Technology, Culture and Everyday Life

Chapter 11

1840-1860

Introduction

• How did technology transform life in the United States between 1840 and 1860?

• In what ways did technology unite and in what ways divide the nation?

• What did American artists and writers see as unique about their country and how did they express their views in their works?

Technology and Economic Growth

• Introduction– Steam Engine– Cotton Gin– Reaper– Sewing Machine– Telegraph

Transformed America in the time before the Civil war. American productivity, standard of living, travel and communication are improved. Some Americans hurt by New Technology- slaves, craftsmen, artisans.

Agricultural Advancement

• John Deere’s steel plow helped farmers transform Illinois, Michigan and Indiana

• Cyrus McCormick started mass producing mechanical reapers in 1847

• Grain becomes the dominant crop of the Midwest

• Eastern farmers begin to use fertilizers to increase yields

Technology and Industrial Progress

• Eli Whitney- Interchangeable Parts

• Samuel Colt- revolving pistol

• Elias Howe- sewing machine

• Samuel Morse- telegraph

The Railroad Boom

• 1860- 30,000 miles of track in US– Linked East to Midwest– Cities and Towns developed along the

Railroad– Stock and Securities/Wall Street

Rising Prosperity

• 25% rise in real income of Americans between 1840 and 1860

• New income opportunities because factories could stay open throughout the year

• Economic opportunities lured more immigrants and migrants to the cities of the East

The Quality of Life

• Dwellings– Row houses

• Poor- tenements• Middle Class

– Store Bought Furniture

– Frontier• Log Cabins• Balloon Framed Houses

– Rococo Style• Ornate• Imported decorations and furniture

Conveniences and Inconveniences

• Coal burning stoves replace fireplaces for heating and cooking

• Fresh foods brought by railroad• Salted Meats• Aqueducts, Reservoirs and water works• Street hydrants• Little indoor plumbing• Irregular bathing• Outdoor toilets

Disease and Health

• Epidemics- Cholera, Yellow Fever

• Uncertain about the cause and cures of diseases

• Crawford Young and William T.G. Morton- Anesthetics

• Advancements in the field of surgery

• Failed to recognize the importance of disinfection

Popular Health Movements

• Hydropathy

• Popular Therapies

• Grahamite Regimen

Phrenology

• Popular scientific fad of the antebellum period

• Claim that skilled phrenologists could examine contours of the head and analyze a person’s character, behavior, intelligence, etc.

Newspapers

• James Gordon Bennett, publisher of the New York Herald, uses modern techniques of paper making and printing along with the invention of the telegraph to build mass circulation of the newspaper.

• Newspapers sold for a penny• Columns were filled with human interest stories• Bennett and Horace Greeley’s New York

Tribune also contained financial and political reporting

The Theater

• Romantic Melodramas

• William Shakespeare

• Popular for of entertainment

• Cross section of social classes

Minstrel Shows

• Songs, Dances, Skits by White men in black face.

• Popular among working classes

• Catered to and reinforced stereotypes and prejudices

PT Barnum

• Display of curiosities

• American Museum in New York

• Entrepreneur of Popular Entertainment

The Quest for Nationality in Literature and Art

• Introduction– European writing was considered superior– American writers included

• Washington Irving• James Fennimore Cooper• Ralph Waldo Emerson• Walt Whitman• Herman Melville

– Hudson River School of Art– Frederick Law Olmstead

Roots of the American Renaissance

• Transportation Revolution opens the door for the sale of books

• Romanticism

• Harriet Beecher Stowe- Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Cooper, Emerson, Thoreau, Fuller and Whitman

• James Fennimore Cooper– Natty Bumpo– Last of the Mohicans- American Fiction and Landscape

• Ralph Waldo Emerson– Transcendentalism – American Romanticism– Education, Reason, Seeking God through truth, beauty and feelings

• Henry David Thoreau– Refused to pay taxes in support of Mexican- American War– Civil Disobedience

• Margaret Fuller- – Women in the Nineteenth Century

• Walt Whitman-– Leaves of Grass – poetry that celebrated the common man

Hawthorne, Melville and Poe

• Moral Dilemmas

• Psychological states

• Pessimism in the human condition

Literature in the Marketplace

• Poe made money selling his short stories to newspapers and magazines

• Emerson, Melville and Thoreau made money lecturing for lyceums

• Susan Warner– The Wide, Wide World– Women could overcome trials and improve

their world

American Landscape Painting

• George Catlin

• Thomas Cole

• Asher Durand

• Frederic Church

• Hudson River School of Art

• Frederick Law Olmstead

• Calvert Vaux

Conclusion

• New Technology changed the lives of Americans• Transportation and Manufacturing

– Changed American diets– Lower the price of necessities and luxuries– Encouraged leisure pursuits– Increased the gap between wealthy and poor– Led to increased pollution and destruction of the

environment– Troubled writers such as Emerson and Thoreau and

the Hudson River School of Art– Led men to the dark places of their soul such as

Hawthorne, Melville and Poe