1. The Transformation of American Society, 1815-1840
Chapter 9
The Transformation of American Society,

2. Introduction
Economic and social changes that took place in the United States between 1815 and 1840
1.) What were the main elements of the market revolution?
2.) How did the market revolution spark social change?
3.) How did the meaning of American freedom change in this period?
4.) How did the market revolution affect the lives of workers, women and African Americans?

3. The Agricultural Boom Growth of the population in the old Northwest
The removal of the Indians
the high prices and escalating demand for wheat and corn
Growth of the population in the old Southwest
1793=Eli Whitney’s cotton gin
Boundless need of the British textile industry for raw cotton

4. The Agricultural Boom After the War of 1812
Southeasterners poured into AL and MS
Drove up land prices
Tripled the nation’s cotton production
By 1836, cotton accounted for 2/3’s of America’s foreign exports

5. The Growth of the Market Economy
Introduction
High crop prices after the War of 1812 tempted more farmers than ever before to switch from subsistence to commercial agriculture.
Commercial agriculture opened new opportunities for western farmers
It also exposed them to greater risks
Many had to borrow $$$$ to buy land and to survive until they could sell their first crops
Once in debt, the commercial farmers were particularly vulnerable because they had no control over fluctuations in price, supply, and demand in world markets

6. Federal Land Policy
Jeffersonian Republicans introduced land policies aimed at a speedy transfer of the public domain to small farmers
Between 1800 and 1820
The govt. cut the minimum price per acre and the minimum # of acres that could be purchased
Most govt. land was sold at auction
Speculators often bid the price up far above the minimum
Speculators believed that the price of land would soon shoot up in value
The easy availability of credit encouraged this speculation

7. The Speculator and the Squatter
Many poor settlers who did not have the money to buy at auction simply squatted on govt. land
They exerted mounting pressure on Congress to grant them preemption rights over speculators
They won their demand in 1841
Squatters quickly turned to commercial agriculture
They wanted to accumulate the cash to buy their farms
Many western farmers, after exhausting the soil’s fertility growing cash crops, simply moved on to new land

8. The Transportation Revolution: Steamboats, Canals, and Railroads
Before 1820, available transportation facilities were unsatisfactory
Existing roads were adequate for transporting people, but moving bulky loads over them by horse-drawn wagons was slow and costly
Robert Fulton’s steamboat
Allowed the great rivers west of the Appalachian Mountains that flowed north to south became two-way streets for commerce
By 1855, 727 steamboats were providing regular ferry service on all the western rivers

9. Steamboats, Canals, and Railroads (cont.)
Rivers did NOT always exist where they were most needed for trade
Americans began to build canals in 1820’s
Erie Canal
1817 to 1825 it was built
State of New York constructed it
Connected Albany on the Hudson River with Buffalo on Lake Erie
Lowered freight rates to a fraction of what they had been
Made NYC a leading outlet for Midwestern production

10. Erie Canal

11. Steamboats, Canals, and Railroads (cont.)
The Erie Canal’s success encouraged dozens of other state-supported projects
The canal-building boom deflated with the depression of the late 1830’s
Railroads
By 1840 some 3,000 miles of railroad track had been laid
trains were beginning to supplement and compete with canal shipping

12. The Growth of Cities
This transportation revolution stimulated the development of towns and cities
River port cities (steamboat)
Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, New Orleans
Lake port cities (canals)
Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee
The period from 1820 to 1860 saw the most rapid urbanization in American history

13. Industrial Beginnings
Introduction
Early industrialization stimulated urbanization
The first cotton mill in the U.S.A. opened in Pawtucket, RI
Skilled mechanic Samuel Slater managed to sneak out of Britain and arrived in America with his ability to reproduce Richard Arkwright’s spinning frame
Slater’s 1st mill opened in 1790
Soon joined by many other manufacturing textiles and shoes

14. Introduction
The rapidity of industrialization varied from region to region
New England leading the way
The South lagged far behind
Planters preferred to put their capital in land and slaves

15. Introduction Industrialization began to change people’s lives
Forced workers to regulate their labor by the clock and pace of the machine
Downgraded the position of skilled artisans
Cheaper machine-made products were available in greater amounts to working-class Americans

16. Causes of Industrialization
Embargo Act of 1807
Induced merchants barred from foreign trade to divert their capital to founding factories
After the War of 1812=fledgling industries received protection from high tariffs
Especially in the 1820’s
Transportation improvements opened distant markets to manufactures

17. Causes of Industrialization
Relatively high wages paid to American workers
Made employers eager to adopt laborsaving techniques
Eli Whitney’s interchangeable parts
Other new technology

18. Textile Towns in New England
New England was the 1st region to industrialize
Its merchants were particularly hard hit by foreign trade disruptions
It had swift-flowing rivers for waterpower
It had excess female farm population for labor
Textile manufacturing became its leading industry
The Waltham and Lowell mills in MA were the first to concentrate on total cloth production within the factory

19. Textile Towns in New England (cont.)

20. Textile Towns in New England (cont.)

21. Textile Towns in New England (cont.)
Originally 80% of the mill operatives were unmarried young women
Lived in company housing under the strict supervision of management
During the 1830’s, these Lowell women staged 2 of the largest strikes in American history to that date. (1834 and 1836)

22. Lowell “girls”

23. Article Discussion
With 2-3 people discuss what you read about. Make a T-chart of 5 reasons why the mills improved women’s lives and 5 reasons why they did not.
Write a thesis answering the following question:
Did the Industrial Revolution provide more economic opportunities for women in the 1830s?

24. Artisans and Workers in Mid-Atlantic Cities
New York City and Philadelphia
Shoes, saddles, clothing
Done in small shops as well as factories
Much of the work was still done by hand rather than by machine
But increasingly production was subdivided into small specialized tasks
Done by low-paid, semiskilled or unskilled laborers (often women)

25. Artisans and Workers in Mid-Atlantic Cities
This resulted in a declining importance for skilled artisans
in protest in the late 1820’s, formed trade unions and “workingmen’s” political parties

26. Equality and Inequality
Urban Inequality: The Rich and the Poor
The gap between the rich and the poor grew during the 1st half of the 19th century
The extremes were especially obvious in the cities
Mansions of the wealthy line the fashionable avenues
The poor crowded into noxious slums like New York’s Five Points district
1833 in Boston=the richest 4% of the population owned almost 60% of the land

27. Western Expansion The Sweep West
By 1821 the following states were added
VT, KY, TN, OH, LA, IN, MS, IL, AL, ME, MO
Between 1790 and 1820
Pioneer families clustered near the navigable rivers
1820’s and 1830’s
With the development of canals and railroads, families could afford to fan out
Tended to settle near others who had come from the same region back east
Settled mostly between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River

28. Western Society and Customs
Adventurous pioneers traveled across the continent
Fur-trading and animal trapping
“mountain men”
The Far West
Before 1830, life was crude and difficult
Easterners often looked down on westerners’ lack of refinement
Westerners in turn resented eastern pretensions to gentility

29. The Federal Government and the West
Midwestern settlement was encourage by:
Ordinance of 1785
Northwest Ordinance
Louisiana Purchase
Transcontinental Treaty of 1819
Land warrants given to War of 1812 veterans
Extension of the National Road into IL by 1838
Removal and declining strength of the Native Americans (by 1820 were no longer receiving Spanish and British aid)

30. Free Blacks in the North
Overwhelming discrimination kept most free blacks in poverty
They were generally denied the vote
Educated in inferior segregated schools (if at all)
Forced to use separate and unequal facilities
Kept out of all but the lowest-paying, least skilled occupations

31. Free Blacks in the North
In response to this pervasive discrimination, northern blacks founded their own churches
Richard Allen started the first of these
African Methodist Episcopal Church
In Philadelphia
1816
By 1822, there were AME congregations all over the North
The black churches engaged in antislavery activities and ran schools and mutual-aid societies

32. The “Middling Classes”
The majority of white Americans were neither rich nor poor
Belonged to what was then called the middling classes
For most people in that group the standard of living rose between 1800 and 1860
Members of the middle class experienced a lot of insecurity
They also exhibited a high degree of transience, moving from neighborhood to neighborhood, city to city, and region to region

33. The Revolution in Social Relationships
The Attack on the Professions
One sign that economic changes were disrupting traditional relationships and forms of authority could be seen in the intense criticism of professionals (doctors, lawyers, ministers) between 1820 and 1850
The denial that professionals had any special expertise was particularly prevalent on the frontier

34. The Second Great Awakening
From New England, the Second Great Awakening moved rapidly to frontier areas
Thousands gathered at religious camp meetings
These frontier revivals helped to promote law and order
Diminished the violence prevalent in new western areas
The Methodists were the largest, most successful denomination on the frontier
Early 1800’s to 1840’s

35. Eastern Revivals
By the 1820’s, the center of religious revivals had moved east again
It was particularly strong in an area of western New York known as the Burned-Over District
Mostly along Erie Canal
Charles G. Finney
Revivalist leader
Preached humans were capable of living without sin
Humans needed to experience an emotional religious conversion

36. Technology and Economic Growth
Introduction
Pre-Civil War decades were affected and transformed American life by:
The steam engine
Cotton gin
Reaper
Sewing machine
Telegraph
This new technology increase productivity and eased travel and communication
Also it brought down costs and prices

37. But the new technology hurt other Americans
Most Americans between 1840 and 1860 enjoyed improved standards of living
But the new technology hurt other Americans
The cotton gin encouraged the expansion of the plantation-slave economy
Sewing machines and new manufacturing techniques rendered traditional crafts and the artisans who practiced them obsolete

38. Agricultural Advancement
Between 1830 and 1860, settlers moved onto the grasslands of IN, MI, and IL
John Deer’s steel-tipped plow was developed in 1837
Used to break up the tough prairie soil

39. Agricultural Advancement
Cyrus McCormick
1847
Massed produced mechanical reapers
Farmers could harvest grain 7 times faster than before and use 1/2 the labor
Wheat became the dominat crop of the Midwest

40. Agricultural Advancement
Americans quickly adopted these laborsaving inventions
But they generally farmed wastefully
Rapidly depleted the soil
Then moved on to virgin land
In the East some farmers introduced fertilizers
Increased their yields so they could compete with the new western fields
In the South farmers had little incentive to invest in laborsaving machinery (used slaves)

41. The Railroad Boom By 1860, the United States had 30,000 miles of track
More than the rest of the world combined.
Most of the new rail lines linked the East and Midwest.
Much of the produce of the Midwest was now shipped via railroads radiating from Chicago eastward.

42. The Railroad Boom (cont.)
Positives of the railroad growth:
simulated the settlement of the Midwest
Growth of wheat farming
Aided the development of cities, towns, and industry
Several states barred funding of the railroads
Encouraged a shift toward private investment

43. Ralph Waldo Emerson Wrote mostly essays Transcendentalism
American brand of romanticism
Emerson rejected the importance of education and reason in seeking the truth
He contented that every individual is capable of knowing God, truth, and beauty by following his feelings
Young, democratic America had nothing to learn from Europe
American could produce its own great literature and art

44. Henry David Thoreau Emerson’s disciple
Not only expressed his radical insights but lived them
He went to jail rather than pay taxes to support what he considered the “evil” Mexican War
He defended the right to defy unjust govt. policies in his essay “Civil Disobedience” (1849)
Walden
“he seems to have wanted most to use words to force his readers to rethink their own lives”

45. The Challenge to Family Authority
Children became more inclined to question parental authority
Young men left home at an earlier age and struck out on their own
Young women increasingly made their own choice of whom to marry or even whether to marry

46. Wives and Husbands Relations between spouses also were evolving
Wives continued to be legally subordinate to their husbands
But under the doctrine of separate spheres, middle-class women were demanding and winning greater voice in those areas where they were deemed to be particularly
Exerting moral influence on the family
Creating within the home a calm refuge from the harsh, competitive world outside

47. Wives and Husbands (cont.)
Middle-class women gained more control over the frequency of their pregnancies
The size of white middle-class families declined markedly
The birthrate remained high among black and immigrant women

48. Horizontal Allegiances & the Rise of Voluntary Associations
Authority of fathers, husbands, professionals, and other social “superiors” waned
New relationships among persons in similar positions were forged through the spread of voluntary associations
Temperance and moral-reform societies of white middle-class women, union, and workingmen’s parties and black fraternal, and other clubs encouraged sociability among members
Also these were attempts to enhance their influence on outside groups

49. Conclusion
After 1815, white Americans’ westward movement speeded up due to a heightened European demand for agricultural products
especially cotton
Federal govt. policies also hastened western settlement
Removal of eastern Indians to west of the Mississippi River
The sale of land on more generous terms

50. Conclusion (cont.)
Improved transportation facilitated the shipment of western farmers’ produce to eastern and European markets
Steamboat, canals, railroads
This transportation revolution encouraged the growth of cities, commerce, manufacturing, and industrialization

51. Conclusion (cont.)
The economic transformations made some American wealthy and impoverished others
Affected social relations within the family and society