Textile Mills & Industry

• The Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s and 1800s replaced handmade production with machine manufacturing, fundamentally changing work and life.
• The Market Revolution (1815-1850) shifted the U.S. from small farms to a market-based economy, with mass production and national transportation networks.
• Textile mills used water and steam-powered machines to mass-produce cloth, exemplified by the Lowell Mills employing "mill girls."

Textile Mills and Industry

• The North had more textile mills due to its rivers, workforce, investors, transport, and skilled immigrants.
• Samuel Slater introduced British textile mill designs to America in 1789, initiating the American Industrial Revolution.
• Lowell Girls were young women working in Lowell, Massachusetts textile mills, earning wages while living in supervised housing.
• Textile mill working conditions were dangerous, with long hours, low pay, and hazardous machinery.
• Workers organized strikes to protest conditions, including the 1834 Lowell Mill Girls strike.
• Eli Whitney's interchangeable parts revolutionized manufacturing by enabling faster repairs and mass production.

Innovations in Agriculture and Communication

• John Deere's 1837 steel plow improved farming in the American heartland.
• Cyrus McCormick's 1831 mechanical reaper increased farm productivity.
• Robert Fulton's steamboat in 1807 enhanced water transportation.
• Samuel Morse's 1844 telegraph and Morse code transformed communication.

Impact of Transportation

• Roads, railroads, and canals connected America, reducing travel time and uniting the nation economically.

Cotton and Slavery

• The cotton gin in 1793 caused a cotton boom but increased slavery due to higher demand for labor.
• The cotton gin used a hand-cranked cylinder with wire teeth, which made separating cotton seeds from fiber much faster.
• The number of enslaved people grew from 700,000 in 1790 to over 3.2 million by 1850 because of the cotton gin.
• After the 1808 ban on international slave trade, domestic slave trade intensified, with enslaved people moved to the Deep South through the "Second Middle Passage."
• Free Black Americans faced discrimination via "Black Codes" while also risking illegal capture and enslavement.
• Spirituals were religious songs created by enslaved African Americans with hidden messages.
• Enslaved people practiced passive resistance by slowing work, damaging tools, feigning illness, and learning to read secretly.

Nationalism and Politics

• Nationalism increased post-War of 1812, fostering pride in American independence and culture.
• Henry Clay's American System proposed protective tariffs, a national bank, and infrastructure funding.
• The Erie Canal in 1825 connected the Great Lakes to New York City, reducing costs and boosting New York's economy.
• The Era of Good Feelings (1817-1825) was a period of unity under President Monroe.
• McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) affirmed federal law's supremacy over state law, and that states could not tax the national bank.
• Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) granted Congress power over interstate commerce.
• Sectionalism resulted from differing regional interests, especially over slavery and states' rights.
• The Missouri Compromise of 1820 admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, while banning slavery above latitude 36°30' in the Louisiana Territory.
• The Monroe Doctrine (1823) opposed European colonization in the Americas, establishing U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere.
• Republican Motherhood emphasized women's education to raise patriotic citizens.
• Abolitionists fought to end slavery through various means, led by figures like Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison.

The Industrial Revolution (late 1700s-1800s) shifted production to machine manufacturing. The Market Revolution (1815-1850) transformed the U.S. economy. Textile mills used water and steam power for mass production, like the Lowell Mills employing "mill girls."