Lecture Objective
• Understand the factors needed for the
market revolution to emerge.
• Understand the impact the market
revolution had on American society.
• Understand the impact transportation,
commercialization, and industrialization
had on American society.
U.S.: Pre-industrial
Farm Families
• Produced own food,
also, used as barter.
• Barter system
strengthen community
ties.
Traditional Work
• Craftsmen had no
production schedule.
a) pace themselves
b) controlled production
c) Set fees
• Craft system consisted of
master craftsman, journey
man, and apprentice.
Black Smith
Pat Lyon by
John
Neagles
Apprentice did not
earn wages. He
helped master
craftsman and in
return he learned
the trade.
Job Opportunities for Women
•
•
•
•
•
Domestic servants
Street food vendors
Laundresses
Seamstresses
Prostitution (port cities only)
Woman at
Spinning
Wheel
- Ca. 18501870
- Carved and
painted wood
The Market Revolution
• Factors needed: transportation,
commercialization, and industrialization.
• Commercialization: Shift from the self
sufficient/barter to the production of goods
for market.
• Industrialization: the use of power driven
machinery to produce goods once made by
hand.
The Transportation Revolution
• Impact on American society:
a) Allowed people to move away.
b) Gave rise to enterprise/commercial
investments, for example, the
transportation of goods and investment in
transportation projects.
Roads’ Initial Problems
• Dirt roads affected by weather (rain or
snow)
• Travel was slow and uncomfortable.
• Carriages limited the types of products that
could be transported.
Roads
• Private companies began to built and
maintain roads.
• The National Road (1808) improved some
roads.
• Still the shipment of goods was slow and
expensive.
Waterborne Transportation
• Linked Atlantic ports and Mississippi-Ohio
River.
• Initial problem:
a) North to south link only no east and west
link.
Erie Canal
•
•
Erie Canal proposed by the New York
governor, Dewitt Clinton.
Connected New York City and Great
Lakes, east and west were now connected.
Lockport, New York (Erie Canal)
Erie Canal
Construction
• Early workforce were
local farmers.
• Workforce hit by
malaria and were
replaced by Irish
contract workers.
• Erie Canal opened in
Oct. 26, 1825.
Erie Canal Impact
• By 1830 50,000 people
used canal to moved.
• Other cities embarked
on similar projects
a) $200 million invested
(1820-40).
• Shipment/purchasing of
goods increased.
Steamboats
•
•
•
•
Began operating in 1807
Redesigned with more efficient engines
Stimulated trade to the nation’s interior.
Allowed for comfortable travel.
Railroads
• Railroads went from 13 miles (1830) to
31,000 miles (1860).
• Initial problems:
a) Power generators were too heavy and
required iron rails
b) Rail sizes not standardized.
• South had fewer railroads
The Express Train, Currier and
Ives print, 1849
Effects of Transportation Rev.
• Economic growth
• Distant markets accessible became more
accessible.
• Allowed Americans to move.
• Attracted capital
• Stimulated invention and innovation
Putting-Out System (before
factories)
Definition
• Putting-out system:
Goods produced in
private homes under the
supervision of merchant
who provided the raw
materials.
a) Families paid by the
piece
Putting-Out System
• Goods sold to distant
markets.
a) Modes of transportation
crucial
• Relied on unskilled
workers
and division of labor.
Putting-Out System
• Merchant controlled:
a) labor cost
b) Production goals
c) Styles produced
d) Number of workers
Overall Impact
• Source of income allowed Americans to
buy goods.
• Artisans begin to lose their independence.
• Commercialization begins to replace the
barter system.
• Does not happen immediately or uniformly.
Commercial Agriculture
•
a)
b)
•
Machinery increases cultivation:
John Deere’s steel plow (1837)
Reaper (Cyrus McCormick, 1834)
Commercial economy (Northwest)
Cyrus McCormick’s reaper
British Technology and
American Factories
•
•
•
•
•
•
Shift from the putting-out system to the
establishment of factories.
British machinery not imported.
Emigration of skilled workers forbidden.
Samuel Slater slipped out of England in 1789.
Slater built copies of British machines in the
U.S.
Slater’s Mills opened in 1790.
Early Factories
• Located in farm communities
• Small factories hired entire families.
• Labor force:
a) 50% of workers were children (8-12 yrs).
b) Women and men each comprised 25%
labor force.
American System
• System of standardized parts first developed
in the U.S. Item broken down into parts.
An exact model made of each components.
• Began in gun manufacturing.
First gun with interchangeable
parts, 1816
Social Impact
•
•
•
•
Increase in wage workers from 12%
(1800) to 40% (1860).
Increase of female wage workers.
Decline of the artisan and apprenticeship
system.
Apprentices become mere helpers.
Seamstresses at Work
Factory Workers and New
Adjustments
• Workers had to adjust to the following:
a) Factory bells
b) Work schedule
c) work environment
• Workers in factories paced themselves to
power-driven machinery.
New Adjustments
• Preindustrial work was flexible.
• New divisions:
a) leisure and work
b) Work and home now separate locations
• Workers become a separate community
Lowell Mills
• Initial work force were farm women
• Wages were about $3.00 per week.
• Why did women work at the mills:
a) Financial need.
b) Escape rural isolation and parental
supervision.
Lowell Mills
• Penalties
a) Slackers and latecomers
• Attract women
a) Supervision
b) Strict rules
c) Religious services
d) Cultural opportunities
Women Tending Looms at
Lowell, 1850 engraving
Early Strikes
•
Rural women in Rhode Island (1824)
protested wage cuts.
• Women in Lowell Mills (1834) also
protested a 25% wage cut.
a) 800 women took part in strike.
The Market Revolution and Middle
Families
Gender Impact
• Men become more
industrious and spend
more time away from
home.
• Women offered
“sanctuary” to husbands
after long day at work.
Impact on Family Size
• Middle class began to
have less children, an
average of five.
• Why?
a) Children needed more
Training/schooling for
emerging industries.