The North Transformed PAGES
Objectives Explain why American cities few in the 1800s List the new inventions and advances in agriculture and manufacturing Describe the improvements in transportation during the early 1800s Discuss the wave of immigration to the United States in the 1840s and 1850s Describe the problems African Americans faced in the North
Focus Question How did urbanization, technology, and social change affect the North?
Northern Cities in the late 1700s New York City in 1790: a little more than 33,000 people New York City in 2013: million people Lower Moreland Township in 2015: 12,982 people
What happened in the 1800s to help draw people to the Northern cities ? The Industrial Revolution!
What is urbanization? The growth of cities due to movement of people from rural areas to cities More factories were being built and farmers were attracted to the new types of work available in the cities Cities became crowded, so people moved west Pittsburgh, PA had 23,000 people by 1840 Louisville, KY had 43,000 people by 1850 (larger than Washington, D.C. at the time)
What are some problems of growing cities? Filthy streets Absence of good sewage systems Lack of clean drinking water (disease easily spread) Citywide fires were common (most structures were made of wood) Volunteer firefighters were poorly trained
What is a telegraph? A device that used electrical signals to send messages quickly over long distances What is Morse Code? Each letter of the alphabet is represented by its own mix of short signals (“dots”) and long signals (“dashes”)
What were the benefits of Morse Code? Samuel Morse tested his system: he was able to wire a message from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore Became a part of American life Thousands of wires were strung across the nation Factories in the East could communicate with markets in the West in a matter of hours instead of weeks
What sort of advances were made in agriculture? Mechanical Reaper – could harvest crops with fewer workers Threshers – separated grains of wheat from stalks Mechanical Reaper and Thresher became one machine called the combine How did advances in agriculture affect industry? Farm laborers who had been replaced by machines went into the cities to work
What were some advances in manufacturing? Sewing machines Clothes became less expensive Everyone could dress as well as wealthier Americans New England and the Middle Atlantic states were producing most of the nation’s manufactured goods
Improvements in Transportation: Water Steamboats (steam engine to power a boat) Ideal for travelling on rivers and not oceans Clipper Ships (world’s fastest ship - long and slender with tall masts meant for ocean travel ) 1850s – Great Britain produced ironclad steamships that could carry more cargo
Improvements in Transportation: Land America’s first railroad: Baltimore to Ohio – pulled on track by horses 1830: first American-made steam locomotive 1840: about 3,000 miles of railway track had been built in the U.S.
Why were railroads a better means of transportation than steamboats? Unlike steamboats, railroads could be built almost anywhere and travel in any season
New Wave of Immigrants Ireland: 1845, a fungus destroyed the potato crop leading to famine – a million people starved to death, a million more left Ireland Came to the U.S., employed in lowly jobs, like putting down railroad tracks Germany: revolutions against harsh rulers failed, fled to the U.S. Unlike Irish, German immigrants came from many different levels of society
What was the American reaction toward immigrants? Some worried about the growing foreign population Nativists – people who wanted to preserve the country for white, American born Protestants Especially opposed the Irish because most were Catholic One groups of nativists in New York formed a secret group When asked about it, members replied, “I know nothing.” The Know-Nothings became a political party
African Americans in the North Faced discrimination – the denial of equal rights or equal treatment Slavery had ended in the North by the early 1800s, but still were not treated equally Could not vote Not allowed to work in factories or skilled trades Employers preferred to higher white immigrants over African Americans Segregation in schools/public facilities, even churches Newspapers portrayed them as inferior
How did African Americans respond to discrimination? They started their own churches and publications
Focus Question Re-visited How did urbanization, technology, and social change affect the North? With the arrival of new waves of immigrants and the growth of industry, northern cities grew, as did the differences between the North and South
The Plantation South PAGES
Objectives Explain the significance of cotton and the cotton gin to the South Describe what life was like for free and enslaved African Americans in the South
Focus Question How did cotton affect the social and economic life of the South?
The Cotton Kingdom The Cotton Gin: used a spiked cylinder to remove seeds from cotton fibers Before the Cotton Gin, the seeds had to be picked by hand – a laborer could only clean a pound of cotton a day
Slave Labor To grow more cotton, planters used more slave labor The price of slaves increased Cotton became the greatest source of wealth for the United States Society was dominated by large plantation owners – they were a small and wealthy class However, more than half of southern farmers did NOT have slaves
Why was there an increased demand for cotton? The Industrial Revolution led to a growth in textiles, which in turn demanded more cotton
Defending Slavery Most southern whites accepted the system of slavery Northerners were pushing to abolish it In response, southern whites hardened their support for slavery Supporters stated that it was more humane than the free labor system of the North Unlike northern factory workers, they argued, enslaved African Americans did not worry about unemployment
Why did most southern white people support slavery even though many of them did not own slaves? Many feared slave uprisings and violence Felt superior to enslaved people Resented the interference of the North Believed that enslaved workers were better off than northern factory workers
Critics of Slavery Argued that northern workers were free to quit a job and take another if conditions became too harsh Argued that people held in slavery often suffered physical or other abuse from white owners Argued there was no satisfactory substitute for freedom
Restrictions on Free African Americans in the South By law, excluded from all but lowly jobs Children could not attend public schools Could not vote, serve on juries, or testify against white defendants in court Freedom was never secure: slave catchers often kidnapped them and sold them back into slavery
In spite of the restrictions placed upon them… …African Americans made valuable contributions to southern life: Norbert Rillieux revolutionized the sugar industry His method of refining sugar was much faster, safer, and less costly Henry Blair developed a seed-planting device that saved time
Life Under Slavery Slave codes: controlled every aspect of life “a slave by our code is not treated as a person but as a …thing…” Became skilled workers – vast majority did heavy farm labor Became trusted house servants Many forms of punishment – most often a whipping One real protection against mistreatment: owners looked on them as valuable property that they needed to keep healthy and productive Many slave families were broken apart when slave owners sold one or more of their family members
Why do you think slave codes made it illegal to teach enslaved workers? Owners felt they had more control if slaves were illiterate
Why do you think there were so many restrictions on free blacks in the South? White southerners did not want free African Americans to have equal rights because white people wanted to stay in power
How did life for free blacks in the South compare with life for free blacks in the North? Some free blacks in the North went to school No free blacks in the South could vote or go to school Free blacks in the North, like free blacks in the South, faced discrimination in employment
Finding hope in the Bible Many African Americans found a message of hope in the Bible African Americans composed spirituals, or religious folk songs that blended biblical themes with the realities of slavery
Resistance to Slavery Some worked slowly Some pretended to not understand what they were told to do Some deliberately broke farm equipment Some fled north to freedom Resistance sometimes became rebellion: Nat Turner led the most famous slave revolt in 1831 (he and others killed 60 whites) Innocent African Americans were killed in response
Focus Question re-visited How did cotton affect the social and economic life of the South? The invention of the cotton gin made growing cotton more profitable, resulting in a need for more workers and increasing the South’s dependence on slavery