CHAP 10 the Economic Revolution

1. CHAP 10 the Economic Revolution British textile manufacturers Had 100 years to develop their factory technology and American factories could not compete. Cheap factory made British cloth flooded the American market, threatening the livelihood of hand spinners and weavers.

2. Two advantages the British had of American Manufacturing were the cheapness of labor in a densely populated country, and the advances in machinery.. .The British were so protective of their technology that British law prohibited the export of textile machinery or the emigration of mechanics who had the knowledge to build the machines…. But lured by high wages or offers of partnerships thousands of British mechanics disguised themselves and brought the British technology to America. Most important of these corporate spies was Samuel Slater, who came to America in 1789 with the most advanced machinery for spinning cotton.

3. To power machines, owners built their factories along the “Fall Lines” where the Appalachian foothills dropped to the Atlantic coastal plain, Rapids formed and water mills were most efficient. • Thomas Jefferson dropped his long standing objections to industrialization, and expressed pride in American Progress in Manufacturing just a year before his death.

4. Women in the factory • Francis Cabot Lowell Copied the technology of a British factory and built a factory in Waltham Ma. In addition to the technology which was improved over the British Technology, he also devised the “Waltham Plan” which hired farm girls at low wages, kept them in boardinghouses and very paternalistically kept an eye on their moral behavior with strict curfews, prohibiting alcohol and requiring church attendance. The Girls lived an oppressed life, but were able to save wages for personal use , or to help out their families back home.

5. Labor Movements develop The advance of Machinery and industrialization in America had a negative effect on the Artisans who faced declining income, loss of status and even unemployment as Machines were able to do their jobs more quickly and efficiently and masters demanded more of workers for less… • Many Artisan trade workers banded together to form unions… such as the Mechanics Union of Trade Associations developed as a result of the Philadelphia Journeymen Carpenters strike in 1827. Then they formed the Working men’s Party which won the expansion of Public Schooling in Philadelphia. Workers devised the “Labor Theory of Value” arguing that the price of a product reflected the labor that went into creating it, and therefore the profit should go primarily to those that physically produced it.

6. Transportation • For business to grow, America had to develop transportation networks through vast stretches of countryside. The State Governments provided most of the infrastructure improvements by awarding charters. But the Federal government was responsible for the most significant feat. The building of the National road (also known as the Cumberland road ) which began in Cumberland Maryland and made it to Wheeling Virginia in 1818 and finished in 1850 Vandalia Illinois.

7. Canals and Steamboats cut most travel and communication time in half. • When the New York legislature approved the construction of the Erie Canal in 1817, no canal was longer than 28 miles, because of the cost and the technological challenges. But the Erie had the backing of New York city merchants. Financial backing of the NY State government and gentle terrain allowed the 75 miles to be built in two years and 364 miles by 1825.

8. In Gibbons v Ogden the John Marshall Supreme court determined that The state of New York could not grant a monopoly to a transportation company using a waterway, and that the Federal government had the sole authority over interstate commerce, this meant that no state or local monopolies, or state taxes could impede the flow of goods and services across the nation and this was a blessing for a newly emerging technology… The train.

9. Due to the expansion of the railroads and canals between the Northeast and the Midwest, the Midwest came to resemble the Northeast culturally, ethnically, and technologically. Farmers in the Midwest bought iron Plows and steel horseshoes from the Northeastern factories, shipped their grain on the Erie Canal to Northern markets… and eventually began to produce their own farm implements. John Deere began to make Steel Plows in mass production in 1847 in Illinois. Cyrus McCormick moved his reaper factory to Chicago to be closer to his customers New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and other Western cities started out as transportation centers but as populations grew, Banks and investors moved in to help develop industry.

10. In 1817 New York Merchants founded the New York Stock exchange, which quickly became the biggest market for securities in the nation. • New York City became the economic center of the country by 1830 because it secured control of foreign trade and immigration, with the best harbor in the U.S. • State & Federal Taxes always fell hardest on the Middle class.

11. Lyman Beecher’s Restoration of the” moral Government of God.” • Drinking & Disorder among the urban wage earners sparked concern among many well- to- do Americans and listening to preachers like Lyman Beecher of Boston they were inspired to “restore the moral government of God” The “Benevolent Empire” set out to institutionalize charity and to combat “evil” systematically. With the creation of Prison discipline Society and ASPT (Temperance ) As a result Evangelical temperance advocates were finding enthusiastic public support among the Middle class Drinking had been reduced dramatically. While in the working classes Many workers escaped the routine of work by smuggling whiskey into the work place

12. Charles Grandison Finney, revivalist • Charles Grandison Finney achieved great success as a revivalist in Rochester New York in 1830 When he won over influential merchants and Manufacturers Who pledged to reform their lives and those of their workers.

13. Immigrants shape the country • Between 1840 & 1860: • 1.5 million German Immigrants came to America during this time. They avoided the South and mostly moved to Midwestern States such as Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri or they settled in the North Eastern States where they accounted for 1/3 of white adults by 1860. they tended to be artisans and could afford to buy land. • The 750, British immigrants were generally wealthier than other immgrants as they tended to be professionals and skilled workers.

14. 2 million Irish immigrants most were poverty stricken and they were fleeing the potato famine. They tended to be catholic and the Roman Catholic Church provided community services and a sense of Identity for Irish and German Catholics

15. “Native American” Clubs formed in reaction to the the immigration of Irish catholic immigrants. They called for restriction of public offices to Native born Americans, limits on immigration, and exclusive use of the Protestant King James Version of the Bible in public Schools. • In Philadelphia in 1844 a Catholic Bishop persuaded public schools to use both Protestant and Catholic versions of the Bible and anti Irish rioting resulted, lasting two months of open warfare.