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Starting in the early 19th Century the United States underwent an industrial
revolution. The work that many people did changed as they moved from
farms and small workshops into larger factories. They tended to buy things in
stores, rather than make them at home or trade with their neighbors. They
used machines, and purchased the products of machines, more than they
ever had.
LEFT: Spinning wheel, possibly for flax. Courtesy of the National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C.
RIGHT: Mechanized Spinner from The Progress of Cotton, 1835-40. Courtesy of Slater Mill Historic Site, Pawtucket, RI..
The small-scale centers of textile production lasted well into the 19th
century. But the manufacture of textiles began to change dramatically,
starting as early as the 1790's, as these traditional sources were first joined,
and then replaced, by a new material, a new kind of agriculture, and a new
kind of factory. The material processed changed, from linen and wool to
cotton; the way that cotton was grown and prepared changed, with the
invention of the cotton gin and the reinvention of the plantation; new
machines, invented to process the cotton, found a new setting in larger and
more complex factories. Together, these changes added up to an industrial
revolution.
This textile revolution did not happen everywhere in the United States at the
same time, and its effects were quite different in different areas. Perhaps the
largest change came in the South, where the new demand for cotton was
supplied by plantations based on slave labor and mechanized processing of
the cotton by the cotton gin. ("Gin" is short for "engine.") The Northeastern
United States changed dramatically as home spinning and weaving, and
small-scale carding and fulling mills gave way to large integrated mills where
a new kind of worker used new machines to produce cotton cloth on a scale
previously unimagined. Smaller mills remained, and would remain for the
rest of the century, but for the most part, only in areas of low population far
from the commercial markets of the Northeast.
The early decades of the nation saw migration to the United States from
Europe and migration to U.S. cities from the countryside. In 1790, less than a
million people lived in cities. Fifty years later, cities held 11 million. New York
City alone grew from 13,000 people in 1820 to 1 million by 1860.
Turnpikes, canals, and railroads fed workers and raw materials to the
growing cities. First came the turnpikes, which were somewhat improved
roads built by private companies to replace old wagon trails. The companies
then charged tolls to all who used the turnpikes. The Erie Canal opening
linked Lake Ontario and Lake Erie to make inland barge traffic possible.
Finally, railroads provided faster transportation; they far outpaced the old
covered wagons and stagecoaches.
Railroads connected the cotton plantations of the South with the mills and
textile factories of New England. To safeguard their profits, railroad
companies made price-fixing agreements or combined into monopolies. Their
influence on legislators won the railroads 25 million acres of public land free
of charge. They also negotiated low-cost loans from state legislatures.
While those who owned the railroad companies became rich, the workers
who built them did not. In the South, slaveholders hired out 20,000 slaves to
build railroads. The slaves worked for the railroad companies, and the
owners collected wages. Irish immigrants worked on rail lines, too. (During
the 20th century, Japanese and Chinese immigrants would take their places
and push railroads across the continent.)
While men worked on railroads, both men and women filled factories in New
England. Factory workers were in great demand, and word spread fast about
new factory towns and the high wages that were being offered to all people.
Factory jobs offered a new life to women who were dependent and isolated
in distant towns and farmhouses.
1. Visit:
http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/whole_cloth/u2ei/index.html
Read the material of ‘Why a Plantation” and write the main idea of the
article below.
Main Idea:
2. Visit :
http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/whole_cloth/u2ei/index.html
Read the material of “Who invented the Cotton Gin” and fill out the following.
This article presents some of the evidence for the claims of four different
groups, each of whom says they invented the cotton gin.
ELI WHITNEY
CATHARINE GREENE
SOUTHERN PLANTERS
SOUTHERN SLAVES