TECHNOLOGY, CULTURE, AND EVERYDAY LIFE, 1840-1860

CHAPTER 11 TECHNOLOGY, CULTURE, AND EVERYDAY LIFE, 1840-1860

Introduction to Ch. 11 • Stitching by hand • Pants – 3 hrs. • Dress – 7 hrs. • Stitching by machine • Pants – 38 mins. • Dress – 57 mins. • 700-800 machines per year (1851) to 21,000 (1859) to 174,000 (1872)

Installment plans were adopted by Singer • Most machines were sold to factories • There was an upbeat response to technological change (God’s chosen instrument of progress) • Yet there was a darker side • Revolvers kill • Sweatshops formed • The urban decay

Hailed as democratic, the benefits of technology drew praise from all sides • Antebellum life was transformed • Steam engine, cotton gin, reaper, sewing machine, telegraph • Transportation and production increases = lower commodity prices

Agricultural Advancement • Westward expansion = opportunity for innovation and increase in production • John Deere’s steel-tipped plow busts up Midwestern soil, opening it up to wheat • Available timber builds homes and fences • Wheat is the Midwestern cotton

Agriculture innovations meet business enterprise • Cyrus McCormick’s offers deferred payments and money back guarantees • The Reaper harvested grain 7X faster with ½ the labor force • He sells 80,000 in 1860; 250,000 during the Civil War

Interesting • Whitney (Conn. Yankee) helped the South • Solidified Cotton as King and made it more profitable • McCormick (Virginia Confederate) helped the North • North was the main market for the wheat and freed up workers to join the army

West was not conscientious of farming innovation yet • The East was much better – in an effort to compete with the amount coming out of the West • Plaster in Virginia • Quano in southern cotton

Technology and Industrial Progress • American System • Interchangeable parts made American manufacture distinct • Replacement parts available • Enabled entrepreneurs to push inventions swiftly into mass production • Examples: Smith and Wesson from Colt; telegraph lines put up quickly to tackle fire communication

The Railroad Boom • Americans were travelling first class (those allowed to ride) • Problems though • No brakes or lights, problems in scheduling and delays, and different gauges gradually give way to better conditions

Important: RR connects the East to the Midwest • Chicago replaces New Orleans as the interiors commercial hub • They also propels the growth of small towns on their route • Example: Illinois Central • Roads going E-W trees; N-S numbers • Land speculation along the lines was big time

Important to understand about the RR • Government financing contributes to private investment • Railroad financing and investing helps make the NYSE and New York what it becomes

Rising Prosperity • From 1800 to 1850 prices drop and worker’s real income increases 25% • More work available all year lone • Women and children contribute more (they have to) • Despite some of the problems in quality of life in the cities, most in rural areas did not own farmland, etc. • The cities were better

Quality of Life; Dwellings, Con/Incon. • Patent offices flooded • Machine-made furniture provide taste; stoves provide heat; RR provide fresh food • The middle class may be a bit closer to the upper, but they both separate from the lower • Rowhouses and tenements vs. “Place” and “Square” • Running water and burning coal • Baths, sewage, and hogs

Disease, Health, and Movements • Transportation increased spreading • Public calls for municipal health boards • Little confidence in conclusions of medical professionals • Contagion vs. miasma theories • Anesthesia helps improve image • Phrenology – example of invented science that improves simple “understanding”

Newspapers • 1830 – newspapers were 4 pages long with a circulation of 1,000-2,000 • Journalists were loyal to some clique • Steam-driven cylindrical presses change everything (10X increase) • Newspaper now relied on circulation, not political subsidies • 1833- the Penny Press • So common newsboys sell on the streets • Topics become human-interest stories with actual reporters • New York Tribune and New York Herald

The Theater • All classes went to the shows • They were notoriously rowdy (prostitutes, etc.) • Most of the shows were Shakespearean, dumbed down for understanding and maybe even altered a bit • Short performances took up the interludes

Minstrel Shows • Plays much into the American sense of racial superiority by diminishing blacks • Especially that of working-class whites • Blacks were docile, dancing around, stumbling over words, etc. • Songs such as “Dixie”, “Camptown Races”, “Oh Susannah”, “Old Folks Home” and “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny” started out as songs in minstrel shows.

P.T. Barnum • Recognized the opportunity to make money off of entertainment • He was a hustler • He bought an old museum, called it the American Museum, and created popular entertainment • Main goal was to prick public curiosity

Strong lecturer on the temperance circuit • He helped break down barriers that divided the pastimes of husbands and wives

Roots of American Renaissance • What helped create this development? • Transportation innovations created a national market for books • The rise of philosophical movement known as Romanticism • it challenged the classical view of “standards of beauty being universal” • Also, it focused on the emotionally charged • The democratization of literature had begun

Writing fiction was the new genre • It did not require knowledge of Latin or Greek • The novel allowed for interpretation

James Fenimore Cooper • Created the distinctively American character, Natty Bumppo (Leatherstocking)

Ralph Waldo Emerson • Most influential spokesman for American Literary Nationalism • Transcendentalism – our ideas of God and freedom are inborn; knowledge resembles sight- an instantaneous and direct perception of truth • The American Scholar

Walt Whitman • Influenced by journalism and politics – kept him in touch with ordinary Americans • Leaves of Grass (shattered poetic conventions) • Henry David Thoreau • Rep. of the younger Emersonians • More action oriented • Civil Disobedience; Walden

TECHNOLOGY, CULTURE, AND EVERYDAY LIFE, 1840-1860