Unit 4 - The Economic Revolution and Intellectual Movements

Wilson APUSH LHS '25 made by daniel

Samuel Slater

Memorized the carefully guarded British design for cotton-spinning machines, and used it to design his own factories when he crossed over from England to America in 1789.

Francis Cabot Lowell

One of the Boston ASsociates, who were responsible for developing the Lowell System

Waltham Plan

Lowell, MA

Became a factory town; lots of mils were established along the Merrimack River. Initially, the factories had good conditions, and provided a paternal kind of care for its mainly young, women workers. However, when profits fell, this care and quality of life worsened, especially as more and more mills were established and “the once rural town” became “an industrial city — bustling, grimy, and bleak.”

Eli Whitney

Inventor of the Cotton Gin and pioneer of interchangeable parts.

Cotton Gin

A machine that made it easier to remove cotton seeds from the fibers. This was meant to reduce the need for slaves, but it caused the opposite. Since cotton farmers could now process more cotton, they grew more, and purchased more slaves to facilitate the growth and harvest of the plant.

Interchangeable Parts

Another major contribution from Eli Whitney, other than his [cotton gin].

Whitney was also a gun manufacturer, and facilitated the manufacture of uniform parts, which meant that [unskilled laborers] could now manufacture guns, which could also now be partially repaired instead of entirely replaced.

National Trades Union

Setup in 1834 to federate the city societies; the first federation of labor unions. Collapsed in Panic of 1837.

Working Men’s Parties

Formed in 1828, broad reformist groups that were devoted to the interests of labor, but they faded pretty quickly.

Commonwealth v Hunt

This case declared that forming a trade union was not in itself illegal, nor was a demand that employers hire only members of the union. Also declared that workers could strike if an employer hired nonunion laborers.

Labor Theory of Value

The theory that the economic value of a good is determined by how much skill is required in the labor to make it.

National Road

The first federally funded road in the US, this road provided a connection between the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and a gateway to the North for settlers.

Significant b/c it “opened the Ohio River Valley and Midwest for settlement and commerce.”

Side notes:

The constitutional backing for the federal funding became a hot topic,

Eerie Canal

Part of the American System, it created an easy connection between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean via the Hudson River.

• drove down transportation costs

• faciliated easier Western migration and trade

• established New York City as the premier port and commercial center of America

Robert Fulton

He designed the first commercially successful steamboat and the first steam warship. This had the significance of allowing boats to move upwards rivers, which allowed for more trade and transportation across the Hudson.

Transportation Revolution

The introduction of canals, steamboats, and railways in the US. This facilitated internal trade within the US, the expansion of markets, and the movement of people.

Samuel F.B. Morse

Developed the electric telegraph (1832-1835) and codeveloped Morse Code w/ Alfred Vail. Also a very fine painter.

Henry Clay’s American System

Three parts

• national bank to foster commerce

• protective tariffs

• federal financial support for roads, canals, and bridges

Helped to promote internal commerce and unite the country.

Nativism

Prejudice against immigrants, especially those of Irish and German Catholics.

Know Nothing Party

A political party that was on the rise with Nativism, all members of it pledged to not vote for any foreign-born or Catholic candidates. They were on the brink of achieving major-party status in 1854, but never came to gather enough political strength to enact legislation.

Transcendentalism

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were two influential/famous transcendentalists, as well as Margaret Fuller

• believed humans were inherently good but were corrupted by society

• thus they should strive for independence and self-reliance

• people had personal relationships w/ God, no intermediary necessary

• “Simple living and high thinking

credit: Khan Academy

Romanticism

An artistic and intellectual movement stemming from Europe.

• Immanuel Kant - Critique of Pure Reason (1781), an influential book whose title also summarizes the movement

• Emphasized the limits of sciences and reason in explaining the universe

• Romantics believed people have innate conceptions of conscience and beauty; intuitive feelings were raised at the expense of rational knowledge

Heart>head

Ralph Waldo Emerson

TL;DR:

• father of transcendentalism, essayist, poet, popular speaker

• dismissed religious denominations

• preached…

  • sacredness of nature

  • optimism, self-reliance, individual’s unlimited potential (no need to rely on God)

• transcended limits of logic & tradition

• “transcendentalism promotes intuitive, spiritual thinking instead of scientific thinking based on material things”

Henry David Theoreau

• Committed to leading a life of “plain living and high thinking”

• Transcendentalist and friend of Emerson

• Lived in a cabin by Walden Pond (1845-1847), wrote Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854)

  • Lived there not to be a hermit, but to free himself from complexities/hypocrisies of conventional life and observe+reflect+write

• Wrote “On Civil Disobedience”

  • stemmed from him not paying taxes b/c they’d go towards Mexican War

  • this would later influence Gandhi and MLK’s passive-resistance movements

Walden

• Written by Henry David Thoreau

• Part of “The Flowering of American Literature”

• Was based on his experiences living in a cabin by Walden Pond (1845-57)

• Themes:

  • Self-Reliance.

    Work.

    Simplicity Over "Progress"

    Solitude and Society

    Nature

    Transcendentalism, Spirituality, and the Good Life.

“On Civil Disobedience”

• Essay written by Thoreau

• Stemmed from him not paying taxes b/c he was anti Mexican War

• Later influenced passive-resistance mvmts of Gandhi and MLK

Margaret Fuller

A member of the Transcendental club; edited the group’s quarterly review, the Dial (1840-44), for two years until it went over to Emerson

The Dial

The quarterly review of The Transcendental Club

Louisa May Alcott

• American writer

• wrote Little Women!

• Took pride in her independency/self sufficiency and never married

• Supported the independence of women, although this was a challenge given their lack of rights at the time

James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans

James Fenimore Cooper was the first American author to use uniquely American characters. The Last of the Mohicans, which was part of the Leatherstocking Tales, led to the concept of the “noble savage.”

Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Herman Melville was one of the greatest authors of his era. Moby Dick was his most important novel, and told a story of courage and the strength of the human will.

Also a metaphor for the “harsh, individualistic, achievement-driven culture of 19th century America.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, The Blithedale Romance

One of the OG residents of Brook Farm.

The Scarlett Letter (sin, punishment, & atonement) covers the sin of adultery

The Blithdale Romance is about a utopian society, and is based in part on the disillusionment Hawthorne faced after living in Brook Farm.

Brook Farm

An experimental community established in 1841 by George Ripley and the Transcendentalists, it was supposed to be a utopia where everyone contributed towards daily tasks and had time for education and leisure.

Edgar Allen Poe

• Famous writer, editor, and literary critic, most known for his poems.

• Wrote The Raven, To Helen, The City in the Sea, Annabel Lee, The Tell Tale Heart, etc….

• Considered part of the American Romantic movement.

Washington Irving

• Famous author, first American author to be internationally recognized for his works.

• Remembered for short stories such as “Rip van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

• American poet and prof. at Harvard

• Wrote for upper classes, and adopted by common folk

• mainly based poems on American tradition

• popular in Europe

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

• Walt Whitman was a humanist and poet, helped to start transition between transcendentalism and realism.

• Leaves of Grass was immensely controversial for its references to sexual relationships, including homosexual ones, as one of the joys of life

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

• Tocqueville believed that equality was the great political and social idea of his era

• Though the US offered the most advanced example of equality in action; America’s democracy marked an important cultural shift

Alexis De Tocqueville

• French political scientist

• Best known for writing Democracy in America, a “perceptive analysis of the political and social system of the United States in the early 19th century.” -Britannica

Lyceum Movement

• Places where community members could mutually educate one another at public debates and lectures

Hudson River School of Art

• “ America's first true artistic fraternity.” - Met

• large group of American landscape painters of several generations who worked between about 1825 and 1870.

Transcendental Club

• Theodore Parker, George Ripley, James Freeman Clarke, Henry David Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Orestes Brownson, Elizabeth Peabody, Sophia Peabody, Margaret Fuller