America’s HistorySeventh Edition

CHAPTER 9Teach each other about Economic Transformation

1820-1860

Copyright © 2011 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

James A. HenrettaRebecca Edwards

Robert O. Self

Chapter 9 Learning Objectives

1. How did industrialization affect the American economy?2. How and why did a transportation revolution occur before 1860?3. Why did Americans move to cities during the first half of the nineteenth century?4. How did the rise of factories affect the social relationships of Americans?5. What challenges and opportunities faced immigrants in the United States?

Technology CelebratedArtists joined manufacturers in praising the new industrial age. In this 1836 painting of the city seal of Lowell, Massachusetts, a cornucopia (horn of plenty) spreads its bounty over the symbols of the city’s economic wealth. The artist implies that the bales of raw cotton in the foreground will be transformed in the water-powered textile factories into smooth cloth, for shipment to far-flung markets via the new railroad system. The image of technologically driven prosperity was deceptive. Two years earlier, 2,000 women textile workers had gone on strike in Lowell, claiming that their wages failed to provide a decent standard of living.

I. The American Industrial RevolutionA.The Division of Labor and the Factory1. Labor •mass production enabled products that had been luxury items to be consumed by all•1820s-1830s Lynn, MA, shoe industry “outwork system” with a “division of labor” established•some work performed by semiskilled laborers, the rest by women working in their homes

•workers’ wages declined as more jobs were now available•increased production and lowered costs to consumers.

2. The Factory

outwork system

1. Labor • workers’ wages

declined as more jobs were now available

• increased production and lowered costs to consumers.

2. The Factory

2. The Factory• built for production that was not suitable for the outwork system• concentrated production in one location/building• division of labor utilized• by 1830s factories used minerals such as coal instead of water.

a specific task. Plants such as this one pioneered the development of the moving assembly line, which would reach a high level of sophistication in the early twentieth century, in Henry Ford’s automobile factories.

Pork Packing in CincinnatiThe only modern technology in this Cincinnati System pork-packing plant was the overhead pulley that carried hog carcasses past the workers. The plant’s efficiency came from its organization, a division of labor in which each worker performed

“We entered an immense low-ceiling room and followed a vista of dead swine, upon their backs, their paws stretching mutely toward heaven. Walking down to the vanishing point, we found there a sort of human chopping-machine where the hogs were converted into commercial pork…. Plump falls the hog upon the table, chop, chop; chop, chop; chop, chop, fall the cleavers…. We took out our watches and counted thirty-five seconds, from the moment when one hog touched the table until the next occupied its place.”•Frederick Law Olmsted

Leading Branches of Manufacture, 1860In 1860, three industries—boots and shoes, cotton textiles, and men’s clothing—each employed more than 100,000 workers. However, three other industries with fewer employees—those engaged in the distilling of liquor, the tanning of leather, and the milling of flour—had the highest productivity, with each worker adding more than $1,000 in value to the finished goods.

The picture at the top shows the wheat harvest at Bishop Hill, a religious community founded in Illinois in 1848 by Swedish Pietists. What tools are the men using to cut the wheat? What are the women’s tasks? These communalists certainly harvested more wheat than an individual farm family would reap, but did they do it more efficiently?

1. What effect would the invention of McCormick’s reaper have on the work of these wheat farmers?

Answer: increased speed and capacity for production; farmers could decrease the number of hours needed for work, while increasing the amount of wheat they produce for the market; increased profits might result in farmers purchasing more land for production; men and women not needed in the wheat fields could be performing other essential chores or producing additional items for market.

2. What effects – immediate and long term – might such an invention have on farmers’ daily lives?

Answer: to farm a tract of land would now require fewer hands; the size of farm families might decrease and/or farm families would reorganize their use of family members/laborers; women might spend less time on the farm, more time in the home on domestic duties as they are needed less during wheat harvest.)

Look closely at the reaper in the advertisement. What is the purpose of the letters inscribed on each part of the machine? What does this tell you about the standardization of parts that was crucial to the Industrial Revolution? Why do you think the McCormick Company provided this information to potential buyers?

B. The Textile Industry and British Competition1. American and British Advantages• British feared competition from U.S. manufacturers• prohibited “mechanics” from emigrating for fear they

would give away secrets of British industry• 1789 émigré Samuel Slater built a mill in Rhode Island

credited with starting the Industrial Revolution• British had the advantage of inexpensive shipping, low

interest rates, cheap labor from a large population• Americans got help from tariff bills aimed at driving

up the costs of imports.

2. Better Machines, Cheaper Workers

Old Slater Mill, Rhode Island

2. Better Machines, Cheaper Workers• Americans improved upon British

technology and recruited young women from farm families as laborers

• cities like Lowell, MA, had boardinghouses for the girls with cultural events, moral instruction, strict rules – the “Waltham Plan”

• women had decent living conditions and independence compared to farm life

• factories could undersell British competitors with these lower wages.

One of the last remaining textile mill boarding houses in Lowell, Massachusetts on right.

“DECENT LIVING CONDITIONS”…•The owners recruited young New England farm girls from the surrounding area to work the machines at Waltham. •The mill girls lived in company boarding houses and were subject to strict codes of conduct and supervised by older women. •They worked about 80 hours per week. •Six days per week, they woke to the factory bell at 4:40am and reported to work at 5am and had a half hour breakfast break at 7am •They worked until a lunch break of 30 to 45 minutes around noon. •The workers returned to their company houses at 7pm when the factory closed. •This system became known as the Waltham System.

New England’s Dominance in Cotton Spinning, 1840Although the South grew the nation’s cotton, it did not process it in the years before the Civil War. Entrepreneurs in Massachusetts and Rhode Island built most of the factories that spun and wove raw cotton into cloth. The new factories made use of the abundant waterpower available in New England and the region’s surplus labor force. Initially, factory managers hired young farm women to work the machines; later, they would rely on immigrants from Ireland and the French-speaking province of Quebec in Canada.

C. American Mechanics and Technological Innovation1. Mechanics

• by 1820s “mechanics” were developing innovative factory technology• not formally educated but skillful• Sellers family in Pennsylvania developed a machine to twist woolen yarn and then later built

machines to weave wire sieves, built fire hoses, papermaking equipment, and locomotives• family founded the Franklin Institute (above) for instruction in chemistry, math, and mechanical

design.

2. ToolsD. Wageworkers and the Labor Movement

1. Free Workers Form Unions2. Labor Ideology

A Textile Operative at WorkPowered by water or steam driving a system of leather belts, the looms of the mid-nineteenth century wove cloth much faster and with far less effort than traditional treadle-driven handlooms. However, these new looms required constant attention to repair broken threads, reload shuttles, and prevent imperfections. In this rare daguerreotype of 1850, the young, frail-looking operative moves a lever that will tighten the weave, a task she will repeat many times over the course of her twelve-hour workday.

C. American Mechanics and Technological Innovation

2. Tools• “machine tools” made parts for other machines• Eli Whitney studied at Yale and developed the

cotton gin from technology he devised from women’s hair pins

• later Whitney built machine tools to produce interchangeable musket parts

• early 19th century saw inventions such as lathes, planers, boring machines

• these inventions helped to increase output beyond the British system.

D. Wageworkers and the Labor Movement1. Free Workers Form Unions2. Labor Ideology

The cotton gin allowed plantation owners to go from…

the average cotton picker removing the seeds from only about one pound of short-staple cotton per day to…

...Whitney’s hand-cranked machine that could remove the seeds from 50 pounds of cotton in a single day.

One inadvertent result of the cotton gin’s success, however, was that it helped strengthen slavery in the South. Although the cotton gin made cotton processing less labor-intensive, it helped planters earn greater profits, prompting them to grow larger crops, which in turn required more people. Because slavery was the cheapest form of labor, cotton farmers simply acquired more slaves.

• ALL THAT COTTON NEEDS TO BE WOVEN SOMEWHERE…

A New England Mill, 1850This five-story woolen mill towers over the small houses of a New England village and assumed an equally dominant role in the lives of its people. As the population grew and farms shrank in size, rural folk took up work as artisans, out-workers, and factory laborers.

D. Wageworkers and the Labor Movement1. Free Workers Form Unions• outwork and factory system began to replace craft workers• workers received a wage and direction from an employer• working-class men disliked referring to employers as “master” and instead used Dutch word boss• traditional crafts (carpenters, stonecutters, mason, cabinetmakers) provided a sense of identity that helped men to organize in unions that

could then bargain with employers• some artisans left urban areas to set up shops in the country and avoid factory work• both Britain and the U.S. viewed unionization as illegal.

2. Labor Ideology

• The earliest recorded strike occurred in 1768 when New York journeymen tailors protested a wage reduction.

• The formation of the Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers (shoemakers) in Philadelphia in 1794 marks the beginning of sustained trade union organization among American workers.

• From that time on, local craft unions proliferated in the cities, publishing lists of “prices” for their work, defending their trades against diluted and cheap labor, and, increasingly, demanding a shorter workday.

• CAUTION, LIBERAL BIAS: “THANK YOU UNIONS.”

D. Wageworkers and the Labor Movement2. Labor Ideology• 1830 Lynn, MA, shoemakers who were not allowed to

organize formed a “mutual benefit society,” others followed bringing workers together on common ground

• 1834 National Trade Union formed as first regional union of different trades

• 1842 Commonwealth vs. Hunt Supreme Court ruled that unions were not illegal and workers could unionize and strike to enforce a closed-shop agreement

• union leaders condemned employers and advocated a “labor theory of value” in which the price reflected the cost of the labor to make a good

• 1836 approx. 50 strikes for higher wages in the U.S.• striking women workers in New Hampshire were

replaced by poor immigrants.

1. What does this man’s appearance indicate to us about his economic condition?

Answer: his clothing indicates that he is at least comfortable financially as he not only can afford these clothes but also to have his portrait taken.

2. How does this woodworker exemplify the artisan-republican ideology of some nineteenth-century laborers?

Answer: pride in his work, pride in his financial success as a direct result of his skill as a craftsman are components of the value these men put into their goal of owning their own shops and working for themselves, not as dependent wage earners.

3. In your opinion, how would this man’s life and work be impacted by the increased mechanization of American industries following the Civil War?

Answer: the growing factory system, scientific management, increased demand for products at lower costs, influx of immigrant labor would together create an environment increasingly hostile to the self-made man.

How did American textile manufacturers compete with British manufacturers? How successful were they?

How did American textile manufacturers compete with British manufacturers? How successful were they? • Americans had the advantage of abundant natural resources. The nation’s farmers produced a wealth of cotton and wool, and fast-moving rivers existed for transportation and cheap energy.• The U.S. federal government attempted to assist American industry through tariffs.• But the British had cheap labor, and undersold American competitors.• Because of cheap transatlantic shipping and low interest rates in Britain, raw cotton could be imported from the United States, manufactured into clothing, and resold at bargain price.

In what ways did the emerging industrial economy conflict with artisan republicanism? How did wage laborers respond to the new economy?

In what ways did the emerging industrial economy conflict with artisan republicanism? How did wage laborers respond to the new economy?• Outwork and factory systems led to a decrease in the standard of living, and loss of social equality, independence as a craftworker, working class identity, and the ability to control labor conditions.• Wage workers responded by forming unions to protect their working rights. Strikes sometimes occurred when workers felt threatened by their employers.

II. The Market RevolutionA. The Transportation Revolution Forges Regional Ties

1. Canals and Steamboats Shrink Distance• state governments paid private companies to build toll roads (“turnpikes”)• 1806 Congress appropriated money for a National Road built of compacted gravel• began in Maryland in 1811 and reached modern-day West Virginia in 1818, Illinois by 1839

The National Road (also known as the Cumberland Road)

• land travel was slow so states turned to increasing water travel• Erie Canal connected the Hudson River to Lake Erie• an enormous project for engineers and mostly Irish workers

• changed the ecology of the region as farming communities were built along the waterway and exploited natural resources• huge economic success that encouraged further building of canals in the nation• by 1848 it was possible to travel an all-water route from NYC to New Orleans• teamboats were utilized for travel and transport.

2. Railroads Foster Regional Ties

II. The Market RevolutionA. The Transportation Revolution

Forges Regional Ties1. Canals and Steamboats Shrink Distance

• land travel was slow so states turned to increasing water travel

• Erie Canal connected the Hudson River to Lake Erie

• an enormous project for engineers and mostly Irish workers

• changed the ecology of the region as farming communities were built along the waterway and exploited natural resources

2. Railroads Foster Regional Ties

The Erie CanalThis pastoral view of the Erie Canal near Lockport, New York, painted by artist John William Hill, only hints at this waterway’s profound impact on American life. Without the canal, the town in the background would not exist and farmers such as the man in the foreground would only have local markets for their cattle and grain. By 1860, the success of the Erie Canal had resulted in the construction of a vast system of canals. This infrastructure was as important to the nation as the railroad network of the late nineteenth century and the interstate highway and airport transportation systems of the late twentieth century.

1. Canals and Steamboats Shrink Distance•changed the ecology of the region as farming communities were built along the waterway and exploited natural resources•huge economic success that encouraged further building of canals in the nation•by 1848 it was possible to travel an all-water route from NYC to New Orleans•steamboats were utilized for travel and transport.

2. Railroads Foster Regional Ties

A. The Transportation Revolution Forges Regional Ties2. Railroads Foster Regional Ties

• NY, Boston, and London capitalists invested in the railroad industry• a boom in the 1850s expanded commerce• Chicago grew as a result of ability to transport goods produced in the Midwest via

railroad• mid-western farmers could export their crops to the East and to Europe• factories such as John Deere’s manufacturing of farming equipment grew in the region• Northeast and Midwest had diverse economies while the South was tied to agriculture.

Western Land Sales, 1830–1839 & 1850–1862The federal government set up local land offices to sell farmsteads to settlers. During the 1830s, the offices sold huge amounts of land in the corn and wheat belt of the Old Northwest (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan) and the cotton belt of the Old Southwest (especially Alabama and Mississippi). By the 1850s, most sales of government land were in the upper Mississippi River Valley (particularly Iowa and Wisconsin). Each circle centers on a government land office and indicates the relative amount of land sold at that office.

The Transportation RevolutionBy 1850, the United States had an efficient system of water-borne transportation composed of three distinct parts. A system of short canals and navigable rivers carried cotton, tobacco, and other products from the countryside of the southern seaboard states into the Atlantic commercial system. A second system, centered on the Erie, Chesapeake and Ohio, and Pennsylvania Mainline canals, linked the major seaport cities of the Northeast to the vast trans-Appalachian region. Finally, a set of regional canals in the Old Northwest connected most of the Great Lakes region to the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and the port of New Orleans.

Railroads of the North and South, 1850 and 1861In the decade before the Civil War, entrepreneurs in the Northeast and the Midwest financed thousands of miles of new railroad lines, creating an extensive and dense transportation system that stimulated economic development. The South built a more limited system of railroads. In all regions, railroad companies used different track gauges, which prevented the efficient flow of traffic.

B. The Growth of Cities and Towns1. West and Midwest

• urban population in U.S. grew substantially

• towns grew around factories• those cities that started as locations of

commerce eventually grew to be manufacturing centers (Chicago and St. Louis)

• transit centers (Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, New Orleans).

2. Atlantic Coastal Cities• Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore

remained important for import/export but also became financial centers

• populations grew as a result of immigration to port cities

• New York became the hub for exporting cargo, mail, and people to Liverpool and London, England.

Sears Plant

B. The Growth of Cities and Towns2. Atlantic Coastal Cities

• Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore remained important for import/export but also became financial centers

• populations grew as a result of immigration to port cities

• New York became the hub for exporting cargo, mail, and people to Liverpool and London, England.

The Nation’s Major Cities, 1840By 1840, the United States boasted three major conglomerations of cities. The long-settled ports on the Atlantic—from Boston to Baltimore—served as centers for import merchants, banks, insurance companies, and manufacturers of ready-made clothing, and their reach extended far into the interior—nationwide in the case of New York City. A second group of cities stretched along the Great Lakes and included the wholesale distribution hubs of Buffalo, Detroit, and Chicago, as well as the manufacturing center of Cleveland. A third urban system extended along the Ohio River, comprising the industrial cities of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati and the wholesale centers of Louisville and St. Louis.

1. What roles did state and national government play in the development of America’s transportation networks?

1. What roles did state and national government play in the development of America’s transportation networks?• State: Governments chartered private companies to build roads and turnpikes. The New York legislature funded the Erie Canal in 1817. Governments passed taxes, sold bonds, and charged tools to pay for the project.• National: Congress funded large improvements, such as the National Road in 1811.

2. Describe the different types of cities that emerged in the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century. How do you explain the differences in their development?

2. Describe the different types of cities that emerged in the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century. How do you explain the differences in their development?• Western commercial cities like Pittsburgh and New Orleans expanded as regional hubs for the shipment of goods to the American West. They quickly became industrial centers as well.• Because of industrial growth, large urban Atlantic coastal cities, such as New York, grew as ports for the shipping and financial industry, and as centers of new arrivals of immigrants.• Smaller, internal cities grew as regional hubs for local farmers who shipped surplus grain and other goods for market resale abroad.• Differences in development: Some cities grew large because of their location on water routes of communication, including inland cities on the fall line where rivers descended to coast.

III. New Social Classes and CulturesA. The Business Elite

1. Before Industrialization• Americans considered

themselves by rank (“notable families” or those of “lower order”)

• rural people shared common culture in spite of economic differences, including church affiliation.

Pre-Industrialization Social Order

“Notable Families”

WHAT’S MISSING HERE?

“Lower Order”

A. The Business Elite2. The Urban Wealthy

• industrialization changed order dramatically• created distinct classes and cultures• differences between rural and urban were increasingly pronounced• small percentage of urban population were becoming extremely

wealthy: by 1860 top 10% of wealthy in U.S. owned 70% of the wealth

• taxes were mostly paid by consumers as tariffs on products• no tax on individual or corporate income• tried to distinguish themselves from the middle and poor classes

through dress and personal property• cities became divided by class, race, ethnicity.

B. The Middle Class1. Who They Were2. The Self-Made Man

Distinguishing enough for ya?

Hartford FamilyCompletely at home in their elegant drawing room, this elite family in Hartford, Connecticut, enjoys the fruits of the father’s business success. As the father lounges in his silk robe, his eldest son (and presumptive heir) adopts an air of studied nonchalance and his daughter fingers a piano, signaling her musical accomplishments. A diminutive African American servant (her size suggesting her status) serves fruit to the lavishly attired woman of the house. The drawing room in such houses was usually sumptuously appointed, with a decor reflecting both the owners’ prosperity and their aesthetic and cultural interests.

B. The Middle Class1. Who They Were

•farmers, mechanics, manufacturers, traders, contractors, lawyers, surveyors, business owners, clerks•mostly in the Northeast, some in the South•per capita income was increasing as the cost of consumer products was declining with industrialization•men worked to supply the family with a comfortable home, transportation, clothing•women had help in the household and time to read books, play piano, decorate their homes•a focus on moral and mental discipline (against carnivals, festivals)•stressed schooling and hard work.

2. The Self-Made Man

B. The Middle Class2. The Self-Made Man

•notion that one’s work ethic could lead to success/wealth•posthumous publication of Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography (1818) emphasized the importance of being industrious•a central theme of popular culture: the man who works hard and rises from laborer to owner/manager, from poor to middle class or wealthy.

Architecture for the Emergent Middle ClassThis dwelling was well suited for a “farmer of wealth” or a middle-class suburbanite, according to Alexander Downing, author of The Architecture of Country Houses (1850). The exterior of the house exhibited “a considerable degree of elegance,” Downing’s books and similar style manuals by other authors helped define the culture of the growing middle class and diffuse it across the nation.

Architecture for the Emergent Middle ClassThe interior boasted a substantial drawing room and dining room, for the entertainment of guests, and a parlor for more intimate conversations among family and friends.

C. Urban Workers and the Poor1. Laborers

• 1840 50% of white population worked for someone else• men and women of the lower class worked in dangerous,

often temporary jobs• wages often didn’t cover the cost of food/rent• could not afford consumer items that they produced in

the factories• children often worked instead of attending school• housing conditions were unsanitary, overcrowded.

2. Alcohol• solace in alcohol• 1820s-1830s increase in the amount of beer and rum

consumed by wage earners• men drank during the workday; resulted in fights,

robberies, brawls• not enough police to control resulting problems.

D. The Benevolent Empire1. Conservative Social Reform2. Discipline

C. Urban Workers and the Poor2. Alcohol

• solace in alcohol• 1820s-1830s increase

in the amount of beer and rum consumed by wage earners

• men drank during the workday

• resulted in fights, robberies, brawls

• not enough police to control resulting problems.

D. The Benevolent Empire1. Conservative Social Reform2. Discipline

D. The Benevolent Empire1. Conservative Social Reform

•Congregational and Presbyterian ministers led benevolence organizations•concerned with alcohol, adultery, prostitution, crime

2. Discipline• not simply sermons, but going into the community as organized groups

• ex: Prison Discipline Society, American Society for the Promotion of Temperance.

2. Discipline• benevolent societies encouraged discipline and

“regular habits”• wanted to ban drinking alcohol at public events

(carnivals)• devised institutions to help the need and unruly

(homes)• argued that working on Sundays was part of society’s

decline• boycotts of companies that did business on Sundays

(Sabbatarian)• opposed by workers and freethinkers• southerners opposed suggestions that slaves be

taught Christian religion.

An Inside View of the Benevolent EmpireEarly-nineteenth-century reformers condemned corporal punishment. So they built prisons designed to rehabilitate criminals and turn them into responsible citizens. As this folk painting by a Massachusetts penitentiary inmate suggests, prison officials imposed tight discipline. The inmates marched in silence: In line with the latest penal theories, prisoners were not allowed to speak with one another, the silence key to encouraging them to reflect on their crimes and express repentance

1. Evangelical Beliefs• intense conversion experience led to his career as a minister• part of the Second Great Awakening• “God has made man a moral free agent” with the ability to

choose salvation• “free will”• middle class liked his message• converted people of all classes, especially the wealthy• 1830 moved to Rochester, NY, to preach daily• middle class vowed to change and encourage their workers

to change their social habits (drinking, etc.)• the Rochester poor and the city’s craft organizations disliked

the message because it impeded their freedom outside of the workplace.

2. TemperanceF. Immigration and Cultural Conflict

1. Irish Poverty2. Nativism

E. Charles Grandison Finney: Revivalism and Reform

2. Temperance• most successful evangelical social

reform effort• 1830s American Temperance

Society had more than 200,000 members nationwide

• used revivals and group prayer to get their message out

• annual consumption was in decline by 1845.

F. Immigration and Cultural Conflict1. Irish Poverty2. Nativism

1. Who is the intended audience of this 19th-century lithograph?

Answer: the fine dress of the main character along with the presence of a woman and child near a house indicates that this image was aimed at middle-class, married men.

2. What message does this illustration endorse?

Answer: otherwise stable, family men stood to lose everything if they over-indulged in drink, hurting their wives and children, damaging their reputations and health, potentially losing their lives.

3. How does this lithograph promote the ideology of the Benevolent Empire?

Answer: encourages the notion of moral discipline promoted by Protestant ministers, including Lyman Beecher, who used persuasion and sometimes law to induce what they perceived as socially-acceptable behaviors.

F. Immigration and Cultural Conflict1. Irish Poverty

•most immigrants 1840-1860 avoided the South because of slavery•poorest migrants because of famine in Ireland•most settle in New England and New York•most lived in squalor in urban areas•Catholics built charitable societies, orphanages, militia companies, parochial schools, political organizations.

2. Nativism

2. Nativism• anti-Catholic sentiment rose as number of Catholics increased in this Protestant

nation• Samuel F. B. Morse Foreign Conspiracy Against the Liberties of the United

States argued that Catholics would obey the Pope and not the republican government

• economic problems worsened anti-Catholic sentiment and increased arguments in favor of immigration restrictions.

In this well known cartoon from Harper's Weekly, 1871, Catholic bishops, drawn to look like alligators, crawl out to threaten the American family and the American public school. A native white father, the Bible thrust into his vest, tries to protect his family while behind him, Boss Tweed and his cronies drop children into the river to be devoured by Catholics. In the left background stands St. Peter's cathedral, the center of the Roman Catholic church: it has been re-labled "Tammany Hall."

riots were set off by a decision to use both Protestant and Catholic versions of the Bible in the public schools, the causes were more deep-seated. Religious animosities, ethnic differences, and cultural conflicts created an explosive mix that resulted in open warfare.

The Philadelphia Riots of 1844When riots between nativists and Irish Catholic immigrants broke out in Philadelphia in May 1844, the governor of Pennsylvania called out the militia to restore order. But violence continued. On July 7, battles among Protestants (the well-dressed men in the illustration), Catholics, and state militia left fifteen dead and more than fifty injured. Although the

1. Examine this image carefully. Can you identify the sides in the conflict?

Answer: Catholics, Protestants, and the Pennsylvania state militia; men in black top hats appear to be of some wealth, representative of Protestants.)

2. What does this image tell us about nativist sentiment in mid-nineteenth-century Philadelphia?

Answer: northeastern cities experienced population growth as Catholic immigrants entered the country in great numbers; so-called native Americans sought to control the influence of Catholicism in social institutions, including schools; fear and frustrations overflowed into violence.

1. What social classes were created by the economic revolution? Describe their defining characteristics.

1. What social classes were created by the economic revolution? Describe their defining characteristics.• Business elite: They were wealthy, removed physically and ideologically from lower social classes and the middle class, and reclusive. The managers and owners of industry, they inhabited separate residential neighborhoods in large cities, and were exploiters of cheap immigrant laborers.• Middle class: They engaged in ordinary economic transactions of society, including conspicuous consumption for material comfort as their incomes rose during the market revolution. They viewed themselves as self-made men, based on a hard work ethic and moral and mental discipline from heavy drinking and gambling. They possessed a strong belief in public education.• Urban workers and the poor: Urban workers were dependent on the upper classes for work, engaged in manual or skilled labor, believed in artisan republican ideology, joined unions and went on strike, and inhabited working class neighborhoods. The poor suffered terribly from disease, inhabited substandard housing in slums, had a high rate of alcoholism, crime and fighting, and high unemployment, and experienced a lack of government social services.

2. What were the main goals of the Benevolent Empire? To what extent were they achieved?

2. What were the main goals of the Benevolent Empire? To what extent were they achieved?• The primary goal of the Benevolent Empire was conservative social reform, which took the form of moral discipline against vice, the temperance movement, the Sabbath movement, the religious Christian movement, and movements against poverty, adultery, and prostitution. New secular, charitable institutions were created, and churches were used to combat social problems.• There was a popular resistance to moral reform, as well as a lack of strong government support. The class bias of reformers limited the effectiveness of some reforms, such as the teaching of Christianity to slaves or persuading working-class men to stop drinking alcohol and attend church on their only day off each week.

3. Weigh the relative importance of the Industrial Revolution and the Market revolution in changing the American economy.

3. Weigh the relative importance of the Industrial Revolution and the Market revolution in changing the American economy. • The 1800 economy was preindustrial, dependent on Atlantic seaport trade with Europe. The United States was a nation of independent farm families disconnected from larger market economy.• The 1860 economy was an industrial and manufacturing economy based on mass production and the use of cheap urban labor. Geographical regions were more interdependent, and there was increased agricultural output because of improvements in transportation systems and an increase of exports to Europe.• American private and government interests engaged in capitalism to create transportation improvements and a manufacturing industrial infrastructure based on mass production. The removal of Native Americans from the southeast enabled the increase of cotton production, the key export fueling American industrial growth before 1860.

1. What was the impact of the economic revolution on the lives of women in various social groups and classes?

1. What was the impact of the economic revolution on the lives of women in various social groups and classes?• The elite class gained wealth, led increasingly reclusive lives, possessed servants and performed no labor, increasingly took part in the social reform movement, feared the lower classes, and experienced a decrease in the birthrate.• Middle-class women left the workforce and became full-time homemakers, increasing their literacy and conspicuous consumption and decreasing the birthrate. Their desire for education and work life increased, as did their participation in church (Second Great Awakening) and social reform movements of the Benevolent Empire.• For working-class women, the working conditions became worse as a result of urban locations, long hours, low pay, and the harsh environment of factory employment. They increasingly entered the industrial workforce, experienced a decrease in birthrate, joined unions, and went on strike. Disease and alcoholism increased, while life expectancy decreased. Some women enjoyed work life because it provided a sisterhood with female workers, larger living quarters, distance from a patriarchal family, and it delayed marriage.• Poor women found that their housing and work conditions became worse as cycles of unemployment increased from market revolution and industrial growth.

2. Did the Industrial and Market revolutions make America a more or less republican society? How so?

2. Did the Industrial and Market revolutions make America a more or less republican society? How so?• Economic revolutions worked against the creation of a republican society based on social equality, participation in government, and public spiritedness. The revolutions created strong class differences that decreased the sense of social equality. Economic inequality increased, as did gaps in wages and life expectancy, residential segregation by class, and recurrent periods of unemployment. An increase of individualism and economic self-interest decreased a sense of public spiritedness, reducing the effectiveness of government and private reforms of social ills.• Industrial and market revolutions required cotton as a key product for U.S. and British mass production in factories and resale. Lands were taken from Indians and labor from Africans, resulting in an increase of Indian genocide and land loss, and an African holocaust of slavery and erosion of rights as free people.