The Antebellum Period

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

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 1840-1860 • Also looking at the ways people responded to those transformations

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?

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

Introduction (cont.) • Most Americans between 1840 and 1860 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

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

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

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)

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ice Boxes

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

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

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

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

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

Democratic Pastimes • Introduction • New technology transformed leisure as well as work between 1830-1860 • Imaginative entrepreneurs used new inventions and advances in manufacturing to sell the kinds of entertainment they believed the public wanted

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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”

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

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

Hawthorne, Melville, and Poe • Nathaniel Hawthorne • The Scarlet Letter • Hawthorne works

Herman Melville • Moby Dick • Melville's works

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

The Antebellum Period