First Turnpike Lancaster, PA By 1832, nearly 2400 mi. of road connected most major cities.
Cumberland (National Road), 1811
Conestoga Covered Wagons Conestoga Trail, 1820s
Erie Canal System
Erie Canal, 1820s Begun in 1817; completed in 1825
Robert Fulton & the Steamboat 1807: The Clermont
Principal Canals in 1840
Inland Freight Rates
Clipper Ships: Boston-China Trade
400 miles a day
The “Iron Horse” Wins! (1830) 1830 13 miles of track built by Baltimore & Ohio RR By 1850 9000 mi. of RR track [1860 31,000 mi.]
The Railroad Revolution, 1850s Immigrant labor built the No. RRs. Slave labor built the So. RRs.
Resourcefulness & Experimentation Americans were willing to try anything. They were first copiers, then innovators 41 patents were approved 4,357 “ “ “
Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin, 1791 Actually invented by a slave!
Eli Whitney’s Gun Factory Interchangeable Parts Rifle
Oliver Evans First prototype of the locomotive First automated flour mill
John Deere & the Steel Plow (1837)
Cyrus McCormick & the Mechanical Reaper: 1831
Samuel F. B. Morse 1840 – Telegraph
Cyrus Field & the Transatlantic Cable, 1858
Elias Howe & Isaac Singer 1840s Sewing Machine
Material advance = natural fruit of American republicanism & proof of country’s virtue and promise. Material advance = natural fruit of American republicanism & proof of country’s virtue and promise. The “American Dream” A German visitor in the 1840s, Friedrich List, observed: Anything new is quickly introduced here, including all of the latest inventions. There is no clinging to old ways. The moment an American hears the word “invention,” he pricks up his ears.
Boom/Bust Cycles: The blue line shows, for comparison, the price of a year’s tuition at Harvard College. In 1790 it was $24, but by 1860 had risen to $104.
Samuel Slater (“Father of the Factory System”)
The Lowell/Waltham System: First Dual-Purpose Textile Plant Francis Cabot Lowell’s town
Lowell in 1850
Lowell Mill
Early Textile Loom
New England Textile Centers: 1830s
New England Dominance in Textiles
Starting for Lowell
Lowell Girls What was their typical “profile?”
Lowell Boarding Houses What was boardinghouse life like?
Lowell Mills Time Table
Early “Union” Newsletter
The Factory Girl’s Garland February 20, 1845 issue.
I’m a Factory Girl Filled with Wishes I'm a factory girl Everyday filled with fear From breathing in the poison air Wishing for windows! I'm a factory girl Tired from the 13 hours of work each day And we have such low pay Wishing for shorten work times! I'm a factory girl Never having enough time to eat Nor to rest my feet Wishing for more free time! I'm a factory girl Sick of all this harsh conditions Making me want to sign the petition! So do what I ask for because I am a factory girl And I'm hereby speaking for all the rest!
Irish Immigrant Girls at Lowell
Early Emancipation in North
Missouri Compromise, 1820
Characteristics of Antebellum South 1.Primarily agrarian. 2.Economic power shifted from “upper South” to “lower South.” 3.“Cotton Is King!” * 1860 5 mil. Bales yr. (57% of total US exports). 4.Almost no industrialization. 5.Rudimentary financial system. 6.Inadequate transportation system.
Southern Society (1850) “Slavocracy” [plantation owners] The “Plain Folk” [white yeoman farmers] 6,000,000 Black Freemen Black Slaves 3,200, ,000 Total US Population 23,000,000 [9,250,000 in the South = 40%]
Southern Population
Graniteville Textile Co. Founded 1845, South’s first attempt at industrialization: Richmond, VA
Southern Agriculture
Slaves Picking Cotton on a Mississippi Plantation
Slaves Using the Cotton Gin
Changes in Cotton Production
Value of Cotton Exports As % of All US Exports
“Hauling the Whole Week’s Pickings” William Henry Brown, 1842
Slaves Working in Sugar-Boiling House, 1823
Slave Auction Notice, 1823
Slave Auction: Charleston, SC-1856
Slave Master Brands Slave Accoutrements Slave muzzle
Anti-Slave Pamphlet
Slave tag, SC Slave Accoutrements Slave leg irons Slave shoes
Slave-Owning Population (1850)
Slave-Owning Families (1850)
Slaves posing in front of their cabin on a Southern plantation.
Tara – Plantation Reality or Myth? Hollywood’s Version?
A Real Georgia Plantation
Scarlet and Mammie (Hollywood Again!)
A Real Mammie & Her Charge
The Southern “Belle”
A Slave Family
The Ledger of John White Matilda Selby, 9, $ sold to Mr. Covington, St. Louis, $ Brooks Selby, 19, $ Left at Home – Crazy Fred McAfee, 22, $ Sold to Pepidal, Donaldsonville, $ Howard Barnett, 25, $ Ranaway. Sold out of jail, $ Harriett Barnett, 17, $ Sold to Davenport and Jones, Lafourche, $900.00
US Laws Regarding Slavery U. S. Constitution: * 3/5s compromise [I.2] * fugitive slave clause [IV.2] 1793 Fugitive Slave Act stronger Fugitive Slave Act.
Southern Slavery--> An Aberration? 1780s: 1 st antislavery society Philadelphia. By 1804: emancipation laws in all northern states. 1807: the legal termination of transatlantic slave trade. 1820: slavery abolished Mexico. 1833: slavery abolished throughout British Empire. 1861: the serfs of Russia were emancipated.
Slavery Was Less Efficient in U. S. than Elsewhere High cost of keeping slaves from escaping. GOAL raise the “exit cost.” Slave patrols. Southern Black Codes. Cut off a toe or a foot.
Slave Resistance Refusal to work hard. Isolated acts of sabotage. Escape via the Underground Railroad.
Runaway Slave Ads
Quilt Patterns as Secret Messages The Monkey Wrench pattern, on the left, alerted escapees to gather up tools and prepare to flee; the Drunkard Path design, on the right, warned escapees not to follow a straight route.
Slave Rebellions Throughout Americas
Slave Rebellions in the Antebellum South 1822 Gabriel Prosser 1800
Slave Rebellions in the Antebellum South: Nat Turner, 1831
The Culture of Slavery 1.Black Christianity [Baptists or Methodists]: * more emotional worship services. * negro spirituals. 2.Gullah languages. 3.Nuclear family with extended kin links, where possible. 4.Importance of music [spirituals].
Southern Pro-Slavery Propaganda
Regional Specialization EAST Industrial SOUTH Cotton & Slavery WEST The Nation’s “Breadbasket”
American Population Centers in 1820
American Population Centers in 1860
National Origin of Immigrants: Potato Famine
Know- Nothing Party: “The Supreme Order of the Star-Spangled Banner” Know- Nothing Party: “The Supreme Order of the Star-Spangled Banner”
Changing Occupation Distributions:
ECONOMIC? SOCIAL? POLITICAL? FUTURE PROBLEMS?