To do: Read chapters 5-8 in H & W and read/watch everything included here.

Industrialization

When our country was founded in 1783, we were an overwhelmingly agricultural nation. Primarily white family owned or rented farms in the North, and in the South, most African Americans were enslaved doing farm work, and most white Southerners were farmers, only 25% of them owned slaves.

When industrialization begins in England in the 1790s, there are those in the young United States, most notably Alexander Hamilton, who want to follow England's lead and become an industrialized nation. Conversely, Thomas Jefferson wants the United States to reman a nation of farmers. Watch this short clip for the HBO series John Adams, where a discussion takes place over dinner with President George Washington, Vice President John Adams and the president's cabinet. Here you can see Secretary of State Hamilton and Secretary of State Jefferson disagree over the economic future of the United States.

Once Jefferson becomes president in 1801, the federal government made no efforts to promote industrialization during these years. If large scale industrial or transportation improvements were to happen, it would fall to the individual state governments to do the work.

2 Transportation improvements

Erie Canal map

Since the federal government refused to pay for or create incentives for industrial improvements or even for transportation advances, such decisions were left to the state governments. The first state government to take a big step in improving transportation was NY state when they agreed to pay for and build the Erie Canal, which linked Albany, NY to Buffalo, NY, an amazing 364 miles across the Appalachian mountains.

Before the Erie Canal, there was no easy way to move people or goods west over the Appalachian mountains. Most Americans, black and white lived east of the mountains.

This had a huge impact on NY City since now everyone wanted to west had to start out in the city. So think of the impact this will have on NYC banks, bars, restaurants, warehouses, hotels, etc... This is why Wall St. is in New York and not in Philadelphia.

Watch my video on the Erie Canal: Link

Read Maria Stewart's Speech on religion and morality

3 First Factories

As our textbook tells us, by the early 1800s we start to see rural artisans make things at home and sell their crafts to local consumers.

We don't see the transition from manufacturing at home to manufacturing in factories until the textile industry. For centuries women have made clothes at home for their families; women spun wool, wove it into cloth and then sewed the clothing.

In 1811, Francis Cabot Lowell opened up the Boston Manufacturing Company, which made and sold cloth. Lowell based his factories on factories he had seen in England. As our textbook tells us, Lowell hired young single women to be the first factory operatives. This made sense since women were the ones who made cloth at home, if this was to be the first job we take out of the home and move it to the factory, we might as well hire the people who know how a loom and spinning wheel operate. Now instead of young women powering these tools, the looms and wheels are powered by water wheels.

Be sure to read in our textbook what Lowell thought about his workers and how he treated his workers.

Watch: Lowell

4 Rise of the Middle Class

Middle Class family

Family Group, by Frederick R Spencer, 1840

With these improvements in transportation and industrialization, we see the beginnings of two new economic categories: a middle class and a working class. Prior to industrialization, the overwhelming majority of people across the planet were farmers. Everyone in a farm family had to work in order for the family to survive. While there are still a majority of farmers in the US throughout the 1800s, we do see the beginnings of these new groups who sell goods or services in the marketplaces.

Both middle and working class people sold goods and services for money; the difference was the level of skill. Middle class people have higher level skills (usually because of a college education) and therefore their skills like being a lawyer, accountant, banker, manager, etc...are harder to replace and therefore they earn higher wages. Working class people tend to have lower levels of education, therefore they tend to be hired to do unskilled labor (operating a machine in a factory). This work is relatively easy to replace, therefore working class people get little pay.

Watch: Women in the 19th Century