APUSH - 1800s Part I

Eli Whitney

This man invented the cotton gin in 1793. This Massachusetts Yankee's invention established the foundation for the South's entire "cotton kingdom" and the revival of slavery.

John Deere

This man was an American blacksmith and manufacturer who founded Deere & Company, one of the largest and leading agricultural and construction equipment manufacturers in the world. He invented the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837.

Obed Hussey

This man, of Massachusetts, secured the first patent for a practical grain reaper in 1833. He engaged in a rivalry with Cyrus Hall McCormick. He eventually lost this competition as McCormick had accepted suggestions for improving his machine.

Cyrus Hall McCormick

The follow year after Hussey, this man received a patent for a equally practical reaper. He dominated the rivalry between himself and Hussey by locating his plant in Chicago, near the emerging wheat belt, and accepting suggestions for improving his machine.

Alan Wood

This man was the grandson of James Wood, who founded an iron rolling mill in Conshohocken in 1832. He was to become president of the huge Alan Wood Steel Company. He was an iron manufacturer and pioneer. He later built the Delaware Iron Works.

Collins Company of Connecticut

The first ready-to-use axes produced in the United States came from this company, which was founded in the early 1800s. Prior to the firm's establishment, consumers either purchased unground axes imported from Europe or looked to a local blacksmith who, along with his other activities, might also make axe heads. Throughout its 140-year history, the company produced and sold axes, machetes, and other edge tools to most of the world.

Henry Burden

This man was an engineer and businessman who built an industrial complex in Troy, New York called the Burden Iron Works that featured the most powerful water wheel in the world.

Land Act of 1820

This, passed in the aftermath of the Panic of 1819, eliminated the credit provisions of the Land Act of 1800. Yet, it also reduced the minimum price per acre and the minimum purchase from 160 to 80 acres.

Preemption Act of 1830

This act permitted "squatters" to purchase the government land they occupied at the minimum price per acre. A later act of 1841 made this system permanent.

Graduation Act of 1854

Advocated by Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, this act called for the price of unsold public lands to be reduced in stages until they reached 12.5 cents per acre after thirty years.

National Road

This road was completed between Cumberland, Maryland, and Wheeling, Virginia, in 1818. By 1850, it had been extended to Vandalia, Illinois.

John Fitch

In 1787, this man launched a steamboat on the Delaware River. Despite persistent technical problems, by 1790, this man had steamboats carrying passenger son a regular schedule from Philadelphia to Trenton.

Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston

These two men sent the Clermont up the Hudson River to Albany in 1807, thus launching the first commercially successful steamboat service.

Henry Shreve

In 1815, this man took the Enterprise from New Orleans up the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to Pittsburgh.

Erie Canal

In 1817, the New York legislature adopted legislation calling for this between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. In 1825, it opened for its entire 350 mile length from Albany to Buffalo. Branch canals brought much of the upper Ohio valley into New York's economic sphere and diverted traffic from New Orleans. It rendered the entire Great Lakes region a economic tributary to the port of New York.

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

This was inaugurated on July 4, 1828. By 1832, it extended 73 miles west of Baltimore.

Charleston and Hamburg Railroad

This was begun in 1831 and completed by 1833. It was at the time the longest railway in the world under single management at 136 miles.

Samuel Slater and Moses Brown

These two men took the first important step towards an Industrial Revolution by constructing a textile mill. Their mill launched operations the following year.

Boston Manufacturing Company

This company was the first "factory" in America. The factory was located at Waltham, Massachusetts. Later, this company established another operation at Lowell, Massachusetts, under the name of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company.

Waltham Plan

This plan was characterized by large capital investment, the concentration of all processes in one plant under a unified management, and specialization in relatively coarse cloth requiring minimum skilled workers.