8.6.1

The Industrial Revolution in America

The Big Idea

The Industrial Revolution transformed the way goods were produced in the United States.

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Main Ideas

• The invention of new machines in Great Britain led to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
• The development of new machines and processes brought the Industrial Revolution to the United States.
• Despite a slow start in manufacturing, the United States made rapid improvements during the War of 1812.

Vocabulary

Industrial Revolution

textiles

mills

interchangeable parts

mass production

technology

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Industrial Revolution

• The industrial revolution refers to the increased output of machine-made goods that began in England in the 1700s.

Industrial Revolution

• Before the industrial revolution, people made goods by hand.

Industrial Revolution

• The industrial revolution allowed machines to make goods faster and cheaper.
• It also transformed the way people worked, by shifting laborers from small workshops to large factories.

Industrial Revolution

• Eventually, the industrial revolution spread from England to Continental Europe and North America.

What was the Industrial Revolution, and where did it begin?

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Textile Industry

• The first breakthrough in the Industrial Revolution was in how textiles, or cloth goods, were made.
• The water frame used flowing water as a source of power.
• Could produce dozens of cotton threads at the same time
• Lowered the cost and increased the speed of textile production.

�The development of new machines and processes brought the Industrial Revolution to the United States.

• Textile mills were built near rivers and streams because water was their source of power.
• The American textile industry arose in the Northeast, where there are many rivers and streams to supply year-long power.

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Explain the relationship between the location of textile mills and their source of power.

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Manufacturing Breakthroughs

• Another breakthrough was the idea of interchangeable parts, or parts of a machine that are identical.
• Interchangeable parts made manufacturing more efficient by enabling mass production, or the production of large quantities at low cost.

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US made rapid improvements in manufacturing during the War of 1812.

• Before the war, the U.S. imported most manufactured goods from Britain.
• During the War of 1812, trade with Great Britain was cut off.
• U.S. manufacturing expanded in order to meet the increased demand for American-made products.
• By the war’s end, U.S. manufacturing in the Northeast was booming due to the new technologies of the Industrial Revolution.

Check for Understanding

Explain the relationship between the War of 1812 and the resulting boom in American manufacturing.

8.6.1

Changes in Working Life

The Big Idea

The introduction of factories changed working �life for many Americans.

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Main Ideas

• The spread of mills in the Northeast changed workers’ lives.
• The Lowell system revolutionized the textile industry in the Northeast.
• Workers organized to reform working conditions.

Check for Understanding

Rhode Island system

Lowell system

trade unions

strikes

The Rhode Island System

• Factory jobs usually involved simple, repetitive tasks and low pay.
• Manufacturers had trouble attracting workers
• Mill owner Samuel Slater solved this problem by hiring entire families
• paid children low wages
• built housing, and provided a company store
• This strategy was called the Rhode Island system.��

Check for Understanding

Why did mill owners have trouble attracting workers, and how did Samuel Slater solve this problem?

The Lowell System

Another successful system for attracting mill workers was developed by Francis Cabot Lowell in 1814.

The Lowell system:

• Employed young, unmarried women
• Offered higher wages than other available jobs
• Provided boarding houses
• Included free-time activities for its employees

Many young women were attracted by the opportunity to live independently.

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Check for Understanding

How was the Lowell system different from the Rhode Island system?

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Working conditions in the mills were unhealthy and dangerous.

Label the hazards you see in this illustration.

Deteriorating Working Conditions

• As more people competed for factory jobs, wages dropped.
• Employers demanded 12-to-14 hour days in unhealthy conditions.
• Skilled craftsmen’s wages dropped in competition with cheap manufactured goods.
• Child labor increased.

Workers organized to reform working conditions.

• Craftsmen and factory workers formed trade unions to gain higher wages and better working conditions.
• Labor unions staged protests called strikes, refusing to work until employers met their demands.

Check for Understanding

Explain why workers created labor unions and what outcomes did they seek?

What method did unions use to achieve reforms?

Labor Reform Efforts

• Millworker Sarah G. Bagley helped lead the union movement in Massachusetts.
• Bagley’s union campaigned to reduce the 12-to 14-hour workday to a 10-hour workday.
• Union workers won some victories, as several states passed 10-hour workday laws.
• However, in most states the workday remained long and child labor prevailed.

Check for Understanding

Were early labor unions successful? Explain your answer.

8.6.1

The Transportation Revolution

The Big Idea

New forms of transportation improved business, travel, and communications in the United States.

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Main Ideas

• The Transportation Revolution affected trade and daily life.
• The steamboat was one of the first developments of the Transportation Revolution.
• Railroads were a vital part of the Transportation Revolution.
• The Transportation Revolution brought many changes to American life and industry.

Check for Understanding

transportation revolution

Tom Thumb

Clermont

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� The Transportation Revolution affected trade and daily life.

• The 1800s gave rise to Transportation Revolution: period of rapid growth in new means of transportation
• Transportation Revolution created boom in business by reducing shipping costs and time
• Two new forms of transportation were steamboat and steam-powered trains
• Goods, people, and information were able to travel rapidly and efficiently across the United States.

d

Check for Understanding

What two benefits did the transportation revolution bring to trade and daily life?

The steamboat

• Robert Fulton tested the first steamboat, the Clermont, in 1807.
• Steamboats increased trade by moving goods quickly and cheaply.
• Steam power allowed boats to travel easily upstream against river currents.
• More than 500 steamboats were in use by 1840.

Check for Understanding

In what three ways were steamboats an improvement over wind-powered ships?

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)

Gibbons and Ogden were steamboat operators who argued over control of the Hudson River waterway in New York.

The Supreme Court ruled that individual states could not limit access to waterways that connected two or more states.

(The Hudson River runs through both New Jersey and New York)

Only Congress has the authority to regulate interstate transportation.

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Check for Understanding

According to the Gibbons v. Ogden ruling, which branch of government controls transportation between states?

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�Railroads

Peter Cooper proved the power and speed of the steam train by racing his locomotive Tom Thumb against a horse in 1830.

• (The train broke down and lost, but not before gaining a large lead)

While wagons traveled about 2 mph, trains averaged 20 mph.

By 1860, about 30,000 miles of track linked American cities.

The great majority of railroad lines were in the Northeast, built to connect factories and markets.

Check for Understanding

What were the immediate and the long-term outcomes of the Tom Thumb race?

Early train travel was dangerous

Technological challenges included crossing steep mountains, swift rivers, and tight curves.

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“Whizzing and rattling and panting, with its fiery furnace gleaming in front, its chimney vomiting fiery smoke above, and its long train of cars rushing along behind like the body and tail of a gigantic dragon--… and all darting forward at the rate of twenty miles an hour. Whew!”

Railroads created economic opportunity

• Railroads linked factories to distant markets.
• Towns sprang up at railroad junctions, bringing new economic opportunities.
• Workers could travel more easily to available jobs.
• Railroad companies became some of the most powerful businesses in the nation.
• However, the trains, and their wealth, were centered in the North.

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Check for Understanding

How did train transportation create a surge in the U.S. economy?

Railroads increased logging

• Steam trains were fueled by wood
• Wood was also needed to build the new cities.
• Trains brought settlers to the Midwest, where they cut down trees to make way for farmland.
• Increased logging led to large-scale deforestation.

Check for Understanding

Explain the relationship between train transportation and the logging industry.

Railroads helped create the Coal Industry

• As trains grew larger, coal replaced wood as a source of fuel.
• Coal burns hotter than wood.
• Coal was also used to heat homes.
• Coal mining changed the landscape as miners made deep gashes in the earth.
• Miners faced dangerous working conditions.

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Check for Understanding

Explain the relationship between train transportation and the mining industry.

8.6.1

More Technological Advances

The Big Idea

Advances in technology led to new inventions that continued to change daily life and work.

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Main Ideas

• The telegraph made swift communication possible from coast to coast.
• With the shift to steam power, businesses built new factories closer to cities and transportation centers.
• Improved farm equipment and other labor-saving devices made life easier for many Americans.
• New inventions changed lives in American homes.

Vocabulary

telegraph

Morse code

�The telegraph made swift communication possible from coast to coast.

• In 1832, Samuel F. B. Morse perfected the telegraph—a device that could send information over wires in seconds.
• A Morse associate created Morse code to communicate messages through a system of dots and dashes.

Telegraph revolutionized communication

• Morse’s invention did not catch on immediately
• In 1844, a telegraph wired news of a presidential candidate’s nomination in Maryland to waiting politicians in Washington, DC
• They responded, “Three cheers for the telegraph!”
• Soon it was being used all across the country

Follow this link and send a message in morse code:

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Link to morse code translator

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• The telegraph grew with the railroad; wires were strung along new railroad tracks, with thousands of miles of wire added every year.

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Check for Understanding

What effect did the telegraph have on cross-country communications?

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Steam-Powered Factories

With the shift from water to steam power, factories could be build anywhere.

By 1850, new factories were constructed near rail lines instead of rivers.

As factories were shifted to cities and transportation centers, those cities became centers of industrial growth.

Advances in iron and steel allowed the factory to expand significantly

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Check for Understanding

Explain the relationship between the switch to steam power and the growth of cities.

Labor-saving inventions improved farming

John Deere designed a steel plow in 1837 that replaced the less efficient iron plow.

Cyrus McCormick developed a mechanical reaper in 1831, which quickly and efficiently harvested wheat.

These and other labor saving inventions helped farmers harvest huge crop fields, helping the country prosper.

Check for Understanding

How did labor-saving inventions lead to a boom in agriculture?

Other inventions changed daily life.

• The sewing machine, invented by Elias Howe and improved by Isaac Singer, made home sewing easier.
• Ice boxes and iron cookstoves improved household storage and preparation of food.
• Mass-produced goods, such as clocks, matches, and safety pins, added convenience to households.

Check for Understanding

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How did labor-saving inventions affect daily life?

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