groups that tried to improve pay and working conditions. Sometimes labor unions staged protests called strikes.

Workers on strike refuse to work until employers meet their demands.

Trade Unions

Industrial Inventions

1830 – Peter Cooper built a small locomotive called Tom Thumb.

By 1840 – 2,800 miles of track was laid in the U.S. – more than existed in all of Europe. By 1860, almost every major

city in the eastern U.S. was connected by the 30,000 miles of R/R track.

Trains bring even more changes!

More Technological Advancements

TELEGRAPH Samuel F. B. Morse perfected the telegraph – a device that could send information over wires across great distances. The telegraph sent pulses, or surges, of electric current through a wire. A short click was called a dot. A long click was called a dash.

The telegraph took off in the 1850s. Thousands of miles of line were added every year . By 1861, the first transcontinental line was finished. By the time he died in 1872, Morse was famous.

But should he have been? What about Alfred Vail?

Morse or Vail?


IRON PLOWJohn Deere was a blacksmith who, in 1837, designed a steel plow which was much better than an iron plow. By 1846, Deere was selling 1,000 plows annually.


MECHANICAL REAPERCyrus McCormick developed a mechanical reaper which cut down wheat more quickly and efficiently.


Cyrus McCormick’s Mechanical Reaper


Sewing MachineElias Howe invented it but Isaac Singer improved it. By 1860, he was the world’s largest maker of sewing machines.


1830 - ICEBOXESIceboxes had hollow walls that were lined with tin or zinc and packed with various insulating materials such as cork, sawdust, straw or seaweed.

A large block of ice was held in a tray or compartment near the top of the box.

Some finer models had spigots for draining ice water from a catch pan or holding tank. In cheaper models a drip pan was placed under the box and had to be emptied at least daily.

The user had to replenish the melted ice, normally by obtaining new ice from an iceman.


IRON COOK STOVES


SAFETY PIN


MATCHES


THE CAMERA

Even though it was invented in 1827, camera usage wasn’t widely used until the 1890s.

the north

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north industry changes

american goods

lowell girls

faster trains

lot of factory workers

steel railroad tracks

norththe industrial