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Early Industrialization
As the United States grew politically, it also grew economically. This Market Revolution occurred during the first half of the 1800s and was marked by growth in manufacturing, transportation, and communication.
U.S. manufacturers used new technology to speed up the pace of production. This entailed the growth of factories—large buildings designed to house one kind of work efficiently. Applied mostly to textile (cloth) industries, factory work allowed the American economy to grow more efficiently. The Lowell system was an example of this. Pioneered in Lowell, Massachusetts, this system brought young female workers to live and work in one central location to mass-produce fabrics in textile mills. This advance was a significant change from the idea of homespun or textiles produced in small quantities in individual homes. The use of factories, labor-saving devices such as the power loom, and the use of steam power to run machines showed the changing face of work, particularly in New England. Meanwhile, in the South, Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1793 accelerated the production of cotton. The gin allowed growers to process cotton fifty times faster than they had before, providing abundant raw cotton for the factories in the North.
Transportation and Communication Revolution
In addition to speeding up the pace of work, technology sped up the flow of goods and information. Transporting goods over dirt roads was difficult and slow. Moving goods by water was not only quicker but also ten times cheaper. Thus, as an example of the development supported by Henry Clay’s American System, a series of canals were constructed across the Northeast. The largest and most ambitious of these was the Erie Canal. Completed in 1825, the Erie Canal linked the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes with over 300 miles of manmade waterway 40 feet wide. This massive project helped unite different regions into one economic system, with new states and territories growing food and New England focusing on manufacturing. The Erie Canal also provided a pathway for new settlements west of the Appalachian Mountains.
The era of the canals was short-lived. By the late 1820s, the railroad became the dominant transportation technology. By 1850, more than 9,000 miles of track were laid, replacing the canal and driving settlement patterns throughout the nation. New towns sprang up where railroads were built. These railroads were financed by corporations, government funds, and government grants of land.
While factories and railroads facilitated the mass distribution of goods, the invention of the telegraph did the same for information. Prior to the telegraph, a machine that instantly transmitted information using electrical cables, all information had to be delivered by hand—a trip from New York to Cleveland could take over a week. The first transcontinental telegraph line was completed in 1861, and the first transatlantic cable was laid by 1866. Now news could travel across the world at the speed of light, fueling the production of newspapers printed on steam-powered rotary presses, which were five times faster than traditional hand presses.
Society and Culture
With the economy changing so rapidly, people’s lives could hardly stay the same. Industrialization in the North fueled a boom in immigration because the factories sought the cheapest labor they could find. Cities like New York and Boston teemed with immigrants from places like Ireland, Germany, and other northwestern European countries. These immigrants were attracted to the United States due to the availability of work in factories and the promise of cheap land in the West. These pull factors combined with push factors in Europe, such as revolution, war, or famine.
The Market Revolution also led to the growth of the middle class—a group of workers who did things like managing offices or serving as foremen in factories. This group was economically comfortable and prided itself on keeping home life separate from work. In these families, wives and children did not have to work because the father earned enough to provide for them all. This led to the idea of separate spheres (in which women lived in the domestic sphere, and men were allowed out into the public sphere). This is related to the “cult of domesticity” that grew around the new division of labor, as husbands became the sole wage earners and wives were responsible for preserving the home and family. Yet this arrangement was possible only for the growing middle and upper classes, and the lives of the working class were much harder. Women and children both often had to work to help support the family, either at home or in factories. Six-day workweeks and 12-hour days were common.
