Unit 7 – North and South Lesson 40 – Northern Economy

Review The United States continued to expand westward during the early 1800s. The idea of Manifest Destiny encouraged many Americans, including the U.S. government, to move west and create new settlements. As the people moved west, the need for industry, agriculture, and trade increased.

Industrialization Industry of the North developed in three phases during the 1800s. First, manufacturers made products by dividing the tasks involved among the workers, so each worker was responsible for only step of the process. For example, instead of having one worker spin and weave all the cloth, one person would spin thread and then another worker would weave.

Industrialization The second phase of industrialization in the North was the building of factories. Factories brought the specialized workers, created by the first phase, together, which allowed products to be made more quickly than before.

Industrialization The third phase of industrialization in the North was the use of machines by factory workers to perform some of their work. These machines did the work, so the worker’s job changed from producing to tending the machines, which produced more finish products in less time.

Industrialization

Industrialization in New England Mass production of cotton textiles began in New England in the early 1800s. Elias Howe invented the sewing machine in 1846, which allowed machine operators to produce larger amounts of clothing from fabric made by machine. Other industries developed during the same time, allowing at least two-thirds of the country’s manufactured goods to come from factories in the Northeast.

Industrialization in New England

Improved Transportation With production increasing, improvements in transportation were needed to help many new industries become successful. Canals continued to be used, but struggled with the increase of cargo and travel.

Steamboats In 1807, Robert Fulton demonstrated a reliable steamboat that would be used in future boats that would carry goods and passengers more cheaply and quickly along inland waterways than flatboats and sail-powered ships. In the 1840s canal builders began to widen and deepen the canals to allow the bigger steamboats to pass through.

Steamboats Around 3,000 steamboats traveled along the major rivers and canals of the United States, as well as the Great Lakes, by Major cities, like Cleveland, Buffalo, Cincinnati, and Chicago, grew because of the steamboat.

Clipper Ships Clippers improved trade in the open seas, like the Atlantic Ocean. With the design of the hulls and tall sails, they could sail 300 miles per day, the same speed as the steamboat. Before clippers, the journey from England to New York to about 21 to 28 days. With clippers, the journey now took half that time.

Clipper Ships

Railroads The first railroads in the United States began as a short distance of track that connected mines to rivers, and used trains that were pulled by horses. The first steam-powered locomotive was first used in England in 1829.

Steam Locomotives The first American steam locomotive was designed by Peter Cooper in 1830, and was called the Tom Thumb. Although it lost to a horse-drawn carriage in a race due to a failed engine, engineers improved the engine, leading to steam locomotives pulling trains in the U.S. by 1840.

Railway Network In 1840 the United States had about 3,100 miles of railroad track, and by 1860 there was almost 31,000 miles of track, mostly in the North and Midwest. Railways connected major cities together, and builders connected railways in the east to railways further west in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

Railway Network

Benefits of Improved Transportation The railways and canals that traveled east and west allowed grain, livestock, and dairy products to move directly from the Midwest to the East, instead of down the Mississippi River and around the Atlantic Ocean. Because goods could travel more cheaply and faster, manufacturers in the East could offer them for lower prices.

Benefits of Improved Transportation The railroads were also important to the settlement and industrialization of the Midwest. With faster and more affordable transportation by train, more people were willing to travel and settle into Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. As populations grew in these states, more towns and industries developed.

Faster Communication With the growth of industry and the improved methods of transportation, a need for faster methods of communication was created. The answer to that need was an invention, that used electric signals to transmit a message, called the telegraph.

Telegraph

Faster Communication The American inventor, Samuel Morse, demonstrated to a crowd in Washington, D.C. on May 24, 1844 that he could send messages instantly along wires. A few moments after tapping a message, the telegraph operator in Baltimore sent back the same message in reply.

Faster Communication Samuel Morse sent his messages on the telegraph using a system of dots and dashes that represented the letters of the alphabet, which called Morse code. Americans took to the telegraph quickly, and impressed visitors with the speed with which Americans formed telegraph companies and put up telegraph lines.

Telegraph Lines

Revolution in Agriculture With advancements in technology and transportation, farmers could now increase the size of their harvests, as well as have the ability to sell their products to new markets across the country. Farmers began to move west to areas that seemed to difficult to farm.

Revolution in Agriculture Farmers worried that their wooden plows couldn’t dig into the thick sod of the new farmlands and that the soil may not be fertile. Inventions of the 1830s changed the ways of farming, as well as encouraged settlers to farm the large areas of the Midwest and Great Plains.

Steel-Tipped Plow In 1837, John Deere invented the steel-tipped plow that was much more sturdy than the wooden plow. Deere’s plow could easily dig into the thick sod of the prairies.

Mechanical Reaper Cyrus McCormick created the mechanical reaper, which sped up the harvesting of wheat. Farmers had harvested grain with handheld sickles for hundreds of years. McCormick made a fortune selling his reaper, and farmers began to plant more wheat due to the ease of harvesting it, making farming wheat profitable.

Mechanical Reaper

Revolution in Agriculture New machines and railroads helped farmers grow more cash crops, or crops planted strictly for sale. Midwestern farmers grew more wheat and shipped east by train and canals, while farmers in the Northeast and Middle Atlantic increased their production of fruits and vegetables.

Conclusion With the improvement of machines in industry, transportation, and communication, the new regions of the Midwest were able to grow. Although farming became more profitable, the people of the North still leaned towards industry. It was difficult to make a living farming the rocky soil of New England, but industry and factories flourished in the area.

Assignments Answer the four review questions for this lesson. Choose one invention that you feel had the most impact on American society in the 1800s. Write a paragraph explaining why you feel this invention had such a major impact. You will have a Unit 7 test after you complete Lesson 45