A Revolution in Transportation

1. A Revolution in Transportation

2. A Revolution in Transportation • In 1816, Henry Clay’s American System initiated federally funded “internal improvements” • TheNational Road became the 1st federal transportation project • Thousands of private turnpikes were built by entrepreneurs • Roads were useful but they did not meet the demand for low-cost, over-land transportation

3. America's 1st Turnpike: Lancaster, PA 1790 By 1832, nearly 2,400 miles of roads connected most major cities

4. Cumberland (National Road), 1811

5. Principal Canals by 1840 • Steamboats & canals stimulated commercial agriculture by providing for the free-flow of manufactured goods to the West

6. Steamboats & Canals Steamboats provided upstream shipping with reduce costs & increased speeds • Mississippi & Ohio Rivers helped farmers get their goods to the East but there was no way to get manufactured goods to the West: • Fulton’s invention of steamboats helped connect the West with Northern manufacturing • State-directed canal projects cut shipping costs by 90% between the West & the North

7. Robert Fulton’ s Steamboat The Clermont

8. The Erie Canal (1825) provided the 1st link between East & West The Erie Canal made New York City the commercial capital of the U.S.

9. Inland Freight Rates

10. The Railroad • From 1840 to 1860, the greatest new transportation advance was the expansion of railroads • In 1840s, railroads began to challenge canals’ dominance • Stimulated industrial & commercial agricultural growth • Led to new forms of finance, such as “preferred stock” & state & local gov’t subsidies

11. The “Iron Horse” Wins! (1830)

12. The Railroad Revolution, 1850s Railroad Expansion by 1860 The Expansion of Railroads by Region • Immigrant labor built railroads in the North • Slave labor built railroads in the South

13. Transportation Revolution by 1840: Rivers, Roads, Canals, & Railroads Jackson’s assault on the 2nd BUS in the 1830s, killed Clay’s “American System” but it did not stop transportation improvements

14. The Market Revolution

15. The Industrial Revolution Booms • In the 1840s, American industrial production became more efficient: • Due to numerous industrial innovations, growth of factories, & a demand for goods from farmers in West & South • Led to an increased division of labor&urbanizationintheNorth & an increase in staple-crop commercial farming

16. Rise of Commercial Agriculture Ohio, NY, & PA specialized in wheat while the South grew tobacco, rice, & cotton • The antebellum era saw a boom in specialized, staple-crop, “commercial” farming due to: • Lower transportation costs • New agricultural innovations like McCormick’s mechanical reaper, Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, the steel plow, thresher, & cultivator • The use of long-distance marketing & credit to sell crops

17. Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin, 1793 Actually invented by a slave!

18. John Deere & the Steel Plow

19. Cyrus McCormick& the Mechanical Reaper

20. Early Industrialism • In 1815, 65% of all U.S. clothing was made by women at home in the “putting out” system • By 1840, textile manufacturing grew, especially in New England, due to a series of new inventions • The most famous factory was the Lowell Mill in Boston • Still, only 9% of Americans were involved in manufacturing “Cottage Industry” Brought families extra income

21. Early Textile Loom Samuel Slater(“Father of the Factory System”)

22. Elias Howe & Isaac Singer 1840sSewing Machine

23. Eli Whitney’s Other Critical Invention Introduced Interchangeable Rifle Parts

24. (Two more critical inventions of the era that have little to do with the Market Revolution) Cyrus Field’s Transatlantic Cable, 1858 Samuel Morse’s Telegraph in 1840

25. Lowell Boarding Houses The Lowell System:The 1st Dual-Purpose Textile Plant Francis Cabot Lowell’s town - 1814

26. Lowell Girls What was their typical “profile?”

27. New England Dominance in Textiles

28. The Market Revolution • By 1840, improved transportation & innovation reduced time & cost to ship goods & allowed for a national market economy: • U.S. developed a self-sustaining national economy of commercial farming & manufactured goods • But, the U.S. economy was driven by regional specialization Northern industry Southern cotton production Western commercial farming

29. The Antebellum South Cotton production divided society in the Deep South: Large plantations with lots of slaves made good money Poor yeoman (with few or no slaves) mixed commercial & subsistence farming America in 1840

31. Slave Population, 1860 Slave Population, 1840 Slave Population, 1820

32. The Antebellum West Land was cheap Settlers transformed the West from wilderness to cash-producing farms: Wheat & corn Hogs & cattle Better transportation made it easier for farmers to get their goods to market America in 1840

33. The Antebellum North Shifted from yeoman to small commercial farming Made manufactured goods for farmers in the West & South Experienced rapid urbanization America in 1840

34. U.S. Urban Centers

35. American Population Centers in 1820 American Population Centers in 1860

36. The Market Revolution • New innovations made work easier & improved American industry & agriculture • However, the U.S. was not an “industrial society” in the 1840s • 60% of the population were still involved in farming • Most production was still done traditionally in small workshops

37. Mass Immigration Begins

38. Mass Immigration Begins • From 1840 & 1860, 4 million Irish &GermansimmigratedtoAmerica • Motivations for immigration: • Most came for higher wages in northern industrial jobs • The potato blight from 1845-1854 brought 1.5 million Irish immigrants • Low fares on trans-Atlantic ships made access easier

39. Immigration to the US 1820-1860 Where did immigrants go? Farmers Industrial workers Gold miners Cotton farming & cattle

40. Mass Immigration Begins In 1836, 4% of the Lowell Millworkers were foreign-born; By 1860 62% were foreign-born • Immigrants filled low-paying jobs in northern cities or migrated into the West to become farmers • This vast pool of cheap labor provided fuel for the U.S. Industrial Revolution in 1850s • Inthe1840s, factory labor began to shift from American women & children to immigrant men

41. Mass Immigration Begins • Low immigrant wages contributed to urban slums where poverty, disease, & crime were common • This influx of immigration led to urban reform movements: • Provided police forces, sanitized water, sewage disposal, & improved housing standards • But the immigrant poor were largely unaffected by the results Affluent city dwellers moved to America’s 1st suburbs

42. Anti-Immigrant Reaction • Immigrant groups were met with prejudice (esp the Irish Catholics) & tension in 1840s & 1850s • Nativism emerged among American-born citizens: • Suspicion of the new ethnic neighborhoods & alien cultures • Led to bloody anti-Catholic riots, charges of despotism, & anti-Irish propaganda

43. The “Know-Nothing” Party Nativist propaganda targeting German & Irish immigrants Anti-Catholic “Native American” mob battling the state militia in Philadelphia in 1844

44. Conclusions • In the 1830s & 1840s, the USA was growing more democratic & economically self-sufficient: • Innovation & transportation improvements connected regional specialization into a nation market economy • This economic growth will stimulate a sense of “manifest destiny” into the West & sectional divisions between North & South