The Industrial Revolution

1. The Industrial Revolution

2. Before the 1800s, most Americans were farmers and most goods were produced by hand. As a result of the Industrial Revolution, machines replaced hand tools and new sources of power, such as steam, replaced human and animal power. • The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the 1700’s. New inventions led to a new system of producing goods. The new factory system brought workers and machinery together in one place to produce goods.

3. A Revolution Crosses the Atlantic • Britain wanted to keep their new technologies a secret, but British workers were willing to leave the country and sell the secrets to rival countries. • The invention of interchangeable parts, parts that can be used between different machines, helped to lower the cost of consumer goods and speed up the building process.

4. Daily Life During the Industrial Revolution • Factories hired mostly women and children because they could pay them half of what they would have had to pay men. • Boys and girls as young as 7 worked in factories, small children were especially useful because they could squeeze around the large machines to fix and repair them. • The Industrial Revolution had a great impact on home life. As the factory system spread, more family members left the home to earn a living. This changed the role of women.

5. Growing Cities • During the Industrial Revolution, many people left farms to work in factories. This movement of population from farms to cities is called urbanization. • Urbanization was a steady but gradual process. In 1800, only 6 percent of the nation’s population lived in urban areas. By 1850, the number had risen to 15 percent. • Growing cities had many problems. Dirt and gravel streets turned into mud-holes when it rained. Cities had no sewers and people threw garbage into the streets. Under these conditions, disease spread quickly and easily.

6. Americans Move Westward

7. In the early 1800s, the stream of pioneers turned into a flood and by 1820 so many people had moved west that the population in the original 13 colonies had actually declined. • Settlers used a variety of means to travel, including wagons and wagon-trains, and floatboats. • Pioneers from the south traveled to modern-day Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Pioneers from the north pushed into the Northwest Territory sailing over Lake Erie and into Ohio and Indiana. • Between 1792 and 1819 eight states joined the Union: Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, and Alabama.

8. Improvements to Roads • In the U.S. private companies built gravel and stone roads. To pay for these roads, the companies collected tolls from travelers. These roads are known as turn-pikes and still exist today. • Some states set aside money to improve roads or build new ones. For the first time in 1806, Congress approved funds for a national road-building project.

9. Steam Transport • A new invention, the steam engine, opened a new era in river travel. In 1787, John Fitch showed members of the constitution convention how a steam engine could power a boat. He then opened a ferry service on the Delaware River. • Soon steamboats were ferrying passengers up and down the Atlantic coast and more importantly, steamboats revolutionized travel and good transportation to and from the west.

10. The Canal Boom • Steamboats and better roads brought many improvements but they did not help western farmers get their goods directly to markets in the east. To meet this need, Americans dug canals (a canal is an artificial channel filled with water that allows boats to cross a stretch of land). • Some New Yorkers had a bold idea, they wanted to build a canal linking the Great lakes with the Mohawk and Hudson rivers. Work on the Erie Canal began in 1817 and by 1825 the immense job was finished. The Erie Canal was an instant success and dropped shipping costs by 90%.