Rise of Industrial America (1790-1900)

Part One: The First Industrial Revolution (1790-1860)

I. Background
a. 1750 Europe’s industrial revolution begins
i. Begins in Europe, not here
b. It reaches us by late 1700s- Why so late?:
i. Cheap/plentiful land- why coop self up in factory
ii. Labor and money for capital investment scarce
1. Reason why the feudal system failed
iii. Undeveloped and undiscovered raw materials
iv. Undeveloped transportation and communication systems
v. No markets for product = no demand for product
vi. By nature/tradition- America/Americans were agrarian
c. Not until 1850 was the value of industrial products greater than agriculture products
II. 3 economic sectors serve as the infrastructure for the First Industrial Revolution
a. Factory system
b. Agriculture
c. Transportation and communication
III. The Factory System
a. The major components of the early US factory system:
i. Labor
1. Northern Labor Force = birthrate + immigration
a. Immigrants come from Northern and Western Europe
2. Southern Labor Force = predominantly slaves
ii. Samuel Slater’s Textile Mill (north)
iii. Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin (used in the south and spurs the need for more and more
slaves)
1. Process that cotton very fast, so we need lots of more cotton, thus needing
more slaves
iv. Yankee Ingenuity/Entrepreneurship = inventions, business risks, etc.
b. The formula for beginning to build a diverse and interdependent economy =
i. Labor + machinery for spinning cotton thread + cotton gin + entrepreneurship
c. Labor = birthrate + immigration
i. Future Labor Force (population growth):
1. By 1790 = 4 million Americans
2. 1790-1840 = steady growth; high birthrate + annual immigration on average of
60k
3. 1830-1840 = high immigration rate (German & Irish
4. By 1840s = immigration had tripled the average
5. By 1850s = immigration had quadrupled
6. US populate
a. 1850 = 23 million
b. 1860 = 31+ million
c. 1910 = 92+ million
i. Remember the huge influx of new immigrants during this
time
d. Machinery
i. 1791- Samuel Slater’s Textile Mill
1. Located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island
2. Employed child labor
ii. 1793- Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin
1. Separated the seed from the cotton
 2. Immediately increased the need for mare labor in the south- hence the rise of
slavery
e. Yankee Ingenuity and Entrepreneurship
i. Certainly Whitney’s Cotton Gin
ii. 1798- Whitney’s interchangeable parts:
1. Starts with mass production of muskets for US Army
2. By 1850 the concept was widely used
3. In the basis for modern mass-production and assembly line methods
4. 1807-’14- all of the following spurs US to have to do its own manufacturing:
a. Embargo Act, Non-Intercourse Act, Macon’s Bill #2, and War of 1812
iii. 1814 and on- Henry Clay’s American System: (tariff, banks, )
1. Used to promote US Business
2. Internal improvements, high tariffs, the BUS
iv. 1820- Lowell Textile Factories:
1. Group of Boston investors opens a series of textile in Lowell, Massachusetts
2. Employs thousands of young farm girl from “dark to dark”
v. 1846- Elias Howe’s sewing machine:
1. Is foundation for the “ready-made” clothing industry
2. Causes huge rise in northern industrialism
3. Causes north to be more reliant on southern cotton
4. Drives women from the farm to the factory
vi. 1848- First Incorporation laws passed in NY:
1. What used to be for a select few now open to all
2. Sell ownership of company (stock) to investors
3. Concept of limited liability (only responsible for the amount you’ve invested)
facilitated increased investment capital for new business
f. Record of Patented Inventions:
i. By 1800 = 306 patents
ii. By 1860 = 38, 000 patents
iii. By 1890 = 468, 000 patents
iv. Inventions spurred on more inventions
IV. Agriculture
a. South = slave labor – cotton becomes king of Whitney’s Cotton Gin
b. 1820s-30s:
i. Trans Allegheny region (Ohio River Valley) = bread basket of the nation- later the world
ii. Corn + hogs + grain traded down the rivers to the south and the east
c. Lucrative businesses in all region = incentive to cultivate land to west
d. 1830s- Cyrus McCormick’s Mechanical reaper:
i. Was to wheat farmers what the cotton gin was to cotton farmers
ii. more land now devoted to cash crop wheat
e. 1837- John Deere’s steel plow
i. Lighter, faster, easier, and non-stick
ii. Productivity per acre increased
f. Increased agriculture production now required a sophisticated transportation system
V. Transportation
a. Roads of the early republic
i. Primitive modes of travel
ii. Treacherous, muddy, and rut filled dirt roads
iii. 1790s-1810s- Turnpikes:
1. Built by private companies
2. Lancaster to Philly, Penn (62 miles)
3. Pay a toll to use- then “turn the pike” to let go by
4. Attracted other companies to build
 iv. 1807- Robert Fulton’s steamboat:
1. Can now go with and against currents of rivers
2. Opens the west and the south to population growth and commerce
v. 1811- The national road:
1. A federal gov’t interstate project from Maryland to Illinois (591 miles)
2. Ultimately a combo of federal and state $$$
vi. 1814 and on- Henry Clay’s American System:
1. Used to promote US business
2. Internal improvement, high tariffs, the BUS
vii. 1817- 1840s- Canals
1. Lowered shipping costs and time
2. Mostly located in the north for east-west trade
3. Connected rivers and lakes to one another
b. 1828- First railroad in the US
i. By 1850 = 30k miles of track in US
ii. Located mostly in the Northeast- effects:
1. East-West connection
2. Mississippi River is less used
3. Established the northern cities into the main commerce terminals
a. East = manufactures machines and textiles for south
b. South = grows cotton for northeast and old England
c. West = provides grain and livestock for all
c. 1843-1868: Clipper ships
i. For transoceanic travel- faster than steamers
VI. Communication
a. 1844- Samuel F. B. Morse’s telegraph
b. 1860- Pony Express (lasted only 18 months)
c. 1861- First transcontinental telegraph
d. 1866- Permanent transatlantic cable
VII. Transportation and Communication
a. Ultimately these networks would speed the nation to industrialize:
i. 1820 = ¾ of population were farmers
ii. By 1850 = only ½ of population were farmers and the value of industrial products was
greater than agricultural products

Part Two: The Second Industrial Revolution (1860-1900)

I. Background
a. Better known as the gilded age, this is a time of:
i. Growth of big business-trust- monopolies
ii. Big business and government in bed together (graft and corruption)
iii. Working conditions terrible; wages low
iv. Attempts by labor to unionize = strikes and riots
v. Huge influx of immigrants
II. 4 categories serve as a the basis of industrial growth at this time:
a. Rail roads
b. Mechanization
c. The industrialists
d. Steel
III. Railroads
a. Transcontinental railroad building:
i. Government subsides:
1. Land grant and $$$ per mile of track laid
2. By 1869 connected east to west
 b. Effects:
i. United the nation and knit the west coast securely into the country
ii. Increased domestic market for all kinds of goods
iii. Increased industrialization because raw materials got to the factories much more quickly
iv. Increased mining and agriculture
v. Create of new cities and growth of existing cities
vi. Migration of population west
vii. Helped settle prairie lands
viii. Made many people millionaires
ix. Negative impact on Native Americans and environment
IV. Mechanization
a. In 1860 US = 4th in manufacturing worldwide
b. By 1894 US = 1st!!! Why???
i. God, Glory, Gold
ii. Liquid capital ($$$)
1. Civil war created huge profits for inventors
2. Profits now could be combined with borrowed foreign money and invested into
US business/industry
iii. Natural resources
iv. Coal, oil, ore, timber, etc. discovered as we moved west
v. Short supply of labor:
1. Encouraged industrialists to invent and mechanize
2. Mechanization = higher productivity
vi. Immigration
1. As industry grew, immigrants came in droves
2. Abundant cheap, unskilled labor force
3. Need to develop machines to stimulate skilled workers = increased
productivity!!
vii. Yankee Ingenuity/Entrepreneurship:
1. Business savvy- new ways to organize business
2. Utilize new techniques of mass production
3. Inventions such as electricity, telephone, internal combustion, engine, etc.
viii. Urbanization
V. The Industrialists
a. Andrew Carnegie
i. Steel Kingpin
ii. Preached “Gospel of Wealth”
iii. Known for vertical monopoly
1. Combined all phases of manufacturing into one
2. Effects
a. More efficient
b. Less costly
b. J. D. Rockefeller
i. Oil Kingpin
ii. Social Darwinist
iii. Known for horizontal monopoly
1. Buying out controlling share of stock of competitors
2. Combining of all competitors under one roof
3. Creates a trust or monopoly of the product
c. J. P. Morgan
i. Banking and Financial Kingpin
ii. Known for the interlocking directorates
1. Companies $$$ trouble sought his help- loans
 2. Officers of Morgan’s bank sat on the Boards of these companies (interlock
themselves)
3.Would then exercise (directorates) over the business
VI. Supremacy of Steel
a. Steel much stronger, more durable, lighter, etc. than iron
b. Could build bigger, higher, better, faster, cheaper, stronger
c. Especially affects the construction industry- sky scrapers, bridge building, rails for rail raod
industry, etc.
d. 1850- Bessemer Process:
i. Made every batch of steel consistent each time
ii. Embraced by Carnegie
iii. Brings down production time and cost
iv. Increased demand for steel and its use
VII. In Conclusion
a. 1865-1914 = huge industrial expansion
i. From #4 manufacturing nation to #1 by 1894
ii. By 1913 U.S. out producing England, France, and Germany combined
iii. By 1890 the value of manufacturing goods exceeded value of agriculture—yet
agriculture still growing
b. America will become the arsenal of two world wars and the prime industrial power in the world
(Degler 5)