Chapter 10: The Great Transformation, 1815-1840

1. The Transportation Revolution
   1. Extending the Nation’s Roads
      1. Both government and private enterprise embarked on road-building projects following the War of 1812.
      2. By 1838, the National Road reached Illinois.
         1. At the same time, a series of roads were beginning to emerge into a national transportation network.
      3. Shipping costs, however, remained high.
   2. A Network of Canals
      1. The new roads linked rural America to an expanding network of waterways that made inexpensive long-distance freight hauling possible.
      2. Pennsylvania built the Main Line canal system.
      3. Canal construction boomed through the 1830s.
         1. States granted monopolies to canal-building companies.
         2. Nearly every state in the North and West undertook canal building between 1820 and 1840.
   3. Steam Power
      1. Steam power made upstream travel economical.
         1. In 1807, Robert Fulton demonstrated that ships could be powered by steam.
         2. Henry M. Shreve pioneered in developing a steamship for the shallower waters of western rivers.
      2. Development of the steam-powered railroad began in the late 1820s.
         1. The railroad did not overtake canal-based transportation in importance until the 1850s.
   4. Information Revolution
      1. The revolution in transportation produced a revolution in the transmission of information.
         1. Newspapers and magazines increased dramatically in numbers.
      2. Samuel F. B. Morse perfected the electric telegraph in 1836.
   5. Legal Anchors for New Business Enterprise
      1. In Dartmouth College v. Woodward(1819), Marshall ruled that state legislatures could not alter contracts.
      2. In McCulloch v. Maryland(1819), the Court ruled that states could not tax federal institutions.
      3. In Gibbons v. Ogden(1824), Marshall ruled that the federal government was superior to state governments in matters of interstate commerce.
2. The Manufacturing Boom
   1. The "American System" of Manufacturing
      1. The shift from home- to factory-based manufacturing occurred first in textiles.
         1. Factory-made clothing became the norm during the 1830s and 1840s.
      2. Interchangeable parts hastened the development of factories in many industries.
         1. John H. Hall demonstrated the concept’s feasibility in arms manufacturing.
   2. New Workplaces and New Workers
      1. Early factory builders created company towns to house workers.
         1. Factories in company towns employed all members of the family.
      2. At Waltham and Lowell, the company housed and closely supervised the young women it employed.
      3. Immigrants between 1820 and 1860 differed from earlier newcomers.
         1. They were desperately poor and unskilled.
         2. Most came from Ireland and Germany and were Catholics.
         3. They settled in ethnically distinct neighborhoods and formed their own institutions.
   3. Living Conditions in Blue-Collar America
      1. Wages were exceedingly low.
      2. Urban working-class neighborhoods were overcrowded, and housing conditions were wretched.
   4. Social Life for a Genteel Class
      1. The factory system ended traditional relationships between owners and workers.
         1. They no longer resided together.
         2. Owners began to associate with each other only, and to form their own social and civic voluntary organizations.
      2. The traditional role of the employer’s wife also changed.
         1. The cult of domesticity replaced her former business responsibilities.
         2. Although home and children became her focus, she also joined social-reform voluntary associations.
   5. Life and Culture Among the New Middle Class
      1. The new class of managers, clerks, and teachers (the latter female) was relatively young.
      2. They married later, had fewer children, and lived in their own communities.
      3. They congregated in voluntary associations: social, trade, and professional.
3. The New Cotton Empire in the South
   1. A New Birth for the Slavery System
      1. Slavery revived as a result of the shift to cotton.
         1. Plantation owners achieved impressive annual profits of between 8 and 10 percent.
         2. The demand for slave labor led to a large interstate trade in slaves.
         3. Slaves were a major capital investment.
      2. In addition to cotton-field labor, slave occupations included service in homes and in non-field work.
         1. Slave artisans in cities formed guilds, leading to the legal restrictions imposed on them at the demand of white artisans.
   2. Living Conditions for Southern Slaves
      1. While keeping their costs as low as possible, owners provided generally adequate conditions.
         1. Housing was not crowded, but it was very simple.
         2. Clothing was basic.
         3. Food was adequate, and slaves received more meat than did northerners.
      2. Diseases related to dietary deficiencies and to working and living conditions abounded.
         1. These afflicted whites to the same degree when similar conditions were present.
      3. While violent treatment of slaves occurred, it was not typical.
      4. Slaves were the first to suffer when owners were not doing well economically.
   3. A New Planter Aristocracy
      1. The traditional imagery of an aristocracy of great planters is largely mythical.
         1. Only one-third of southerners owned slaves.
         2. Most slaveholders owned small farms and had fewer than ten slaves.
      2. Only a small elite owned large plantations and many slaves.
         1. Most were self-made and unrefined.
         2. Their wives played a large part in running the plantations, contrary, again, to the traditional image.
      3. Only a very small number could live in the manner of grand aristocracy.
   4. Plain Folk in the South
      1. The majority of southern whites were yeomen farmers.
         1. Only a minority owned a few slaves each.
   5. Free Blacks in the South
      1. The South’s small population of free African Americans descended mostly from blacks emancipated during the late 1700s.
         1. Most worked for white employers.
         2. A handful worked as artisans and skilled craftsmen.
      2. Restrictions on free blacks increased during the early nineteenth century.