Early Industrial America The Growth of a National Economy

1. Early Industrial AmericaThe Growth of a National Economy America Chapter 8 sections 1-3

2. Innovations and Investment section 1: pages 272-279 This is a loom at Slater’s Mill, the first textile mill of its kind in the U.S.

3. Main Idea/Key Definition • Industrial Revolution: • A change in the major economic activity of the U.S. and European nations from agriculture to manufacturing in the late 1700’s & early 1800’s • The U.S. economy expanded rapidly in the early 1800’s because of: • The growth of industry & manufacturing • The rise of banking • New advances & investment in transportation

4. Birth of Industry in the U.S. • British guarded their industrial secrets, even passing laws preventing workers from leaving the country, but Samuel Slater managed to make it to the U.S. in 1789 • In 1790 he aided in the recreation of British machinery for textile manufacturing from memory! • 1793 – Opened the 1st water powered textile factory in the U.S. in Pawtucket, Rhode Island

5. Rapid Growth • By 1814 there were around 240 textile mills in the United States • Pennsylvania • New York • New England states SLATER MILL, PAWTUCKET R.I.

6. The Contributions of Eli Whitney • Interchangeable Parts: • system of manufacturing where all parts of a product are made to an exact standard allowing for an efficient assembly process and easy repairs • Cotton Gin: • a machine that removed the seeds from raw cotton increasing the production of an individual worker from 1 lb. of cotton cleaned by hand to 1,000 lbs. per day!!! • Patent: (not Whitney’s idea, but he received a patent for the cotton gin in 1794) • a license from the gov’tgiving an inventor the sole right to make, use, & sell an invention for a certain period of time

7. Effects of the Cotton Gin • Price per pound of cotton went up • More cotton was planted by U.S. farmers • Exports increased 6,000% from 1790-1815 • Southern planters began to rely on cotton as their main crop • Those with $$ bought large pieces of land in Alabama, Miss., etc. to grow cotton • To keep pace with demand planters bought more slaves • Pop. Doubled b/t 1790-1820

8. Development of Transportation • Transportation was also in the midst of a revolution • Stronger, more durable roads were built • Steamboats forever changed the use of rivers • Canal building expanded to connect waterways all over the country • Railroads provided the most efficient means of transporting raw materials, goods, and people

9. River Travel • Rivers were early America’s main transportation routes • Goods from the Midwest were shipped down the Miss. River, to the port of New Orleans, then up the Atlantic Coast • This was a one way route b/c flatboats could not travel against the current • Robert Fulton solved the problem with the introduction of his steamboat Clermont in 1807

10. Canals • Canals are man made waterways reaching places natural waterways did not • By 1840 the U.S. had 3,000 miles of canals • Erie Canal, 1825, linked the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean through the port of New York City

11. Railroads • The Baltimore & Ohio RR was the first major railway in the U.S. • Construction began in 1828 • By 1840 the U.S. had over 3,000 miles of track, most in the world • Continued development in the following decades put most canals out of business

12. The Expanding U.S. Economy • Market Revolution: • A change in the way Americans made, bought, and sold goods; and circulated money • Manufacturing: • Using machinery to make products • Centralized Factory: • One where all tasks involved in manufacturing a product are housed in one CENTRAL location • Free Enterprise System: • An economic system where private companies compete for profit. Also called capitalism, it encourages innovation, the creation of new industries, and the creation of jobs

13. The Expanding U.S. Economy • Most early U.S. manufacturing was located in New England b/c of the fast flowing rivers coming down from the mountains • 1st centralized textile factory was built by Francis Cabot Lowell in Massachusetts in 1813 • Between 1820-1840 industry spread across the Northeast and into the Ohio River Valley

14. Changes in Daily Life • “Going to work” shifted its meaning from working around the home or on the farm to working in a factory for a fixed number of hours a day for a fixed wage. • Much factory labor was SPECIALIZED: • Each worker performing one task in the production process over and over • As more products were manufactured and more Americans worked outside of the home for cash salaries, more Americans began to shop!

15. The Role of Banks • By the 1830’s hundreds of private banks had opened up in the U.S. • Private investors used their money and that of the bank’s depositors to make loans • They made money on the interest charged for the loan • Investment Capital: • Money spent with the hopes of earning bigger profits in the future. Ex. Using a loan to buy new machines. • The gov’t did not restrict the banks lending • Banks often lent money to people who could not (or did not) pay them back • If depositors wanted their money, but the bank didn’t have it, financial panics and depressions ensued

16. Bank Notes • Most common form of money in the early U.S. • Pieces of paper that promised to pay specie (gold or silver coins) on demand. • Banks just printed more of them when they needed money, whether they were backed by specie or not, so their value was unpredictable • Ex. A $100 banknote could be worth anywhere from $50-200 depending on when and where it was cashed in

17. The Northern Section Section 2: pages 280-284 Workers in an early factory

18. Divisions within America • The Northern & Southern parts of America each had a unique cultural and economic identity • The Northern section could also be divided into 2 • Northeast • New England & the Middle Colonies (NY, NJ, PA) • Old Northwest • The land that is now Ohio, IND, ILL, MICH, WI, MINN

19. Innovation in the Old Northwest • The fertile soil in these areas were ideal for growing corn, wheat, and other crops • New inventions like John Deere’s steel plow and the mechanical reaper made planting and harvesting grains less labor intensive & more profitable • Specialized businesses developed to handle the processing, transportation, and selling farm products • Slaughterhouses, distilleries, shipping companies, etc. • These industries that were tied to agriculture & livestock fueled the growth of Midwestern cities

20. The Industrial Northeast • In the early 1800’s, more and more people were leaving their rural homes and moving to urban areas to work in factories • Rural: areas made up of farms and unsettled countryside • Urban: cities • Industrialization: • The development of industry • New industries developed for ALL KINDS of products • Guns, furniture, clocks, glass, tin products, ship building, train building, iron, leather, bricks, shoes, carpet, textiles, coal mining, iron mining

21. Urbanization: the growth of cities • Opportunities for work in farming were limited in the Northeast as new practices made the work less labor intensive & the population continued to expand • Thousands flocked to the urban centers of the Northeast throughout the 1800’s

22. Urban Life in Industrial America • As workers spent more time in factories, the strength and unity of families was strained • Tenements: • Crowded apartments of the industrial poor with poor standards of sanitation, safety, and comfort • Cities couldn’t handle the massive population increase • Limited police service • Limited fire service • Lack of/limited sewers • Lack of/limited clean water

23. Labor Issues in Early Factories • The goal of factory owners was to make as much money as possible, even at the expense of the workers • Employees were paid very little • Employers didn’t try to provide a healthy environment • As workers saw the owners getting rich they wanted a piece of the action for their hard work! • THREE MAIN ISSUES IN EARLY LABOR DISPUTES: • Wages • Hours • Working conditions • The only weapon the workers had was the STRIKE: • work stoppage. If there were no workers to operate the machines, there would be no profits for the owners

24. The Infancy of Organized Labor • Labor Union: • An organization of workers designed to protect the interests of its members • While early unions had more than 300,000 members, they soon failed and died out because factory owners were able to get favorable rulings from the courts outlawing labor organizing • Though organized labor failed at first, the early movement showed some workers were willing to stand up to their powerful employers to fight for the conditions of their employment. • The groundwork was laid for the Progressive Era

25. The Southern Section Section 3: pages 285-289 Workers in a cotton field in Mississippi

26. “King Cotton” • The economy of the Southern states in the 1800’s was dominated by cotton planters • The ever increasing demand for raw cotton from the developing industrial Northeast and Great Britain drove southern farmers to plant more &more of it • Check out the data on the expansion of cotton production: • 1820: 160 million pounds of raw cotton • 1830: 320 million + pounds of raw cotton • 1850: 1 billion + pounds of raw cotton • 1860: cotton accounted for 66% of all U.S. exports

27. The Economy of the South • What states make up the South in the early U.S.? • Six of the original 13 colonies: Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, NC, SC, Georgia • New states added to the Union by 1850: Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Miss., Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Florida • Cotton Belt: • A band of states from South Carolina to Texas where planting cotton was the major economic activity • The South remained largely rural because its geography made farming highly profitable • Fertile soil • Plentiful rain • Long growing season

28. Industry in the South • Because of the profitability of farming and planting cash crops, the South industrialized slowly • Southern farmers often had to rely on banks in the North or in Great Britain for loans • They also relied on the textile mills in those two places to process their raw cotton • Few southerners looked to industry as a career path – instead even professionals had dreams of being a plantation owner

29. Farming in the South • About 15,000 families owned plantations: • Large farms that used great numbers of enslaved workers to produce cash crops • Hundreds of thousands of families owned either a few slaves or none, and raised all of their own crops • With the invention of the cotton gin many small farmers moved west into new lands to develop for cotton production • Many plantation owners bought out their smaller neighbors, acquiring huge tracts of land • Other crops in the South: tobacco, sugar cane, rice

30. Labor in the South: the Slavery System • 1808: Congress banned all further importation of slaves to the United States • Even with this restriction, the slave population grew: • Children born to slaves became slaves themselves • 1820: 1.5 million slaves in the south • 1850: 3 million slaves in the south • 1860: slaved accounted for more than 50% of the total population of Mississippi and South Carolina; and more than 40% of the total pop. of FLA, GA, ALA, and Louisiana!!