4.6 Effects of the Market Revolution on Society and Culture

LEARNING OBJECTIVE: Explain how and why innovation in technology, agriculture, and commerce affected various segments of American society over time.

INTRODUCTION

• Wide impact of market revolution resulted from innovations in technology, agriculture, and commerce

  • Affected all group of people in growing nation

    - resulted in the development of a distinctively American culture, increase in religious fervor, and support of vairous reform movements.

  • Specialization on the farm, the growth of cties, industrialization, and the development of modern capitalism meant the end of self-suffiencent households and growing of interdependence among people

    - farmers provided food to feed workers in cities, who in turn provided mass-produced goods to farm families

    - standards of living increased for most Americans

    - adapting to the impersonal, fast-changing economy—→ challenges and problems

WOMEN

• The nature of work and family life changed as a result of urbanization and industrialization

  • Women no longer worked next to their husbands on family farms

    - women seeking employment were limited to domestic teaching or services

    - factory jobs (such as the Lowell system) were not common

    - majority of working women were single (if they were married, they left their jobs and took up duties at home)

  • Women gained relatively more control over their lives

    - women took on new responsibilities as men worked away from home

    - they became moral leaders within the home, a development known as the cult of domesticity

    - arranged marriages became less common, some women had fewer children

    - legal restrictions remained on women’s rights (sufferage)

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL MOBILITY

• Real wages improved for most urban workers

  • Gap between very wealthy and very poor continued to increase

    - social mobility (ability to move up in income or social status) occured from one generation to the next

    - economic opportunities in the US were greater than europe

    - poor, hard-working people becoming millionaires was rare

POPULATION GROWTH AND CHANGE

• Population growth provided laborers and consumers required for industrial development

  • US population doubled, and continued to double

    - high birthrate accounted for most of this growth

    - immigrants from europe supplemented population after 1830

    - the nonwhite population (blacks and natives) also grew

    - enslaved population increased steadily despite the ban of importation on enslaved Africans after 1808

    - 1/3rd of the population lived west of the Alleghenies, while both old and new urban areas were growing rapidly.

IMMIGRATION

• In 1820, about 8000 immigrants arrived from europe, and in 1832, there was sudden increase

  • New arrivals in 1832 never fell below 50,000, and in 1854 they climbed as high as 428,000.

    - nearly 4 million people from northern europe crossed the atlantic to start a new life in the US

  • Surge of immigration was cheifly the result of:

    - the development of inexpensive and relative rapid ocean transportation

    - famines and revolutions in europe that drove people away from their homelands

    - growing reputation of the US as a country offering economic opportunities and political freedom.

  • Arriving by ship in the northern seacoast cities, many immigrant remained where they landed or traveled to farms and cities of the old northwest

    - few journeyed to the south (plantation economy and slavery limited opportunities)

  • Immigration strengthed US economy and provided stable labor and an increased demand for mass-produced consumer goods

URBAN LIFE

• North’s urban population grew 20% in 50 years

  • Result of rapid growth was expanded slums

    - crowded housing, poor sanitation, infectious diseases, and high rates of crimes became the characteristics of large working-class neighborhoods.

  • Nevertheless, opportunities offered by the industrial revolution continued to attract people from farming communities

    - included natives and immigrants from europe.

NEW CITIES

• At key transportation points, small towns grew into thriving cities (Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis)

  • The cities served as transfer points

    - processed farm products for shipment to the east

    - distributed manufactured goods from the east to their region

ORGANIZED LABOR

• As manufacturing became increasingly important in the economy, goods became less expensive

  • Living standard improved for thouse who could afford goods

    - shift in economy also create a small class of people who were very wealthy (bankers, factory owners), and a growing middle class of people

  • Industrial development meant a large number of people became dependent on wages earned in factories

    - many workers used to earn their living as independent farmers and artisans

  • common problems of low pay, long hours, and unsafe working conditions led to the organization of unions and local political parties to protect interest

    - first US labor party succeeded in electing a few members of the city council

    - an increasing number of urban workers joined unions and participated in strikes

  • Organized labor acheived notable victories

    - Massachusetts supreme court ruled in Commonwealth v. Hunt that “peaceful unions” had the right to negotiate labor contracts with employers

    - some legislatures in the North passed laws establishing ten-hour workdays for industrial workers

  • Improvement for workers continued to be limited by:

    - periodic depressions

    - employers and courts that were hostile to unions

    - abundant supply of low-wage immigrant laborers