Chapter 14 Machines, Cotton, Land Economy and Society 1790–1824

Industrialization Industrial Revolution Most people live on farms Produce goods and food themselves Purchase very little Small businesses Mechanization changes lifestyles Textiles Basic necessity Time-consuming and difficult to make Expensive Most people had few clothes

Industrialization Industrialization (cont.’d) How cloth was made Wool was king in Britain Sheep sheared Wool cleaned Wood was carded or combed Spin into yarn Yarn woven on looms into cloth Woolens versus cotton Woolen interests were powerful Imported cotton cloth from India competed Individuals contract with cloth dealer Produce at home; work at own pace Does not alter social structure

Industrialization (cont’d) England develops textile machines Produces cloth at fraction of cost Britain enjoys monopoly Cloth better than homespun Cloth cheaper than homespun Machines Spinning jenny Richard Arkwright’s water frame in 1768 Increased volume of spun thread Powered by water Changes production as ends cottage industry Creates factories where workers come to work

Industrial Northeast Textile factories Machines need power Use water, later steam Creates need for factories Creates industrial working class Great Defector Samuel Slater memorizes plans Slater immigrates to U.S. Slater teams with Moses Brown Together build first U.S. factory Other factories follow

Industrialization Industrialization (cont.’d) U.S. capital for industry Northeast merchants, shippers invest Convert wealth from ships into mills Encouraged by trade restraints during Napoleonic Wars Americans quickly industrialize Inventors Oliver Evans: continuous-operation flour mill Eli Whitney: interchangeable parts Inventors become heroes U.S. offers technical education

American System of Manufacture Dream of interchangeable parts Chauncey Jerome clockmaker did create a system Arsenal at Springfield, Massachusetts mass produced arms

First Factory Workers First workers were children Cheap Climbed onto textile machines Then Fall River used whole families But failed Turned to women and children

Lowell Girls Francis Cabot Lowell Hires young daughters of farmers Provides room, board, enrichment activities Girls save for dowry Most laborers women and children But over time became less paternalistic

The South at the Crossroads John C. Calhoun “War Hawk” early in career First pushes for Southern industry Becomes defender of South Defends plantation system, slavery Slavery declining in 1788 Northern states abolishing slavery Southerners apologetic about slavery Tobacco production falling Congress outlaws importation of Africans

The South at the Crossroads The South at the Crossroads (cont.’d) Cotton Gin South can only grow short staple cotton Separating seeds too labor intensive Eli Whitney invents cotton gin and interchangeable parts Growing cotton now profitable Revival of Slavery in the South Cotton gin revives one-crop economy Fertile “Old Southwest” ready to settle Rapid growth in southern territories Slaves now in big demand

Trans-Appalachian Frontier Western Population Explosion Land cheap and plentiful Lands equal opportunity Mississippi River no longer frontier People seem to have no roots Population By 1820, Alabama at 75,000 States north of Ohio River grew even faster

Trans-Appalachian Frontier People who moved west Americans free to move around Some anti-social Some want to build better life Some are developers Some are town boosters Cities in West Often develop around military fort Sometimes develop on rivers Cities include industry

Federal Land Policy Rapid development leads to speculation Speculators hope to buy land cheap and sell it higher Some responsible developers Land policy 1790s: must buy tracts of 640 acres 1800: can buy 320 acres at $2 acre and on credit Land Act of 1804 favors small farmers Land Act also favors speculators Leads to wild speculation Drives up cost of land Paid for with paper money inflation

Patterns of Settlement Patterns of Settlement (cont.’d) Panic of 1819 Bank of U.S. calls in loans to wildcat banks Wildcat banks call in loans to speculators Speculators cannot pay, banks close Closed banks trigger Panic of 1819

Squatters and their hero Squatters settle land without purchase Speculators then “jump” claims Squatters turn to vigilante action Squatters want new legislation Senator Thomas Hart Benton (Missouri) Voice of squatters, other westerners Fights for liberal land policy Calls for preemption Calls for graduation

Discussion Questions Explain the rise of the factory system in England and the U.S. How did manufacturing affect the American south? Why led to the slavery revival? What factors led to the expansion of population and the development of cities in the West in the early 1800s? What were the causes and results of the Panic of 1819? Was it symptomatic of a greater problem in the U.S. economy?