UNIT 3 NOTES:

The American system and the

changing yeoman

Presidents of the united states

George Washington (1788)

John Adams (1796)

Thomas Jefferson (1800)

James Madison (1808)

James Monroe (1816)

So Far………

Effects of 1812 The War of 1812 changed Congressional ideals War and problems with neutrality demonstrated

the vulnerability of America’s dependence on foreign economies After the War of 1812, there was a push to build

enough factories to serve domestic needs It demonstrated that the U.S. was unable to coordinate a

fiscal and military effort reliance on foreign trade made us dependent on Europe

The 1815 Jeffersonian Republican Congress would enact legislation it would have previously considered heresy

The American System Nationalists Henry Clay would for many years promote

the American System Protective tariffs Internal improvements National bank

This system would foster national economic growth In 1816 Congress chartered a Second Bank of the

United States headquartered in Philadelphia could create another bank whenever it wanted government would deposit funds in the bank

Tariffs! Tariffs are a critical piece to the American System In 1816 Congress creates the first overly

protective tariffs in U.S. history Pushed heavily by Henry Clay and John C.

Calhoun (Warhawks), the Tariffs of 1816 raised tariffs an average of 25% Aimed to protect the nation’s infant industry and

the expense of foreign trade Congress considered American development of

industry a patriotic necessity

Transportation Steamboat

The steamboat opened the west to commercial agriculture The steamboat transformed the interior from isolated frontier into a busy

commercial region that traded farm products for manufactured goods Robert Fulton launched the first practical steamboat - Clermont in 1807

Erie Canal Built during Era of Good Feelings, completed in 1825 Waterway connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean through New

York

National Road (1811) The Cumberland Road (National Road) was the first major highway The road provided a connection between the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and

a path for western settlement Reached Illinois in 1839

National Road

Transport Denied The War of 1812 brought to light the terrible

condition and organization of U.S. roads, but consensus was hard to reach Congress could not agree on one transportation plan Many of these were subject to local goals and ideas Many also doubted the constitutionality of federally

funded roads James Madison and James Monroe both refused

to support further improvements without an amendment

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

Aaron Ogden purchased a state license to operate an exclusive steamboat line from New York to New Jersey Ogden sued Thomas Gibbons when he began

operating a business on the same route

The Supreme Court declared that states could not interfere with Constitutional right to regulate business on interstate waterways Takes away state’s rights to offer exclusive

navigation licenses, Ogden loses, and steamboat competition increased

The Industrial Revolution

The Jeffersonians are Changing Jeffersonian Republicans tied their hopes to

the yeoman republic A Yeoman is a free man owning his own farm

the work requiring a great deal of effort or labor and came to be described as "yeoman's work“

Thus yeoman became associated with hard toil. Yeoman was also a rank or position in a noble

household

The Market Revolution, however, transforms Jefferson’s Republic into a capitalist society

The Industrial Revolution

As the nation expanded, Americans developed inventions that produced goods faster and cheaper This period of inventions is an era known as the

Industrial Revolution It became part of an ongoing effort to increase

production by using machines instead of manpower It began with British textiles in the 1700s

Inventions: spinning jenny, water frame, and power loom

Led to an increase in mechanization

The U.S. textile industry

The Industrial Revolution took a while to spread to the U.S. because the British closely guarded their knowledge By law, textile workers could not move out of Britain or share

invention information To protect industry, England forbade anyone with knowledge of

machinery to leave the country

The American textile industry originates in industrial espionage Scores of workers would defy that law and make their way to

America By the late 1700s technology was advancing and mills were

springing up that used looms that spun raw cotton into finished cloth This knowledge soon spread and by 1814 the United States had 240

textile mills (in the NE)

Samuel Slater America offered rich rewards to anyone with new technology

knowledge Samuel Slater immigrated to America in 1789 Soon, in a Rhode Island clothing shop, he recreated British

machinery They establish the nation’s first water powered textile mill in

1793 Slater’s first mill was in a small town among houses and shops

It spun only cotton yarn It required no large city and provided farm women and children

with income to supplement the farms Soon, Slater and other mill owners built factory villages in the

countryside

The Rhode Island system

This practice of building factory villages became known as the Rhode Island (or family) system Mill owners built whole villages surrounded by company

owned farmland The farmland would be rented to husbands and fathers of

mill workers Workspace of women and children would be closely

supervised and owners had great control over the villages

The factory towns came at a great cost to old forms of household independence

Francis Cabot Lowell The 2nd act of industrial espionage was committed by a

wealthy Bostonian: Francis Cabot Lowell He visited English factory district in 1811 and made secret

drawings of what he saw He forms a manufacturing company and in 1813 builds his

first mill in Waltham Mass He soon expands into other cities, including one named after

himself Lowell, Mass In 1813 the mill was the first centralized textile mill in the U.S. All levels of production were located at the mill Spinning, weaving, and dyeing that turns raw cotton into cloth By the 1840s mills had spread to the old NW territory

The Waltham System Waltham System:

First, mills were heavily mechanized Turned raw cotton into finished cloth with little need for

skilled workers Second - Operatives who tended machines were

young, single women recruited form NE farms New England was switching to raising livestock and

therefore had little need for the labor of daughters

The company housed the young women in supervised boardinghouses Enforced conduct rules on and off job

The economy expands The new generation of Americans began to conduct

business differently

Americans began buying and selling goods, borrowing money, and traveling to different places to spend money

Railroads and Canals expanded business and trade

This change is known as the Market Revolution Homes start buying products instead of making them They become less self-sufficient and purchase more

goods than they make

The slow process Even with this revolution taking place – IT WAS SLOW By 1850 most goods are still made by hand America is still a farming society More people will live in rural areas for the next 100

years Most of the industrialization is in making the cloth,

leather, or wool, but not in forming into clothing Most all tailoring is done by hand

THE SOUTHERN ECONOMY

The Market Revolution The Market Revolution led to a different

America in the 1830’s and 40’s: New Cities and towns provided financing,

retailing, manufacturing, and markets for food Commercial farms traded food for products that

cities made and sold Although mostly left out of industrialization the

south will become wealthy off of cotton, but will receive many manufactured goods from European trading partners

King Cotton The phrase “King Cotton” sums up the economy of

the south in the early to mid 1800s Came from 1855 book, Cotton is King by David Christy

He claimed slavery would have ended had it not been for cotton

American economy had come to depend on cotton production

By 1860 the south was producing over a billion pounds of cotton per year and it made up 2/3 of American exports

The Cotton Gin While visiting a Georgia plantation in 1793 Eli Whitney noticed

the lengthy time and effort needed to clean cotton seeds from the fiber His solution was the cotton gin He gained a patent for it in 1794

Instead of cleaning 1 pound of cotton per day, a worker could clean 1,000 pounds in a day

Effects: Cotton production skyrocketed Southern planters depended on cotton as their major crop Plantations grew larger and spread as far as Texas This led to an increase in slavery as it more than doubled from

1790 to 1820, it was not going to go away

Cotton and the effect on slavery

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBsj_qBuZAg

The Slavery System By 1804 all northern states had banned slavery

or passed laws to end it gradually The Constitution specified that the overseas

slave trade had to end by 1808 By 1820 the slave population was at 1.5 million By 1850 it rose to 3 million

The Rural South The South remained mostly rural

Although larger cities had banks, most relied on British or northern banks for loans

For most of the 1800s they depended on Britain or the North to process their cotton

Factories were only created if it served the plantation

In the North, the market revolution produced commercial agriculture, a specialized labor force, factory towns that produced manufactured goods and encouraged technological innovation

In the South, it produced more slavery They spent little on internal improvements

Social Effects of the Industrial Revolution

Women in the Industrial Workforce

Women in textile mills would work for a few years send a small portion of the wages back home eventually return home to live as country housewives Wages were often saved or spent on themselves on personal purchases such

as books or clothes

This produced a self respecting class of independent wage earning women Many women were on the ground floor or labor movements in the 1830’s and

40’s This class of working women also became the first generation of reformers in

America

The factories failed to return these women back to rural paternalism, one in three would settle in cities, and the others would do other work than farming and would not accept the same home conditions as their mothers

Household changes Americans began to limit the size of their families

White married women in 1800 gave birth to 6.4 children In 1849 it was down to 4.9 Rural communities required on labor of large families for

labor-intensive agriculture More women gain choice over the size of their families;

transition away from pure agrarian society

As more farmers turned to cash crops and farming became a business, they turned to middle class ways A new sense of decorum and refinement extended into

country life

Separate Spheres Americans made a clear distinction between male work that was

oriented towards markets and female work that was tied to household maintenance With the Market Revolution came the distinction that “male work” was part

of the cash economy and female work was not

Women Obeyed men Cared for children; worked in the home No place in political world Women spent more time maintaining the house and outside it Scrubbing floors, brooms became mass produced, maintaining furniture

Men Men were tough, hard working bread winners Enforced discipline State and national political leaders

Cult of Domesticity Men in cities now went off to work, leaving wives and

children to spend the day at home The majority of working women were single Upon marriage they took up new work as wives and mothers

Soon began an American view on women in the household known as the Cult of Domesticity Even the new middle-class evangelicals believed women were

to be the moral influence in households The result was a feminization of domestic life Domesticity glorified the functions of a homemaker Mothers replaced fathers as principal child-rearers They raised their children with love and reason, not fear More care can be lavished on smaller family size – women’s

choice

Sentimentality Sentimental literature began to take a foothold among the middle

class This popular literature were cookbooks, etiquette books, sentimental

novels, and manuals on housekeeping that were directed at women

Many were written by women Sarah Josepha Hale, Godey’s lady’s book was the first mass circulation

magazine for women – dealt with household tastes of food, clothing, and furniture She also wrote Mary Had a Little Lamb Driving and literary force behind Thanksgiving as a holiday

Sentimental novels upheld middle class domesticity Most revolve around Christian women in a worldly patriarch, brutal

business world who triumph with God’s help

AMERICAN CULTURE

The Rise of Popular Culture

The market revolution leads not only to money being spent on consumer goods, but on commercial popular culture as well

The sports and shows northern plain folk attended were often grounded in traditional forms of patriarchy and masculinity and carried an anti-sentimental view

Blood sports The urban working class neighborhoods formed a

bachelor subculture that nurtured notions of manliness based on physical prowess and coolness under pressure

They engaged in “blood sports” such as cock fighting, dog fighting, and boxing matches which took places in saloons Many were hidden because animal fighting was

outlawed in several states Thousands of dollars were bet any night on these

activities

Boxing Prizefighting emerged as the premier American sport

It was imported from Britain Called for an enclosed ring Clear rules Cornermen, referee Needed a paying audience for profit Early fighters were Irish or English immigrants Bare knuckles Bout ended when one was unable to continue

Rose in popularity in the 1840s and 50s in a time of increasing immigration into poor, violent city neighborhoods

Minstrel shows The most popular form of theatre in the era was the blackface minstrel show

Although these shows conveyed blatant racism, they were the preferred entertainment of working men in northern cities from 1840 to 1880

Audience was overwhelmingly working class and male

These shows lasted and hour and a half with several acts Songs and dances with audience participation Conversation between characters about political satire, racial, and sexual humor

Basic Themes: These shows introduced African American song and dance in Europeanized form

to audiences who would not have permitted black performers on stage Reinforced racial stereotypes Dealt with, discussed, humorized aspects of social and political life that other

performers avoided

Novels and the Penny Press

One of the commodities made most widely available during this era were newspapers and inexpensive books

Improvements in printing and paper making enabled printers to sell daily newspapers for a penny Cheap “story papers” became available in the 1930s “yellow back” fiction in the 1840s portrayed murder, gore,

sex Dime novels became available in the 1850s

Mass audience newspapers had an early eye for sensationalism even in the 1830s The Philadelphia Gazette produced stories about

sensationalized crime and human oddities