Download File - LCA 8

#1
INDUSTRIALIZATION
Industrialization—the shift from an agricultural
economy to one based on production and
manufacturing—completely changed the northern
and western economy between 1820 and 1860.
For a country whose economy used to be almost 90%
agricultural, the Industrial Revolution of the early and
mid 19th century transformed American society in every
way possible, making wealth, production, competition,
and labor the pillars of the Northern States.
Steam ENGINE 1775-James Watt
James Watts creates the most
efficient Steam Engine in the mid
19th century.
Steamships and Railroads, which
relied on the Steam Engine,
allowed for the quicker
transportation of raw materials
that could be used to produce
finished goods.
Cotton Gin 1793-Eli Whitney
The cotton gin is a machine designed to
remove cotton from its seeds. The process
uses a small screen and pulling hooks to
force the cotton through the screen. It was
invented by Eli Whitney on March 14, 1794,
one of the many inventions that occurred
during the American Industrial Revolution.
The cotton gin made the cotton industry of the
south explode. Prior to its invention, separating
cotton fibers from its seeds was a labor intensive
and unprofitable venture. However, after Eli
Whitney unveiled the cotton gin, processing
cotton became much easier resulting in greater
availability and cheaper cloth. However, the
invention also had the by-product of increasing
the number of slaves needed to pick the cotton
thereby strengthening the arguments for
continuing slavery. Cotton as a cash crop
became so important that it was known as King
Cotton and affected politics up until the Civil War.
Powerloom 1813-Francis Cabot Lowell
The power loom was a steampowered, mechanically operated
version of a regular loom, an
invention that combined threads to
make cloth. The first American power loom was constructed in 1813 by a group
of Boston merchants headed by Francis Cabot Lowell. The city of
Lowell and other early industrial American cities grew rapidly as a
result of the machine. The power loom allowed the wholesale
manufacture of cloth from cotton. Power loom took the raw
cotton produced by Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin and threaded it
together to create cloth. While the South grew wealthier and
wealthier based on the slave labor of Africans, the Northern
factories increased production because of young women who
worked in harsh factories.
Henry Clay’s “American System”-1815
Henry Clay, a Senator from Kentucky,
Proposed the “American System” a system
designed to make the United States
economically
self-sufficient
(independent). The “American System”
proposed. Among other things, a National
Bank and a National Road, which would
connect New England with the Northwest
The Erie Canal-1825
Territory.
363 Miles long connected the Hudson
River (New York City) to Lake Erie
(Midwest)
•
Reduced travel time and
shipping costs by 90%
Lowell Mill Girls
During the first half of the nineteenth century, farm girls and
young women from throughout New England were
recruited to work in the textile factories in Lowell,
Massachusetts. Although the women were tightly
controlled and were expected to work in dangerous and
harsh conditions, many managed to join organized
demonstrations against their working conditions. This
marked the first moment women began to stand up for their
rights Working conditions in northern
Factories
As the factory system developed, working conditions worsened. Factory owners wanted their
employees to work longer hours to produce more goods. By 1840, factory employees worked
an average of 11.4 hours per day. As the workday grew longer, on-the-job accidents
became more common.
Factory work was often dangerous. But factory owners often showed more concern for
profits than for the comfort and safety of their employees. Employers knew that they could
easily replace an unhappy worker with someone else who was eager for a job. No laws
existed to regulate working conditions or to protect workers.
# 2: Urbanization
Urbanization-American society urbanized drastically
during this era. The United States had been a land
made up almost entirely of farmers. But around 1820,
millions of people began to move to the cities. They,
along with several million Irish and German
immigrants, flooded northern cities to find jobs in the
new
free-enterprise economy (an economy
where people are free to buy, sell, and produce
whatever they want). Although immigrants and
skilled factory laborers could earn a decent living in
the industrial factories of the North, the working
conditions were often brutal and dangerous. The
harsh working and living conditions of Northeast cities
helped lead workers to organize and protest for
political and social
reforms (changes).
New Waves of Immigration- 1800-1850
With Urbanization came a huge increase in immigrants to the United
States, particularly the Northeast and Midwest Cities such as New
York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
The majority of the immigrants came from England, Ireland,
Germany, China, and Scandinavian Countries.
The numbers of immigrants increased so rapidly that the total went
from 4 million immigrants in 1790 to 32 million in 1860.
“Push” and “pull” factors of Immigration
PUSH FACTORS OUT OF EUROPE
•
Crop Failures in Europe left people in debt and
hungry. The most famous example is the Irish
Potato Famine from 1845-1854 in which many
farmers starved to death. Many Irish fled to
Northeast cities to find work!
•
Overcrowding and poverty in European cities led
people to seek new opportunities in America.
PULL FACTORS TO THE UNITED STATES
• Religious and Political Freedom
• Greater Economic Opportunity
• Abundant and relatively cheap land
Living Conditions for Immigrants in Cities
Due to the rapid increase of immigrants in
Northeast cities, living conditions for new
arrivals was often dangerous and harmful.
Cities experienced overcrowding, sanitation
Immigrants first arriving to cities like
New York, lived in apartments called
tenements. Meant to accommodate just
one family, tenements often times
housed multiple families.
Tenements were narrow, low-rise
apartments that frequently were
poorly lit, lacked indoor plumbing and
proper ventilation (windows and fresh
air).
and crime problems. Much like it is for
immigrants today, life was hard for the
immigrants of the 1800s. They worked and
lived under difficult circumstances just to
make a living and support their families.
The Great Irish Potato famine
During the summer of 1845, a "blight of unusual character" devastated Ireland's potato crop, the basic
staple in the Irish diet. A few days after potatoes were dug from the ground, they began to turn into a
slimy, decaying, blackish "mass of rottenness." Expert panels convened to investigate the blight's cause
suggested that it was the result of "static electricity" or the smoke that billowed from railroad
locomotives or the "mortiferous vapours" rising from underground volcanoes. In fact, the cause was a
fungus that had traveled from Mexico to Ireland.
"Famine fever"--cholera, dysentery, scurvy, typhus, and infestations of lice--soon spread through the Irish
countryside. Observers reported seeing children crying with pain and looking "like skeletons, their
features sharpened with hunger and their limbs wasted, so that there was little left but bones." Masses
of bodies were buried without coffins, a few inches below the soil.
Over the next ten years, more than 750,000 Irish died and another 2 million left their homeland for Great
Britain, Canada, and the United States. Within five years, the Irish population was reduced by a quarter.
Interchangeable parts
The Inventor Eli Whitney started the use of
INTERCHANGEABLE PARTS. These were
identical machine parts that could be put
together quickly to make a complete
product.
Because all parts were alike, they could be
manufactured with less-skilled labor and they
made machine repair easier.
Interchangeable parts opened the way for
producing many different kinds of goods on
a mass scale and for reducing the price of
goods.
Workers attempt to organize
By the 1830s, workers began organizing to
improve working conditions. Skilled workers
formed trade unions—organizations of
workers with the same trade or skill.
Steadily deteriorating working conditions
led unskilled workers to organize as well.
In the mid-1830s, skilled workers in New
York City staged a series of strikes refusing
to work in order to put pressure on
employers. Workers wanted higher wages
and to limit their workday to 10 hours.
Groups of skilled workers formed the
General Trades Union of New York.
# 3 States Rights
T he major political struggles during the antebellum
period focused on states’ rights. Southern states
were dominated by “states’ righters”—those who
believed that the individual states should have the
final say in matters of interpreting the Constitution.
Inspired by the old Democratic-Republicans,
Senator John C. Calhoun argued that the states had
the right to
nullify (reject or cancel) laws that they
believed were unconstitutional because the states
themselves had created the Constitution. The
struggles between the Federal Government and the
State Governments has been a
that has lasted
. However, during the Antebellum Period this
issue became even more divisive (dividing). It is one
of the many issues that led to the Civil War.
Nullification Crisis 1832
The Nullification Crisis arose in the early 1830s when leaders of South
Carolina advanced the idea that a state did not have to follow a federal
law and could, in effect, "nullify" the law.
In 1828, Congress under President Andrew Jackson passed a
high
tariff (tax) on the import of British Imports. This meant
that it cost more money for Americans to buy British textiles
(cloth) than it did to buy U.S. produced textiles. This angered
the southern states because they felt it only benefited the
industrialized north, which produced textiles as opposed to
the Southern farmers who produced the raw cotton.
John C. Calhoun a States’ Rightist States’ Rightists argued that the Tariff
Act should be
Nullified (Canceled).
They believed that States should not
have to follow the laws of the Federal
Government if they believed they were
unconstitutional. The disagreement over
the Tariff Act of 1832 led to a Crisis
between the States and Federal
Government.
Chief Justice John Marshall
and Judicial Review
John Marshall served as the Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court during all of or part of the
administrations of the first six presidents of the
United States. He was a Federalist who believed
the country needed a strong central
government. The decisions he made while
serving as Chief Justice on the Supreme Court
helped to
increase the power of the Federal Government.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall One of the most famous cases Chief Justice Marshall oversaw was called Marbury v. Madison
(1803). In this case, Chief Justice Marshall
Marbury v. Madison, which is arguably one of the most important Supreme Court case in
United States History. It was the first case to apply the
of judicial review. Which gives
the Supreme Court (Judicial Branch) the power to rule laws of Congress unconstitutional.
States rights helps lead to the Civil war
The concept of states' rights had been an old idea by 1860. The
original thirteen colonies in America in the 1700s, separated from the
mother country in Europe by a vast ocean, were use to making many
of their own decisions and ignoring quite a few of the rules imposed on
them from abroad. During the American Revolution, the founding
fathers were forced to compromise with the states to ensure
ratification of the Constitution and the establishment of a united
country. In fact, the original Constitution banned slavery, but Virginia
would not accept it; and Massachusetts would not ratify the
document without a Bill of Rights.
The debate over which powers rightly belonged to the states and
which to the Federal Government became heated again in the 1820s
and 1830s fueled by the divisive issue of whether slavery would be
allowed in the new territories forming as the nation expanded
westward.