The Dynamics of Growth

Chapter 12

Context

• Jacksonian political debate between ideals of democracy and laissez-faire economic policy and federalist nationalism and elitist tradition occurred in the context of profound changes in American social and economic life.

• Between 1815 and 1850• United States became a transcontinental power• Industrial Revolution in the North reshaped region’s economy and

propelled an unrelenting process of urbanization• West: Commercial agriculture based on surplus of corn, wheat, cattle• South: Cotton is king –expansion and entrenchment of slavery• Technology and transportation

• Contestogas• Canals• Steamboats• Railroads

Agriculture and the National Economy

• Cotton

• Farming the west

America, 8th EditionCopyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company

Population Density, 1820

America, 8th EditionCopyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company

Population Density, 1860

America, 8th EditionCopyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company

Transportation West, About 1840

Transportation, Communication, and the Market Revolution

• Railroads

• Ocean transportation

• The role of government

America, 8th EditionCopyright © 2010 W.W. Norton & Company

The Growth of Railroads, 1860

The Industrial Revolution

• Early textile manufactures

• American technology

• The Lowell system

Immigration

• The Irish• Prolonged depression in Ireland• Most densely populated country in Europe• Average age at death 19• 1850: Irish accounted for 43% of immigrant population in U.S.

• Industrial workers• Domestics• Roman Catholics• No Irish Need Apply

• The Germans and other immigrants• German Immigration in 1854 = 215,000• 1/3 Roman Catholic; 2/3 Protestant (mostly Lutheran)• Rural settlements; family immigration

• Farmers. Shopkeepers, skilled workers

• Other Immigrant groups• English• Scandinavia• Chinese

Immigration

• Nativism• Fear of immigrants• Fear of Roman Catholic takeover• Lyman Beecher

• Congregationalist minister• Anti-immigrant sermons• Violent riots in Cincinnati, Boston, Philadelphia

• American Party• Know-Nothings• Never vote for a foreign born or Roman Catholic Candidate• Mid-term Elections of 1854: swept legislatures in New England, New York and Maryland

• Exclusion of immigrants and Roman Catholics from holding elected office• Extension of naturalization period from 5 to 21 years

• Immigrant labor

Organized Labor

• Early unions• “Combination to raise wages” illegal• Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842)—forming a trade union is not illegal;

workers may strike if employer hires non-union labor

• Labor politics• Local• Workingmen’s parties• February 22, 1860 Shoemaker strike

• 25 towns in Massachusetts• 20,000 workers• Wage increased