DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY 1820 1840 Expansion westward Farming 97

DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY, 1820 -1840

� Expansion westward

� Farming, 97%

� Farming, 97% � Barter economy � Work: Slow, steady � Patriarchal � Artisans and specialists

� Roads �National road Westward expansion

� Canals

� Steamboats �Big, luxurious �Upper class

This Currier and Ives print of 1849, The Express Train, captures the popular awe at the speed and wonder of the new technology. This “express” probably traveled no more than 30 miles per hour. SOURCE: Currier and Ives, The Express Train , 1849. The Granger Collection, New York.

� Railroads

MAP 12. 1 Travel Times, 1800 and 1857 The transportation revolution dramatically reduced travel times, and vastly expanded everyone’s horizons. Improved roads, canals, and the introduction of steamboats and railroads made it easier for Americans to move, and made even those who did not move less isolated. Better transportation linked the developing West to the eastern seaboard and fostered a sense of national identity and pride.

� Why? � Transportation �review

• COMMERCIALIZATION BEFORE: AFTER: Production: self sufficiency + more goods to sell Trade: barter Trade: cash � Implications: �$$$ �Efficiency �Less personal

� INDUSTRIALIZATION �Machinery �Faster, more production, cheaper

This 1850 engraving by the American Banknote company shows women tending looms at Lowell. The contrast between this industrial activity and the figure of a woman spinning at home illustrates one of the most important effects of industrialization: Now machines, not individuals, determined the pace of production. SOURCE: Print Collection, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

� FACTORY WORK?

� INDUSTRIALIZATION �Lowell Mills Francis Cabot Lowell, 1823 1 roof Textile Young, women Small community

MAP 12. 3 Lowell, Massachusetts, 1832 This town plan of Lowell, Massachusetts in 1832, illustrates the comprehensive relationship the owners envisaged between the factories and the workforce. The mills are located on the Merrimack River, while nearby are the boarding houses for the single young female workers, row houses for the male mechanics and their families, and houses for the overseers. Somewhat farther away is the mansion of the company agent.

� What was life like for these workers? � What similarities do the workers have to today’s workers?

� Natural resources � Population � Govt. support

� Economic � Examples? inequalities

Income Share of the Rich Third fifth Second fifth Fourth fifth Poorest fifth Richest fifth of population

State of Inequality in the U. S. o California: 5 th in terms of least inequality n n n o o Top 1% share increased by 57% Middle 20% share increased by 1. 8% Poorest 20% share increased by 10% 750, 000 homeless in the U. S. 6. 5 m prisoners

� Industrial �Books and publishing �Clocks revolution Time?

This timetable from the Lowell Mills illustrates the elaborate time schedules that the cotton textile mills expected their employees to meet. For workers, it was difficult to adjust to the regimentation imposed by clock time, in contrast to the approximate times common to preindustrial work. SOURCE: Baker Library, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University.

� Emerging � Materialism � Social code �Gender roles � Women �Virtue, morals �Develop future � Family �Less children �? ? ? Birth control

� Implications: �Fast pace �Home and work �Leisure / entertainment �Environmental? �Economic inequalities