Market Revolution & Mill Girls

• The market revolution marks a shift from a pre-industrial economy to a market-oriented capitalist economy.
• It was driven by the industrial revolution, which involved widespread production by machinery since the mid-1700s in Europe.
• In 1793, Samuel Slatter opened the first cloth factory in Rhode Island.
• Industrialization in the Northeast changed both social structures and the nation's economy.

Changes in the Economy

• The factory system involves large groups of people working in one location.
• The traditional family economy where families worked together on small farms or shops shifted to men and women working in separate spheres.

The Mill Girls

• The US entered the industrial revolution through textiles.
• The textile industry involves producing cloth and clothing from raw materials like cotton.
• The Lowell Mill girls, some as young as 10, were young women who worked in textile factories for lower wages than men.
• The Lowell Mill girls lived in boarding houses and had independence.
• The Lowell Offering was a monthly publication featuring the girls' writing and poetry.
• Factory conditions and long hours led to strikes, and the workers formed the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association (LFLRA).

New Inventions and Innovations

• Inventors create something entirely new, while innovators improve upon existing ideas.
• Interchangeable parts allowed goods to be produced faster and at a lower cost.
• The use of interchangeable parts helped shape the US identity as a nation of problem-solving, ingenuity, and progress.

Steamboats and Telegraphs

• New technologies changed shipping, communication, and agriculture.
• Fulton's steamboats allowed ships to sail upstream, enabling goods to travel both ways on rivers like the Mississippi and Ohio.
• Morse's telegraph allowed for near-instantaneous communication over long distances.
• Deere's steel plow was made of hard, polished steel that didn't allow prairie soil to clump.
• McCormick's mechanical reaper eliminated the need to harvest wheat by hand, leading to a boom in wheat production through the Great Plains.

Overcoming Obstacles

• In the early 1800s, Americans moving west and south needed more efficient ways to transport people and goods.
• Distance and topography posed geographical challenges.
• To overcome these challenges, they built the National Road (a mostly paved road through the Appalachian Mountains), the B&O Railroad (from Baltimore to Ohio), and the Erie Canal (connecting the Hudson River to the Great Lakes).

The Cotton Boom

• The cotton gin brought the North and South closer together economically.
• The cotton gin made removing seeds from cotton less labor-intensive
• Cotton production became more efficient after the invention of the cotton gin
• The North and South both benefited because cotton grown in the South was used for textile production in the North.

Slavery Expands

• In 1807, Congress passed a law ending the slave trade with other countries.
• This law led to an increase in the interstate slave trade
• The interstate slave trade separated enslaved communities as slaves were sold to plantations in other states; enslaved communities responded by broadening kinship bonds.

The Impact of Slavery

• Free African Americans needed certification and certificates of freedom to avoid being considered fugitive slaves.
• Even with certificates, many were kidnapped and sold into slavery.
• Enslaved people resisted by interpreting scripture for themselves and composing songs called spirituals.
• Literacy for enslaved people was seen as a threat because it humanized them and because it was a form of passive resistance.

Rebelling Against Their Captors

• Gabriel Prosser, inspired by the Haitian Revolution, planned a revolt in 1800.
• Denmark Vesey attempted a rebellion to burn Charleston, South Carolina.
• Nat Turner's 1831 rebellion involved a group of enslaved people killing over 50 slave-holding men, women, and children.

Transportation and Commerce

• The Market Revolution encouraged nationalism (loyalty or devotion to one's nation).
• Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun advocated for protective tariffs to promote American manufacturing and stimulate commerce.
• Clay and Calhoun also supported subsidies, which were government funds to support commerce.
• Land subsidies (land granted to private companies by the government) became an important part of building roads and railroads.
• Henry Clay's American System supported the use of protective tariffs and government subsidies, as well as the reestablishment of the National Bank.

New Boundaries, New Decisions

• The Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819 gave Florida to the United States and Texas to Spain.
• The years following the War of 1812 were peaceful.
• The 1816 election of James Monroe began the Era of Good Feelings.
• By 1820, the Federalist Party was no longer a major political force, and James Monroe was re-elected without any opposition.
• The 1820s saw important Supreme Court rulings that strengthened federal power, including McCulloch v. Maryland and Gibbons v. Ogden.
• McCulloch v. Maryland determined that the necessary and proper clause of the Constitution gave the federal government implied powers.
• Gibbons v. Ogden determined that the federal government can prevent the formation of a monopoly and regulate interstate commerce.

The Missouri Compromise

• Sectionalism is the identification with and loyalty to a particular part or section of the country.
• The Missouri Compromise attempted to solve the problem of an imbalance in the number of free and slave states.
• The Missouri Compromise allowed for escaped slaves to be captured and returned to their owners, even if they had escaped to free states.
• The Arkansas Territory was open to slavery and the unorganized territory was closed to slavery.

The Monroe Doctrine

• In 1823, President Monroe introduced the Monroe Doctrine, a new approach to foreign policy.
• The goal of this doctrine was to prevent European countries from interfering in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere.
• Monroe was concerned about European colonial power in Central and South America.
• Monroe: essentially stated that European powers should stay out of the Western Hemisphere and the US would stay out of theirs.

The market revolution marked a shift to a market-oriented capitalist economy, driven by the industrial revolution. The US entered the industrial revolution through textiles. The Lowell Mill girls were young women who worked in textile factories.