Chapter 9 (1815-1840)

The Market Revolution ($1815$-$1840s$)

• The Big Question: How did the United States transform from a collection of self-sufficient farms in $1815$ into a continental economy of factories, canals, immigrant-populated cities, and slave-grown cotton by the $1840s$?

• Foner’s Core Thesis: This transition was driven by a "market revolution" involving breakthroughs in transportation (steamboats, canals, railroads, and the telegraph), significant westward expansion, and a massive influx of European immigrants.

• Redefining Freedom: The market revolution redefined American liberty in terms of economic opportunity, individual self-development, and physical mobility.

• Expanding Inequality: Simultaneously, these forces expanded the institution of slavery, deepened sectional divisions between the North and South, and excluded women, free Blacks, and wage workers from the new prosperity. Liberty and unfreedom grew in tandem.

The Transportation Revolution

• The Pre-$1815$ Economy: In $1815$, most Americans lived on small, self-sufficient farms. They produced their own clothing, tools, and food, bartering with neighbors for items they could not make.

• Crippled Trade: Long-distance trade was hindered by high costs. Moving goods just $30$ miles inland by road cost as much as shipping them across the Atlantic from England. A flatboat trip from Cincinnati to New York City took $50$ days via New Orleans.

• Lincoln’s Early Life: Abraham Lincoln’s childhood in Kentucky and Indiana—characterized by hunting game, sewing clothes, and working for neighbors to settle debts—typifies pre-market America.

• Roads and Turnpikes: Between $1800$ and $1830$, Northeastern states chartered over $900$ companies to build private toll roads (turnpikes).     * Many failed due to high maintenance and "shunpikes" (detours created to avoid tolls).     * The National Road: Authorized by Congress in $1806$, this paved highway reached Wheeling on the Ohio River by $1818$ and Illinois by $1838$. It was the first federally funded interstate.

• The Steamboat: Robert Fulton, a Pennsylvania artist/engineer, navigated the Clermont from NYC to Albany in $1807$.     * Steamboats made upstream commerce viable against river currents.     * By $1830$, approximately $200$ steamboats operated on the Mississippi River.

• The Erie Canal ($1825$): A $363 ext{-mile}$ waterway linking the Great Lakes at Buffalo to the Hudson River at Albany.     * It was America's largest canal (the next biggest was only $28$ miles long) and was funded by New York State under Governor DeWitt Clinton.     * It made New York City the nation's primary port and gave it an edge over Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.     * It led to a canal-building frenzy and the birth of cities like Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse. By $1840$, there were over $3,000$ miles of canals across the U.S.

• Railroads and Telegraph:     * The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad ($1828$) was the first commercial line; the South Carolina Canal & Railroad ($1833$) was the first long-distance line.     * By $1860$, the U.S. had $30,000$ miles of track, exceeding the rest of the world combined.     * Railroads stimulated coal mining and iron manufacturing.     * Samuel F. B. Morse: Developed the telegraph in the $1830s$. By $1844$, it was commercially operational, using Morse code to carry electronic messages. Within $16$ years, $50,000$ miles of wire existed, providing price uniformity across national markets.

The Rise of the West

• Mass Migration: Between $1815$ and $1850$, approximately $5 ext{ million}$ Americans crossed the Appalachians. Most migration followed the War of $1812$.

• New States: Between $1815$ and $1821$, six states joined the Union: Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, and Maine.

• Migration Streams:     * Southern Stream: Migrants from the South moved to AL, MS, LA, and AR, establishing the "Cotton Kingdom" fueled by slave labor.     * Upper South Stream: From VA, MD, and KY into southern OH, IN, and IL, creating a pre-Civil War cultural bridge with mixed farming.     * Yankee Stream: New Englanders moved to upstate NY and the northern parts of the Old Northwest, bringing churches, schools, and typical New England town structures.

• Land Policy: Federal land sold for $1.25/acre$ after $1820$ (cash only). Many settlers became "squatters" on land they didn't legally own. Speculators often bought cheap land and resold it to settlers on credit.

• Florida and the Adams-Ons Treaty ($1819$): Spain ceded Florida after Andrew Jackson invaded in $1818$ to suppress Seminole Indians and fugitive slaves. Negotiated by John Quincy Adams, the treaty also defined the western boundary of the Louisiana Purchase to the Pacific.

The Cotton Kingdom

• The Cotton Gin: Invented by Eli Whitney in $1793$, this device used brushes and rollers to separate seeds from cotton fibers, removing the primary bottleneck in production.

• Global Demand: The invention coincided with the Industrial Revolution in Europe, where textile factories required massive amounts of raw cotton.

• Slavery's Expansion: By $1860$, cotton represented over half of all American exports. The U.S. produced $rac{3}{4}$ of the world's supply. Senator James Henry Hammond declared, "Cotton is king."

• The Internal Slave Trade: Known as the "Second Middle Passage," over $1 ext{ million}$ enslaved people were moved from the Upper South to the Lower South to work on cotton plantations. By $1860$, the enslaved population reached nearly $4 ext{ million}$.

• Capitalist Intersection: Northern bankers and merchants profited from the cotton trade by financing plantations and shipping cotton to Europe, linking the "Lords of the Loom" (New England factory owners) with the "Lords of the Lash" (Southern slaveholders).

The Industrial Revolution

• Early Factories: Samuel Slater, an English immigrant, built the first U.S. factory in Pawtucket, Rhode Island in $1790$ by recreating a spinning jenny from memory. This supported the "outwork system," where farm families wove yarn into cloth at home.

• Waltham-Lowell System: The Boston Associates built the first large-scale factory at Waltham, MA in $1814$ and the town of Lowell in $1826$, integrating all textile production steps under one roof.

• American System of Manufactures: Pioneered by Eli Terry in clocks and Eli Whitney in firearms, this relied on mass-produced interchangeable parts for rapid assembly.

• Lowell Mill Girls: Early factories relied on young, unmarried Yankee farm women. Owners provided boardinghouses with strict behavioral codes. Women struck in $1834$ and $1836$ against wage cuts, viewing themselves as "daughters of free men."

Employment and Immigration

• New Perception of Time: The market revolution shifted life from seasonal rhythms to "clock time." Pay shifted from a "price" per good to a "wage" per hour.

• Workforce Resistance: Native-born men resisted factory work, viewing it as a loss of independence. Employers turned to women, the unemployed, and immigrants.

• The Irish: Over $1 ext{ million}$ arrived between $1840$ and $1860$, fleeing the Great Famine ($1845$-$1851$). Mostly Catholic and unskilled, they worked low-wage jobs in railroads, canals, and domestic service.

• The Germans: The second-largest group, often skilled craftsmen. They settled in the "German triangle" (Cincinnati, St. Louis, Milwaukee), building vibrant cultural institutions.

• Nativism: Anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic sentiment rose as Nativists accused immigrants of corruption and taking jobs. Lyman Beecher warned of Catholic dominance in his $1834$ sermon "A Plea for the West."

Law and Freedom

• Corporate Support: Legal changes supported corporate growth. General incorporation laws permitted charters for a fee rather than a special legislative act.

• Key Court Cases:     * Dartmouth College v. Woodward ($1819$): Charters are contracts that legislatures cannot revoke.     * Gibbons v. Ogden ($1824$): Struck down a steamboat monopoly, affirming federal power over interstate commerce.     * Charles River Bridge case ($1837$): The community's interest in transportation can override existing charters.     * Commonwealth v. Hunt ($1842$): Unions and strikes are not inherently illegal.

• Manifest Destiny: Term coined by John L. O’Sullivan in $1845$ to describe a divine mission for the U.S. to occupy all of North America.

• Transcendentalism: Led by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, it emphasized individual self-realization and judgment over social tradition.

Religious and Regional Impacts

• Second Great Awakening: A religious revival led by figures like Charles Grandison Finney in the "burned-over district." It promoted "perfectionism" and the belief that individuals could choose salvation through moral effort.

• Mormonism: Founded by Joseph Smith in $1830$ after visions of golden plates. Driven by persecution for practices like polygamy, Brigham Young led followers to Utah in $1847$.

• Socio-economic Limits: Free Blacks were largely excluded from the new economy, facing discrimination and downward mobility in city centers. Women were increasingly confined to the "Cult of Domesticity," which redefined virtue as a private, domestic quality.

• Early Labor Movement: Inequality widened; by late $1820s$, Workingmen's Parties formed to demand a $10 ext{-hour}$ day and an end to debt imprisonment. Critics denounced "wage slavery," claiming market dependence was incompatible with true American freedom.