Transcript Chapter 15: Forging the national Economy (1790

Chapter 14:
Forging the National Economy (1790-1860)
The Westward Movement
 US marched quickly toward west
(very hard w/ disease &
loneliness)
 Frontier people were
individualistic, superstitious & illinformed
Shaping the Western Landscape
 The westward movement molded
the environment.
 Tobacco overuse had
exhausted the land forcing
settlers to move on, but
“Kentucky bluegrass” thrived.
 Settlers trapped beavers, sea
otters, and bison for fur to ship
back East.
Shaping the Western Landscape
 The spirit of nationalism led to an
appreciation of the American
wilderness.
 Artist George Catlin pushed for
national parks and later achieved it
with Yellowstone in 1872.
The March of the Millions
 Mid-1800s, pop cont’d to double
every 25 years
 1860-orginial 13 states now has 33
states; pop 4th in the world (Russ,
Fra, Austria)
 Urban growth explosive
 1790-only New York &
Philadelphia had >20,000 people,
but 1860, 43 had
 Brought bad sanitation  sewage
system & pipe-in water
p290
The March of the Millions
 High birthrate had accounted for
pop growth, but near 1850s,
millions of Irish, German came
 A surplus pop. in Euro but not all
came to US 25/60 million
 Appealing of US (land, freedom
from church, aristocracy, 3 meat
meals a day)
 Intro of transoceanic steamship
(reduce traveling to 12 days, death
rate high not as bad)
The Emerald Isle Moves West(1830s-1960s-2 million)
 Irish potato famine in mid1840s led to death of 2
million & many flee to US
 Illiterate, discriminated
 Hated by Protestants
 Hated competition w/
blacks for jobs
 Ancient Order of Hibernians
(serve to aid Irish)
The Emerald Isle Moves West (1830s1960s-2 million)
 Gradual property owning (grand success),
children educated.
 Attracted to politics, filled police dept.
 Politicians tried to appeal to Irish by yelling
at London
The German Forty-Eighters
 1 million poured in bet 1830s-1860s
 Liberals such as Carl Schurz
contributed to elevation of US
politics
 Had more $ than Irish so bought
land in west esp. in Wisconsin
 Votes crucial so wooed by US
politicians but not as potent
 Contributed to US culture
(Christmas tree); isolationism
 Urged public education & freedom
(enemies of slavery)
 Resentment from Old because of
group & aloof; brought beers to US
Flare-ups of Anti-foreignism
 “Nativists” prejudiced
newcomers in jobs, politics,
religion
 Catholic became major
religious group because of
immigration of 1840s, 50s &
set out to build catholic
school
Flare-ups of Antiforeignism
 Nativists feared that Catholicism
would build on Protestantism (popish
idols) so formed “Order of starspangled Banner”
 Met in secrecy-“Know-Nothing” party
 Fought for restriction on immigration,
naturalization & deportation of alien
paupers
 Wrote fiction books about corruption
of churches
 Mass violence, ex. Philadelphia 1844burned churches, schools, people
killed
 Made America pluralistic society w/
diversity
 No longer hated because they were
crucial to economic expansion & more
availability of jobs
The March of Mechanization
 Industrial revolution spread to US
& US destined to be an industrial
giant bec.
 Land was cheap, labor scare, $ for
investment plentiful, raw materials
not discovered
 Lacked consumer for factory-scale
manufacturing
 British long-estab. factory was
competition
 Kept textile to own monopoly
(forbade travel of crafts men &
export of machine)
 US remained very rural to farming
Whitney Ends the Fiber Famine
 Samuel Slater – “Father of the Factory
System”
 Learned machinery when working in
British Factory escaped to US, aided
by Moses Brown build 1st cotton
thread spinner in US (1791)
 Eli Whitney built a cotton gin (50 times
more effective than hand picking
cotton)
 Cotton economy now profitable, saved
the South to King Cotton
 South flourished & expanded cotton
kingdom toward west
 Northern factories manufactured, esp.
New England (w/ poor soil, dense
labor, access to sea, river for water
power)
Marvels in Manufacturing
 Embargo of war of 1812 encouraged home
manufacture
 With peace of Ghent, British poured in
surplus in cheap $, forcing close of
American factories
 Congress passed Tariff of 1816 to protect US
economy
 Eli Whitney introduced machine made
replaceable parts (on muskets-1798)
universal in manufacturing by1850
 Base of assembly line (flourished North);
cotton gin flourished south
Marvels in Manufacturing
 Elias Howe & Issac Singer (1846) made
sewing machine (foundation of clothing
industry)
 Decade of 1860 had 28,000 patents
while 1800 only had 306
 Principle of limited liability stimulate
seconomy
 Laws of “free incorporation” (1848)-no
need to apply for charter from
legislature to start corp.
p302
Marvels in Manufacturing





Born 1791 in Masachusetts
Professional artist
In 1832 gets idea on board a ship
1842 demonstrates for Congress
Samuel Morse’s telegraph connected
business world -“What hath god
wrought?”…..the first message typed
from Washington to Baltimore-by
Morse.
p302
Workers and “Wage Slaves”
 Factory system led to impersonal
relations
 Spindle cities, slums
 Benefit went to factory owner,
labors were long hours, wages
low, bad meals, no union
 Child labor – 1820 ½ workers are
under 10.
 1836 First state child labor law
Massachusetts requires children
under 15 working in factories to
attend school at least 3
months/year
Unions
 Adult working condition improved in 1820s & 30s
w/ mass vote to workers
 10 hour day, higher $, tolerable condition, public
education, ban of imprisonment for debt
 1840s president Van Buren made 10 hour day for
Federal Workers
 Many struck but lost because employers import
more workers (so hated immigrants)
 Only 24 recorded strikes before 1835
 Unions formed in 1830s but hit by panic of 1837
 Case of Commonwealth vs. Hunt in Supreme court
of MA (1842)
 Before labor unions which attempted to 'close'
or create a unionized workplace could be
charged with conspiracy. However, in March
1842, Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled that
unions were legal organizations and had the
right to organize a strike.
 Legalized union on peaceful & honorable
protest
 Jacksonion democracy (voting) does help worker
Women and the Economy
 Factory girls toiled in factory under
bad conditions
 10% outside the home in 1850
Opportunities rare & women mainly in
nursing, domestic service, teaching
 Women usually worked before
marriage, after marriage they were
house wives (made more decisions in
family)
 Arranged marriages died down
 Family grew smaller (avg. 6); fertility
rate dropped sharply “
Western Farmers Reap a
Revolution in the Fields
 Trans-Allegheny region (OhioIndiana-Illinois) became nation’s
breadbasket
 Planted corn & raised hogs
 Chicago known as “porkopolis” of
the west”
 Inventions that boomed
agriculture
 John Deere -1837 steel plow that
cut through hard soil & can be
pulled by horses
 Cyrus McCormick -mechanical
mower-reaper
 Led to large-scale production &
cash crops
 Produced more than south;
Highways and Steamboats
 Improvements in transportation
needed for raw material transport
 Lancaster turnpike-hard road from
Philadelphia & Lancaster; brought
economic expansion to west
 Federal gov’t constructs
Cumberland Road (Maryland Illinois) (1811-1852 ) w/ state &
federal money
 Robert Fulton invents steam
engine (Steam boats)-1807
 He also designed a new type of
steam warship. In 1800 he was
commissioned by Napoleon
Bonaparte to design Nautilus,
which was the first practical
submarine in history.
 Contributed to development of
South & West’s economy
“Clinton’s Big Ditch” in New York
 Clinton’s Big Ditch-Erie Canal
between Great Lakes & Hudson
River(1817-1825)
 Famous in song and story.
Proposed in 1808 and completed in
1825, the canal links the waters of
Lake Erie in the west to the
Hudson River in the east. An
engineering marvel when it was
built, some called it the Eighth
Wonder of the World.
 Shortens expense & time of
transportation & cities grew along
the side,
 Price of food reduced
Pioneer Railroad Promoters
 1st railroad in US (1828); by
1860-30,000 mi. railroad
tracks in US (3/4 at north)
 Railroad 1st opposed bec.
financier afraid to loose $
from Erie canal & also
caused fire to houses
 Trains were badly
constructed (brakes bad) &
gauge of traveling varied
The Transport Web Binds the Union
 Steamboat allowed reverse
transport of S to E to bind
them together
 New York became the Queen
port of the country goods
distributed
 Principle of divided laboreach region specialize in own
economic activity
 Transformed the home: no
longer the center of industry
Wealth and Poverty
 The industrial revolution
widens the gap bet. rich &
poor
 Unskilled workers were
“drifters” who went from
town to town for jobs
 (1/2 of industrial pop) forgotten
 Social mobility existed but
not in proportion, rags-toriches were rare
 Standard of living did raise,
wage rose too (helped
diffuse potential class
conflict)
Cables, Clippers, and Pony Riders
 Cotton accounted for ½ of exports
 After repeal of Corn Law of 1846,
wheat became imp role in trade w/
Eng.
 American imported more than
exported (substantial debt to foreign
creditors)
 1858-Cyrus Field laid Cable between
US & Euro (but died in 3 weeks);
better one in 1866
 Golden age of naval commerce came
in 1840s, 50s
 Mckay builds clipper ships (fast, long)
 Tea trade w/ British flourishes &
carried many to CA
 Crushed by British’s iron tramp
steamers
 Speedy communication-roads from
Missouri to CA, Pony Express