The invention of new machines in Great Britain led to the beginning of the Industrial

Transcription

1 Chapter 12: The North The industrial revolution The invention of new machines in Great Britain led to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution: a period of rapid growth in using machines for manufacturing and production that began in the mid-1700s. At the beginning of the 1700s most Europeans were farmers and made most of their goods in their homes by hands. Some people sold extra items to merchants, who then sold the goods for a profit. Some skilled workers produced goods in their own shops for sale. In the middle of the 1700s populations grew and the demand for goods increased. Traditional manufacturing methods could not meet the demand, so people began to develop machine to make things more efficiently. In 1769 Englishman Richard Arkwright invented a large spinning machine called the water frame. This machine could produce dozens of cotton treads at the time. It lowered the cost of cotton cloth and increased the speed of textile production. The water frame used flowing water as its source of power. Merchants began building textile mills (factories) by rivers or streams. They were filled with spinning machines and many people were hired by merchants to work there. Britain had the world most productive textile manufacturing industry. Samuel Slater, a skilled British mechanic brought the knowledge of British textile machines to the U.S., which led to the development of American textile mills.

2 Most of the mills were located in New England a region rich with streams and rivers (needed to power the mills). The merchants of the region were willing to invest in the mills. In the 1790s the U.S. were worried of a possible war with France: at the time weapons were made by hand and their parts were not interchangeable. In 1798 Eli Whitney created the idea of interchangeable parts by making them identical. This allowed mass production of weapons (the efficient production of large numbers of identical weapons). Despite these new inventions manufacturing in the U.S. grew slowly. In 1810 Secretary of Treasury albert Gallatin argued that the reasons why the U.S. had few factories were attractiveness of farming, abundance of cheap land, high price of labor and lack of capital to invest in factories. When the war of 1812 prevented the import of many foreign goods, many Americans bought American-made goods, which in turn led to increased manufacturing. Businesspeople in the North urged northern politicians to pass higher tariffs on foreign goods to protect American companies. Changing in Working Life The spread of mills in the Northeast changed workers lives. The Rhode Island system was the practice of hiring families and dividing factory work into simple tasks. Samuel Slater used this system when apprentices (young men who worked for several years to learn the trade) grew tired of the work and often left the mills. Also, families provided several workers at low cost. Other mill owners throughout the Northeast began using the system; mills employed textile workers to work on the machines, machine part makers and dam builders. Mill towns developed to provide mill families with a place to live and

3 shop. Business that were common in regular towns opened in mill towns too: tailors, dressmakers, butchers and other small stores. Francis Cabot Lowell created the Lowell system that revolutionized the textile industry in the Northeast. The system was based on water-powered textile mills that employed young, unmarried women from local farms. These women liked the fact that they could make their own money and that the wages were higher than other jobs. They worked for 12 to 14 hours a day; bells provided a rigid schedule. They were encouraged to use their free time to take classes and form clubs. Shop owners that employed craftspeople who made goods by hand had to hire more workers and pay them less in order to compete with factories. The wages of the factory workers also went down because people were competing for jobs: in the 1840s a large number of people from poor countries immigrated to the U.S. Most of them went to the northeast were they could work in the factories. They were willing to work for low pay. The Panic of 1837 also left many unemployed increasing the competition for jobs. Because owners kept increasing the size and speed of their machines mill workers were angry because they had to work harder; they were tired from overworking and wanted higher wages. For these reasons workers organized to reform working conditions. Skilled workers formed trade unions, groups that tried to improve pay and working conditions. Eventually unskilled workers did the same. Employers were afraid to hire union workers because they would have to pay them higher wages, which would make it harder for them to sell finished goods at lower prices than their competitors. Sara Bagley was a key player in the labor union movement: in 1844 she founded the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association. She wanted to obtain a 10-hour workday and

4 the state of Massachusetts to investigate working conditions. In 1845 Bagley was elected vice president of the New England Working Men s Association: she was the first woman to hold such s high-ranking position. Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and few other states passed 10-hour-workday laws. The Transportation Revolution It was a period of rapid growth in the speed and convenience of travel because of new forms of transportation. Two new modes of transportations that largely contributed to the Transportation Revolution were the steamboats and the steam-powered trains. Robert Fulton was the American steamboat designer who produced the first full-sized commercial steamboats, the Clermont. Steamboats were well suited for river travel because they could travel upriver and did not rely on wind power. By 1850s steamboats were also used to travel across the Atlantic Ocean. During this time disputes over waterway rights arose. In 1819 Aaron Ogden sued Thomas Gibbons for traveling in New York waters that he owned. Gibbons argued that his federal license allowed him to operate his steamboat in New York waterways. The Supreme Court in 1824 reinforced the federal government s authority to regulate trade between the states by ending monopolistic control over waterways in several states. American Railroads: steam-powered trains first developed in Great Britain in the early 1800s. They became popular in the U.S. in 1830 after Peter Cooper built a small locomotive and raced it against a horse-drawn railcar. He lost the race but showed how the power of locomotives. This started the railroad fever in the U.S. Engenders and mechanics had to figure out how to build railroads up and down steep mountains, over

5 rivers, etc. By 1860 the U.S. had about 30,000 miles of railroads. Railroad reduced travel time, linked many major cities, helped tie communities together, and sped up communication and the pace of life. The economy of the U.S. grew because manufacturers and farmers could send their goods to distant markets. Passengers were impressed by the powerful engines but riding on train could be dangerous. To stay on time they traveled too fast and sometimes railroads cars flew off the tracks. People took the risk because the railroads reduced travel time drastically. The transportation revolution brought many changes to American life and industry. Towns and cities along the rail line grew while these not near railroads suffered; some city grew as trains brought new residents and materials for industry and constructions.. Some natural resource were used more than in the past. Because coal replaced wood as fuel for locomotives, steamboats, and heating home. New coal mine towns developed and coal mines created deep gashes in the earth. In the 1870s steel was increasingly used to build factories and the machines they used. Because steel was made through a smelting process that requires high temperatures, the demand for coal increased. Coal was used to fire the furnaces. Also, more railroads were built to transport steel to places where new factories were built. Railroads also brought to farmers new tool made of steel. The railroads helped developed the logging industry when the wood demand for houses and furniture increased in the growing towns and cities. Some cities became transportation hubs like Chicago that, because of its location on Lake Michigan, connected the Midwest with the east and the south.