During the Era of Good Feelings, many important things were invented
that helped improve people’s lives. Below is the story of Mike Sawyer, a
farmer from Mississippi. In his story, Mike will describe some of the
important new inventions:
This truly is a good time to be alive! Even though I am just a poor
farmer now, I am confident that I am going to be rich because of some
of the new tools that have just been invented.
One of the problems that farmers
have is shipping their crops to
cities before they rot. Wagons are
way too slow, and cannot get
crops to the city in time, but a new
invention can deliver my crops
quickly. It’s called a steamboat. A
Robert Fulton’s steamboat, the Clermont
few years ago, a man named
James Watt perfected an engine that is powered by steam. Another
man, named Robert Fulton, got the idea to use a steam engine to
power a river boat. He used a steam engine to power paddles that turn
around and around and move a ship quickly up a river, even against the
river current! I can now ship my crops up the Mississippi River, and to
the big city in days, rather than months. It has really changed my life,
and now I am selling more crops than ever.
But that’s not the only invention
that has helped us farmers. John
Deere1 has invented a new, tough
plow that is made out of steel.
Farmers use plows to cut the
ground to make it ready for
John Deere’s steel plow
planting. Before the steel plow,
most plows were made out of iron. Iron is not as strong as steel, and
often times iron plows would break, especially in tough clay or mudfilled soil. This new steel plow cuts even the toughest ground easily
without breaking. Now it’s way easier to plow my fields, which gives me
more time to eat chicken and fries! It has even allowed some farmers
to move to the Midwest. Before, farmers couldn’t cut the tough, muddy
ground in the Midwest, but now with the new steel plow, they can cut
the ground easily and make a good living farming out there. Also Cyrus
McCormick (not to be confused with Miley Cyrus) invented a machine
called a reaper that cuts ripe grain. Another new invention called the
threshing machine separates kernels of wheat from the tough husk
covering the kernel. All the inventions save me time, which means I can
grow more crops and make more money. I love money! Money, money,
money! (Note: Mike Sawyer, the author of this story, is not Mr. Krabs).
1
In case you’re wondering, yes it’s the same John Deere the tractor company is named after.
And the best part is
another new invention,
created by Samuel Morse,
allows me to communicate
instantly with other
people. Now I will be able
to send a message to my
brother in New York
instantly, to brag about
a telegraph
how rich I am! The
invention is called the telegraph. The telegraph sends electronic beeps,
called Morse Code, across a long wire to another part of the country.
The operator at the other end instantly translates the Morse Code and
passes on the message (it’s kind of like old school text messaging; really
old school text messaging). It used to take weeks, sometimes even
months, to send a letter across the country, but now I can send a
message to my brother instantly! ‘Dear Jarrod, I am rich now. Ha ha!
Your brother, Mike.’
I also grow a lot of cotton on my
farm, but I didn’t used to. Cotton
has tiny seeds in each puff, and it
takes forever to pick out all of
those seeds, and so growing cotton
wasn’t very profitable. But a new
invention, called the cotton gin,
takes all the seeds out of a puff of
cotton in seconds, and now cotton
is very profitable. My cotton plants
The cotton gin pulls the seeds out of cotton.
are going to make me a millionaire soon, and I’m going to buy a huge
house, and a huge turkey to eat on Thanksgiving, but I’m not going to
invite my brother Jarrod over, because he’s such a Jarrod.
1. How did the inventions made during the Era of Good Feelings make
people’s lives better?
2. If you lived in the 1820s and could buy one of these inventions,
what invention would you buy? Why?