SOCIAL STUDIES NOTES: GRADE 8 CHAPTER 11
NORTH AND SOUTH TAKE DIFFERENT PATHS: 1800-1845
Section 1: The Industrial Revolution
- I. A Revolution in Technology
-In the 1700s, a great change began that we now call the Industrial Revolution. Gradually, machines took the place of many hand tools.
Much of the power once provided by people and horses began to be replaced, first by flowing water and then by steam engines.
-The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the textile industry. For centuries workers had spun thread in their homes on spinning wheels. The thread was then woven into cloth on hand looms. It took nearly two weeks to produce a pound of cotton thread.
-In the 1760s, the spinning jenny speeded up the thread-making process. However, thread still had to be made by hand.
-Then, in 1764, Richard Arkwright invented the water frame, a spinning machine powered by running water rather than human energy.
-To house the large machines, manufacturers built textile mills on the banks of rivers. The new mills created a new way of working, known as the factory system. Instead of spinning at home (cottage industries), textile workers had to go to the factories and begin and end work at specific hours.
-Workers now had to keep up with the machines instead of working at their own pace.
-The system, however, required that huge sums of money be invested in buildings and machines. Thus, the mill owners turned to capitalists. Factories proved to be a good investment for the capitalists and mill owners. By 1784, British workers were producing 24 times as much thread as they had in 1765.
-Building factories on riverbanks had some disadvantages. In dry season, the machines had no power. Also, most factories were far from the city, and labor was hard to find in rural areas.
-In 1790, Arkwright built the first steam-powered textile plant. The steam engine was a reliable source of power. Factories no longer needed to be built on riverbanks. They could be built in cities, where young women and children provided cheap labor.
-Britain tried to guard the secrets of its industrial success. It forbade anyone to take information about textile machinery out of Britain. Skilled workers were forbidden to leave the country.
II. The American Industrial Revolution
-In 1789, a young apprentice in one of Arkwright’s factories decide to immigrate to the United States. Samuel Slater knew that his knowledge of Arkwright’s machines could be worth a fortune. He studied hard and memorized the plans of Arkwright’s machines. Then, he boarded a ship for New York.
-In the United States, Slater joined forces with a wealthy merchant, Moses Brown. Brown had rented a textile mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Relying entirely on his memory, Slater constructed a spinning machine based on Arkwright’s. Slater’s factory began producing cotton thread at a rate never before seen in the United States.
-The success of Slater’s mill marked the beginning of American industrialization. Industrialization began in the Northeast.
-U.S. industry did not grow significantly until the War of 1812. As the British navy blockaded U.S. ports, Americans had to depend on their own industries to supply good.
-Before the war Francis Cabot Lowell had visited England and seen the latest weaving machine. When he returned to the United States, Lowell and an associate built an improved version of the English machines.
-With several other capitalists, Lowell opened a mill in Waltham, Massachusetts. The mill was organized in a new way. Instead of obtaining thread from separate spinning mills, Lowell’s factory brought together spinning and weaving in one building.
-After Lowell died in 1817, his partners expanded the business. Wanting better lives for their workers, the partners built a new town, with boardinghouses, a library, and a hospital. They named their mill town Lowell after their late partner.
III. The Revolution Takes Hold
-Americans experimented with new methods. One of the most important developments was mass production. Before the 1800s, skilled craftsworkers manufactured clocks, guns, and other mechanical products by hand. When a part broke, a craftsworker had to create a unique piece to fit the product.
-In the 1790s, American inventor Eli Whitney devised a system of interchangeable parts. Interchangeable parts soon came to be used in the manufacture of other products. Manufacturing became more efficient, and the price of many goods dropped.
-Samuel Slater employed children in his textile mill. As time went on, working conditions for children and adults became harsher.
-American textile mills, coal mines, and steel foundries employed children as young as 7 or 8. These children had no opportunities for education. They often worked in unsafe conditions. By 1800, more than a million children between the ages of 10 and 15 worked for pay.
-Working conditions were appalling. Factories were poorly lighted. There was no fresh air. Machines were designed to perform a task not to protect the worker. As a result, many workers were injured on the job.
-A worker who lost a hand or a foot received no help. He or she needed to depend on family for support. Business owners provided no payments for disabled workers.
-To keep machines running as long as possible, workdays lasted 12 or 14 hours. By 1844, workers were demanding shorter days, but the 8-hour workday was far in the future.
Section 2: The North Transformed
I. Northern Cities
-By today’s standards, early American cities were small. In the 1800s, however, U.S. cities grew larger. The Industrial Revolution spurred urbanization. As capitalists built more factories, agriculture workers were attracted to the new types of work available in the cities.
-As cities along the east coast became crowded, newly arrived immigrants headed west to places like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Louisville, Kentucky.
-Growing cities faced many problems. Filthy streets, the absence of good sewage systems, and a lack of clean drinking water encouraged the spread of disease.
-Citywide fires were another common problem.
II. The Growth of Northern Industry
-New inventions revolutionized communications. The most important was the telegraph, a device that used electrical signals to send messages quickly over long distances.
-Samuel F.B. Morse’s invention worked by sending electrical signals over a wire. A code devised by Morse used shorter and longer bursts of electricity. In his system, known as Morse Code, each letter of the alphabet is represented by its own mix of short signals and long signals.
-In 1844, Morse tested his system. The telegraph soon became part of American life. Thousands of miles of wire were strung across the nation.
-The mechanical reaper, invented by Cyrus McCormick, made it easier for farmers to settle the prairies of the Midwest. The reaper cut stalks of wheat many times faster than a human worker could.
-Improvements in threshers also speeded up the harvesting of grain. Threshers separate the grains of wheat from their stalks. Eventually, the mechanical reaper and the thresher were put together into one machine called a combine.
-These advances in agriculture also affected industry. Farm laborers who had been replaced by machines went to cities to work in shops and factories.
-Other inventions revolutionized the way goods were made. In 1846, Elias Howe patented a machine that could sew seams in fabric. A few years later, Isaac Singer improved on Howe’s design. The sewing machine made it much more efficient to produce clothing in quantity. As clothes became less expensive, people of modest means began to dress almost as well as wealthier Americans.
- III. A Transportation Revolution
-Improvements in transportation spurred the growth of American industry. As transportation became faster and easier, factories could make use of raw materials from farther away. Improved transportation also allowed factory owners to ship their goods to distant markets.
-In 1807, Robert Fulton, an American inventor, used a steam engine to power a boat. Fulton’s Clermont was the first practical steamboat.
-By the 1850s, Great Britain was producing oceangoing steamships. These ironclad steamships were faster and could carry more cargo.
-Of all forms of transportation, railroads did the most to tie together raw materials, manufacturers, and markets. Steamboats had to follow the paths of rivers, which sometimes froze in winter. Railroads, however, could be built anywhere. By 1840, about 3,000 miles of railway had been built in the United States.
- IV. A New Wave of Immigrants
-The American population grew rapidly in the 1840s. Millions of immigrants entered the United States, mostly from western Europe.
-Ireland had long been under British rule. While the best farmland was owned by British landlords, the potato was the staple, or basic, food for most of the population. Then, in 1845, a fungus destroyed the potato crop, leading to a famine. The years that followed are often called the Great Hunger. More than a million people starved to death. About a million more left Ireland. Many came to America.
-Germans came to America during this period as well. Many had taken part in revolutions against harsh rulers. When the revolutions failed, the Germans fled to the United States.
-Some Americans worried about the growing foreign populations. These were nativists. Nativists especially opposed Irish immigration because most of the Irish were Roman Catholics.
-One group of nativists in New York formed a secret group. When asked about their secret order, members replied, “I know nothing.” In time, the Know-Nothings became a political party. In 1856, the Know-Nothing candidate for President won 21% of the vote. Soon after, the party split over the issue of slavery and dissolved.
- V. African Americans in the North
-Even more than immigrants, African Americans in the North faced discrimination.
-Slavery had largely ended in the North by the early 1800s. Free African Americans were joined by new arrivals from the South. Freedom, however, did not grant equal treatment. African Americans were often denied the right to vote, and they were not allowed to work in factories or skilled jobs.
-Prejudice against African Americans led to racial segregation of schools and public facilities. As a result, African Americans started their own churches and publications.
Section 3: The Plantation South
- I. The Cotton Kingdom
-As the North became more urban and industrialized, the South remained largely rural. Two events changed life in the South. First, a boom in textiles caused by the Industrial Revolution created a huge demand for cotton. Second, a new invention allowed the South to satisfy that demand.
-In 1793, Eli Whitney devised a simple machine that speeded the processing of cotton. His cotton gin used a spiked cylinder to remove seeds from cotton fibers. Before the introduction of the cotton gin, the seeds had to be picked out of the cotton fibers by hand. A laborer could clean only a pound of cotton a day.
-Using the cotton gin, a worker could process fifty times more cotton fiber. Cotton growing became more profitable.
-To grow more cotton, planters used more slave labor. In 1790, there were about 698,000 enslaved African Americans in the United States. By 1860, the census recorded nearly four million.
-Cotton became the greatest source of wealth for the United States.
-In the southern “Cotton Kingdom,” society was dominated by owners of large plantations. This small but wealthy class lived in luxury and sent their children to the finest schools. But more than half of all southern farmers did not have slaves. They grew corn and raised hogs and chickens.
-Most southern whites accepted the system of slavery. Many feared that any weakening of controls over African Americans might encourage violent uprisings. By the 1830s, some people in the North were urging that slavery be banned. In response, southern whites hardened their support for slavery.
- II. African Americans in the South
-Not all of the 4 million African Americans in the South were enslaved. About 253,000 were free. Many had purchased their freedom.
-Laws denied basic rights even to African Americans who were free. By law, they were excluded from all but the most menial jobs. Their children were denied the right to attend public schools. African Americans could not vote, serve on juries, or testify against white defendants in court.
The freedom of African Americans in the South was never secure. Slave catchers prowled the streets looking for escapees. They often kidnapped free African Americans and sold them into slavery.
-In spite of all the restrictions placed upon them, many free African Americans made valuable contributions to southern life. Norbert Rillieux revolutionized the sugar industry. His method of refining sugar made the process faster, safer, and less costly.
-Another African American inventor, Henry Blair, developed a seed planting device that reduced the time a farmer spent sowing a crop.
-Enslaved African Americans had no rights at all. Slave codes controlled every aspect of their lives.
-Enslaved African Americans had only one real protection against mistreatment: owners looked on them as valuable property that they needed to keep healthy and productive.
-Families of enslaved African Americans were often broken apart when slave owners sold one or more of their family members. Many children had only the slightest memory of their parents.
-After 1808, it was illegal to import enslaved Africans to the United States.
-Many African Americans did what they could to resist the slaveholders. Some worked slowly or pretended not to understand what they were told to do. Others deliberately broke farm equipment. The most daring fled north to freedom.
-Sometimes, resistance became rebellion. Nat Turner led the most famous slave revolt in 1831. Turner said he had a vision that told him to kill whites. He and others killed about sixty whites. In reprisal, many innocent African Americans were executed.
Section 4: The Challenges of Growth
- I. Moving West
-By the 1750s, the Scotch-Irish and the Germans of Pennsylvania had begun to settle the backcountry lands between the Atlantic coast and the Appalachian Mountains.
-The most famous early pioneer was Daniel Boone, who, along with about thirty others, cleared a new route to the West in 1775. Called the Wilderness Road, it crossed Appalachian Mountains through the Cumberland Gap in Kentucky. It became the main route across the Appalachians.
-By the early 1800s, the flow of immigrants to the West had become a flood. Traveling west, though, was not easy. Many early roads began as paths for deer or bison. Not surprisingly, the roads were terrible. They were unpaved, dotted with tree stumps, and easily washed out by rain.
- II. Roads and Turnpikes
-Clearly, the nation needed better roads. Farmers and merchants had to have a way to move their goods to market quickly and cheaply.
-Private companies began to build turnpikes or toll roads. In 1795, a private company in Pennsylvania built a turnpike between Lancaster and Philadelphia. The Lancaster Turnpike was the first long-distance stone road in the United States.
-In marshy areas, wagons traveled on corduroy roads. This meant a bumpy ride as wagons bounced over each log. Corduroy roads were a hazard to horses, because they could break their legs if they slipped through the logs.
-The National Road was the first federally funded road. Begun in 1811 in Cumberland, Maryland, it stretched to Wheeling, in western Virginia, by 1818 and reached Vandalia, Illinois, by 1850.
- III. Canals
-Slow road travel isolated western farmers from eastern markets. The fastest, cheapest way to ship goods was by water. However, the major rivers ran north to south. The solution was to build canals from east to west.
In 1816, New York Governor DeWitt Clinton proposed a canal from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. Building the canal was a challenge for engineers. The land in upstate New York is not level. Locks had to be built to raise or lower boats in the canal.
-Within two years of its opening in 1825, the canal had paid for itself. Produce from the Midwest came across Lake Erie, passed through the Erie Canal, and was carried down the Hudson River to New York City. Because of its location at the end of the canal, New York soon became the richest city in the nation.
-The success of the Erie Canal sparked a surge of canal building. In 1829, a canal was built through Delaware. Canals were soon underway in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
- IV. Extension of Slavery
-Westward expansion strengthened the nation. It also caused problems. The most serious problem was the extension of slavery.
-In 1819, the nation consisted of only 11 “slave states,” which permitted slavery, and 11 “free states,” which prohibited slavery. However, Missouri had been seeking admission as a slave state since 1817.
-Northerners reacted strongly. Another slave state would upset the balance in the Senate where each state had two votes. Adding two more senators from a slave state would make the South more powerful than the North.
-In the next session of Congress, Maine applied for admission to the Union. Unlike Missouri, Maine prohibited slavery. The admission of both a slave state and free state would maintain the balance in the Senate.
-In 1820, Senator Henry Clay persuaded Congress to adopt the Missouri Compromise. It permitted Maine to be admitted to the Union as free state and Missouri to be admitted as a slave state. In addition, the compromise provided that the Louisiana Territory north of the southern border of Missouri would be free of slavery. The compromise also gave southern slave owners a clear right to pursue escaped fugitives into “free” regions and return them to slavery.
-The Missouri Compromise revealed how much sectional rivalries divided the states of the Union. White southerners were not happy that Congress had given itself the power to make laws regarding slavery. Many northerners, in turn, were angry that Congress had allowed slavery to expand into another state.
-As Thomas Jefferson observed, the bitterness of feelings about slavery posed a serious threat to national unity. In time, the issue of slavery would indeed split the nation in two.