Household manufacturing was almost universal in the Colonial Era.
Under British rule, colonists depended on the British for more refined and manufactured goods.
Major changes after the Revolution.
Challenges to free trade during the War of 1812 + the rise of Nationalism → local industry began to develop in the early 19th century.
To compete with British manufacturers, state legislatures offered bounties (economic bonuses) to anyone who could introduce new machinery and methods into the American economy.
Samuel Slater, a mechanic born in England, constructed the first successful factory in Rhode Island.
He secretly left England bound for America in 1789, with British factory plans (cotton mills) committed to memory (illegal!).
December 1790: his factory began production (first US textile mill in America) → by 1815, the U.S. had 213 factories-Slater Mill overview.
The Embargo Act and the War of 1812 stimulated domestic production → dawn of 1st US Industrial Revolution.
Role of water power at Slater Mill-VIDEO.
Francis Cabot Lowell added a new dimension to factory production: the more efficient power loom (he also smuggled this idea from Great Britain).
His Lowell Mills also were revolutionary in that they concentrated on mass production and standardization, a relatively new concept at the time.
For labor, he recruited young farm women, known as Mill Girls (later young immigrant women and children) and housed them in company dormitories, a model other factories soon imitated.
By the 1820s, New England had emerged as the country’s leading manufacturing center (because of the region’s abundant waterpower), and the Market Revolution—the first industrial revolution in the U.S.—was underway.
Market Revolution Innovations:
Machinery:
Interchangeable Parts (1801):
The system of interchangeable parts was devised by Eli Whitney (cotton gin guy!) in 1801 to more efficiently make rifles, allowing unskilled workers to produce large numbers of weapons quickly and at lower cost.
Sewing Machine (1846):
In 1846, Elias Howe of Massachusetts constructed a sewing machine.
Isaac Singer made improvements on it, and the Howe-Singer machine was soon being used in the manufacture of ready-to-wear clothing.
Agricultural Inventions:
The Cotton Gin (1793):
The cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney in 1793.
This machine easily separated the seeds from cotton fibers, transforming southern agriculture.
A southern slave now could clean 50 lbs of cotton a day compared to just one before the cotton gin → turning point → increase in demand for slave labor in the South.
Cotton boom → supplied the burgeoning textile industry in New England while increasing demand for enslaved African Americans in the South.
Cotton as a Percentage of U.S. Exports:
1800: 7%
1820: 32%
1840: 52%
Communications Innovations:
Morse Code (1832):
In 1832, Samuel Morse developed Morse Code, in which alternating long and short bursts of electric current would represent individual letters for communication.
The Telegraph (1840s):
The telegraph system was a system of wires zigzagging between cities and towns that, when paired with Morse Code, allowed messages to be transmitted in just minutes through electricity.
This transformed communication, with 50,000 miles of telegraph wire connecting the country by 1860.
Steam Engines:
By 1804, both English and American inventors had experimented with steam engines for propelling land vehicles.
In 1802, John Stevens ran a locomotive around a circular track at his New Jersey home. This gave rise to…
Transportation Revolution:
Steamships:
In 1807, engineer Robert Fulton’s Clermont was the first steamship to travel upriver, making the trip from NYC to Albany in 32 hours, at 5 mph.
This technology soon caught on, particularly in the west, and by 1830, there were 200 steamers on the Mississippi River carrying cargo and passengers.
Freight charges, as a result, plummeted, thrusting the Northwest into the national market.
The Canal Boom:
By 1816, only about 100 miles total of canals—man-made rivers—existed in the United States, and the longest was only 28 miles.
The Erie Canal, spearheaded by Mayor and later Governor Dewitt Clinton of New York, changed this.
Completed in 1825.
363 miles.
Dangerous, difficult job.
Built mostly by Irish and other immigrants.
Connected the Hudson River to the Great Lakes→ integration of Old North West and coastal economies.
SIGNIFICANCE: immediate success → 7million cost recovered in just a few years → led to growth and prosperity for western New York cities and towns along the canal.
Provided an easily accessible market and cheap transportation for western farmers to sell their goods in the East.
This project stimulated the construction of more canals: within 15 years, 3,300 miles.
Railroads:
The Canal Boom was short-lived→ railroads (1830s) gradually supplanted canals and all other forms of transport
In 1840, the total railroad trackage of the country was under 3,000 miles
By 1860—just twenty years later—it was over 27,000 miles, mostly in the Northeast.
Transportation & Government:
The national government and state governments played an active role in facilitating the transportation revolution (despite vetoes against federal funding bills for canal and road-building projects by both Madison and Monroe).
Much of the road construction and improvements of the era were funded through private and public partnerships→ often left to the states rather than federal government.
EXCEPTION: The Old National Road built between 1811 and 1837→ a 620-mile surfaced road, funded by the federal government. This signaled a concerted push for internal improvements by the government despite early reluctance by DR presidents.
At the same time, protective tariffs passed in 1816, 1824, and 1828 helped emerging American businesses to compete more effectively with the British.
CONSEQUENCE/EFFECT: Transportation improvements and technological developments grew Northern manufacturing and shipping industries; promoted U.S. commercial ties with the world; integrated the US economy internally (Hamilton’s economic vision and Clay’s American System
Key Takeaways:
Entrepreneurs helped to create a market revolution in production and commerce
Innovations, including textile machinery, steam engines, interchangeable parts, the telegraph, and agricultural inventions increased production efficiency.
Legislation and judicial systems supported the development of roads, canals, and railroads, which extended and enlarged markets and helped foster regional interdependence.
Increasing Southern cotton production and the related growth of Northern manufacturing, banking, and shipping industries promoted the development of national and international commercial ties.