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Cities in the 19th Century

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Presentation on theme: "Cities in the 19th Century"— Presentation transcript:

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2 Cities in the 19th Century
[To launch author video, click video icon] Burgeoning cities such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore faced enormous challenges in dealing with the rapid influx of people into cities. Living conditions became crowded and congested. Disease was rampant. Fires were commonplace. So cities faced the challenge of creating the services, the infrastructure, to deal with rapid growth at the same time that the cities were becoming increasingly powerful magnets for more and more people moving from farms to the city and from Europe to America. Cities were popular in part because they offered jobs, opportunity, and cultural life. Cities were the centers for intellectual life and the arts. Cities were the center of vibrant new entertainments—theaters, saloons, etc. Cities were magnets for American life. Thomas Jefferson would have been concerned about that development. Had he lived into the mid-19th century, he would have grown very concerned because he believed that the fate of the American republic depended upon the United States remaining an agricultural nation. He believed that a decentralized republic like the United States sprawling across a whole continent depended upon the people retaining ownership of land. He very much feared that masses of people living in cities, such as in Europe during his lifetime, would breed not only disease but also violence and civic indifference. A republic dependent upon the civic virtue of the people—the civic virtue, according to Jefferson, depended upon people owning the land rather than being wage laborers dependent upon others—required just such ownership. And yet, Americans found ways over time to convert their cities from corrupt centers of violence and disease into dynamic centers of prosperity and ultimately civic virtue itself.

3 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. 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.

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

5 Transportation and the Market Revolution
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?

6 Transportation and the Market Revolution

7 Transportation and the Market Revolution
Railroads Ocean Transportation 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.

8 Transportation and the Market Revolution
The Role of Government 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.

9 A Communications Revolution
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 to so for communications. 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.

10 Agriculture and the National Economy
Cotton 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. 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.

11 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 sawteeth that separated the seeds from the fiber.

12 Agriculture and the National Economy
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?

13 The Industrial Revolution
Early Textile Manufactures The Lowell System 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 Lowell system of mills involved placing under one roof the entire weaving process, powered by a nearby river.

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

15 The Industrial Revolution
In 1860, which regions had the greatest population density? Why? How did new technologies allow farmers to grow more crops on larger pieces of land?

16 The Industrial Revolution
Industrialization and Cities The growth of massive factories required large numbers of workers, and soon after a factory was established, a city would be built around it.

17 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.

18 Milling and the environment A milldam on the Appomattox River near Petersburg, Virginia, in Milldams were used to produce a head of water for operating a mill.

19 The 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.

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

21 The British, Scandinavians, and Chinese
Immigration The Irish The Germans The British, Scandinavians, and Chinese 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.

22 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.

23 Immigration Nativism 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.”

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

25 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 at representing 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.

26 Symbols of organized labor A pocket watch with an International Typographical Union insignia.

27 Organized Labor The Revival of Unions
After the financial crisis of 1837, labor unions would begin to emerge again. By the mid-nineteenth century, workers began to place an increasing importance on being members of a union and insuring only members from their union be hired for similar jobs.

28 The Rise of Professions
Teaching Law, Medicine, and Engineering 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

29 The Rise of Professions
Women’s Work Equal Opportunities 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. Although this age has been considered a promotion of the common man, the facts belie the convention wisdom. Very few who started out poor were able to become “self-made men.”

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