Forging the National Economy

1. Forging the National Economy AP U.S. History

2. Essential Question • How was Jacksonian Democracy a reflection of the changing American society? • Frederick Jackson Turner saw Jacksonian Democracy as sectional conflict between Western farmers and the aristocratic east. • Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. characterized Jacksonian Democracy as class conflict between poor farmers and laborers versus the business community. • What do you think? 1890 called, they want their moustache back. Who you gonna believe, a man with killer hair or a guy with a bow tie? Arthur M. Schlesinger Frederick Jackson Turner

3. The Westward Movement • ½ of Americans were under the age of thirty! By 1840, there were just as many people west of the Allegheny Mountains than there were east of it (demographic center). By 1860, the demographic center had moved west of the Ohio river! I’m over here now! Europe stretches to the Alleghenies; America lies beyond Hi Ohio River Popular American literature, like Captain Ahab in Moby Dick or Natty Bumppo in the Leatherstocking Tales, symbolized America’s restless spirit and the Jacksonian glorification of rugged individualism. Ohio Kentucky Ralph Waldo Emerson

4. The Westward Movement In Kentucky, I lived in a 3-sided lean-to made out of brush and sticks for a year. There’s only so much knitting a woman can do. Abraham Lincoln A lot of American literature glorifies the westward movement, like the muscular frontiersman, Paul Bunyan. Life was actually much more tough for pioneer families. There was disease, malnutrition, depression, and poor housing to battle. Women had it especially rough because they were supposed to socialize only with other women but they were cut off from human contact for weeks at a time.

5. Shaping the Western Landscape The farther west one went, the more rugged it got. For instance, the primary economic activity in the Rocky Mountain West was fur-trapping, as the big fad among the wealthy was to wear beaver skin hats and beaver lined clothing. While American tended to change the physical environment, like exhausting the soil in tobacco country or clearing areas of trees, Americans also felt the American wilderness out west made the U.S. unique and special. George Catlin, the painter for the work above, even advocated the creation of a national park to protect Native Americans and America’s mystique.

6. The March of Millions Kindergarten, Christmas trees, and lager bier (beer) are all us. You’re welcome. No Lucky Charms jokes please. A changing American identity due to immigrants. By 1860, there were 33 states in the Union. Most of the growth in population was driven by a high birthrate, but hundreds of thousands of immigrant were coming too. The Irish, starving in Ireland and very poor, came to America and settled in eastern cities, like Boston and New York. German immigrants tended to be better off and were able to buy land out West, such as in present-day Wisconsin. They were against slavery and political corruption too.

7. Flare-ups of Anti foreignism Germans and Irish were seen as stealing elections and violating Puritan values. Many prejudice Americans, or “nativists” distrusted the Irish because they were poor and Catholic. The illustration above shows a New York City teacher with a Bible shielding his students from crocodiles, dressed as Catholic bishops, coming ashore to eat them; with the Vatican in the background.

8. The textile industry, like this factory making yarn out of cotton, was the first factory system of manufacturing to come to America. A lot of women worked in textile factories. And Nativists blame us for hurting America? We helped grow the economy by working in factories! In America, there was plenty of land and wealth to go around. We weren’t taking from anyone! Industrialization was at first slow to arrive in America because there was a shortage of labor, capital, and consumers. Creeping Mechanization Irish immigrant German immigrant After all, why invest, and work in, a factory when there’s so much land out west to buy and sell?

9. Whitney Ends the Fiber Famine Then, I invent the cotton gin, which sped-up the process of harvesting cotton. First, I helped America copy the British textile machinery. Thanks a lot Eli. Slavery expands because of your damned invention. The spread of cotton into southwestern states caused an expansion of the textile industry in New England and the Middle states. There weren’t enough factory workers, so women and children filled the void. Also, wages for most American workers rose because there was lots of demand but not a lot of supply. That is, except for women and children. Samuel Slater Eli Whitney He thought the cotton gin would make slave labor obsolete. Boy was he wrong. Growing cotton became profitable and the South became tied to King Cotton.

10. Marvels in Manufacturing Dude, I helped slavery grow in the South and I helped the North with mass-production. Hello Civil War. No, I am not a werewolf. I help businesses communicate with the telegraph invention. The legal status of businesses changed. For example, limited liability helped investors because one could only lose what you invested if the company went bankrupt. More businesses and competition was the result. Eli Whitney figured out how to mass produce muskets, with interchangeable parts, for the U.S. Army Eli Whitney Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine, also boosted northern industrialization. Samuel F.B. Morse

11. Workers and “Wage Slaves” The benefits of the factory system were not equally distributed. Huzza for Jackson! Leisure time allows the Devil to create mischief. Better to work, work, work! Men, under Jacksonian democracy, were able to vote. They became loyal to the Democratic Party and made sure their wages and working conditions improved. Working people worked long hours in unsanitary buildings and they could not form labor unions. Child workers were worked especially hard, with no time for education or play. Factory owners grow very wealthy.

12. Women and the Economy Industrialization affected the American family life. There was the beginning of independent women and the “modern” family: small, affectionate, and child-centered. The female workers, who were formerly New England farm girls, in the Lowell mills in Lowell Massachusetts became known as the Lowell girls. They were young because they were expected to get married eventually and stop working. “Factory girls” worked six days a week, 13 hour days, earning low wages. Not surprisingly, there was a drop in the average number of children per household.

13. Western Farmers Reap a Revolution in the Fields Just like the smoke-belching factories were changing eastern environment, the western landscape was changing with the help of inventors like John Deere and Cyrus McCormick. This region of America was quickly becoming a leader in growing corn for the nation. I can do the work of 5 men! The steel plow allowed farmers to farm tough western soil in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Corn was fed to hogs or distilled into liquor for easier transport. The mower-reaper was to the western farmer what the cotton gin was to the southern planter. The western produce was often floated down the Mississippi River to feed the “Cotton Kingdom” of the South.

14. Highways and Steamboats The success of steamboats encouraged canals to be built, so that rivers and lakes could be connected and transportation could thus be made even easier. The Cumberland Road connected Maryland to Illinois. As Western farmers bought more land and harvested more crops with new machinery they dreamed of shipping their products to the east. Lake Ontario Lake Erie In steamboats, people could go against downstream currents, wind, waves, and tides. I’m a dreamer. Instead of being stuck shipping products north and south along the Mississippi River, many northwestern farmers wanted better transportation systems, like highways and steamboats, to ship products east and west also.

15. The Market Revolution The new regional “division of labor” created by improved transportation, mechanization, and a market-oriented economy meant the South specialized in cotton, the West in grain and livestock, and the East in manufacturing. What were the causes of this revolution? Not so fast. The prohibition of permanent charters and limited liability laws were important. My idea for an “American System” and federal financing of projects were most important. Slow your rolls gentlemen. Inventions drove this revolution. You can’t have a market without transportation. The Erie Canal is all me. Don’t forget about me. I led a political revolution. President Jackson Chief Justice Roger B. Taney Governor Clinton of New York Eli Whitney, inventor Congressman Henry Clay

16. The Market Revolution The transportation web bound the Union together, but not equally. With the Allegheny Mountains breached by highways, canals, and steamboats, the West and East were linked economically much more so than with the South. The South had much fewer canals, roadways, and eventually, railroads, compared to the North. Cities bred extreme economic inequality. Up to half the city populations were transient workers! Rags to riches was largely a myth, but there was more opportunity here than in Europe and wages did rise overall. The days of self-sufficient households were over. The home became a place of refuge and a separate sphere for women. In growing numbers, people scattered looking for work at mills or sold crops at market and then bought goods produced by strangers.

17. Questions to Consider Did Jacksonian Democracy reflect sectionalism or class conflict? Why? How did the developing national economy affect people? What were the primary drivers of the new national economy? How were Irish and German immigrants treated upon first arriving? Why weren’t there more class and ethnic conflicts in America during this time period?