Forging the National Economy

 Americans were moving west, was a very hard trip though (disease, dangers, loneliness)  On the frontier people usually were characterized as individualistic, superstitious, and not as informed as their eastern counterparts  Many moved west because of overuse of land  Tobacco had depleted the soil in many areas  Settlers moving west trapped beavers, sea otters, and bison for fur to ship back East  This further led to a spirit of nationalism and appreciation for the West and wilderness  The push for national parks started, and Yellowstone was created in 1872

 By mid-1800s, the population was doubling every 25 years  By 1860, 13 states had become 33 states and we had the 4 th largest population in the world  Cities exploded  Urban growth was seen in New York and Philadelphia, and 43 other cities that had 20,000 people or more  With urban growth issues develop in sanitation, sewage, water, and slums  Immigration contributes largely to this as well  Irish and Germans come in droves because of:  Over population in Europe  Want of land and freedom  Lack of aristocracy  Famines and wars  Travel time dropped because of steam ships

 Irish and German notes from Thursday

 Nativists-older Americans who were prejudiced against newcomers in jobs, politics, and religion  Catholicism became a major faith because of immigration in 1840s and 1850s, also creation of Catholic schools  Nativists fear that Catholicism challenges Protestantism (Popish idols)  Create “Order of Star-Spangled Banner”, the Know Nothings  They meet secretly (as in “I know nothing…”)  Fought for restrictions on immigration, naturalization, and wanted deportation of alien paupers  Wrote fiction books about corruption of churches  Instigated mass violence (Philadephia in 1844, they burn churches, schools, and there were killings)  Immigration of course made America pluralistic and diverse  Immigrants become less disliked over time (economic expansion, assimilation, and more jobs available)

 Industrial Revolution spread to the US  It exploded here because:  Land was cheap  Money (capital) for investment  Lots of raw materials  Growing number of consumers (which Britain lacked)  The US had to create a factory system, whereas Britain had a head start  British also tried to keep most of their industry in secret so no other nations could copy  US still remained very rural and farmed. But industry led to a slow growth of cities as well.

 Samuel Slater-Father of Factory System  Learned of textile machinery while working in Britain and escaped to US  Built first cotton thread spinner in US in 1791 in Pawtucket, RI  Eli Whitney built cotton gin  Made cotton production 50 times more efficient  Created an actual profitable cotton industry  Saved the South with “King Cotton”  South grew and flourished, cotton expanded westward  The North relied upon factories and textiles, especially in New England because of bad soil, access to the sea, rivers, and easy access to labor

 The Embargo Act had encouraged home manufacturing  After the War of 1812, the British poured in cheap goods forcing many American factories to close  Congress passes the Tariff of 1816 to protect US economy  Eli Whitney introduced machine made inter-changeable parts in 1850  This was the basis of the factory and assembly line which would create business in the North  The South still flourished with cotton  Elias Howe and Issac Singer makes sewing machine in 1846 (clothing industry explodes)  , only 360 patents there were 20,000.  New business model of a ‘limited liability corporation’ comes in and stimulates economy.  Samuel Morse creates the telegraph and Morse Code connects the business world (“What hath God wrought?”

 Factory System=Impersonal Relations  Benefits (and profits) goes to factory owner  Hours were long, wages low, conditions unsafe and unhealthy  At the time, no unions existed to address these conditions  Child labor was widespread, 50% of those working in industry were kids  Adult working conditions began to improve in 1820s and 1830s (because of the increase in voting rights)  10 hour day, higher wages, slightly more tolerable conditions (still had the Acme-Tear-Your-Arm-Off-Machines)  Public education came into play and there was also a ban on debt prisons (yes where they put you in jail because you can’t pay your debts…but you then can’t go to work to pay off your debts since you’re in jail….etc)  President Van Buren establishes the 10 hour work day for federal workers  Many factory workers do attempt to strike, but these are short lived  Mainly because the government doesn’t support the strikers’ side, and also owners just simply found replacement workers (immigrants anyone?)  Labor unions do start to form in the 1830s, but the Panic of 1837 derails them  SC of Mass. rules in Commonwealth v. Hunt that unions can be formed for peaceful and honorable protest  Unions went largely ineffective during this time because of the use of “scabs” (replacement workers)

 Women worked in factories under very poor conditions  Lowell, MA opened a model textile mill that employed young single women  Opportunities were rare for women and they mainly worked in nursing, domestic service, and teaching  They usually work before marriage, then after marriage became housewives and mothers  Arranged marriages die down and the belief that a marriage because of love tied a family closer  Families start to grow smaller (now just an avg of 6) meaning the fertility rate dropped (domestic feminism)  Child centered families began to emerge, with less children and discipline  Instead of a home also being a place of labor, it was now a place of rest and refuge from the work at the mill

 The areas of Ohio-Indiana-Illinois (called the trans-Allegheny region) became the nation’s breadbasket  They plant corn and raised hogs  [Cincinnati was called the porkopolis of the west]  Inventions spurred agriculture forward  John Deere, invents steel plow that cut through hard soil and can be pulled by horses  Cyrus McCormick, invented the mechanical reaper that could harvest grain  Large scale production resulted and the growth of new cash crops  The North actually produces more food than the South (they grow cotton which you can’t eat)  Products flow from the North to South via rivers and the sea  East to West requires the construction of new roads and canals

 The US needs improvements in transportation to carry raw materials  Lancaster Turnpike, a “hard road” from Philadelphia to Lancaster, PA that moved economic expansion westward in PA.  Federal government constructed the Cumberland Road (the National Road) which went from Maryland to Illinois using state and federal money  Robert Fulton invented the steamboat, the Clermont in  Steamboats were common across the US by 1830  This causes an increase of US trade because now they could go against the current  Increases the strength of the Southern and Western economies as well.

 NY Governor DeWitt Clinton’s “Big Ditch” was the Erie Canal between Lake Erie and Hudson River  At time it took 4 weeks to get from NY to Detroit  Proposed in 1807, started in 1817, opened in 1825  This shortened the expense and time to travel and send goods to cities westward  Cities also grew up along the canal and the price of food and goods were reduced

 The 1 st railroad in the US was laid out in 1828  By ,000 miles of track had been put down (3/4 of those are in the North)  Rail was first opposed because people thought they would compete and take business away from the new canals being built  Rail was also opposed because they caused fires to housing as they passed by sometimes  Another pitfall was that early trains were poorly constructed, they had bad brakes, and the gauge of the tracks were often different from region to region

 Comparatively:  South: Cotton accounts for 50% of all exports  North: Wheat becomes a large export, along with textiles  Americans import more than they export, which causes large amounts of debt to foreign banks and businesses  1858, Cyrus Field lays a telegraph line between the US and Europe  A better one is laid in 1866 providing for instant communication across the Atlantic  America and Britain traded off dominance of the seas  In the 1840s and 50s, we build clipper ships which are fast, sleek, and strong  The British then come out with iron steamers that were slower but could handle more tonnage  The Pony Express also was created, going 2,000 miles in 10 days  This only lasted 18 months though,  This was because of a transcontinental telegraph line being laid and also the start of the Civil War.

 Steamboat: allows reverse transport of South to West  Canals: Lead to more trade with East from West (no canals in South)  NY became the main port of the nation replacing New Orleans  Principle of divided labor in different regions  South: cotton to New England  West: Grain and livestock to East and Europe  East: Machines, textiles for South and West  The Home was now also transformed from a place of work to a place of relaxation and refuge

 Business began to grow up  The era of the self-supporting farm was now shifting to the modern specialty economy  The gap between rich and poor began to widen as well  Cities saw the most extremes:  Unskilled workers drifting from town to town  Social mobility existed, but rare to have ‘rags to riches’  Standard of living did rise as wages rose