1. Chapter 8 The Emergence of a Market Economy, 1815-1850

2. Transportation and the Market Revolution
New Roads
Water Transportation
During Jefferson’s embargo and the War of 1812, Americans were forced to look to themselves for the finished goods and manufactured items they needed.
As the nineteenth century unfolded, more and more farm families began engaging in commercial rather than subsistence agriculture, producing surplus crops and livestock to sell to distant markets.
Thus, the spark of the Industrial Revolution was struck. With this new demand for goods came a need for more efficient ways to get them to market. Thus, paved and well-maintained roads became seen as a necessary commodity for the government to provide.
In addition, the advent of steam technology applied to boats increased the demand for safe and deep waterways to move goods and people to their destinations.

3. Traveling the Western Waters
Steamboats at the levee at St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1859

4. Transportation West, About 1840
Why were river towns important commercial centers? What was the impact of the steamboat and the flatboat on travel in the West? How did the Erie Canal transform the economy of New York and the Great Lakes region?

5. The Erie Canal
Junction of the Northern and Western Canals (1825), an aquatint by John Hill

6. Transportation and the Market Revolution, continued
Railroads
Ocean Transportation
The Role of Government
The last arrival of the three main modes of transportation, the railroads would start off in port towns but would ignite a building epidemic throughout the nation. Being less expensive to build and maintain than canals, they would quickly surpass them as the primary method of shipping. They would also spur internal settlements where they would stop to be refueled.
Using the latest in technology, the clipper ships would transform shipping between the continents. Doubling the speed of their predecessors, these new ships were able to ship goods between ports so quickly that perishable items (like tea) could be imported before spoiling.
Such increases in the infrastructure of the United States required substantial amounts of money, a need that was filled by private investors, state governments, and later by the federal government. Primarily this was done through the purchase of stock in various companies.

7. The Growth of Railroads, 1850
What role did railroads play in the development of the nation?

8. The Growth of Railroads, 1860
Why did railroads expand rapidly from 1850 to 1860? What were the principal east–west lines?

9. Building a Clipper Ship
This 1833 oil painting captures the Messr. Smith & Co. Shipyard in Manhattan, where shipbuilders are shaping timber to construct a clipper ship.

10. A Communications Revolution
Telegraph System
American Technology
In much the same way that Americans were able to look inward to meet the needs of their newly burgeoning markets in the way of transportation, they were also able to do so for communications.
The most important advance in communications was the national electromagnetic telegraph system, invented by Samuel F. B. Morse.
Through the mid-1800s, the life of Americans would be transformed through the invention of the telegraph, the sewing machine, and the vulcanization of rubber.

11. Agriculture and the National Economy
Cotton
Expansion of Slavery
Farming the West
Cotton was not always “king.” Prior to the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney, removing the thorny seed from the cotton bole was very labor intensive. Thanks to the gin, workers were able to remove the seed at a rate that made them fifty times more efficient.
Cotton created a boom in the Old Southwest. Between 1790 and 1860, some 835,000 slaves were “sold south.”
Overproduction of farmland in the East began to drain the soil of the nutrients necessary to grow crops. This, coupled with cheap land in the West and the economic panic of 1819, caused many a farmer to move west to start over.

12. Whitney’s Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney’s drawing, which accompanied his 1794 federal patent application, shows the side and top of the machine as well as the saw teeth that separated the seeds from the fiber.

13. McCormick’s Reaping Machine
This illustration appeared in the catalog of the Great Exhibition, held at the Crystal Palace in London in The plow eased the transformation of rough plains into fertile farmland, and the reaping machine accelerated farm production.

14. United States 1830

15. Population Density, 1820
In 1820, which regions had the greatest population density? Why? How did changes in the 1820 land law encourage western expansion? What events caused the price of land to decrease between 1800 and 1841?

16. Population Density, 1860
In 1860, which regions had the greatest population density? Why?
How did new technologies allow farmers to produce more crops on larger pieces of land?

17. The Industrial Revolution
Early Textile Manufactures
The Lowell System
Industrialization and Cities
As a member of the mercantilist society of Great Britain, the American colonies were forbidden to develop manufacturing facilities. They were to only be concerned with providing the raw materials the mother country needed for their industrial base. When the American Revolution ended, the United States was well behind the curve in developing this area. What little base existed prior to Jefferson’s embargo in 1807 was well supplanted by the increase in demand for their finished goods.
The growth of massive factories required large numbers of workers, and soon after a factory was established, a city would be built around it.
The Lowell system of mills involved placing under one roof the entire weaving process, powered by a nearby river.

18. The Growth of Industry in the 1840s
What made the Lowell system of textile mill villages unique?
What were the consequences of industrial expansion in the Northeast?

19. New England Factory Village (ca. 1830)
Mills and factories gradually transformed the New England landscape in the early nineteenth century.

20. The Union Manufactories of Maryland in Patapsco Falls, Baltimore County (ca. 1815)
A textile mill established during the embargo of 1807, the Union Manufactories would eventually employ more than 600 people.

21. Mill Girls
Massachusetts mill workers of the mid-nineteenth century, photographed holding shuttles
Although mill work initially provided women with an opportunity for independence and education, conditions soon deteriorated as profits took precedence.

22. The Growth of Cities, 1820
What were the largest cities in the United States in 1820? Why did those cities have the densest populations? Why did New Orleans grow rapidly yet eventually lag behind its northeastern counterparts?

23. Broadway and Canal Street, New York City (1836)
New York’s economy and industry, like those of many other cities, grew rapidly in the early nineteenth century.

24. The Growth of Cities, 1860
What is the connection between industrialization and urbanization? Why did Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and St. Louis become major urban centers in the mid-nineteenth century?

25. Popular Culture Urban Recreation The Performing Arts
During the 1830s, boxing became a popular form of entertainment. Taverns and saloons also sprang up to meet the desire of the social drinker.
Theaters still provided the primary outlet for Americans’ entertainment.

26. Bare Knuckles Bare Knuckles
Blood sports emerged as popular urban entertainment for men of all social classes.

27. The Crow Quadrilles The Crow Quadrilles
This sheet-music cover, printed in 1837, shows eight vignettes caricaturing African Americans. Minstrel shows enjoyed nationwide popularity while reinforcing racial stereotypes.

28. The British, Scandinavians, and Chinese Nativism Know-Nothings
Immigration
The Irish
The Germans
The British, Scandinavians, and Chinese
Nativism
Know-Nothings
European turmoil during the first part of the nineteenth century contributed to a major influx of immigrants to the United States.
In 1845, an epidemic of potato rot in Ireland resulted in the death of 1 million Irish people and the departure of many more. By 1850, 43 percent of the foreign-born population of America were Irish. They would settle in the cities and provide cheap, non-skilled laborers.
German immigrants were usually more educated than their Irish counterparts. They tended to move to the interior of the United States and establish themselves in communities with other Germans.
During this same time period, British citizens continued to immigrate to the United States. By 1869, Scandinavians numbered in excess of 70,000, and the Chinese, who immigrated primarily to California, would number 35,000 by 1860.
Many of the new immigrants to the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century were Catholic. This would arouse in the Protestant Americans a fear that their nation was at risk of being converted to Catholicism. Unfounded as this would prove, it would create a surge in nativism, or the fear of all things “not American.”

29. Irish Immigration
In 1847, nearly 214,000 Irish immigrated to the United States and Canada aboard the ships of the White Star Line and other companies. Despite promises of spacious, well-lit, well-ventilated, and heated accommodations on ships, 30 percent of these immigrants died on board.

30. German Beer Garden, New York (1825)
German immigrants established their own communities, where they maintained the traditions of their homeland.

31. A Know-Nothing Cartoon
This cartoon shows the Catholic Church supposedly attempting to control American religious and political life through Irish immigration.

32. Organized Labor Early Unions Labor Politics
In order to help the cause of working people, labor organizations were created during this time period in the form of trade unions.
A few third political parties would be developed that aimed to represent the working class, but they found little electoral support. After they disappeared, groups of workers would organize under the auspices of the Democrats and would work within that system to get their demands met.

33. The Shoe Factory
When Philadelphia boot makers and shoemakers went on strike in 1806, a court found them guilty of a “conspiracy to raise their wages.” Here, shoemakers work at a Massachusetts shoe factory.

34. Symbols of Organized Labor
A pocket watch with an International Typographical Union insignia

35. The Rise of Professions
Teaching
Law, Medicine, and Engineering
Women’s Work
Teaching was the fastest growing of the new professions during this time, and often it was used as a stepping stone for young men who wished to study law.
Young attorneys and doctors had very little formal training, and in many instances they were not regulated. The Industrial Revolution spurred the development of a new profession, that of the engineer. By the time of the Civil War, engineering had become one of the largest professions in the nation.
Although this was a period of scientific and political improvement, the role of females in the United States had not changed much. Women were still considered to be the primary caregiver in the home. However, more women began to seek a career in the male-dominated professions.

36. Texas wins independence from Mexico in April, 1836
Statehood granted December 19, 1845