1840-1860



1840-1860

Demographics |The Irish |The Germans |Know-Nothing Party |Industrial revolution | |

|Samuel Slater |Eli Whitney |Interchangeable Parts |Investment Capital |Samuel Morse |

| | | |Companies | |

|Wage Slaves |Women/Economy |Farming Tech. |Transportation |Market Revolution |

Chapter 14 Forging the National Economy, 1790-1860

1840-1860 Demographics –

Population: By the end of the 1850s half of the Americans were under the age of thirty, population was moving westward and these people were poor pioneer families,

1860 -- 33 Stars on the American Flag and was the fourth most populous nation in the Western World. Increase number of cities.

Increase number of immigrants coming into the country. Europe seemed to be running out of room, known as the “land of freedom and opportunity,” and the introduction of transoceanic steamships made the trip a lot quicker.

The Irish – Two million arrived between 1830-1860

The potato feminine caused many to migrate to the United States. Many Irish were poor, so remind in the seaboard cities. The Irish would take any job, even for a low wage, so jobs became scarce the Irish were much hated among the Americans. Become involved in city politics, controlling many political machines

The Germans – The influx of refuges from Germany between 1830 and 1860

Many people migrated because of the collapse of democratic revolutions in Germany. Unlike the Irish the Germans possessed a modest amount of material goods and were able to push into the frontier. The Germans were less politically active then the Irish. Strong supports of public schools (Kindergarten). The Germans tended to keep to their selves and did not assimilate to American culture

Drinking habits of both the Irish and the Germans help spur the Temperance movement.

| |

Know-Nothing Party – Strong feelings of nativism exploded in the 1840s-1850s. Americans did not like it when foreigners took away jobs, become extremely nervous when the Roman Catholics started increasing in numbers, and the drinking culture of some of these new immigrants. In 1849 the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner later called the “Know-Nothing Party.” They advocated fir rigid restrictions on immigration and naturalization and for laws authorizing the deportation of alien paupers.

Industrial revolution – Started in England and spreads around the World. A series of machine were created for the mass production of textiles. It took off in the United States later because:

• land was cheap, land-starved peasants upon arrival to the United States did not want to be stuck in a factory when they could have their own land.

• Labor was generally scarce until 1840

• Money for capital was not plentiful

• Raw materials were undeveloped and undiscovered

• Consumers were scare

• The British long est. factories were hard competition

Samuel Slater – ‘Father of the Factory System’ Memorized the plans for a British Textile machine and then left for America. He won the backing of Moses Brown and in 1791 the first efficient American machinery for spinning cotton thread was put into operation

Eli Whitney – He did not care for school, preferring to spend his time making and fixing things in his father’s shop. Whitney once took his father’s watch completely apart and reassembled it without his father discovering the deed. For a time he supported himself by manufacturing nails and hatpins. He earned money to attend Yale by fixing things around the college.

in 1793 he built the first cotton gin in ten days (short of engine) it was 50 more times effective than the handpicking process. A larger one was built within a year. The original machine was stolen, and imitations were produced; it took Whitney many years of legal battles to gain the sole patent for the device.

Effects of the Cotton Gin:

• Cotton became highly profitable, reviving a demand for slaves

• More acres were cleared for cotton

• Factories flourished in the New England area

o Stony soil discouraged farming

o Dense population provided labor

o Had capital and raw materials

The factory system was very slow

Interchangeable Parts – The idea first came about in 1798 when Eli Whitney created movable parts of muskets for the US army. The principle of interchangeable parts was widely adopted by 1850, and it ultimately became the basis of modern mass-production, assembly line methods.

For the decade ending in 1800 only 306 patents were registered in Washington but the decade ending in 1860 saw the amazing total of 28,000

Investment Capital Companies -- Technical advances spurred equally important changes in the form and legal status of business organizations. You did not have to risk your own capital.

Samuel Morse – He studied painting in England, with some of his work winning prizes in the Royal Academy competitions. He returned to Boston in 1815 but discovered he could earn a living only by painting portraits. After Congress rejected his plan to paint the Capitol rotunda, he reluctantly abandoned art and turned to inventing. From his time in Europe he had developed a strong dislike of Catholicism and in the 1830s he was a leader of American anti-Catholic agitation.

Creator of the telegraph. In 1844 Morse strung wire forty miles from Washington to Baltimore and tapped out the historic message “What hath God Wrought?”

Wage Slaves – One ugly affect of the factory system. Hours were long, wages and were low. Working conditions were awful and the workers were not allowed to strike. In 1820 half the nation’s industrial workers were children under ten years of age. Slowly more adults entered the work place, because many states granted laboring men the right to vote, raising the participation in government. In 1840 Van Buren established the 10 hour day for federal employees on public works, slowly states did the same. Started seeing more and more strike, so Scabs were brought in.

Women and the Economy

• Farm women spun yarn, wove cloth, and making candles, soap, butter, cheese, but new factories could do it quicker, thus they did not have perform these tasks at home.

• Factory jobs were unusual for women in the 1840s

• School teaching became a female dominated career

• Most working women were single, but had to give up her job when she got married.

• Her role was to protected the morality of the family, “Cult of Domesticity”

• Families were smaller and child-centered. In Europe children were seen not heard. Children were to be shaped not beaten!

Farming Tech. All of the new inventions increased farm production.

• The Trans-Allegheny region-especially the Ohio-Indiana-Illinois tier, was fast becoming the nation’s breadbasket. Before long it would become a granary to the world

• John Deere of Illinois in 1837 produced a steel plow that broke through the soil, it was light and could be pulled by horses not oxen.

• Cyrus McCormick – a mechanical mower-reaper. 1830s

• Subsistence farming gave way to production for the market.

Transportation – It was important to produce cheap and effective means of transporting raw materials to factories. Slowed a little because of the state v. federal rights

• 1790s Turnpike from Philadelphia to Lancaster. As the drivers approached the tollgate, they were confronted with a barrier of sharp spikes, once they paid it was rolled down. Very effective and earned money

• Cumberland Road 591 miles finished in 1852, but took about 40 years to build (War of 1812 halted things)

• Robert Fulton’s Clermont Steam boat –

o Steam boats played a vital role in the opening of the West and South, both of which richly endowed with navigable rivers

• Erie Canal – linking the Great Lakes and the Hudson River. Brainchild of Governor DeWitt Clinton, Began in 1817 and finished in 1825.

o Effects lowered shipping costs

o Increased the land around the canals

• Trains were at first thought dangerous, brakes did not always work.

o But by 1860 33,000 miles of railroad track, ¾ of it in the North

• Faster ships called Clippers transported things to the coasts.

Market Revolution

o The antebellum era changed from a subsistence economy into a national network of industry and commerce

o By the eve of the Civil War, a truly continental economy had emerged. The Principle division of labor, which spelled productivity and profits in the factory, applied on a national scale as well. Each region now specialized in a particular type of economic activity.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download