Industry and Population growth in the Northern United States; Essential Question How did technology and industry change during the 1800s?

Transportation Revolution Robert Fulton –creates a more powerful steamboat to transport people quicker Fulton used it to commercially to transport people up the Hudson River from New York City to upstate New York

Samuel Morse – creates the telegraph –sends short pulses of electricity along a wire that could be translated into letters The telegraph took seconds to communicate to someone in another city Communication Revolution

John Deere –Invents a lightweight plow with a steel cutting edge –Designed for rich and heavy Midwestern soil Cyrus McCormick –Invents a mechanical reaper to cut ripe grain –Threshing machine separated kernels of wheat from the husks New farm equipment opened new markets to grow food

The Lowell Mills Francis Cabot Lowell builds a factory in Waltham, Mass -Spun cotton into yarn & wove it into cloth Figured out how to work power looms from seeing them in England - stole the technology like Samuel Slater) Factory was so successful he built a factory town called Lowell

Lowell mills employed farm girls –Lived in company-owned boarding-houses –Worked 12 ½ hour days Young women came in spite of the noise because of high wages –Between $2 - $4 a week –Some men making that in factories Older women supervised the girls –Enforced strict rules The rise in steam powered factories forced the mills to close (and others like them who used water power) The Lowell Mills

Immigrants flock to America  In the mid-1800s, Immigrants were coming to America by the thousands  Most came from western Europe Ireland, England, Germany, Scandinavia  Some came from China

Push Factors – Why they left Population growth. –Europe's population boomed after 1750, and the land became overcrowded Agricultural changes. –As Europe's population grew, so did cities. –Landowners wanted to make money selling food to those cities. –New methods made it more efficient to farm large areas of land than to rent small plots to tenants. –Landlords forced tenants off the land.

Push Factors – Why they left Crop failures. –Poor harvests made it difficult for small farmers to pay their debts. –Some of these farmers chose to start over in America. –Crop failures also led to hunger, causing people to emigrate. Industrial Revolution. –Goods produced in factories became cheaper than goods produced by artisans. –Artisans were out of work, some took factory jobs, others emigrated.

Push Factors – Why they left  Religion Quakers fled Norway Jews left Germany  Political Turmoil Germans came to America after a revolution in Germany failed in 1848 The Irish had faced a long history of oppression by the English

Pull Factors – Why they came here Freedom –“Everyone has the freedom to practice the teaching and religion he prefers.” Economic opportunity –Immigrants sought a land where they could support their families and have a better future. –Immigration often rose during times of U.S. prosperity and fell during hard times.

Pull Factors – Why they came here  Abundant land The acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican Cession gave the United States millions more acres of land. To land-starved Europeans, America was a land of opportunity.

The Plight of the Irish in America The Irish mostly settled in cities, and worked in factories, and on the docks of the port cities of America They were extremely poor and could not afford to move inland Most settled in the cities where they landed and looked for manual labor jobs

Anti-Irish sentiment was really high for a number of reasons: Irish were poor and slums developed in cities people blamed the Irish for crime, disease, alcohol abuse, etc. Irish were Catholic; most Americans were Protestant and thought Catholics could not be trusted because they would be more loyal to the Pope than to the U.S. “Know-Nothing” Party was strongly anti-Irish and anti- immigrant. The Plight of the Irish in America