A Developing Nation How did American economic development

A Developing Nation How did American economic development impact the politics of mid 19 th century America?

Manufacturing by 1860 South • • 15% of manufactured goods from the South Textiles major industry Dependent on North for: o skilled workers o financing o insurance No variety in industry North • • Led the world in the manufacture of goods using precision instruments Outstanding development of: o Clocks o Locks o Rifles o Pistols

Reasons for Northern Success • Hunger for inventions Elias Howe - sewing machine § Clothing and Shoe Industry o Cyrus Hall Mc. Cormick - Reaper o • • New natural resources discovered consistently o Connection to the Western states - canals, rail roads Laws o Development of Corporation laws § allowed people to pool their money and take calculated risks

Reasons for Northern Success • • Internal trade - protected by tariffs o Markets in the West Immigration = cheap labor Foreign investment California Gold Rush - investment

The Workers Horace Greeley of the Herald Tribune: Living Expenses of a Family of 5 in the 1850 s = $10. 37 per week Income of a wage earner in a factory = $5 Women and Children had to work to eat • • • Machines faster and more dangerous than 20 years earlier o Factories larger o Less involvement of the owner with his workers o • 1848 - 25% of NYers on some kind of public assistance

Cities Slums develop Cheaply built tenement houses • rooms without windows o no indoor plumbing o built near the waterways - suffered from floods during high tides o overcrowded o • • Extremely limited police and fire protection No garbage collection

Labor Unions? Difficult to develop Immigrants, freed blacks, and poor whites competing for low skill jobs • Commonwealth v Hunt (1842) Supreme Court Case creating a precedent for labor unions being legal • Bootmakers went on strike in Ma o Arrested for conspiracy o Overturned by the Supreme Court o No conspiracy unless force used to get workers to strike o

Railroads • • • Begin to be built in the US in the 1830 s 1848 - 6, 000 miles of track 1860 - 30, 000 miles of track By 1855 a person could travel from St Louis to NY in 2 days for $30 4 major companies: Pennsylvania, Eerie, Baltimore, Ohio o • At times competition causes them to make their tracks incompatible to each other North to Northwest - created a system that connected various lines to each other

Impact • Areas in flat areas not close to rivers grew and were developed especially in the West o allowed those states to eventually side with the North in the Civil War o • • Use of rivers declined - too slow Chicago became a major hub of travel Land became more expensive Many people invested on route able to because purchasing stock did not require all the money upfront o rail lines began to make money to pay for themselves before the line was finished o