U.S. History

Jacksonian Democracy and the Market Revolution

Jacksonian Democrats cherished the simplicity and naturalness of Jefferson's agrarian republic. They assumed power at the height of the Market Revolution. Commerce was welcomed as long as it served the independence and rough equality of white men. Unfortunately there were two problems facing Democrats: paper currency and dependence on credit.

The problems with paper economy:

1. It separated wealth from "real work"
2. It encouraged the spirit of luxury and greed
3. It required government-granted privileges

The problems with the American System:

1. It was anti-republican
2. It was unacceptable

Jackson aimed to curtail government involvement in the economy, to end special privilege, and to rescue the republic from the Money Power.

Those who favored an activist government, the Whigs, opposed Jackson and his followers. The Whigs encouraged economic development and national prosperity. They wanted a national market economy that would soften sectional divisions. They argued that Jacksonian rhetoric was little more than the demagoguery of unqualified, self-seeking politicians (oh, snap).

The point of focus between the Jacksonians and the Whigs was the Second Bank of the United States. It was chartered by Congress in 1816. It received revenues from the national government. It could demand redemption in specie or gold and silver. It issued notes that were the beginnings of a national currency and exercised control over the nation's monetary and credit systems.

The bank promised a stable, uniform paper currency and competent, centralized control over banking. Americans distrusted and resented the bank because they blamed it for the Panic of 1819. Jackson agreed with them. He lost money in early speculation and he distrusted paper money. He believed the bank and money were unconstitutional and the only safe money was gold and silver. The bank was a government-sponsored concentration of power.

The Bank reapplied for its charter in 1832. Senator Henry Clay and Daniel Webster supported the Bank. The Bank President was Nicholas Biddle. Congress passed the recharter bill, and Jackson vetoed it. Most voters supported Jackson and he won the 1832 election by a landslide.

Jackson began his second term determined to kill the Bank. He withdrew from the bank government revenues, and put them into pro-Jackson banks, "pet banks." He had to fire two Secretary of Treasury to get this done (it was something the Treasury had to approve of), and he rewarded the Secretary of Treasury who agreed to this with the title of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (after John Marshall had passed).

The Whigs were advocates of the American System. They critisized Jackson and mockingly referred to him as "King Andrew" because of his use of executive patronage, his excessive vetoes of congressional legislation, and his determination to reduce federal spending.

The Bank's best friend in the government was Daniel Webster, who was one of the three ealry Whig leaders: Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun. (The House leader of the Democrats was James K. Polk)

Martin Van Buren was Jackson's chosen successor. He ran against three Whig candidates who were:

• Daniel Webster of the Northeast
• William Henry Harrison of the West
• Hugh Lawson White of the South

The Whig's strategy was to throw the election to the House (again). It didn't work. Van Buren was the candidate of a national Democrat Party. He wanted to avert the dangers of sectionalism. Van Buren took 15 of 26 states. He had 170 electoral votes, and 58% of the popular vote.

However, the Panic of 1833 started when Van Buren had barely taken office. This was because the Bank of England had cut off all credit, and the British demand for American cotton dropped. The result was business failures, wage declines, and the Worst depression in the U.S. history up to that time. The Whigs, of course, blamed Jackson's hard money policies.

In the election of 1840, the Whigs nominated William Henry Harrison, the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe. He was a westerner and from the southern state of Virginia. He was a proven vote-getter and also a military hero (like Jackson). His running mate was John Tyler ("Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!"). His campaign was called the Log Cabin Campaign.

Harrison received 234 of the electoral college votes and Van Buren received 60 (ouch).

The second party system was the most fully national alignment in U.S. history. The election of 1840 completed the second party system. Harrison and Van Buren contested the election in every state.

U.S. History

Jacksonian Democracy and the South

There was a final crisis between frontier whites and the eastern woodland Indians. Few Native Americans were left east of the Appalachians: the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws and the Seminoles. They had tenure granted by federal treaties, and they were recognized as sovereign peoples.

Southwestern whites resented Indian policy. They believed the Indians were offensive to white democracy and states' rights. Poorer farmers coveted Indian land. Southerners denied the federal government had authority to make treaties within their states. A lot of the resistance centered in Georgia.

Andrew Jackson agreed that the federal government did NOT have authority to recognize native sovereignty within a state. He offers to remove them west of the Mississippi River. So in 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act.

However, certain cases made it to the Supreme Court:

• Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1830): The Cherokee Indians couldn't sue the state of Georgia because they were not a sovereign people but domestic dependent nations and thus, dependents of the federal government.
• Worcester vs. Georgia (1832): The Supreme Court declared that the state of Georgia's extension of state law over Cherokee land was unconstitutional; however, Jackson overruled this verdict, and it had no effect.

"John Marshall has made his decision: now let him enforce it!"--Andrew Jackson

The Trail of Tears describes the tortuous trek 18,000 Cherokees made to Oklahoma, with 4,000 dying along the way.

The political consequences were many. This violated the Supreme Court decisions (if a President did that nowaday, he would probably be impeached), and it also strengthened Jackson's reputation as an enemy of the rule of law. It reaffirmed the link between racism and white democracy in the South. Also, it announced Jackson's commitment to state sovereignty and limited federal authority.

Southerners and the Tariff

It was known as the Tariff of Abominations by many. It was designed by Martin Van Buren to win votes for Jackson. Vice President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina opposed the tariff because:

1. The Missouri debates made them look for ways to safeguard slavery.
2. The Denmark Vesey slave conspiracy of 1822.
3. Federal court decision on black seamen.
4. Talk of gradual emancipation
5. The tariff talk urged the South to trade favors with the Northwest
6. The American System benefited the Northwest and commercial Northeast producers at the expense of the South
7. South could do nothing to block the passage of the law

The South could protect itself from national majorities ONLY if they possessed the power to veto federal legislation within their state. This echoes the Virginia and Kentucky Resolves of 1798-99 and anticipates the 1861 secessionist arguments.

The Nullifiers did not, however, have the support of Jackson, and John C. Calhoun did not become the next president.

"The Union must be preserved!"--Andrew Jackson

William Lloyd Garrison declares war on slavery. There was a slave rebellion led by Nat Turner in 1831.

The Force Bill: empowered Jackson to lead an army into South Carolina to prevent it from nullifying the Tariff of Abominations.

They came up with the Compromise Tariff of 1833, which lowered tariffs over the course of several years.

The "Petticoat Wars"

Peggy O' Neal Timberlake Eaton was the center of the Petticoat Affair. She was the beautiful tavern keeper's daughter, and she married Secretary of War John H. Eaton, but because she did not wait a proper amount of time to mourn for her late husband, who served in the navy, it was incredibly scandalous (I'm really curious as to what our founding fathers would say about the looseness of women today). Because of this, the Jackson Administration shunned and ostrasized her and her husband. The leader of the assault on Peggy was none other than Foride Calhoun--wife of Vice President John C. Calhoun. This split the Administration in half as Jackson supported the Eatons and defended Peggy.

The Peggy Eaton Controversy resolved in ways that favored Van Buren, and she was made official hostess of the White House. Jackson began consulting with an informal group of advisors, the Kitchen Cabinet. Van Buren was the Vice President Candidate in 1832 to replace Calhoun.

There was direct challenge to Van Buren's Democratic Party promise to protect slavery with a disciplined national coalition committed to states' rights. The reformer core of the northern Whig Party (which was made solely to oppose Jackson) was made of middle-class evangelicals. Jacksonian Democrats, however, wanted to keep moral issues out of politics. Abolitionists launched a postal campaign to flood the mail with anti-slavery tracts, and the question of censorship came up. This led to the development of the Gag rule. Any mail that was received, addressing the slavery issue, was tossed out without being opened.

Jacksonians agreed the surest guarantee of safety within the Union is a disciplined Democrat Party, and Calhoun believed that nullification was the answer to how to maintain the Union with slavery. Jacksonians/Democrats insisted that the Union was inviolable. Democrats guaranteed southern rights by uniting northern and southern agrarians.

U.S. History

Republican Revival

The presidency of James Monroe is marked as the Era of Good Feelings because of the lack of political opposition, which was largely due to the collapse of the Federalist party. The Jeffersonian-Republicans, however, lose their way. Federalist programs enacted in the name of Republicanism helped bring on the Panic of 1819. The collapse of party discipline allowed the Missouri question to degenerate into a sectional free-for-all. There comes a call for Jeffersonian revival, which includes limited government power and guaranteed southern rights.

Martin Van Buren is the leader of New York's Bucktail Republicans, and he is soon elected to the United States Senate. He was talented with no influential family connections. His political career was based on a commitment to Jeffersonian principles, personal charm and party discipline. He invented the modern political party (not something that's particularly useful...).

Post-1819 America was at a dangerous turning point where disciplined political parties were necessary. Competition and party divisions were inevitable and good. Van Buren built a coalition of northern and southern agrarians, which resulted in the Democratic Party and the National two-party system.

The Election of 1824

The Presidential candidates:

• Republican: William H. Crawford
• New England: John Quincy Adams
• The West: Henry Clay
• The South: John C. Calhoun
• The Wild Card: Andrew Jackson

Andrew Jackson's popularity was more based on his image as a military hero than a political strategist.

Sixteen states chose presidential electors by popular vote, and six states left the choice to state legislatures.

Popular vote totals:

• Jackson: 153,000
• Adams: 114,000
• Clay: 47,000
• Crawford: 47,000

Jackson's support was more national. Adam's support came from New England, and Clay's came from the Northwest while Crawford's came from the Southeast. (Crawford suffered a crippling stroke during the election)

"The Corrupt Bargain"

Jackson assumed he had won the election (and who can blame him?) because his percent of the popular vote was 42%, and Adam's was 32%. However, he needed 131 electoral college votes to win the Presidency, and he only received 99. Under the U.S. Constitution, the election was thrown to the House of Representatives. The House then chooses from the top three candidates. Henry Clay is eliminated, but he led the election as speaker of the House. He throws the election to Adams by 1 vote. Adams then appoints Clay his Secretary of State (which was basically the step before becoming president). Jackson calls this the "Corrupt Bargain."

The Corrupt Bargain helps nourish a rising democratic movement. The charge of corruption followed Clay for the rest of his life.

Jackson considered the Corrupt Bargain as example of the corruption that the nation had suffered for the past 10 years. Jackson blamed the Panic of 1819 on the Bank of the U.S. He believed the national debt was a source of corruption and must be paid off and never allowed to recur. The federal government was filled with swindlers who were taking power for themselves and scheming against the liberties of the people. There were also suspicions of "King Caucus," which was the selection of a president by backstairs deals rather than by popular election.

The Corrupt Bargain of 1825 made it clear: either the people or the political schemers would rule.

Adams v. Jackson

As Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams was pretty impressive. With the Rush-Bagot Treaty, he helped pacify the northern border, he restored American fishing rights off the coast of Canada, he drew the U.S.-Canada border line, and he turned the border into a peaceful boundary.

With the Adams-Oniz Treaty, Adams pacified the southern border, he procured Florida from Spain, he defined the U.S.-Spanish (later Mexican) border west of the Mississippi, and he helped Americans lay claim to the Pacific Coast.

A little known fact, the Monroe Doctrine was actually written by John Quincy Adams. During this time, the Spanish colonies in the Americas were declaring independence, and the Monroe Doctrine supported them and declared American opposition to any European attempt at colonization in the New World. This doctrine was enforced and backed up by the British Navy.

Nationalism at Home

John Q. Adams went out of his way to isolate himself and to offend popular democracy.

His plan for national development:

• Federal money for roads, canals, and a national university.
• A national astronomical observatory.

Congressional response:

• They could not believe their ears.
• Adams connected with federal public works projects and high taxes, intrusive government, the denial of democratic majorities, and expanded opportunities for corruption, secret deals and special favors.
• Congress never acted on the president's proposals.

The Birth of the Democratic Party

Van Buren switched allegiances to Jackson. He considered Andrew Jackson to the head of a disciplined Democratic Party. They planned to continue the policies of Jeffersonian Republicans. They linked popular democracy with the defense of southern slavery. They proposed to revive the alliance of planters of the South and Republicans of the North.

The Democratic Party was committed to Agrarian programs of states' rights and minimal government. Van Buren feared that there would be an expensive and invasive national state, the isolation of the slaveholding South, and thus, the mortal danger to the republic.

Election of 1828

This turned out to be a gossip/slander match rather than a debate on public issues. Adams and Jackson's henchmen personalized the campaign (dissing each other, each other's wife, each other's family, etc. Anything's fair game). Jacksonians hammered away at the Corrupt Bargain and the dishonesty and weakness of Adams. The Adams forces attacked Jackson's character, his tendency to solve problems with duels and tavern brawls, described Jackson's execution of militiamen, and said Jackson was a bastard and his mother a prostitute. They also accused Jackson's wife, Rachel, of bigamy (multiple marriages).

However, the Adams strategy backfired. In fact, many criticized Adams for making Jackson's personal life a political issue.

On a completely different note...Andrew and Rachel Jackson:

• were models of marital fidelity.
• in romantic love for 40 years.
• were a triumph of what was right and just over what was narrowly legal.

Anyway, when Adams tried to brand Jackson as a lawless man, Jackson's imaged actually got better. He became a melodramatic hero who battled shrewd, unscrupulous, legalistic enemies in the eyes of the people.

And during the election the voters turn out doubled that of 1824. The results were:

• Jackson -Popular vote: 56% and Electoral College vote: 178
• Adams - Popular vote: 44% and Electoral College vote: 83

Adams carried New England, Delaware, and most of Maryland, and part of New York, but Jackson carried every other state.

Jackson-Adams Contrast

1. Triumph of democracy over genteel statesmanship
2. Limited government over expansive nationalism
3. The South and West over New England
4. Popular melodrama over cultural gentility

The People's Inauguration

Jackson was deep in mourning for his beloved wife, who had passed away right before this time. In his inaugural address he acknowledged respect for states' rights, equity, caution and compromise regarding the tariff, reform for the civil service, and retirement of the national debt.

The Spoils System

Serving as Jackson's Secretary of State was Martin Van Buren, the rest of Jackson's cabinet were called the "millennium of the Minnows." This was because Van Buren seemed to be the only capable staff on his cabinet. Everyone else was hired because they were close to Jackson, not because they were able and educated.

For example, Samuel Swarthout was made the collector of the Port of New York. His office handles $15 million in tariff revenue; he stole $1.2 million and fled to Europe.

This became known as the spoils system. ("To the victor belongs the spoils.") It was patronage, the dispensing of government jobs--very much like cronyism.

U.S. History

Jacksonian Democracy

Once upon a time (1800s), the U.S. government had no idea what it was doing (not unlike now...) and asked itself two very important questions:

1. How do we protect the Union and deal with the deepening rift between slave states and free states?
2. How much participation in economic life should the federal government have?

The Whig Party: We like the American System. The national government should subsidize roads and canals, fost industry with protective tariffs, and maintain a national bank capable of exercising centralized control of credit and currency. Then, there would be a peaceful, prosperous national market society. By doing business with each other, sectional fears and jealousies would quiet down.

Jacksonian Democrats: The American System is unconstitutional. It violates the rights of states and localities, it taxes honest citizens in order to benefit corrupt and wealthy insiders, and most dangerous of all, Whig economic nationalism would creat an activist, interventionalist national government.

Prologue: 1819

Jacksonian democracy was rooted in two events:

1. The admission of Missouri into the Union in 1819.
2. A severe financial collapse (Panic of 1819)

The two results:

1. By 1820, politicians (ugh...) had reconstructed the limited-government, states-rights coalition that elected Thomas Jefferson
2. By 1828, they had formed the Democratic party with Andrew Jackson at its head

In 1804, Jefferson sends Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the Louisiana Purchase.

Meriwether Lewis was President Jefferson's personal secretary, and William Clark was the brother of Indian fighter George Rogers Clark.

The purposes of the Lewis and Clark expedition was to explore the land, to make maps, and to keep meticulous journals. They had an indispensible guide, Sacagawea--a teenager at the time. She was the Shoshone wife of a French fur trader named Toussaint Charbonneau. They left in the May of 1804 amd returned to St. Louis in September 1806.

Louisiana enters the Union in 1812, but there was an Indian tribe controlling the northern part of teh Louisiana Purchase: the Sioux.

Missouri

The first new state carved out of the Louisiana Purchase was Missouri. This led to a serious conflicts which brought about the proposals of several amendments.

The Tal madge Amendments:

1. Barred additional slaves from being brought into Missouri.
2. Emancipated slaves born after admission when they reached the age of 25
3. Missouri enters Union as a free state
4. Not the result of humitarian concerns but about balance of political power; because of the 3/5 clause in the Northwest Ordinance, 3/5 of the slave population counted for representation of the South, which made the North nervous

Virginia had a "stranglehold" on the presidency (all first four presidents except for John Adams) were from Virginia.

In Congress, the House opposed to admitting Missouri as a slave state, and the Senate was in favor of admitting Missouri as a slave state. The result was one of the angriest sessions of Congressional history.

Then they came to a compromise. The North gets the new state of Maine (who, at the time, belonged to Massachusetts), and it would be a free state. Missouri would become a slave state, in turn.

The Thomas Proviso:

1. Admitted Missouri as a slave state
2. Outlawed slavery above the 36-30 N Latitude
3. Two states opened to slavery: Oklahoma and Arkansas
4. Closed to slavery: the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase
5. Number of resulting free states: 9

Congress passed the Thomas Proviso.

The Missouri crisis caused a collision between Southern commitment to slavery and Norther resentment of southern political power. It also revealed uncompromising gulf between slave and free states.

Southerners talked openly of disunion and civil war. Northerners opposed the extension of slavery.

"The slavery question like a fire-bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror" --Thomas Jefferson

Panic of 1819

European agriculture was recovering from the Napoleonic wars. Therefore, Europe did not need as much American food as they did during the war (the agricultural fields had turned into battlefields). American gold and silver cut off from Europe by war and revolution in the New World. Debt-ridden, the European governments hoarded available gold and silver.

American bankers and businessmen expanded credit; unfortunately, the expanded credit was based on dreams--not actual gold and silver.

In 1816, Congress chartered the Bank; however, it became a part of the problem. The Western branches of the Bank got involved in the land speculation boom. Eastern branches of the Bank hatched criminal schemes to enrich themselves. The new Bank president saved the Bank of the United States. The result was that national money and credit system collapsed. The economic depression was the first failure of the market economy.

Results of the Panic of 1819:

• Massive unemployment nationwide
• Americans resented banks
• "The Bank was saved and the people ruined."
• The Bank's nickname: "the Monster"

U.S. History

Market Revolution in the South

After the War of 1812, the Southern market economy expanded dramatically because of the resumption of international trade, the revival of British textile production, the emergence of American factory production, and the enlargement of the cotton belt across former southwest.

In 1834, the new states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana produced more than one-half of U.S. cotton. In 1859, they produce 79% of the country's cotton.

Slave Labor

Slaves were organized toward two objectives: to maximize production and to reinforce the dominance of white men who owned farms. Cotton production was especially well-suited for slave labor.

Slave labor after 1820 was more systematic and more humane. Southern slave owners supervised work more closely, tried to subsitute gang labor for the task system, corrected slaves whose work was slow or sloppy, tried to present Southern slavery as paternalistic & humane, improved the slaves' food and clothing, forbade brutal forms of discipline, and asked for slaves to take Sundays off.

Because cotton became such a hot commodity, slave labor increased dramatically from 1,191,354 slaves (1810) to 3,953,760 slaves (1860).

Yeoman and Planters

Yeomen and planters were subsistence farmers who farmed to survive. The Market Revolution commercialized southern agriculture. However, fewer white Southerners were enjoying the benefits. There was an unequal distribution of wealth, and the creation of a dual economy. Plantations were at the center of commercial life and yeomanry was on the fringes.

There was a dangerous fault line in southern politics between plantation owners and yeomanry.

The concentration of wealth in planters had profound effects on how the Market Revolution affected the region. Most whites remained only marginally related to the market economy. The South remained a poor market for manufactured goods.

The North's demand for products fueled the economic revolution. They were creating self-sustaining economic growth. The Market Revolution produced commercial agriculture, specialized labor, and technological innovation.

The South remained a poor market for manufactured goods, supplied slaves with cheap cloth, continued to export its plantation staples, and simply produced more factories, commercial institutions, and cities to serve the plantation. The planters and their families got their products from Europe.

New southern technology included Eli Whitney's hand-operated cotton gin and the cotton press (to compress ginned cotton into bales). Cotton was a labor-intensive crop that discouraged innovation. Southern state governments spent little on internal improvements, and they built few cities. Southern money also stayed up north: 40 cents per dollar produced by cotton.

U.S. History

Transportation Revolution

Because of dramatic improvements in transportation, old communities were tied together, previously isolated neighborhoods were penetrated, and the transition to a market economy was made physically possible.

Transportation in 1815 was primitive to nonexistant. The U.S. was a rural nation; Americans despaired of doing business on a national scale, and transportation west of the Appalachians were almost entirely undeveloped. Western farmers moved their products downstream to tributaries of the Ohio-Mississippi Rivers. A keelman had the responsibilities of transporting goods upstream, going against the current which could take months. The most famous keelman was Mike Fink.

No matter, transport costs were expensive and the result was that trans-Appalachian settlements remained marginal to market economy. The main port for western products in 1815 was New Orleans.

Internal improvements brought about a national road that linked the Potomac River and the Ohio River, and the Lancaster Turnpike linked Philadelphia with the Ohio River. However, they had few effects because of the high costs.

It was really the steamboat that opened the West to commercial agriculture. It was invented by Robert Fulton. The Washington reached Louisville, Kentucky from New Orleans in 25 days. It made two-way traffic on the Mississippi River possible, and it made the West into a busy commercial region.

The Erie Canal (aka "Clinton's Ditch") was built by New York governor DeWitt Clinton. It provided a water route between the Northwest and New York City. It also lowered the cost of transporting farm produce and generated more profit. It was an immense success. The Erie Canal encouraged other states to join the canal boom:

-1817 canal mileage was fewer than 100 miles
-1840 canal mileage was 3,300 miles.

Railroads

A national system with 5000 miles of rail developed in the 1840s in the United States. A national system was a continuous integrated system that created massive links between East and Northwest. Railroads soon rendered canals obsolete.

Time and Money

The Transportation Revolution reduced the time and money it took to move goods. Turnpikes cut the cost of wagon transport, and steamboat cut the river travel to one-third of a cent.The price of moving goods dropped from 1815 to 1860 by 95%.

There was a major improvement in speed. In the 1840s, travel time from Cincinnati to New York took 18-20 days, but by 1852, travel time from Cincinnati to New York took 6-8 days. Improvements like these made a national market economy possible.

Market Revolution

The Market Revolution was made possible in the 1840s by improved transportation. Foreign trade had driven American economic growth up until 1815.

1815 Business:
-U.S. exports- $52.6 million
-U.S. imports- $113 million

1860 Business:
-U.S. exports- $333.6 million
-U.S. imports- $353.6 million

Before 1815, U.S. exports involved 15% of the total national product.
By 1830, however, U.S. exports involved 6% of total national product.

This was because after 1815, U.S. developed self-sustaining domestic markets for farm produce & manufactured goods. The great engine of American economic growth no longer depended on the old colonial relationship with Europe, but now on a burgeoning internal market.

The whole political purpose of Henry Clay's American System was to transcend sectionalism and create a unified United States. Unfortunately, the Market Revolution had not accomplished this by 1840. In fact, it had produced greater results within regions than between them. For example, the Erie Canal's trade, until 1840, was mostly within New York. Therefore the Market Revolution (before 1840) was more of a regional thing--as opposed to a interregional affair.

The new transport network was mostly responsible for turning the economy into a Market Revolution. Canals and roads from New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore became the favored passage west for eastern commodities.

The result for the Ohio-Mississippi River System was the amount of goods it carried vastly increased (although this increase was a shrinking share of the expanded total) and the new national market between the West and the East was excluding the South.

From Yeoman to Businessman

There was a transformation of rural outwork; farmers became consumers. Southerners began moving north of the Ohio River--into a territory that banned slavery, which they banned because it blocked opportunites for poor whites who could not compete with large plantation owners.

Farming became easier with new technology

The standard harvesting tool of the 1830s was the cast-iron plow, but it was replaced by the McCormick reaper. Also, Johnny Chapman (aka "Johnny Appleseed") planted apple trees. It's relevant because it took place in the same time period. And it's in my notes.

The Market Revolution transformed 18th century households into 19th century homes. Between 1800 and 1850, people began to limit the family size. Neighborhoods became landscapes of privacy.

Industrial Revolution

The Jeffersonians wanted America to remain rural, but the Federalists argued that America must produce its own manufactured goods.

The American textile industry originated from industrial espionage (spying) and was powered by water. It was invented in Britain at first by Richard Arkwright, and brought to New England by Samuel Slater.

Samuel Slater was a British merchant who left Britain and came to the U.S. and he was the first to build the American Arkwright spinning mill in 1790 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

He was also responsible for the Rhode Island System (The Family System). His factories (an idea he copied from Arkwright) consisted of villages built in the countryside, and it employed the entire village. It involved the process of producing finished cloth from raw cotton.

Another factory system was introduced by Francis Cabot Lowell, a Bostonian. He toured in English factory districts in 1811 to spy on them because Britain had the greatest textile industries in the world at the time, and he wanted to make a profit (industrial espionage). He took notes (and was disgusted by the squalor the English textile towns), and he built his first mill in Waltham, Massachusetts. He eventually expanded this system to Lowell, Lawrence, and other cities.

The Waltham System (or the Lowell System) differed from the Rhode Island System because it was heavily capitalized and fully mechanized. They turned raw cotton into finished cloth and employed young single women from the country. The women were boarded in company boardinghouses and lived by enforced rules of conduct, on and off duty. They became independent, wage-earning women.

The Market Revolution hit American cities with particular force, and the richest men were seaport merchants.

There was also a rise in New York City's ready-made clothing (before that, people had to buy cloth and sew them into clothes themselves). In 1815, only the wealthy wore tailor-made clothing. However, the creation of the southern and western markets, the availability of cheap manufactured cloth and availability of cheap labor made ready-made clothing affordable.

This transformed New york City into a center of a national market for ready-made clothes (so that's why New York is a fashion capital of the world). Negro cottons were graceless, hastily assembled clothes slaves wore, dungarees and work shirts were for western farmers, inexpensive clothing were for urban workers, and fancy ready-made clothing were for middle-class.

In 1860, women in the clothing trade workforce was 25000; the percentage of women was 25% and the percentage of women working in the clothing trade was 67%.