The First Industrial Revolution 1793-1850
Industrialization: Transformation of the economy from agriculture to manufacturing –
built on mechanization of labor. The development of industries was built on a transportation
revolution—the steamboat and later railroads.
The first substantial industry, textiles, developed in New England where factories turned
southern cotton into cloth. Industrialization affected farming, as new inventions improved
crop production, harvesting, and processing.
Cotton Gin
Eli Whitney's invention that transformed agriculture and industry. The gin made cotton
cultivation profitable. It sparked demand for more land on which to grow cotton and so
America expanded. It reinvigorated a slave labor system. It provided a base for the early
industrial revolution in the 1820s.
The rise of a textile industry drew the sections closer together, but as the northern economy
industrialized it became more complex, while the South became more dependent on one
crop –and was known as the Cotton Kingdom.
Revolution in Transportation and Communication
Robert Fulton: Inventor of the first commercially successful steamboat—The Clermont.
By 1836, 361 steam-driven paddle wheelers navigated the Mississippi River.
The Tom Thumb: First passenger train in the
U.S., invented by Peter Cooper in 1830 in Baltimore.
Railroads came to dominate long-distance travel
and trade in the U.S. over the next two decades.
Samuel Morse: Inventor of the telegraph in 1837.
Morse’s more important contribution became the Morse
Code, a series of electrical “dots” and “dashes” that
became the alphabet of telegraphy.
Erie Canal: Man-made waterway, opened in 1826, connecting the Hudson River to Lake
Erie. It opened the West to trade because it linked the Great Lakes to the Atlantic. It lost
some of its importance when railroads entered the scene.
Andrew Jackson, 1767-1845:
Hero of the Battle of New Orleans, he ran for POTUS in
1824 and won more popular vote but not a majority of the
Electoral College. This led to what Jacksonians called the
“corrupt bargain.” He ran again in 1828, calling himself
an agent for the common man and took two-thirds of the
electoral vote. In office, he governed as an opponent of
centralized government and the American System.
Like most Westerners, he hated Indians and as POTUS he
treated them ruthlessly.
“Harry of the West,” 1777-1852
A Kentuckian, Clay represented the West and was the
leading nationalist in Congress. He ran for president
three times, never winning. He held such offices as
Secretary of State and Speaker of the House.
He fashioned the Missouri Compromise; the
Compromise of 1833--settling the Nullification Crisis;
and the Compromise of 1850, earning the name the
“Great Compromiser.”.
John C. Calhoun, 1782-1850: Born on the frontier of
South Carolina of Scots-Irish stock, Calhoun was a hardheaded politician, who represented the South in the federal
government from the War of 1812 to the very day of his
death in 1850.
He was Secretary of War under Monroe and Vice-POTUS to
John Quincy Adams and Jackson. He resigned the office in
1831 after a conflict with Jackson and led the state’s attempt
to nullify the “Tariff of Abominations” in 1833.
In 1850, he reluctantly called for secession if slavery were
not allowed to spread into the territories.
The American System: Henry Clay’s plan to strengthen the nation, including
recreating the national bank, imposing protective tariffs, and spending federal taxes on
internal improvements, like building the National Road to unite the country, improve
trade and national defense. As the sections split over internal improvements in the 1820s,
it ended the “era of good feelings.” Opponents refused to use federal money for what
often were local projects or which seemed to benefit one section more than another.
Jacksonian Democracy
Universal White Male Suffrage: During the 1820s, states across the nation began
eliminating property restrictions on voting. In the 1828 election, Andrew Jackson, a
backwoods South Carolinian born in log cabin, took advantage of the development. He
claimed to represent the “common man,” and they voted for him in droves: he won 56% of
the popular vote.
Spoils System: Policy initiated by Jackson of granting government jobs and contracts to
political supporters. After the 1828 election, Jackson swept government workers out of office
and replaced them with his supporters, declaring “to the victor goes the spoils.” It helped
build a Democratic Party, as men supported Jackson in return for political patronage. But it
also politicized minor government jobs and meant that many office holders had no other
qualification to work other than being a Jacksonian Democrat.
Whig Party: As Jackson implemented the “spoils
system,” two parties developed: the Democratic Party of
Jackson and the Whig Party. Two things united Whigs:
(1) hatred of Jackson, and (2) a belief in a stronger
central government and Hamilton’s economic system.
Whigs were led by Henry Clay
WHIGS:
• Encouraged industrial and commercial development
• Supported creation of a centralized economy
• Advocated for expansion of the federal government
to assist economic development
DEMOCRATS:
• Distrusted unchecked business growth
• Favored state power over federal power
Indian Removal Act: After settlers pushed into Indian lands, Congress approved
Jackson’s plan to move Indians to the “Great American Desert” west of Arkansas. Many
tribes fought removal. In Illinois, militia slaughtered the Sauk and Fox Indians in “Black
Hawk’s War.” In Florida, Seminoles fought in Osceola’s War and were all but wiped out.
Trail of Tears: Gold was discovered on Cherokee land and whites wanted access to it,
but the Cherokee refused to yield. They sued, calling a Georgia law that brought the
Cherokee under state control unconstitutional.
In Worcester v. Georgia (1832), the Supreme Court agreed with the Cherokee. President
Jackson refused to enforce the court’s ruling. Instead, Jackson bought the Cherokee land
and sold them land in the Indian Territory. The Army led a forced removal from Georgia
of the Cherokee in the winter of 1838. Walking 800 miles during winter, more than onequarter of the Cherokee died. Some hid out in western North Carolina and became the
“Eastern Band” of the Cherokee.
Immigration
Years
Immigrants
1820-1829
128,502
1830-1839
538,381
1840-1849
1,427,337
1850-1859
2,814,554
1860-1869
2,081,261
The Irish (comprising the largest immigrant group)
sought escape from the terrible Potato Famine.
1870-1879
2,742,287
1880-1889
5,248,568
Like the Irish, the Germans were predominantly
Catholic, but unlike the Irish, they tended to settle in
rural areas.
1890-1899
3,694,294
1900-1909
8,202,388
1910-1919
6,347,380
1920-1929
4,295,510
1930-1939
699,375
1940-1949
856,608
1950-1959
2,499,268
1960-1969
3,213,749
1970-1979
4,248,203
1980-1989
6,244,379
1990-1999
9,775,390
The mid-1800s saw a sizable rise in immigration,
especially from Ireland and Germany. Between 1830
and 1860, nearly 5 million people immigrated to the
U.S. The reasons for emigration were numerous, but
for all they included economic opportunity.
Second Great Awakening: Religious revival movement. It began in New England and
up-state New York (Burnt-Over District) and spread west. Its leading proponent was
Charles Grandison Finney, who preached an extremely emotional approach to God, saying
that the spirit went through him “in waves and waves of liquid love.” Like its predecessor
in the 1740s, the second revival was caused by a belief that the nation was too materialistic
and not being “a city upon a hill.”
The revival led to the creation of several new churches [Shakers, Jehovah's Witness, Seventh
Day Adventist, and the Church of Jesus Christ, Latter Day Saints (Mormons)].
It led to many social reform movements, including: temperance, public education (Horace
Mann), prison/asylum reform (Dorothea Dix), women's rights, and abolition of slavery.
Temperance: Reform movement that attacked alcohol use. Temperance organizations,
such as the American Temperance Society and the Washington Temperance Society
lobbied state legislatures to enact prohibition laws. Neil Dow effectively prompted Maine
to enact such a law (the “Maine Law”) in the 1850s.
Utopian Societies
The Second Great Awakening created many experimental “utopian” communities, based
on communalism: all settlers working together for the good of the community.
•New Harmony, Indiana, established by English Socialist Robert Owen, was a model
industrial town owned by the workers until it went bankrupt.
•John Humphrey Noyes founded Oneida in upstate New York which believed in universal
marriage; it was famous for making animal traps and quality metalwork.
•The Shakers, longest lasting of the utopian societies, built communal farms based on the
equality of women and men. They built high-quality, yet simple furniture, and were
known for musical composition (notably, “Simple Gifts”). They followed a strict rule of
celibacy, growing through adoption of orphans.
Seneca Falls Convention: Meeting the women's rights movement, held at Seneca Falls,
New York, in 1848. The movement was led by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
among others. The Convention drew up a “Declaration of Sentiments,” offering several
demands, including the right to vote and own property.
~Declaration of Sentiments~
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to
assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto
occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to
the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a
course. We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal; that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to
insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and
happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed
for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more
disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to
which they were accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably
the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw
off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient
sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains
them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled. . .