Cultural & Economic Changes in the Early 1800s

Education: “Crusade against ignorance” Jefferson believed in nationwide public schools Wanted all male citizens to have free education Not achieved

Education: Girls Republican motherhood led to girls schools for the wealthy Few strides for most

Education: Minorities Indians seen as “noble savages” which missionaries could convert Blacks – no education for slaves; few opportunities in the north (or segregated)

Education: Higher level Increase in number of colleges by 1800 Limited to the wealthy

Cultural Independence: American literary and artistic life American Schoolbooks textbooks Noah Webster’s English dictionary

Cultural Independence: American literary and artistic life National Literature Washington Irving Romanticism Landscape paintings; emphasis on the supernatural

Emergence of Industrialism Samuel Slater –water powered spinning mill,

New England Textile Centers: 1830s

Lowell Girls What was their typical “profile?”

Lowell Boarding Houses Why did the Lowell system die out?

Communication Innovations Samuel Morse’s telegraph Daily newspapers An improved postal system

Transportation Innovations Improved transportation between states Age of turnpikes, canals, and steamboats Robert Fulton – steamboat – The Clermont Erie Canal connected the Great Lakes to NYC

Cumberland (National Road),

Erie Canal System

Agricultural Inventions Oliver Evans’ flour mill Eli Whitney’s cotton gin - led to increased slavery & sectionalism The steel plow and mechanical reaper also transformed farming

Rising Cities Majority of Americans lived on farms and plantations, but there were signs of change Philadelphia, NYC, Baltimore, Boston, Charleston Affluence & social ills

Do these changes promote nationalism or sectionalism?