- The Westward Movement
- USn marched quickly toward west( very hard w/ disease & loneliness)
- Frontier people were individualistic, superstitious & ill-informed
- Shaping the Western Landscape
- westward movement molded environment
- tobacco exhausted land *& moved on, but “Kentucky blue grass” thrived
- ecological imperialism
- rapped beavers, sea otters, and Bison to manufacture for East
- spirit of nationalism led to appreciation of American wilderness
- Catlin pushed for national park & achieved it w/ Yellowstone in 1872
- westward movement molded environment
- The March of the Millions
- mid-1800s, pop cont’d to double every 25 years
- 1860-orginial 13 states now has 33 states; pop 4th in the world(Russ, Fra, Austria)
- urban growth cont’d explosively
- 1790-only New York & Philadelphia had >20,000 people, but 1860, 43 had brought bad sanitation --> sewage system & pipe-in water
- high birthrate had accounted for pop growth, but near 1850s, millions of Irish, German came
- bec. surplus pop. in Euro but not all came to US 25/60 million
- appealing of US(land, freedom from church, aristocracy, 3 meat meals a day)
- intro of transoceanic steamship(reduce traveling to 12 days, death rate high not as bad)
- The Emerald Isle Moves West(1830s-1960s-2 million)
- Irish potato famine in mid-1840s led to death of 2million & many flee to US
- “Black Forties”—mainly came to big city-Boston, esp New York(biggest Irish city)
- illiterate, discriminated by Old USn, received lowest of job(railroad building)
- hated by Protestants bec. catholic
- USn hated Irish(NINA); Irish hated competition w/ blacks for job
- Ancient Order of Hibernians(serve to aid Irish)
- gradual property owning (grand success), children edu. Cut short to buy land attracted to politics, filled police dept.
- politician tried to appeal to Irish by yelling at London
- Irish potato famine in mid-1840s led to death of 2million & many flee to US
- The German Forty-Eighters
- 1 million poured in bet 1830s-1860s bec. crop failures & loose of rev of 1848 toward liberalism
- liberals such as Carl Schurz contributed to elevation of US politic
- had more $ than Irish so bought land in west esp. in Wisconsin
- votes crucial so wooed by US politicians but not as potent bec. spread out
- contributed to US culture (Christmas tree); isolationism
- urged public education & freedom(enemies of slavery)
- resentment from Old bec. group & aloof; brought beers to US
- 1 million poured in bet 1830s-1860s bec. crop failures & loose of rev of 1848 toward liberalism
- Flare-ups of Antiforeignism
- “nativists” prejudiced newcomers in jobs, poli, religion
- catholic became major relig group bec. immigration of 1840s, 50s & set out to build catholic school
- nativist feared that Catholicism build on Protestantism (popish idols) so formed “Order of star-spangled Banner”
- met in secrecy-“Know-Nothing” party
- fought for restriction on immigration, naturalization & deportation of alien paupers
- wrote fiction books about corruption of churches
- mass violence, ex. Philadelphia 1844-burned churches, schools, people killed
- made America pluralistic society w/ diversity
- no longer hated bec. crucial to eco expansion & more availability of jobs
- The March of Mechanization
- Industrial revolution spread to US & US destined to be an industrial giant bec.
- land was cheap, labor scare, $ for investment plentiful, raw materials not discovered
- lacked consumer for factory-scale manufacturing
- British long-estab. factory was competition
- kept textile to own monopoly(forbade travel of crafts men & export of machine)
- US remained very rural to farming
- Industrial revolution spread to US & US destined to be an industrial giant bec.
- Whitney Ends the Fiber Famine
- Samuel Slater – “Father of the Factory System”
- learned machinery when working in British Factory--> escaped to US, aided by Moses Brown--> build 1st cotton thread spinner in US (1791)
- Eli Whitney build a cotton gin (50 times more effective than hand picking cotton)
- cotton eco now profitable, saved the South to King Cotton
- south flourished & expanded cotton kingdom toward west
- north factories manufactured, esp. New England (w/ poor soil, dense labor, access to sea, river for water power)
- Samuel Slater – “Father of the Factory System”
- Marvels in Manufacturing
- embargo of war of 1812 encouraged home manufacture
- w/ peace of Ghent, British poured in surplus in cheap $, forcing close of American factory
- congress passed Tariff of 1816 to protect US eco
- Eli Whitney introduce machine made replaceable parts (on muskets)-1850
- base of assembly line (flourished North); cotton gin flourished south
- Elias Howe & Issac Singer (1846) made sewing machine(foundation of clothing industry)
- Decades of 1860 had 28,000 patents while 1800 only had 306
- Principle of limited liability(can’t loose more than invested) stimulate eco
- Laws of “free incorporation” (1848)-no need to apply for charter from legislature to start corp.
- Samuel Morse’s telegraph connected business world-“What hath god wrought?”
- Workers and “Wage Slaves”
- factory system led to impersonal relations
- benefit went to factory owner, labors were long, wages low, meals bad, no union
- child labor heavy; ½ of force child labors
- adult working condition improved in 1820s & 30s w/ mass vote to workers
- 10hour day, higher $, tolerable condition, public edu, ban of imprisonment for debt
- 1840s presi. Buren estab. 10 hour day
- many stroked but lost bec. employers import more workers (so hated immigrants)
- union formed in 1830s but hit by panic of 1837
- case of Commonwealth vs. Hunt in supreme court of Massa (1842)
- legalized union on peaceful & honorable protest
- case of Commonwealth vs. Hunt in supreme court of Massa (1842)
- Women and the Economy
- women were toiled in factory under bad conditions(scare of pop)
- opportunities rare & women mainly in nursing, domestic service, teaching
- women usu worked before marriage, after marry-house wives (made more decisions in family)
- arrange marriage died down; marriage w/ love tied family closer
- family grew smaller(ave. 6); fertility rate dropped sharply (“domestic feminism”
- child-centered w/ less children & discipline not physically
- charc of family: small, affectionate, child-centered, small arena for talented women
- Western Farmers Reap a Revolution in the Fields
- trans-Allegheny region (Ohio-Indiana-Illinois)became nation’s breadbasket
- planted corns & raised hogs (known as “porkopolis” of the west”
- inventions that boomed agriculture
- John Deere-steel plow that cut through hard soil & can be pulled by horses
- Cyrus McCormick-mechanical mower-reaper
- led to large-scale production & cash crops
- produced more than south; product flow N to S in rivers, not E & W-need transportation rev,
- trans-Allegheny region (Ohio-Indiana-Illinois)became nation’s breadbasket
- Highways and Steamboats
- improvements in transportation needed for raw material transport
- Lancaster turnpike-hard road from Philadelphia & Lancaster; brought eco expansion to west
- Federal gov. construct Cumberland Road(Maryland -Illinois)(1811-1852 )w/ state & federal $
- Robert Fulton invents steam engine(Steam boats)-1807
- increa US trade bec. no concern for weather & water current
- contributed to dev. of S & W eco
- “Clinton’s Big Ditch” in New York
- Clinton’s Big Ditch-Erie Canal bet. Great Lake & Hudson River(1817-1825)
- shorten expense & time of transportation & cities grew along the side, $ of food reduced
- farmers unable to compete in east went to west; changes in food
- Clinton’s Big Ditch-Erie Canal bet. Great Lake & Hudson River(1817-1825)
- Pioneer Railroad Promoters
- 1st railroad in US(1828); by 1860-30,000 mi. railroad tracks in US(3/4 at north)
- railroad 1st opposed bec. financier afraid to loose $ from Erie canal & also cause fire to houses
- trains were badly constructed (brakes bad) & gauge of traveling varied
- The Transport Web Binds the Union
- steamboat allowed reverse transport of S to E to bind them together
- more canals led to more trade w/ East than South by the west
- New York became the Queen port of the country--> goods distributed
- Principle of divided labor-each region specialize in own eco activity
- S-cotton to New Eng.; W-grain & livestock for E & Euro; E-machines, textiles for s &W
- S thought missi linked them to other states; but overlooked 2 N states are eco-interconnected
- Transformed home-once center of eco but now refugee of home
- Wealth and Poverty
- widen the gap bet. Rich & poor
- city w/ greatest extreme
- unskilled workers were “drifters”-town to town for jobs (1/2 of industrial pop)-forgotten
- social mobility existed but not in proportion, rags-to-rich were rare
- standard of living did raise, wage rose too (helped diffuse potential class conflict)
- Cables, Clippers, and Pony Riders
- foreign export
- cotton account for ½ of exports
- after repeal of Corn Law of 1846, wheat became imp role in trade w/ Eng.
- American imported more than exported (substantial debt to foreign creditors)
- 1858-Cyrus Field laid Cable bet. US & Euro(but died in 3 weeks); better one in 1866
- American vessels laid by embargoes, panics; naval made little progress
- gold age of naval came in 1840s, 50s –Mckay build clipper ships (fast, long)
- tea trade w/ British & carried many to CA
- crushed by British’s iron tramp steamers
- speedy communication-roads from Missouri to CA, Pony Express
- gold age of naval came in 1840s, 50s –Mckay build clipper ships (fast, long)
- foreign export