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Westward Movement
- rise of Andrew Jackson exemplified the relentless westward march
- The West soon began to acquire status as the most American part of America
- people were motivated by the opportunity of land
- most pioneer families were poorly fed and perpetual victims of disease, depression, and premature death
"Self-reliance"
Ralph Waldo Emerson's popular lecture-essay that reflected the spirit of individualism pervasive in American popular culture during the 1830s and 1840s
Ecological imperialism
the spoliation of western natural resources through excessive hunting, logging, mining, and grazing
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, James Fenimore Cooper
- Emerson: leading American transcendentalist whose essays stressed individualism, self-improvement, optimism, and freedom
- Melville: whaler who wrote Moby Dick.
- Cooper: wrote adventure tales which won acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic
George Catlin
- among the first Americans to advocate the preservation of nature as a deliberate national policy
- proposed the creation of a national park
American Cities
- rapid urbanization unfortunately brought undesirable by-products.
- intensified the problems of smelly slums, inadequate garbage disposal, inadequate policing
- large population growth
European Immigration
- The immigrants came partly because Europe seemed to be running out of room (population growth)
- Europe's politics also spurred migration --> sought to topple monarchs and build nations based on common culture, not royal lineage
- migrants sought a "land of freedom and opportunity." (freedom from aristocratic caste and state church)
Irish immigrants
- came to America to escape famine and Britain
- too poor to move west and buy the necessary land, livestock, and equipment—swarmed into the larger seaboard cities
- disliked for brutishness and religion
Tammany Hall
Powerful New York political machine that primarily drew support from the city's immigrants, who depended on Tammany Hall patronage, particularly social services
German immigrants
- bulk of them were uprooted farmers, displaced by crop failures and other hardships
- many were liberal political refugees, saddened by the collapse of the democratic revolutions of 1848
- Most of them pushed out to the Middle West
Nativists
political policy of promoting the interests of native inhabitants against those of immigrants
Know-Nothing Party
- Nativist political party, also known as the American party
- emerged in response to an influx of immigrants, particularly Irish Catholics
Industrial Revolution
Shift toward mass production and mechanization that included the creation of the modern factory system
Samuel Slater
- British-born mechanic and father of the American "factory system"
- established textile mills throughout New England
Eli Whitney and the cotton gin
- Eli Whitney's invention that sped up the process of harvesting cotton
- made cotton cultivation more profitable
- revitalized the southern economy and increased the importance of slavery in the South
American Manufacturing
- increase spurred by the War of 1812
- for a time, cut off trade with Europe (embargo) and factories flourished
- Revolutionary advances in manufacturing and transportation brought increased prosperity to many Americans
- widened the gap between the rich and the poor.
- greater mechanization
Interchangeable Parts
uniform pieces that can be made in large quantities to replace other identical pieces
Samuel Morse and The Telegraph
- Inventor of the telegraph and the telegraphic code that bears his name
- A device that used electrical signals to send messages quickly over long distances
- led the effort to connect Washington and Baltimore by telegraph and transmitted the first long-distance message
"wage slaves"
- working people whose hours were long, wages low, and meager meals
- treated as expendable
Early Labor Unions
- Labor Unions consisted of specialized skill-workers who would band together to get higher pay and better working conditions
- Commonwealth v. Hunt: Massachusetts Supreme Court decision that strengthened the labor movement by upholding the legality of unions
Women and The Economy
- factory jobs gave women more economic independence
- industry undermined the efforts of farm women and girls, as factories could produce goods at greater quantities with faster rates
- long days and hours, little pay, poor food, poor conditions
- majority of working women were single, this reduced the size of families significantly
Lowell Mills
- Textile mills located in a factory town in Massachusetts
- employed mostly women Lowell Mill Girls.
- Workers actively participated in early labor reform by circulating legislative petitions, forming labor organizations, contributing essays and articles to a pro-labor newspaper, and participating in strikes.
"cult of domesticity"
- venerated the domestic role of women
- gave married women greater authority to shape home life but limited opportunities outside the domestic sphere
McCormick reaper
- Mechanized the harvest of grains, such as wheat, allowing farmers to cultivate larger plots
- fueled the establishment of large-scale commercial agriculture in the Midwest
Highways and Steamboats
- highways:
* private company completed the Lancaster Turnpike in Pennsylvania- a broad, hard-surfaced highway from Philadelphia to Lancaster
* stimulated western development
- steamboat:
* People could now in large degree defy wind, wave, tide, and downstream current.
* steamboats played a vital role in the opening of the West and South, both of which were richly endowed with navigable rivers
Robert Fulton
- Pennsylvania-born painter and engineer
- constructed the first operating steamboat (the Clermont, in 1807)
Erie Canal
- New York State canal that linked Lake Erie to the Hudson River.
- dramatically lowered shipping costs
- fueled an economic boom in upstate New York and increased the profitability of farming in the Old Northwest
Railroads
- major transportation development of the 19th century
- essential to westward expansion because they made it easier to travel
Market Revolution
Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century transformation from a disaggregated, subsistence economy to a national commercial and industrial network
Transportation Revolution
- referring to a series of nineteenth-century transportation innovations
- turnpikes, steamboats, canals, and railroads
- linked local and regional markets
- created a national economy
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