Portrait of a Nation

John Adams Takes Office

• Second President• Thomas Jefferson – Vice President• First election with political parties

• Federalist President and Democratic-Republican Vice President

IV. Problems with France

• Near war with France – French seized U.S. ships- to prevent trading with the British

• Diplomats are sent to France to restore peace

• XYZ Affair – report to President Adams that French officials tried to bribe U.S. diplomats

• Bribe – Loan France 10 million• Pay 250,000 to French minister

Alien and Sedition Acts

• Alien – an immigrant who is not yet a citizen

• Alien and Sedition Acts – laws that said that immigrants had to wait 14 years to become a citizen

• Sedition- saying or writing anything false or harmful about the government

• States rights- theory that said states had rights that the federal government could not violate. (declared unconstitutional)

• Alien and Sedition Acts violated the Constitution

• They expired between 1800 and 1802

Portrait of a Nation in 1800

• The U.S. is a nation of 16 states, population 5 million– Almost 1 million slaves

Still mostly an agrarian (agricultural) societyOnly 1 in 25 Americans was a city dweller

• Age of Homespun• Most Americans are self-sufficient– live and work on a farm– Produce their own food, clothes, and furniture

• Largest cities are on the Atlantic coast• Boston• Baltimore• New York• Philadelphia-

• A new industrial society is just beginning to emerge…

Samuel Slater

• 1790 - Samuel Slater builds the first spinning mill in Rhode Island

• Hired whole families

• spinning jenny’s and power looms means that workers can produce more cloth in less time

Eli Whitney

• Created interchangeable parts

• These are parts that are exactly alike

• Eli Whitney also invents the cotton gin– From one pound of

cotton a day, we can clean 50 pounds a day

• Slater and Whitney’s innovations will change EVERYTHING in America

• Industrial Revolution- Factory machines replace hand tools, large-scale manufacturing replaces farming as the main form of work.