Market Revolution

PROTO-INDUSTRIALISM

TRADE CUT OFF FROM BRITAIN

Embargo of 1807
Jefferson's embargo on all goods coming from Europe because of harassment of U.S. ships during European war between Napoleon and Britain
Prompted Americans to begin producing manufactured goods within the U.S.
This continued through the:
Non-Intercourse Act (1809)
Macon's Bill No. 2 (1810)
And the War of 1812
Which cut off trade with Britain
Cutoff of British imports Stimulated first large-scale American factories

AFTER WAR OF 1812

INVENTIONS

Interchangeable Parts
1798 Eli Whitney came up with "interchangeable parts" to create muskets
Parts were all identical so easy to manufacture and fix.
Used in 1850 for mass-production
Sewing Machine
Elias Howe invented sewing machine in 1846.
Foundation for clothing industry
Boon to northern industrialization (along with increased supply of cotton)
Steel Plow
Invented by John Deere, the steel plow in 1837, could break through hard soil in the West.
McCormick Reaper
Reaper was a horse drawn reaper that could cut crops faster than hand-picking. Enabled large-scale farming.

FIRST FACTORIES

Samuel Slater
Brought knowledge of textiles factories from Britain
Waltham, Massachusetts
1814 group of merchants (Boston Associates) made first factory using power looms to weave cotton cloth.
1820s expanded by creating a factory town (city of Lowell, 1836) on Merrimack R., 27 miles from Boston.
Built a group of modern textile factories - spinning thread, weaving, finishing cloth.
Along "fall line" (where waterfalls and river rapids used for power.
See Lowell Girls (below)

CORPORATIONS

"free incorporation"= businessmen could create corporations without applying for charters from legislature.

EMPLOYMENT

CHILDREN

Children used frequently as laborers in the 1820s (low pay - but only good for simple machines)

WOMEN

First worked spinning yarn, weaving cloth and making products for home (butter, soap etc.)
Cult of Domesticity - women expected to be homemakers and stay in the private sphere while men worked in the public sphere
Catharine Beecher - encouraged women to become teachers.

LOWELL GIRLS ('MILL GIRLS")

Lowell was most famous center of early textile manufacturing
Young, unmarried women worked as spinners.
To convince parents to let their daughters work at Lowell
boarding houses set up with strict rules, lecture halls, churches.
First time women leaving home to participate in public world and earn their own money.
Most left after they got married.

"WAGE SLAVES"

Hours - factories workers worked long hours, Martin Van Buren established 10-hour work day for federal employees in 1840

UNIONS

TRANSPORTATION REVOLUTION

Part of Henry Clay's American System
Bank, Internal Improvements, Tariff
West
Opening of West after Louisiana Purchase (1803)
Transportation = specialization of crops/commodities
West grew grain and livestock to feed factory workers in East and Europe
South grew cotton for export to Britain and New England
Northeast made textiles and manufactured goods for South and West.
Roads
National Road
Federal government financed and built the National Road (aka Cumberland Road)
Construction authorized in 1806
Connected Cumberland, Maryland to Wheeling, Ohio by 1818
By 1838 extended to Illinois
Lancaster Turnpike (toll road)
Hard-surfaced highway from Philadelphia to Lancaster PA
People who used the road had to pay a toll
Canals
Erie Canal
DeWitt Clinton, governor of New York, used New York money to build the Erie Canal in 1825
Connected Great Lakes (Erie) to the Hudson River
Boats pulled by mules walking on the shore.
New cities popped up around the canal
Site of the Second Great Awakening ("Burned-over district")
Other states also financed canals because of success of Erie
But they failed to generate much income
So states became wary of financing any more internal improvements.
Railroads
Railroads built by private investors since states were hesitant to invest in internal improvements (see canals)

BOATS AND TRAINS

COMMUNICATION

IMMIGRATION (1840-1860)

Economic expansion = need for labor.
Over 4 million people came 1840-1860 (more than whole population in 1790)
Most from Ireland and Germany
Irish (Catholic)
Push factor: escaping potato famine 1845-51 (1 millions starved to death)
Most were poor, unskilled farm workers
Most settled in NY (too poor to go west)
Germany (Catholic and Protestant):
Push factor: Failed 1848 revolutions, agricultural modernization (pushed peasants off land) rigid social hierarchies, repressive governments.
More skilled craftsmen
Settled in tight-knit neighborhoods
In eastern cities or Cincinnati, St. Louis, Milwaukee region.
Other immigrants
Scandinavians to farms in Old Northwest.
Russian and Ukrainian Jews (fleeing religious persecution)
Pull factors
Job opportunities
Wealthy immigrants could buy land.
New ocean going vessels made travel across the ocean easier
Destination
90% to northern states (job opportunities and didn't have to compete with labor from slaves)
New York City = primary point of entry.
Work that poor immigrants did:
Low-wage unskilled work.
Domestic servants (women)
Longshoremen (loading and unloading cargo from ships)
Many helped dig canals and erect railroad tracks

NATIVISM (Anti-Immigration)

Alien Act of 1798 = Passed by Adams because of fear of immigrants with radical political views.
Anger over "new immigration" (from southern and eastern Europe - old immigrants were from western Europe)
Fear of Catholicism
See John Hughes, archbishop of NYC, condemned Protestant Bible in public schools, tried to convert Protestants to Catholicism etc.
Fear that Catholics more devoted to Pope than U.S.
Fear that Catholics trying to dominate the American West
Fear that immigrants taking jobs away from Americans
Belief Irish were source of urban crime, alcohol, political corruption (see Tammany Hall)
Violent anti-immigrant riots in New York City and Philadelphia.

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