Textile Industry Labor Systems

• Focus on mills dominating the national marketplace.

Labor Systems in the Textile Industry

• Rhode Island System: Recruited entire families, including children, as laborers in mills.
  • Mill work initially offered women independence and education, but conditions declined as profits became the priority.
• Waltham System: Recruited unmarried young women for factory employment, exemplified by mills in Lowell, Massachusetts.
  • Massive factories required a large workforce, leading to the development of cities around the factories.
• Lowell System: Centralized the entire weaving process under one roof, powered by a nearby river
  • Primarily employed young women aged 15-30, often selected for their textile machine skills.
  • Paid $2.50 per week, lower than men for the same work, but still considered high wages for women at the time.
  • Included mandatory church attendance, strict curfews, long hours, low wages, and dormitory living.
  • Conflicts arose between native-born mill workers and owners.
  • Mill owners increasingly hired Irish immigrants who accepted lower wages.
  • Mills and factories transformed the New England landscape in the early 19th century.
  • Textile mill, established during the Embargo of 1807 (Union Manufacturers), eventually employed over 600 people.
• Industrialization relied on steam and coal-burning engines, leading to soot and pollution.

Urban Growth in the 19th Century

• Urban population increased from 3% to 16% between 1790 and 1860.
• New York City surpassed all other cities, becoming the first to exceed one million people.
• Key factors in New York City's growth: natural harbor, access to the Erie Canal.
• Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston remained large due to their roles as Atlantic seaports.
• New Orleans, a key site for shipping via the Mississippi River, became the nation's fifth-largest city.
• In the early 1800s, the largest American cities were on the Atlantic coast.
• Inland port cities like St. Louis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago emerged as important urban centers by 1860.
• Great Lake ports: Buffalo, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Detroit, and Chicago.
• New industrial towns, e.g., Pittsburgh, experienced rapid growth.
• Pittsburgh functioned as an exchange center with a significant manufacturing sector.
• Cincinnati was known as "Porkopolis" for its early meatpacking industry.
• St. Louis was ideally located for urban growth due to its position on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.

Popular Culture and Entertainment

• Communal activities remained popular in rural areas.
• Blood sports (e.g., bare-knuckle boxing) were popular urban entertainment for men.
• Other popular sports included cockfighting and dogfighting
• Taverns and saloons became more common.
• Theaters were the primary outlet for American entertainment
• Respectable women seldom attended due to the Cult of Domesticity.
• Performing arts venues (theaters, opera houses, playhouses, music halls) primarily attracted male audiences.
• Minstrel shows, featuring white performers in blackface, were popular nationwide but reinforced racial stereotypes.
• Northern working-class and Southern whites particularly enjoyed minstrel shows.
• Composer Stephen Foster's popular songs perpetuated myths about contented slaves.

Immigration in the 19th Century

• European turmoil, including the Napoleonic Wars (ended in 1815) and the nationalist revolutions of 1848, led to a major influx of immigrants.
• Between 1845 and 1854, the U.S. experienced a significant proportional influx of immigrants
• Close to 3 million immigrants, about 15% of the total U.S. population in 1845.
• Irish and German immigrants were the largest groups between 1840 and 1860.

Irish Immigration

• The Irish Potato Famine emerged in 1845 due to a fungus that ruined potato crops.
• About 1 million people died, and almost 2 million Irish left their country (out of a population of 4 million).
• Many traveled to Canada and the United States.
• Majority of Irish immigrants were Roman Catholic, with an average age in their early 20s.
• The Irish came to comprise over half the population of Boston and New York City.
• Living conditions were poor, with most living in tenement apartment houses.
• Crime, disease, alcoholism, and prostitution were prevalent in Irish neighborhoods.
• Major cities saw the emergence of anti-Catholic and anti-Irish publications.
• Irish Americans often showed ill will towards other groups, such as free African Americans, due to competition for low-wage jobs.

German Immigration

• German immigrants tended to be better educated than the Irish.
• They often settled in the interior of the United States.
• German immigrants frequently traveled in families, preserving their language and culture.
• A greater number of German immigrants eventually returned to their country of origin.
• Prominent German immigrants: Heinrich Steinweg (Steinway) for musical instruments and Levi Strauss for work pants (Levi's).
• German immigrants established their own communities, maintaining native traditions such as beer halls.

Other Immigrant Groups

• Included British, Scandinavian, and Chinese immigrants.
• British immigrants included professionals, independent farmers, and skilled workers.
• By 1869, Scandinavians numbered over 70,000, settling farmlands in the Upper Mississippi River Valley (e.g., Minnesota).
• Chinese immigrants primarily went to California, numbering about 35,000 by 1860.
• Mostly male "birds of passage," aiming to earn money and return home.
• Faced discrimination, being excluded from jobs like mining and farming during recessions.
• Many Chinese immigrants worked as laundrymen.
• The Federal Naturalization Law of 1790 prevented them from becoming U.S. citizens.

Nativism

• The influx of Roman Catholic immigrants aroused fears among Protestant Americans.
• This led to a surge in nativism, favoring native-born inhabitants over immigrants.
• Anti-immigrant measures in the 1840s and 1850s were spearheaded by descendants of immigrants from Britain and Northern Europe.
• Displayed dislike for Irish Catholics, African Americans, and recent immigrants.
• Much of the bias against Irish immigrants was anti-Catholic in nature.
• The American Party (Know-Nothing Party) formed and spread, maintaining secrecy.
• Members agreed not to vote for Catholics or foreign-born candidates.
• Targeted immigrants and Catholics, aiming to prevent them from becoming citizens.

Organized Labor

• By 1860, 40% of American workers worked for wages (compared to 12% in 1800).
• This came at the expense of skilled self-employed artisans and craftsmen who struggled to compete with factories.
• Shoe shops were displaced by factories.
• In 1850, the Board of Health in Lynn, Massachusetts, reported that the life expectancy of a shoe worker was 20 years shorter than that of a farmer.
• Skilled workers responded by organizing into trade associations to address challenges.
• Labor organizations, in the form of trade unions, labor politics, and guilds, were created.
• Trade associations were the first type of labor unions.
• They advocated for protective tariffs.
• Faced legal obstacles.
• The National Trade Union formed in 1834 to organize local trade unions.
• Women formed trade unions, e.g., Sarah G. Bagley helped organize the New York Female Labor Reform Society.
• Advocated for laws to regulate banks, abolish imprisonment for debt, free public education supported by taxes, and a 10-hour workday.
• In 1806, Philadelphia shoemakers who went on strike were found guilty of conspiracy.
• Commonwealth v. Hunt (1846): The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that labor strikes were legal.
• Determined that trade unions were not necessarily subject to laws against criminal conspiracies.

Rise of Professions

• Before the 1820s, schooling in America was informal.
• The first political demands for free, tax-supported schools originated with the Working Men's Movement.
• Horace Mann championed education reform in Massachusetts and other Northern states.
• Stressed centralized state control over schools and uniform standards.
• Promoted free public education to train children for citizenship.
• Just over half of white children between 5 and 19 were enrolled in schools in 1850.
• School reform appealed to the Northern middle classes.
• Teaching was the fastest-growing of the new professions.
• McGuffey Readers promoted reading, writing, morals, and values.
• Aspiring lawyers apprenticed with established lawyers.
• Many self-styled physicians lacked formal training.
• The public distrusted the medical profession until the rise of formal medical schools.
• The Industrial Revolution spurred the development of engineering as a profession.
• By the Civil War, engineering had become one of the largest professions.

Women's Work

• Women were primarily considered caregivers in the home.
• More women sought careers in teaching and nursing.
• Midwifery also became an option.
• Religious and social service work were accessible to middle-class women.
• Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to receive a medical degree.
• Started at the New York Infirmary for Women and Children.
• First in her class