Topic VIII

1. Topic VIII Growth of the United States

2. The Industrial Revolution • Period of time where machines replaced handmade tools and new sources of power such as steam, water, and wind replaced human and animal power. • The Industrial Revolution began in England in the mid-1700s. • New inventions led to a new way of producing goods. • Example: 1764 – James Hargreaves developed the spinning jenny which could spin several threads at once.

4. Samuel Slater • Samuel Slater was a skilled mechanic in a British textile mill who heard the Americans were offering rewards for those who could help design textile mills. • Textile: a cloth, especially one manufactured by weaving or knitting; a fabric or Fiber or yarn for weaving or knitting into cloth • In 1789 he left England and traveled to the United States having memorized plans for a textile factory. • Slater helped Moses Brown, a Quaker capitalist, who had a mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. • Capitalist– a person who invests in a business in order to make a profit. • By 1793, he developed the first successful textile mill in the US which was powered by water

8. Eli Whitney • an American inventor who proposed the concept of interchangeable parts. • All machine made parts would be alike which saves time and money • Invented the cotton gin (engine) which separated cotton seeds from its fibers • Invention of the cotton gin led to a swift growth (or boom) in cotton production

11. Lowell, Massachusetts • Francis Cabot Lowell, a Boston merchant, found a way to improve on British textile mills. • He created a mill which combined spinning and weaving under one roof. After his death, his partners built an entire factory town and named it after him. • To work in their new mills, the company hired young women from nearby farms. They were called “Lowell Girls.” • In Lowell and other towns, companies hired mostly women and children because they could pay them low wages.

12. Lowell, Massachusetts

13. The mills of Lowell, Massachusetts are well-known for employing large numbers of women. In the 1840s, nearly half the female population of Lowell worked in the mills. Each mill employed a few hundred people. This trade card for the Merrimack Manufacturing Co. shows women working at the cloth-making machines.

16. Daily Life in the Factories • child labor – boys and girls as young as seven worked in factories. • long hours – 12 hours a day, six days a week. • changes in home life – more family members left the home; role of women changed.

17. American Cities • Many people left farms to work in factories. Older cities grew rapidly while new ones sprang up around factories. • The movement of the population from farms to cities is called urbanization. • Hazards – dirt and gravel streets turned into mudholes when it rained, no sewers, garbage in the streets, disease, overcrowding, etc. • Attractions – theaters, museums, and circuses became popular.

19. 2000 U.S. population density within each county, in persons per sq. mile (lower 48 states only): Light to dark (yellow to blue): 1-4 (y), 5-9 (lt. green), 10-24 (teal), 25-49 (dk. teal), 50-99 (blue-green), 100-249 (blue), 250-66,995 (black).

22. Transportation Improvements • Flat Boats – or flat-bottom boats, which were well-suited to the shallow waters of the Ohio River

23. Transportation Improvements • Roads • Turnpikes - private companies built gravel and stone roads. To pay for the roads, companies collected tolls from travelers.

24. Lancaster Turnpike First important turnpike in America. Also the first long-distance stone and gravel road in the country. Chartered in 1792 and completed in 1795, it ran 62 miles from Philadelphia to Lancaster and gave travelers an easier way to reach the Northwest Territory.

25. Transportation Improvements • Roads (continued) • National Road (orCumberland Road) was built by the federal government between 1811 and 1839. The road stretched from Maryland to Illinois

26. National Road

28. Transportation Improvements • Steamboat • John Fitch – showed members of the Constitutional Convention how a steam engine could power a boat (1787) • Robert Fulton – launched a steamboat in 1807 called the Clermont on the Hudson River.

29. Transportation Improvements • Steam Locomotive • In 1829, a steam powered locomotive called the “Rocket” was developed. It could travel up to 30 miles per hour.

30. Transportation Improvements • Canal– artificial channel filled with water that allows boats to cross a stretch of land

31. Erie Canal - canal which linked the GreatLakes with the Mohawk and Hudson rivers.

33. Impact on the United States • Encouraged trade • Provided links between the “East” and the “West” • Encouraged settlement in remote areas • New states created

37. First Railroads • Began in the early 1800s • Horses or mules pulled cars along rails • 1829: steam powered locomotive called the “Rocket” was developed. It could travel up to 30 miles per hour.

38. Problems of First Railroads • Unsafe • Unreliable • Weak bridges and roadbeds • Locomotives often broke down • Smokestacks emitted thick black smoke and hot embers causing fires • Wooden rails (eventually replaced with iron rails)

50. Other Improvements…