Industrialization = A shift from manual labor to mechanized work. Changes in transportation,

communication, and fabrication encouraged national economic growth and regional specialization.

First Turnpike- 1790 Lancaster, PA

Cumberland (National Road), 1811

Erie Canal System 1820s

Principal Canals in 1840

Robert Fulton & the Steamboat

1807: The Clermont Inland Freight Rates

Clipper Ships

Before: NOLA Louisville (1,440

miles) = 4 months

After: 1820 = 20 days

1838 = 6 days

The Railroad

Revolution, 1850s

Immigrant labor built the Northern RRs. (Irish East & Chinese West)

Slave labor built the Southern RRs.

Eli Whitney

Eli Whitney’s Gun Factory

Interchangeable Parts Rifle

Cotton Gin, 1791

http://www.eliwhitney.org/new/sites/default/files/

minisites/cotton/patent.html

John Deere & the Steel Plow (1837)

Cyrus McCormick & the Mechanical Reaper:

1831

Samuel F. B. Morse

1840 – Telegraph

Cyrus Field & the Transatlantic Cable,

1858

Samuel Slater (“Father of the

Factory System”)

The Lowell System: First Dual-Purpose Textile Plant

Francis Cabot Lowell’s town – 1814 & 1850

Lowell Girls Typically young unmarried women

Lowell Boarding Houses

Detail showing use of water power

Women’s Dorm

Women’s Dorm Room

Four young women to a room Communal Dining Area

Regional Specialization

EAST Industrial

SOUTH Cotton & Slavery

WEST The Nation’s “Breadbasket”

National Origin of Immigrants: 1820 - 1860

Why now?

Know-Nothing Party

(American Party /

Nativists)

“The Supreme Order of the Star-Spangled

Banner”

Nativist reaction to immigrants --- anti immigrant = anti

alcohol (temperance movement)