Economy Early 1800’s
Politics
Industrialization Samuel Slater Economic factors Interchangeable parts Elias Howe
I.M. Singer Samuel Morse Wage slaves
Strikes
Waltham System Women
Cult of Domesticity John Deere
Cyrus McCormick Charles Goodyear Robert Fulton Railroads
State funding Private investors Overseas
Urbanization
America became the fourth most populous country in the western hemisphere by the mid-1800’s Much of this was due toimmigration
More people moved to the city to look for jobs
– New York – Chicago
– New Orleans
Problems
– Slums – Crime – Sanitation
Irish and Germans among the
largest immigrant groups
Escape persecution, seek fortunes,
displaced, quickly get to America (12
Irish #11
1840-50’s
Potato famine
Mainly in coastal cities
– Boston and NY became the largest Irish cities in the world
Discrimination in USA
Paddies
Forced into labor jobs
– For every railroad tie there lay one dead Irishman
NINA
Irish resent blacks for same reasons they were hated
Job competition
As a result of more power
among the Irish, they gained
more control of politics
Political machines were created
Patronage was used to fill offices
Especially among the police
The Germans #12
1\2 million from 1830-60
Harsh govt. and Revolutions in 1848, etc.
The Germans came with material goods
unlike most Irish
Midwest
Block voting
Less powerful than Irish; more spread out
Many were better educated than their
American counterparts
Supported public schools
Kindergarten
Opposed slavery
Nativists
#13
More immigrants led to anti-immigrant organizations
Fear or hatred of immigrants
Feared being outnumbered; feared Roman Catholics
(seen as a foreign church)
Catholics established their own schools against
protestant indoctrination
Know Nothings #13
Extreme nativists group formed in 1849 called the Order of the Star Spangled Banner
Secret organization
Immigration restrictions
Tougher naturalization laws
Deportation of paupers
Published literature against them
Some churches burned
Industrialization
The US was slow to develop into
an industrialized nation
Lots of cheap land; less labor
force until mass immigration in 1840’s
Little capital Few consumers
Competition from British goods British monopoly in textiles
No machines could be taken from
England
US offered money to mechanics
from England with info on textile machines
Samuel Slater memorized
machine plans and came to America with them in the late 1700’s
Machine for spinning cotton
thread-1791
Slavery increased
The north would supply the
factories and the south would
supply the cotton
The south did have some factories
15% of all goods were produced in
Free Blacks
By 1860: 250,000 in the south
Most lived in cities and owned property
Constant danger of kidnapping
Many stayed in the south
Economic factors change…
Factories were slow to
grow also due to
politics
These changed that
Embargo Act
Non-intercourse Act
War of 1812
Interchangeable Parts
Interchangeable parts allowed quick production (early assembly line); introduced by Eli Whitney
Despite its success, the gin made little money for Whitney due to patent-infringement issues. Based in part on his reputation for creating the cotton gin, Whitney later
Power?
How do we power
these factories?
Water wheels
Winter?
Steam engine
Open longer and
Elias Howe (1846)
sewing machine
I.M. Singer
added the foot pedal to
sewing machines
Makes clothing more
Samuel Morse
Given credit for the
telegraph
Actually made
improvements on an
already existing invention by Joseph Henry
Important for business and
later railroads
Wage Slaves
Poor ventilation Windows kept closed in cotton
factories
15 hour days
6 days a week
Women workers
Unions illegal by law and few
strikes occurred (only 24 before 1835)
Child labor
By 1820 half of the workers were
under 10
Had to work to support the family
Strikes and Unions
Following the Jacksonian
Democracy mold, more
workers gained the right
to vote which led to labor
reforms
Strikes
Most were not
successful due to scabs
(strikebreakers….
immigrants and blacks)
Unions called for reduced
immigration
By 1830 most unions were
trade unions
300,000 members
Lose power in 1837 depression
Unions were hurt by
government decisions that supported the owners; not workers
Commonwealth v. Hunt
Corporations
1811: NY passed a
law to make it easier
to incorporate and
raise capital by selling
stocks
Owners only risked
Waltham System
To control workers
Hired women to work in
factories and provided living areas near the factories
Encouraged to attend church
Curfews
Educational opportunities
High moral standards to
encourage more women to work in their factories
Women
#18
Worked in factories Most jobs for women
were nurses, teachers, domestic servants
Most women who worked
(Blue Oyster) Cult of
Domesticity
In the home they
represented the cult of domesticity
Glorifying the homemaker Women are the moral
fiber of the family
Families were smaller Families became closer
1837: John Deere Steel plow
– Stronger, lighter – Horses not oxen
Cyrus McCormick
Invented the reaping machine (don’t
fear me)
Did the work of 5 people; farmers can
produce more product
Crops used for animal feed, distillers
and consumption
More land bought and more machinery
bought
More was being harvested than they
could consume and expanded to new markets
Need improvements in transportation to
Charles Goodyear
What did he invent?
Invented vulcanized rubber
Created by accident
Accidentally dropped some rubber mixed
with sulfur on a hot stove
Won’t melt or freeze
He wanted to make everything of rubber:
banknotes, musical instruments, flags, jewelry, ship sails, even ships themselves. He had his portrait painted on rubber, his calling cards engraved on it, his
autobiography printed on and bound in it. He wore rubber hats, vests, ties.
Wasteful Farming
Abundant land but little
was done to preserve
used land
More move west
Easterners began to
experiment; fertilizers
Cotton planters imported
guano
More specialization in
Technology
Had little positive impact on the poor
Made traditional skilled artisans
obsolete
Roads
More roads were being
constructed in America
Lancanster Turnpike
(Penn.-1790’s)
– Hard surfaces road covering 72 miles
– Toll gate; pikes aimed at you
– When you paid, they turned the pikes away
Robert Fulton
Showed the importance of steam ships
Clermont (1807)
– Made a 150 mile trip in 32 hours (fast for the time)
– NY City to Albany Easier to travel
Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824
Fulton and his partner had a monopoly on ferry runs from NY to NJ
Others petitioned Congress for operations license
Monopoly broken and steamship use increased
Hazzards!!!!!!!
Fires common due to huge furnaces
Carrying hay, oil, etc.
Boilers exploded due to stress on the metals
Some people were put onto barges behind
Railroads
1820’s use begins
Most tracks in the north
Competition between RR and
canals
NY tried to pass laws to keep
trains from carrying freight
RR cheaper to build than
canals; needed more upkeep also
Many cut costs by using
Early train problems: no
brakes, hot embers, poor
signal system, can’t stop at
Railroad Cars
Cars were not divided into class, but
were racially segregated
State Funding v. Private
Investors
Many looked to state funding to pay for
railroads
States refused to burden tax payers; few
funds from govt.
Some land grants
Had to pay for RR with private investors
Profits was the motive; not safety
Division of Labor
System seemed to develop in the
US
South provided cotton for industries
in the north and export to Europe
North made goods
West grew grains and raised
livestock
Economic fates were linked to each
other
More purchasing power
Overseas
Trade increased overseas
Less than 7% of GNP
Cotton was the largest export
accounting for over half the value of
exports
Cyrus Field
Helped to form a company with Morse and others
1858: Stretched a cable across the Atlantic to connect the US and Europe
Broke after three weeks Replaced in 1866
In early 1800’s, small manufacturing base
By 1850’s, manufacturing surpassed
agriculture in value
Farming became more commercial in early
