U.S. Market Revolution, Transportation, and Social Movements (1815–1860)

Market Revolution

Period of economic transformation (1815-1860) shifting the U.S. from local subsistence farming to a national market economy driven by commerce and industry.

National Road (Cumberland Road)

First federally funded highway (begun 1811) connecting Cumberland, Maryland to Wheeling, Virginia, promoting westward migration and economic unity.

Robert Fulton

Inventor of the steamboat who launched the Clermont in 1807, revolutionizing river transportation and commerce.

Steamboat

Steam-powered vessel enabling two-way river travel, boosting trade and city growth along major rivers like the Mississippi.

Erie Canal

363-mile canal completed in 1825 connecting the Hudson River to Lake Erie, reducing shipping costs and turning New York City into a major commercial hub.

Railroads

Transportation innovation expanding from 23 miles of track in 1830 to 30,000 by 1860, enabling faster trade and settlement, surpassing canals in importance.

Eli Whitney

Inventor of the cotton gin (1793), revolutionizing cotton production and expanding slavery in the South.

Cotton Gin

Device that removed seeds from cotton fibers, boosting cotton profitability and fueling slavery.

Cyrus McCormick

Inventor of the mechanical reaper (1831), mechanizing wheat harvesting and increasing agricultural productivity.

Mechanical Reaper

Farming tool that mechanized grain harvesting, helping create the Midwest's agricultural dominance.

John Deere

Inventor of the steel plow (1837), which enabled farming on the tough prairie soils of the Midwest.

Steel Plow

Durable steel-bladed plow allowing efficient cultivation of the Great Plains.

Elias Howe

Inventor who patented the first sewing machine (1846), later improved by Isaac Singer, transforming clothing production.

Samuel Slater

Introduced the first U.S. factory system by bringing British textile machinery plans to Rhode Island in 1790.

Factory System

Centralized method of production using machinery and wage labor in mills, increasing efficiency and creating an industrial workforce.

Lowell System

Early New England factory labor system employing young women in supervised housing; later replaced by immigrant labor.

Irish Immigration

Migration wave (1840-1860) due to the potato famine, supplying cheap labor for Northern factories and infrastructure.

German Immigration

Migration of skilled farmers and craftsmen to the Midwest, encouraged by agricultural mechanization.

Nativism

Anti-immigrant movement opposing Catholics and foreigners, motivated by job competition and cultural fears.

Know-Nothing Party

Political party formed from the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner (1849), promoting anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic policies.

King Cotton

Economic dominance of cotton in the South after the cotton gin, making it central to U.S. and British textile industries.

Planter Elite

Wealthy Southern class owning 20+ slaves, controlling politics and economy despite being only 3% of white men.

Yeoman Farmers

Small Southern farmers with few or no slaves, supporting slavery despite limited economic benefit.

Poor Whites

Landless Southern laborers who worked for wages or rented land, marginalized in the slave economy.

Free Blacks

Approximately 250,000 free African Americans in the South by 1860, facing severe restrictions and discrimination.

Chattel Slavery

System in which enslaved Africans were treated as property with no legal rights.

Domestic Slave Trade

Forced relocation of enslaved people from the Upper South to Deep South plantations.

Slave Culture

Community life among enslaved people blending African traditions and Christianity to sustain identity and hope.

Slave Resistance

Acts ranging from work slowdowns and sabotage to violent uprisings against slavery.

Gabriel Prosser's Rebellion

Failed 1800 slave revolt in Richmond, VA; led to stricter laws controlling slaves and free Blacks.

Denmark Vesey's Conspiracy

Planned 1822 Charleston revolt by a free Black man; uncovered and suppressed, increasing Southern paranoia.

Nat Turner's Rebellion

1831 slave uprising in Virginia killing 60 whites; led to harsher slave codes and mass reprisals.

Second Great Awakening

Early 19th-century Protestant revival emphasizing personal salvation and social reform.

Burned-Over District

Region in western New York known for intense religious revivalism and reform activity.

Mormons

Religious group founded by Joseph Smith in 1830; persecuted and led west by Brigham Young to Utah.

Joseph Smith

Founder of the Mormon faith and author of the Book of Mormon (1830); killed by a mob in 1844.

Brigham Young

Mormon leader who led the migration to Utah and established Salt Lake City.

Shakers

Religious group founded by Ann Lee advocating celibacy, communal living, and equality between sexes.

Ann Lee

Founder of the Shakers, promoting celibacy and communal Christian life.

Transcendentalism

19th-century American intellectual movement emphasizing intuition, nature, and individual conscience over authority.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Leading Transcendentalist author of Nature (1836) and Self-Reliance (1841), advocating individualism and spiritual connection with nature.

Henry David Thoreau

Transcendentalist writer of Walden (1854) and Civil Disobedience (1849), promoting simplicity and moral resistance to injustice.

Temperance Movement

Reform movement against alcohol abuse led by the American Temperance Society and Beecher family, reducing national drinking rates.

Dorothea Dix

Reformer who improved conditions for the mentally ill and prisoners, leading to state-funded asylums.

Horace Mann

Leader of education reform promoting free, tax-supported "common schools" for civic virtue and literacy.

Emma Willard

Founder of Troy Female Seminary, pioneering higher education for women.

Mary Lyon

Founder of Mount Holyoke College, expanding women's access to education.

Cult of Domesticity

Ideology restricting women to home and family roles as moral guardians.

Sarah and Angelina Grimké

Southern sisters turned abolitionists and advocates for women's rights.

Seneca Falls Convention

1848 meeting in New York organizing the first women's rights movement in the U.S.

Declaration of Sentiments

Document from the Seneca Falls Convention declaring equality of men and women and demanding suffrage.

American Colonization Society

Founded in 1816 to send freed African Americans to Africa; later replaced by immediate abolitionism.

William Lloyd Garrison

Radical abolitionist and publisher of The Liberator (1831), demanding immediate emancipation.

David Walker

Black abolitionist author of Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World (1829), urging resistance to slavery.

Frederick Douglass

Former slave, leading abolitionist, author of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), and editor of The North Star.

Sojourner Truth

Former slave and activist for both abolition and women's rights, known for her speeches.

Harriet Tubman

Escaped slave and Underground Railroad conductor who freed over 300 people and served as a Union spy.

Underground Railroad

Secret network of routes and safe houses assisting enslaved people escaping to freedom.

Abolitionism

Movement to immediately end slavery on moral and human rights grounds.

Antebellum Reform

Wave of social movements (temperance, education, asylum reform, abolition, women's rights) aiming to perfect society.

Industrial North vs. Agrarian South

Growing sectional divide between the market-based, wage-labor North and slave-based agricultural South.

Sectionalism

Increasing division between North and South over slavery and economic interests leading to the Civil War.

Civil War Causes

Combination of economic transformation, moral reform movements, and the South's defense of slavery creating irreconcilable national divisions.