1. Technology, Culture, and Everyday life 1840-1860
The Antebellum Period
Technology, Culture, and Everyday life

2. Introduction
In the 1840’s and 1850’s, most Americans believed God had ordained that man should progress (morally and materially)
The means to progress of both kinds was through technology
Americans defined as “the application of science to improve the conveniences of life”
We will look at the changes in the everyday life of ordinary citizens brought about by the new technology of the period of
Also looking at the ways people responded to those transformations

3. Introduction (cont.)
1.) How did technology transform the daily lives of middle-class Americans between 1840 and 1860?
2.) How did American pastimes and entertainment change between 1840 and 1860?
3.) How did Americans express their distinctiveness in their literature and art?

4. Technology and Economic Growth
Introduction
Pre-Civil War decades were affected and transformed American life by:
The steam engine
Cotton gin
Reaper
Sewing machine
Telegraph
This new technology increase productivity and eased travel and communication
Also it brought down costs and prices

5. Introduction (cont.)
Most Americans between 1840 and enjoyed improved standards of living
But the new technology hurt other Americans
The cotton gin encouraged the expansion of the plantation-slave economy
Sewing machines and new manufacturing techniques rendered traditional crafts and the artisans who practiced them obsolete

6. Agricultural Advancement
Between 1830 and 1860, settlers moved onto the grasslands of IN, MI, and IL
John Deer’s steel-tipped plow was developed in 1837
Used to break up the tough prairie soil

7. Agricultural Advancement (cont.)
Cyrus McCormick
1847
Massed produced mechanical reapers
Farmers could harvest grain 7 times faster than before and use 1/2 the labor
Wheat became the dominate crop of the Midwest

8. Agricultural Advancement (cont.)
Americans quickly adopted these laborsaving inventions
But they generally farmed wastefully
Rapidly depleted the soil
Then moved on to virgin land
In the East some farmers introduced fertilizers
Increased their yields so they could compete with the new western fields
In the South farmers had little incentive to invest in laborsaving machinery (used slaves)

9. Technology and Industrial Progress
Americans of the antebellum period readily invested in new technology
Eli Whitney
Interchangeable parts
Greatly facilitated by improved machine tools
Europeans called interchangeable parts “American System of Manufacturing

10. Technology and Industrial Progress (cont.)
Readiness to invest in innovations, interchangeable parts, and better machine tools
Resulted in:
Rapid acceptance
Mass production
Use of the new inventions
Samuel Colt’s revolving pistol
Elias Howe’s sewing machine
Samuel F. B. Morse’s telegraph

11. The Railroad Boom By 1860, the United States had 30,000 miles of track
More than the rest of the world combined.
Most of the new rail lines linked the East and Midwest.
Much of the produce of the Midwest was now shipped via railroads radiating from Chicago eastward.

12. The Railroad Boom (cont.)
Positives of the railroad growth:
simulated the settlement of the Midwest
Growth of wheat farming
Aided the development of cities, towns, and industry
Several states barred funding of the railroads
Encouraged a shift toward private investment

13. The Railroad Boom (cont.)
Railroad was America’s 1st big business
Railroads pioneered new forms of financing in the 1850’s
Sale of stock and other securities
Many of the transactions were handled through Wall Street
Made NY the nation’s leading capital market

14. Rising Prosperity
Technological improvements reduced the price of commodities to consumers
Contributed to an average 25% rise in the real income of American workers between 1840 and 1860
The increased annual income of working families also was attributable to the use of steam power
Allowed factories to operate in all seasons
Offer work to more laborers

15. Rising Prosperity (cont.)
The growth of towns and cities that accompanied industrialization opened new employment opportunities for women and children
Often had to work to supplement the inadequate wages of the husband/father
There was a steady stream of American to cities
economic opportunities plus the comforts and conveniences of urban life

16. The Quality of Life Introduction
Technological advances improved the quality of life in the middle class
Now enjoyed luxuries formerly reserved for the rich
These changes were slower to reach the poor
Increasingly came to congregate in cramped urban tenements

17. Introduction (cont.)
Medical knowledge lagged behind the strides made in industry and agriculture
Many Americans looked to popular health fads for the prevention and cure of illness

18. Dwellings
In the cities the typical dwellings of the period were row houses
Middle class row houses became elaborate
Poor were forced into crowded row houses that were further subdivided by several families and boarders

19. Dwellings (cont.) Log cabins As the communities matured and prospered
On the frontier
Often times 1 room
As the communities matured and prospered
Log cabins were replaced by more comfortable houses
Larger homes

20. Dwellings (cont.)
Upper class and middle classes favored ornate home furnishings in the rococo style
rococo furniture
Wealthy imported furniture from Europe
Middle class bought mass- produced imitations from new furniture manufacturing centers
Cincinnati
Grand Rapids

21. Conveniences and Inconveniences
Industrialization and improved affected home heating, cooking, and diet
By 1840’s, coal-burning stoves were replacing fireplaces for heating and cooking
These stoves were more convenient
Made it possible to cook several dishes at once
Coal burning contributed to fouling the urban environment

22. Conveniences and Inconveniences (cont.)
Railroads brought fresh produce to city dwellers
Only the rich could afford fruits out of season
Home iceboxes were rare before 1860
Most Americans still ate meat preserved by salting rather than fresh meat

23. Ice Boxes

24. Conveniences and Inconveniences (cont.)
By the 1840’s and 1850’s, cities such as New York began to construct aqueducts, reservoirs, and water works
Brought pure water to street hydrants
The majority of houses were not yet hooked up to the water main
Americans of the time bathed infrequently
Few cities had sanitation departments
Most people used outdoor privies (outhouses)
American cities often stunk

25. Disease and Health
Transportation boom increased and widened the risks of epidemics
Recurring epidemics of cholera, yellow fever, and other diseases
The medical profession was held in low esteem
Divided and uncertain about the causes and cures of epidemic diseases

26. Disease and Health (cont.)
Anesthetics were developed in 1840’s
Crawford Long
William T.G. Morton
Allowed advances in the field of surgery
Still failed to recognize the importance of disinfection

27. Popular Health Movements
Neither public-health boards nor doctors seemed able to prevent disease
Many Americans put their faith in various popular therapies
Hydropathy
Grahamite regimen

28. Phrenology
Most popular of the scientific fads of the antebellum period
An accurate analysis of an individual’s character
Examining the contours of his skull
Promised to teach the principles of life
Give the individual control over his/her own fate
Science was believed to be a tool to improve ones life

29. Democratic Pastimes Introduction
New technology transformed leisure as well as work between
Imaginative entrepreneurs used new inventions and advances in manufacturing to sell the kinds of entertainment they believed the public wanted

30. Newspapers James Gordon Bennett Publisher of New York Herald
Used new techniques in paper making and printing
Used the telegraph
Build a mass circulation

31. Newspapers (cont.)
Realized you could make $$$$ by building a mass circulation
Slashed the price of the paper to a penny
Used newspaper boys to sell hundreds of thousands of copies daily
The number of weekly papers grew from 65 to 138 (between 1830 and 1840)

32. Newspapers (cont.)
The penny papers filled their columns with human-interest stories of crime and sex
Bennett’s New York Herald and Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune also pioneered in modern financial and political reporting

33. The Theater
Antebellum theaters were filled with large, rowdy audiences from all social classes
People liked romantic melodramas best
William Shakespeare’s plays were performed the most of any other dramatist

34. Minstrel Shows
Minstrel shows=performances of songs, dances, and skits by white men in blackface
Minstrel shows became popular in the 1840’s with the white working-class audiences
Catered to and reinforced the prejudices of whites
Depicted blacks as stupid, comical, musical, and irresponsible

35. P.T. Barnum Displays of curiosities Flair for publicity
Development of the American Museum in New York
The ultimate “entrepreneur of popular entertainment” in the antebellum era

36. The Quest for Nationality in Literature and Art
Introduction
Europeans in the early 19th century looked down on American writing
Washington Irving
Most successful American writing in early 1800’s
“Rip Van Winkle”
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
Biography

37. Introduction (cont.) “American Renaissance”
After 1820
“a flowering of literature”
James Fenimore
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Walt Whitman
Some sought to develop a new, unique American literature

38. Introduction (cont.)
The painters of the Hudson River School and Frederick Law Olmsted in his landscape design also offered distinctively American visions

39. Roots of the American Renaissance
1820’s and 1830’s
2 things transformed the writing of fiction in the U.S.A.
The transportation revolution
Opened a nationwide market for books
Spread of the romantic movement
Romanticism stressed feelings rather than learning
Suited fiction well

40. Roots of the American Renaissance (cont.)
Women still were not admitted to most colleges
Women could publish best-selling romantic novels
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin

41. Cooper, Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller and Whitman
James Fenimore Cooper
The 1st of the “new” writers
Introduced frontiersman Natty Bumppo
Particularly American character
Cooper's works

42. Ralph Waldo Emerson Wrote mostly essays Transcendentalism
American brand of romanticism
Emerson' works

43. Ralph Waldo Emerson (cont.)
Emerson rejected the importance of education and reason in seeking the truth
He contented that every individual is capable of knowing God, truth, and beauty by following his feelings
Young, democratic America had nothing to learn from Europe
American could produce its own great literature and art

44. Henry David Thoreau Emerson’s disciple
Not only expressed his radical insights but lived them
He went to jail rather than pay taxes to support what he considered the “evil” Mexican War
He defended the right to defy unjust govt. policies in his essay “Civil Disobedience” (1849)

45. Henry David Thoreau (cont.)
Thoreau's works
“he seems to have wanted most to use words to force his readers to rethink their own lives”

46. Margaret Fuller Emerson discipline
Combined transcendentalism and feminism
Women in the Nineteenth Century (1845)

47. Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass Broke new ground in poetry
“lusty” and “bold”
Free verse
Celebrated the American common man
Whitman's works

48. Hawthorne, Melville, and Poe
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter
Hawthorne works

49. Herman Melville
Moby Dick
Melville's works

50. Edgar Allen Poe
Poe's works
Poems and short stories
The Raven

51. Hawthorne, Melville, and Poe (cont.)
They were more interesting in writing in analyzing moral dilemmas and probing psychological states
Shared an “underlying pessimism about the human condition”
Explored questions of human nature

52. Literature in the Marketplace
Most 19th century U.S. authors hoped to gain recognition and a living from their writings.
Poe sold short stories to popular magazines
Emerson, Thoreau, Melville made $$$ by lecturing for lyceums
Most lyceum speakers were men

53. Literature in the Marketplace (cont.)
Women could and did earn excellent livings by turning out sentimental novels
Susan Warner’s The Wide, Wide World
Neither the writers nor most of the female readers who consumed the sentimental novels were active feminists
Many of the works did illustrate the moral that “women could overcome trials and improve their worlds.”

54. American Landscape Painting
American artists sought to depict their native land
Especially in its primitive grandeur before pioneers deforested and plowed it

55. American Landscape Painting (cont.)
George Catlin
Catlin exhibit
Portrayed Indians as “noble savages” doomed by the “march of progress”

56. American Landscape Painting (cont.)
Thomas Cole
Painted allegorical scenes on themes of importance to a young republic
Cole's works

57. American Landscape Painting (cont.)
Hudson River School
Cole, Asher Durand, and Frederic Church
Subordinated realism to emotional effect
Reflected the romanticism of the period
PBS Hudson River School

58. American Landscape Painting (cont.)
New York’s Central Park
Designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Clavert Vaux
Shared a romantic view of nature
They aimed to refresh the souls of harried urbanites by creating an idealized pastoral landscape in the midst of the city
Central Park History
Central Park map

59. Conclusion
Between 1840 and 1860, new technology changed the lives of Americans
Advances in transportation and manufacturing helped the following:
improved the American diet
made a greater variety of necessities and luxuries available at lower prices
transformed leisure pursuits
encouraged efforts to diffuse and popularize culture

60. Conclusion (cont.) Negative effects of technology:
Increased the gap between the lifestyles of the reasonably affluent and the poor
Increased the gap between middle-class men and women
Led to assaults on America’s beautiful natural environment

61. Conclusion (cont.)
The despoliation troubled writers such as Thoreau and artists such as the painters of the Hudson River school
Hawthorne’s and Melville’s fiction showed that material progress and political democracy did not liberate man from the dark places in his own soul