1. Forging the national economy
The American Pageant
Chapter 14

2. Westward Movement People constantly moving westward.
Life in the west was not easy for there was lack of supplies and food.
Traveling was long and hard
Beavers and Buffalo overhunted
George Catlin – conservationist whose ideas would lead to the National Park System

3. The Move West

4. Increase in Population
33 states
US was the 4th most populous nation
With population also came more waste.
Boston in 1823 pioneered a sewer system.
NY in 1842 abandoned wells for a piped in water system.
Immigration
Better life
Get away from European rule
Overpopulation in Europe

5. Racism NY – Irish haven after potato famine (‘45-’49)
Most hated the Irish; Irish hated African Americans

7. German Immigration
Came because of crop failures and democratic revolutions
Against slavery
started up the Kindergarten tradition.
They often drank a lot on Sunday, a drink they called “bier” which would later be quite popular in the U.S.

8. German Immigration

10. Anti-Foreignisn
Americans were worried that the immigrants would take over every aspect of their lives.
The Know-Nothing Party or Order of the Star Spangled Banner was a secret society formed to cause authorization to deport aliens and for rigid immigration laws to be enacted.
Attacks on churches and schools
However, had it not been for the immigrants, America would not have had a great Industrial Revolution.

11. Merging of Needs Samuel Slater Eli Whitney
“Father of the Factory System” in America
snuck out of Britain with his ideas
Eli Whitney
invented the cotton gin
cotton boom in the South/more slavery
Factories were flourishing in the North but the South was still poor and relied on slavery.
The north was well off for it had rivers and waterways to power the factories, there wasn’t much room for farming either.

13. Manufacturing Textiles - first industry
“Wear American” – War of 1812
Eli Whitney – interchangeable parts
Manufactured weapons quicker
Would help north in the Civil War
Elias Howe + Isaac Singer – sewing machine
Limited liability - an investor could not lose any more than he invested in the company.
Samuel B. Morse – telegraph
“What hath God wrought?”

14. Conditions of the factory
Unsanitary and not well ventilated
Child labor
Strikes largely unsuccessful
Many unemployed that would take job
Work hour shortened to 10hr by Van Buren
Commonwealth v. Hunt
Mass. Supreme court decision
Made labor unions legal

15. The Role of Women given jobs in spinning yarn and weaving or maid work
Women worked 6 days a week, 13 hours a day.
Women not given same rights as men
Left when married
No arranged marriages
Fertility declined.
The Europeans viewed American kids as brats
Corporal punishment rare

17. Farming John Deere - steel plow (1837)
Cyrus McCormick from Virginia invented the mower-reaper (1831).
Now one guy could do the work of 5 guys count in the fields..
Subsistence farming was replaced by production farming.

18. Travels
Lancaster Turnpike (1794) - which was a highway for Conestoga Wagons.
National (Cumberland) Road that stretched from Baltimore to St. Louis.
completed in 1852 because of the war of 1812 and state rights advocates trying to block it.
Robert Fulton created the steamboat (1796) which made the rivers a two way highway for goods.

20. Erie Canal (1828)
NY was cut off from national aid to build a canal so they did it themselves under the leadership of Governor DeWitt Clinton.
The Erie Canal stretched from the Great Leaks to the Hudson River.
It had a tremendous impact on shipment (by reducing costs).
Price of Land along the canal skyrocketed

21. Erie Canal

22. Railroads Cheaper and easier travel First railroad in 1828
Trains were unsafe
Safety was eventually fixed with brakes that braked properly.
Transcontinental railroad in 1869

23. A change on the Horizon Transport connected the entire nation
Market revolution – transportation from farming to industry and commerce
No longer subsistence
Dependent on the market