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Chapter 12, Section 1
The Industrial Revolution in America
The Industrial Revolution
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Change from handmade goods to manufactured
goods 1700-mid 1700’s
A Need For Change
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Great Britain, mid 1700’s
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Though innovation, people created machines to
make production more efficient
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Greater demand for manufactured goods
As agricultural production and roads improved, cities
expanded and populations grew
Manufacturing methods of the day not meeting demands of
the people
Industrial Revolution
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Period of rapid growth in using machines for manufacturing
and production that began in the mid-1700’s
Textile Industry
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First important break through
Textiles
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Cloth items
Richard Arkwright
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Invented a large spinning machine called a water
frame
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Able to produce dozens of cotton threads at the same
time
Lowered the cost of cotton and increased production
speed
Used water as its source of power
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Merchants built textile mills near rivers or streams and
began to hire people to work there
Britain soon had the world’s most productive textile
manufacturing industry
Arkwright Water Frame
New Machines and Processes – Slater and
His Secrets
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To protect its manufacturing secrets, Great
Britain made it illegal for skilled mechanics or
machine plans to leave the country
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Disguised as a farmer, Samuel Slater immigrated
to the United States after he carefully memorized
the designs of the textile machines
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Skilled British mechanic
After arriving in the United States, he sent a letter to a
US textile mill owner named Moses Brown
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Claimed he could improve the way textiles were
manufactured in the United States
New Machines and Processes – Slater and
His Secrets
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Samuel Slater formed a partnership with Moses
Brown’s son, Smith, and son-in-law, William Almy
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Opened their first mill in Pawtucket, RI 1793
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Production of cotton thread in the United States
Slater’s mill was a success
Slater’s wife invented a new kind of cotton for sewing
Other Americans began opening textile mills
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Most were located in the Northeast (New England)
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New England merchants had the money to invest in textile
mills
New Machines and Processes – Slater and
His Secrets
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New England Geography
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New England has many rivers and streams
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Textile mills were powered by the rivers and streams
Fewer textile mills were built in the South
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Southern investors focused on agricultural
expansion
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Agriculture was an easier way to make money in the
South
A Manufacturing Breakthrough
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Despite changes, most manufacturing was
still done by hand
Concern of war with France in the 1790’s
yielded a demand for more muskets for the
army
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Workers made musket parts by hand
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No two parts were exactly alike
Great pains to fit all pieces together
Workers could not produce muskets quickly enough to
meet the government’s demand
Need for better technology
A Manufacturing Breakthrough
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Eli Whitney
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Inventor
Proposed mass production of weapons for the US
government by utilizing water-powered machinery
Interchangeable Parts
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All parts identical
Made assembly easier
Promised to build 10,000 muskets in 2 years
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Granted federal money to build his factory
A Manufacturing Breakthrough
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Eli Whitney was summoned to the White
House by President John Adams
Presented interchangeable parts to President
John Adams and his Secretary of War
Using an assortment of 10 parts for guns he
selected parts at random and quickly
assembled them
President John Adams was amazed
Whitney’s Influence
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Eli Whitney proved that American inventors
could improve upon British technology
Interchangeable parts allowed for mass
production
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Efficient production of large numbers of identical
goods
Chapter 12, Section 2
Changes in Working Life
Mills’ Change Workers’ Lives
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Mill workers no longer needed the specific skills of
craftspeople to run machinery
Labor in high demand because of other job
opportunities
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Samuel Slater and his partners used apprentices but
usually only gave them simple work
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Apprentices often grew tired of the simple work and left
Mills’ Change Workers’ Lives
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Samuel Slater eventually began to hire entire
families to work in his mill
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Hiring entire families allowed Slater to meet his
labor needs at a low cost
Children and Adults worked side by side
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On most farms, children were utilized for work so few
people complained about hiring children for factory work
Mill owners profited by paying children low wages
Mills’ Change Workers’ Lives
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Samuel Slater provided housing and a company store for
workers
He also began paying workers with credit at the company store
 Workers could make small payments on items over time
 Allowed Slater to reinvest his money in his business
Samuel Slater’s strategy of hiring families and dividing factory
work into simple tasks became known as the Rhode Island
System
 Mills throughout the Northeast copied Slater’s system
The Lowell System
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Francis Cabot Lowell developed a very different
system called the Lowell System
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Based on water-powered textile mills that employed young,
unmarried women from local farms
Included a loom that could both spin threat and weave cloth
in the same mill
Women lived in boarding houses and provided with meals
The Lowell System
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Young, unmarried female mill workers knows as
Lowell girls
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Many young women came to Lowell from across
New England
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Paid $2-$4 per wk
Lowell girls paid $1.25 for room and board
Wages much better than in other jobs for women
Wanted an opportunity to earn money than work on a
family farm
Typical Lowell girl worked in the mill for 4 years
The Lowell System
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Lowell girls were encouraged to use their free
time to take classes and form clubs
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Wrote their own magazine, The Lowell Offering
Life very difficult in the mills
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Work day 12-14 hours
Daily life carefully controlled
Cotton dust caused health problems
Workers Organize
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As factories continued to spread in the 1800’s,
Craftspeople (those who made goods by hand) felt
threatened because factories quickly produced lowcost goods
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To compete with factories, shop owners had to hire more
workers and pay them less
Wages of factory workers went down as job
competition grew
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Wave of immigrants in the 1840’s brought people from poor
nations who were willing to work for less money
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Immigrants went to the Northeast rather than the South
Job competition also came from people unemployed
during the Panic of 1837
The Beginning of Trade Unions
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Skilled workers began to form trade unions
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Groups that tried to improve worker pay and conditions
Most employers did not want to hire union workers
because it would cost them more
Labor Unions sometimes staged strikes
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Refusal to work until employer meets worker demands
Labor Reform Efforts
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Sarah G. Bagley
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Founded the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association in 1844
Publicized the struggles of factory workers
Fought for a 10-hr work day and working inspections to improve
factory conditions
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She was supported by many women and men
Elected vice president of the New England Working Men’s
Association in 1845
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President Martin Van Buren had approved a 10-hr work day for federal
government employees in 1840
First women to hold such a high ranking position in the American
Labor Movement
Over time, the unions achieved concrete legal victories
Chapter 12, Section 3
The Transportation Revolution
Trade and Daily Life
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Transportation Revolution
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Period of rapid growth in the speed and
convenience of travel because of new methods of
transportation
Created a boom in business across the nation
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Reduced shipping time and costs
Two new forms of transportation
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Steamboat
Steam-powered trains
Steamboat Era
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Robert Fulton
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American who in 1803 tested his first steamboat design in
France
Clermont
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First full-sized commercial steamboat in the United States
Traveled against the current up the Hudson River in 1807
without trouble
Steamboat
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Well-suited for river travel
Could move upriver
Did not rely on wind power
Made possible to move goods more quickly and thus more
cheaply
By the 1850’s steamboats were also being used to carry
people and goods across the Atlantic Ocean
Clermont
Gibbons v. Ogden
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Steamboat shipping led to conflicts over
waterway rights
Aaron Ogden sued Thomas Gibbons for
operating steamboats in New York waters
that Ogden said he owned (1819)
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Gibbons did not have a license to operate in New
York but argued that his federal license gave him
the right to use New York waterways
Gibbons v. Ogden
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Gibbons v. Ogden
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Reached the Supreme Court in 1824
Reinforced the federal government’s authority to
regulate trade between states by ending
monopolistic control over waterways in several
states
Freed up waters to even greater trade and
shipping
American Railroads
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Steam-powered trains had first been
developed in Great Britain in the early 1800s
but did not become popular in the United
States until the 1830’s
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Peter Cooper
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1830, built a small but powerful locomotive called the
Tom Thumb
Raced the locomotive against a horse-drawn railcar
Locomotive passed the horse
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Locomotive broke down near the end, but the power of the
locomotive was undeniable thus beginning railroad fever
Tom Thumb
American Railroads
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By 1840, American railroad companies had
laid about 2,800 miles of track
Engineers and mechanics overcame many
tough challenges
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Crossing over steep mountains, swift rivers, and
tight curves
As time went on, engineers and mechanics made
the switch from building tracks quickly, often and
with inexpensive materials to building heavier,
faster, and more powerful locomotives
American Railroads
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By 1860, the dawn of the Civil War, about
30,000 miles of railroad linked every major
city in the Eastern United States.
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Economic surge
Railroad companies became some of the most
powerful businesses in the nation
As railroads expanded, manufacturers and
farmers could send their goods to distant
markets
American Railroads
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Railroads made a tremendous impact on the
senses of passengers and observers
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Fastest form of transportation
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Wagons traveled at about 2 miles/hr while trains moved
at 20 miles/hr
Early train travel was dangerous for
passengers
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Passengers accepted the risks because trains
reduced travel time so drastically
Transportation Revolution Brings Changes
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Steamboats and railroads made getting goods to
distant markets much easier and less costly, leading
the growth of a national economy
Wealth centered in the North
Border expansion and guided population growth
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Towns sprang up at railroad junctions
Cities grew as trains brought new residents and raw
materials for industry and construction
Growing prosperity encouraged many Americans to take
pride in their country
A New Fuel
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Coal replaced wood as the main source of
power for trains
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A half ton of coal produces as much energy as
two tons of wood at half the cost
Coal also became popular for heating homes
Railroads transported coal from mines to
towns and cities
A New Fuel
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As the demand for coal increased, a coal mining
industry developed in many states
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Coal mining led to new towns
Deep gashes were made into the earth to obtain coal
In the 1870’s, the demand for coal further increased
as the demand for steel increased
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Steel is made by heating iron ore to very high
temperatures-coal utilized to fire the furnaces
Steel is much stronger than iron and used to build factories
and machines
Steel was also used for railroad tracks
A New Fuel
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Growing market for steel helped fuel the need for
more railroads
Railroads transported steel to places where new
factories were being built
Railroads brought new steel farming tools and
machines to farmers in the Midwest
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Using new equipments, farmers produced more crops
Railroads then transported their harvests to markets
Effects of Railroads
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Railroads helped the logging industry expand
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People in growing towns needed wood for homes and
furniture
Newspaper publishing increase created a paper
demand
Lumber items became the primary product of New
England
Settlers across the Midwest cut down trees and
plowed up prairies for new farmland
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Deforestation
Effects of Railroads
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Growth of cities
Transportation hubs created
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Chicago, IL
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Location on Lake Michigan made it an ideal
transportation hub, linking the Midwest to the East and
the South