AP U.S. History Chapter 10 America’s Economic Revolution
MAIN IDEA / DETAILSThe Changing American Population / Before the Industrial Revolution could occur in America many factors were needed:
Population large enough to feed the country
Surplus workforce available for industrial jobs
Transportation & Communication systems
Technology to allow manufacturing on a large scale
System of business organization
*By 1860, the North had at least the beginning of all these things
The American Population, 1820-1840 / Three trends characterized the American population between 1820-1840:
Rapid increase of people
Many moving from the countryside to the industrializing cities of the Northeast & Northwest
Many also migrating westward
Pop. 1790 / 4M
Pop. 1820 / 10M
Pop. 1830 / 13M *fewer than 500K foreign
Pop. 1840 / 17M
Improvements in public health
Fewer epidemics (great cholera plague of 1832)
Higher birth rate (1840) 6.14 children
Lower infant mortality rate
Immigration contributed little to the American population in the first three decades of the 19th century
1832 – 60K immigrants (Irish)
1837 - 80K immigrants (Irish)
Reduced transportation costs
Increasing economic opportunities
So. Irish counties Irish Catholics
Many immigrants stayed in cities in the Northeast
Urban growth also influenced by ‘internal migration’ some to cities, others westward
1790 / 1:30 lived in a city
1820 / 1:20 lived in a city
1840 / 1:12 lived in a city
Rise of New York City was dramatic. By 1810, largest city in the United States
Its excellent natural harbor, Erie Canal completed, and liberal state laws attracted foreign & domestic commerce
Immigration and Urban Growth, 1840-1860 / Growth of cities accelerated even more dramatically 1840-1860
NYC pop. 312,000 to 805,000 (1.2M if Brooklyn included)
Booming agricultural economy of western regions also produced significant growth: St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville
All benefited from strategic positions on the Mississippi or major tributaries
Great Lakes eventually superseded river ports: Buffalo, Milwaukee, Cleveland, most important, Chicago
1860 – U.S. pop. Larger than GB
1840-1850 more than 1.5M European immigrants arrived
1850’s - more than 2.5M
In St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, immigrants outnumbered native born Americans
Few settled in the South
Most from Ireland & Germany, others from England, France, Italy, Scandinavia, Poland, Holland
Germany; 1848 liberal revolution
Ireland – harsh British masters, the potato famine 1845-49
Majority of Irish settled in Northeastern cities, unskilled labor, many unmarried women
German immigrants often migrated w/entire family, or single men, and usually had more $$
The Rise of Nativism / Some native-born Americans welcomed new immigrants= large supply of cheap labor that would keep wages low
Land speculators w/investments in the West hoped immigrants would move into these areas
Political leaders in the western states & territories needed immigrants to boost the population to increase the political influence of the region
*Wisconsin allowed foreign-born residents to become voters as soon as they declared intent to become citizens after 1 year’s residence.
Other states soon followed suit.
Eastern cities political organizations also courted immigrants votes
Other Americans, not so much
Viewed growing foreign population w/alarm
Their fears led to ‘nativism’ – a defense of native-born people and a hostility to the foreign-born, usually combined w/a desire to stop or slow immigration
Nativism took many forms: outright racism, willing to work for lower wages, thus 'stealing' jobs, religious prejudice against Catholics
Whig politicians were outraged b/c so many newcomers voted Democratic.
Others complained immigrants sold their votes
New secret societies emerged to combat the ‘alien menace’
Most originated in the Northeast, some later spread to the West and even to the South.
1837 - Native American Association began agitating against immigration
1845 – Nativists hold a convention in Philadelphia and formed the Native American Party
1850 – Many nativist groups formed the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner.
Their list of demands included:
Banning Catholics or foreign-born from holding public office
More restrictive nationalization laws
Literacy tests for voting
The Order adopted a strict code of secrecy, which included the secret password used in lodges around the country: I know nothing.
Ultimately, members became known as the ‘Know-Nothings’
After the election of 1852- the American Party was created; scored an immediate and astonishing success in the elections of 1854
Know-Nothings cast a large vote in PA and NY and won control of the government in MA.
Elsewhere, Know Nothings influence more modest in the West, possibly b/c of larger German presence, especially as they were mostly Protestants themselves.
After 1854, the strength of the Know-Nothings declined
Transportation, Communications, and Technology / As the Industrial Revolution required a growing population, it also needed an efficient system of trans. & communications
This was essential in creating regional, national, and international markets
1790-1820’s –so-called ‘turnpike era’ In a nation as large as the U.S. roads were inadequate for the nation’s expanding needs
1820’s-1830’s – Americans began to turn to other means of transportation
Large rivers, flat-bottomed barges, floated downstream; return trip extremely difficult
1820’s - Steamboats carried corn & wheat of Northwest farmers, cotton & tobacco from the South
Steamboats also carried significant passenger traffic, companies built increasingly lavish vessels to compete for this lucrative trade
Problem: farmers in the Northwest would pay less if they could ship goods directly east instead of down the Mississippi and thru the Gulf to the Atlantic seaboard.
Merchants could also sell larger numbers of merchandise if they could ship directly.
New highways across the mountains provided a partial solution, but shipping rates still too high.
Alternate proposal: build canals
4 horses 1.5 tons of goods 18 miles a day on a turnpike
4 horses 100 tons of goods 24 miles a day on a canal
Generated interest in building canals but canal building too expensive for private enterprise
New York was the first to act.
July 4, 1817 – NY Gov. DeWitt Clinton authorized the Erie Canal project; the greatest construction project the U.S. had ever undertaken: a ditch 40 feet wide and four feet deep w/ towpaths along the banks.
1825- Erie Canal opens. Engineering triumph and immediate financial success
Another result was increased white settlement in the Northwest(Midwest)
Rival East Coast cities such as Boston, Philadelphia & Baltimore had logistical problems canal building and were ultimately unable to compete w/ NewYork’s system.
However, some cities were already looking at a newer method of transportation, the railroad.
The Early Railroads / Eventually, railroads became the primary transportation system for the United States, and remained so until the construction of the interstate highway system in the mid-twentieth century.
Technological breakthroughs:
Invention of tracks
Steam-powered locomotive
Development of railroad cars to carry passengers and freight
1804 – Both English and American inventors experimented w/steam engines for propelling land vehicles.
1820 – John Stevens ran a locomotive/cars around a circular track on his estates
1825 – Stockton and Darlington Rail Road in England opened a short length of track. 1strailroad to carry passengers
American entrepreneurs in the Northeast wanted better communication w/the West
1830 Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) opened a 13 mile stretch of track
1836 – more than 11K miles of track had been laid in eleven states
Not yet a true railroad ‘system’
Tracks of different gauges, erratic schedules, frequent wrecks
1830-1840 – Heavier iron rails introduced, steam locomotives more powerful, redesigned passenger cars
Railroads and canal became bitter rivals but railroads had so many advantages they almost always prevailed
Triumph of the Rails / After 1840- railroads gradually supplanted canals and all other modes of transport
In 1840 – almost 3K miles of track
By 1850 – over 9K miles of track
After 1850’s- unparalleled burst of railroad construction tripled the amount of track in just 10 years
Northeast – most comprehensive system 2X more track than Northwest region, 4X as much track as the South
Important change: trend toward consolidation of short lines into longer lines, aka ‘trunk lines’
1853- 4 major RR trunk lines had crossed the Appalachian Mountains to connect the North East w/ the North West
Chicago became the railroad center of the West
Lessens the dependence of the West on the Mississippi River
Capital to finance the railroad boom came from many sources:
Private American investors
RR companies borrowed large amounts of $$ from abroad
Local governments often contributed capital
RR’s also received substantial assistance from the federal government in the form of public land grants
1850- Sen. Stephen A. Douglas (IL) and other railroad-minded politicians persuaded Congress to grant federal lands to aid the Illinois Central (Chicago-Gulf of Mexico)
By 1860- Congress had allotted over 30 million acres to eleven states to assist railroad construction
Innovations in Communications and Journalism / 1844 – Samuel F.B. Morse succeeded in transmitting a message from Baltimore to Washington via telegraph lines.
Magnetic wires attached to wooden poles extended along railroad tracks, connecting one station w/another. It aided in the scheduling and routing of trains
The Morse telegraph system seemed an ideal answer to the problem of long-distance communication.
1860 – More than 50K miles of wire connected most parts of the country.
1861 – The Pacific Telegraph w/3,595 miles of wire, opened between New York and San Francisco. By then nearly all the independent lines had joined into one organization, the Western Union Telegraph Company
1846 – Richard Hoe invented the steam cylinder rotary press, making it possible to print newspapers rapidly and cheaply
The telegraph, combined with the introduction of the rotary press, made possible much faster collection and distribution of news.
1846 – Newspaper publishers from around the nation form the Associated Press (AP) to promote news gathering by wire; no longer did they have to exchange newspapers for out-of-town reports
Major metropolitan newspapers began to appear in the larger Northeast cities; Horace Greeley’sTribune, James Gordon Bennett’sHerald, Henry J. Raymond’s Times
In the long run, journalism would become an important unifying factor in American life.
In the 1840’s-1850’s the rise of the new journalism helped to feed sectional discord. Most major magazines & newspapers were in the North, reinforcing the South’s sense of subjugation.
Few Southern newspapers had any impact outside their communities.
Commerce and Industry / By the mid-1850’s the U.S. had developed the beginnings of a modern capitalist economy and an advanced industrial capacity
This created enormous wealth but it did not affect everyone equally. Some classes and regions benefited from economic development far more than others
The Expansion of Business, 1820-1840 / Business grew rapidly, partly because of population growth and the transportation revolution but also because of daring, imagination and the ruthlessness of a new generation of entrepreneurs
Business organization was changing: individuals or limited partnerships were still operating but in some cases the individual merchant capitalist was giving way to the corporation.
Corporations began to develop rapidly in the 1830’s when some legal obstacles were removed
Companies could incorporate by paying a fee instead of applying to the state legislature for a charter
Also, limited liability which protected stockholders
Corporations made possible the accumulation of large amounts of capital, making it possible to build larger factories and expand the business
Investment still provided too little capital to meet the demands of the most ambitious businesses; these businesses relied heavily on credit, and their borrowing often created dangerous instability
Credit remained very crude in the 19th century
Only the government could issue official currency but the currency was backed by gold or silver and there was too little
of it to support the growing demands of credit.
Under pressure from corporate promoters,many banks issued large quantities of bank notes, unofficial currency and much less stable value.
The notes only retained their value as long as the bank could sustain public confidence; some banks issued so many notes that their own reserves could not cover them and as a result bank failures were frequent and bank deposits were often insecure.
The Emergence of the Factory / “The Most Profound economic development in the mid-19th century was the rise of the factory”
Prior to 1812, most workshops were in private homes or small individually owned shops
Improved technology and increasing demand produced fundamental change, beginning in New England and the Northeast
Water-power driven machines
By the 1820’s the ‘factory system’ began to make serious inroads into the old, home-based system of spinning thread and weaving cloth.
Transformation of the shoe industry, from handmade to factory made, several graduated sizes, no left or right.
1830’s factories were spreading from textiles and shoes into other industries and from New England into other areas of the Northeast
1840-1860 Industry experienced even more dramatic growth;
1840- total value of manufactured goods $483M
1850 – $1B
1860 – $2B
Over 2/3rds of manufactured goods were produced in the Northeast
Advances in Technology / Technology advanced so rapidly that by the 1830’s, especially in the textile manufacturing, British industrialist were traveling to the U.S. to learn new techniques rather than the other way around.
Development of machine tools: turret lathe, universal milling machine, precision grinding machine.
Federal armories (Springfield, Harpers Ferry) were breeding grounds for technological discoveries and a magnet for craftsman. By the 1840’s the machine tools used in factories were already better than those used in Europe
Eli Whitney/Simeon North tried to introduce interchangeable parts into gun factories now found their way into other industries
This would revolutionize watches and clock-making, locomotives, steam engines, bikes, sewing machines, typewriters, cash registers and eventually, the automobile
New sources of energy; coal began replacing wood, making it possible to locate mills away from running streams allowing industry to expand more widely.
Number of patents rise dramatically; Goodyear, Howe-Singer
1820’s -1830’s- Factories remained wedded to water power:
Lawrence, Lowell were close to natural waterfalls
Men & Women at Work / Early industrial labor came from the native-born population
After 1840, labor force is from immigrants
Recruiting a Native Workforce / Factory Towns: The Rhode Island System
The United States abundant water power would enable Americans to build their factories across the countryside instead of creating great industrial cities.
A decentralized factory system would provide employment for country women & children and subsidize the independence of struggling farmers
The American textile industry began in industrial espionage. The British government, to protect its lead in industrialization, forbade either the machinery or the people who operated it to leave the country.
Samuel Slater, an apprentice at a British textile mill, memorized the design of the Arkwright mill and built the first Arkwright spinning mill in America at Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1790.
This first mill satisfied the neo-Federalists requirement: it required no factory town and it supplemented the household income of farmers and artisans.
As business grew, Slater advertised for widows with children.
However, families headed by impoverished, landless men were attracted to these jobs and ‘respectable’ farmers and craftsmen pulled their children out of Slater’s mills.
More poor families arrived to take their place and during the first years of the 19th century, Pawtucket grew rapidly into a disorderly mill town.
Soon Slater and other mill owners built factory villages in the countryside where they could exert better control over their operations and their workers.
This practice became known as the ‘Rhode Island’ or ‘family system’. Mill owners built whole villages surrounded by company-owned farmland which was rented to the husbands and fathers of their mill workers.
The workplace was closely supervised and drinking and other troublesome practices were forbidden.
By the late 1820’s, Slater and most other mill owners were eliminating outworkers, buying power looms, and transforming villages into disciplined, self-contained factory towns .
This transformation came at a great cost to old forms of household independence.
Factory Towns: The Waltham System
A second act of industrial espionage was committed by a wealthy, cultivated Bostonian named Francis Cabot Lowell.
Lowell toured the English factory district and made secret drawings of the machines he saw. He disliked the squalor of the English textile towns.
Returning home, Lowell & his wealthy friends formed the Boston Manufacturing Company, soon known as Boston Associates.
In 1813, Lowell built their first mill at Waltham, Massachusetts, and then expanded into Lowell, Lawrence and other towns near Boston during the 1820’s.
The company operated under what became known as the Waltham system.
The Waltham (Lowell) system differed from the early Rhode Island mills in two ways:
First, they were heavily capitalized and as fully mechanized as possible; they turned raw cotton into finished cloth with little need for skilled workers
Second, the operatives who tended the machines were young,single women recruited from the farms of northern New England.
As farmers were switching to raising livestock, they had little need of labor of daughters. The company provided carefully supervised boardinghouses and strictly enforced rules of conduct.
The brick mills and boardinghouses set within landscaped towns, occupied by sober, well-behaved farm girls signified the Boston Associates’ desire to build a profitable textile industry without creating a permanent working class.
Some unexpected results of the Waltham system:
1. Young women policed their own behavior
2. They did not send their wages home, nor pay for their
brothers college education
3. They saved their money for dowries that their fathers couldn’t
afford
4. They spent their wages on themselves, particularly on clothes