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# Chapter 14: Forging the National Economy ## I. The Westward Movement * Immigrants and natural born citizens went west. * Frontier life was tough * Poorly fed * ill-clad * Shelters were poorly built * Victims of disease, depression, and premature death * Solitude...

# Chapter 14: Forging the National Economy ## I. The Westward Movement * Immigrants and natural born citizens went west. * Frontier life was tough * Poorly fed * ill-clad * Shelters were poorly built * Victims of disease, depression, and premature death * Solitude * Frontiersmen were individualistic * Ill-informed * Superstitious * Fiercely individualistic * Violently emotional ## II. Shaping the Western Landscape * The land was exploited * Tobacco exhausted the land * "Kentucky bluegrass" thrived because of burnt cane * Trappers decimated the beaver population * Buffalo robes also in high demand * Ecological costs not a concern, but some did appreciate the wilderness * George Catlin proposed national parks ## III. The March of the Millions * By 1860, there were 33 states * The population was still doubling every 25 years * Urban growth was significant * New York was the metropolis * New Orleans, the Queen of the South * Urban problems arose (sewage, impure water, rats, improper garbage disposal) * Immigration * By the 1840s and 50s, immigration increased significantly * "America letters" lured immigrants * Cheap land * Low taxes * No compulsory military service * "Freedom and opportunity" ## IV. The Emerald Isle Moves West * Irish Potato Famine (mid-1840s) * 2 million died * Irish flocked to America * "Coffin ships" * Clustered in cities (e.g., Boston and New York) * Too poor to move west * Tended to be Catholic ## V. The German Forty-Eighters * Germans came to America (1830s-1860s) * Over a million came * Displaced farmers * Failed democratic revolutions (1848) * Moved west (e.g., Wisconsin) * More prosperous than the Irish * Better educated than the Irish * Opposed slavery ## VI. Flare-Ups of Antiforeignism * "Nativists" arose * Feared being outbred and outvoted * Catholic Church seen as a "foreign" church * Know-Nothing Party * Order of the Star-Spangled Banner * "Americans Must Rule America!" * Agitated for rigid restrictions on immigration and naturalization * Nativists rioted and occasionally killed ## VII. Creeping Mechanization * 1750, the Industrial Revolution began in Britain * Reached America slowly * Land was cheap * Labor was scarce * Money for capital investment was scarce * Raw materials were undeveloped * Consumers were scarce * Samuel Slater * "Father of the Factory System" * Memorized plans for machinery and escaped to America * 1791, he built the first efficient machinery for spinning cotton thread. * Eli Whitney * Cotton gin (1793) * Separated the seed from the cotton fiber * Revived slavery * Interchangeable parts (by 1850) * Basis of mass-production ## VIII. Whitney Ends Slavery * The cotton gin made cotton production profitable and revived slavery. ## IX. Marvels in Manufacturing * Embargo Act of 1807, Non-Intercourse Act of 1809, and the War of 1812 * Increased manufacturing * 1828, Tariff of Abominations * Helped American manufacturers * New England became the industrial center * Poor soil * Dense population * Shipping brought in capital * Seaports made import of raw materials and export of finished products easy * The textile industry was the first to industrialize * Inventions exploded * Elias Howe - sewing machine (1846) * Isaac Singer - perfected the sewing machine * Ready-made clothing * Drove seamstresses from their homes to factories * The principle of limited liability helped businesses * Laws of "free incorporation" passed * Samuel Morse * Telegraph (1844) * "What hath God wrought?" ## X. Workers and "Wage Slaves" * Factory system * Impersonal * Long hours * Low wages * Poor ventilation * Poor lighting * Forbidden to form unions * Child labor was common * Adult workers began to organize * President Van Buren established the ten-hour day for federal employees (1840) * Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842) * Labor unions were not illegal conspiracies, provided that their methods were "honorable and peaceful." ## XI. Women and the Economy * Women worked in factories (e.g., Lowell, MA) * "Factory girls" * Toiled 6 days a week * "From dark to dark" * Carefully supervised * Opportunities rare * Teaching * Domestic service * "Cult of domesticity" * Glorified the customary functions of the homemaker * Families grew smaller * "Domestic feminism" * Women made decisions that altered the family ## XII. The Transportation Revolution * America needed transportation * Raw materials needed to be transported to factories * Finished products needed to be transported to consumers * Roads improved * Lancaster Turnpike (PA) * National Road (Cumberland Road) * From Maryland to Illinois * Robert Fulton * Steamboat (1807) * Clermont * Canals * Erie Canal (1825) * From Lake Erie to the Hudson River * Shipping costs decreased * Cities grew along the canal * Railroads * First appeared in 1828 * By 1860, 30,000 miles of railroad track * At first, railroads were opposed * Canal backers opposed them * Railroads were dangerous * Railroads set things on fire * Standard gauge not adopted until after the Civil War ## XIII. The Market Revolution * Subsistence economy became a market economy * Regional specialization * East - industry * West - agriculture * South - cotton * The home was no longer the center of economic production * The gap between the rich and poor widened * Cities bred the greatest extremes of economic inequality * Social mobility existed, but rags-to-riches stories were rare * Wages increased * Improved standards of living * People were more independent * People were more materialistic * Families were smaller * "The self-made man" was born