Demographic trends of the antebellum period

1. 262-277

2.  Reasons:
 Booming agricultural economy of the west
▪ Cities became centers of trade (p. 263 shows examples)
 Improvements in public health
▪ Birth rate was lower
▪ Death rate was far lower, allowing for population increase
 Immigration
▪ Growth of cities was dramatic between 1840-1860
▪ Most immigrants from Germany & Ireland
▪ P. 263 shows city growth examples

4.  A defense of native-born people and a hostility
to foreign-born
 Also a desire to slow immigration
 Examples:
 Nativists would say that new immigrants were inferior
to older Americans
 Saw them as about the same as Native Americans
 They would say that immigrants were socially unfit
 Some said immigrants stole jobs from workforce &
lowered wages

6.  NativeAmerican Party: 1837
 Anti-immigration group
 Held their own convention in 1845
 Know-Nothings: 1845-1850
 First called “Supreme Order of the Star-Spangled
Banner”
 Banned Catholics from holding public office,
restrictive naturalization laws, literacy tests for
voting among their demands

7.  Know-Nothings led to American Party in 1852
in the west
 They actually won control of MA state gov’t
in 1854, won large number of seats in PA and
NY
 This was the peak of their power

8. CanalAge:
 1790-1820s=“turnpike era”
 By 1820s new means of transportation
 Steamboats, esp. Mississippi & Ohio Rivers
 Used commercially & for passengers
 By 1820s states turned to building canals
 Cheaper & quicker
 Erie Canal across NY (1817-1825)
 363 miles long, longest canal previously=28 miles
 Linked NYC to Chicago & Great Lakes

9.  Erie Canal’s success led to a canal building
boom (see map on p. 271)
 Connection between Lake Erie & Ohio River
 Led to increased settlement in Northwest
 Others failed in building successful canals

10.  Early Railroads:
 1804: inventors had been experimenting with
steam engines for land vehicles
 1820: first locomotive is run around a track (NJ)
 1825: first RR line opened in England
 First company: Baltimore and Ohio, 1830
▪ Peter Cooper &TomThumb (see picture on p. 272)
 By 1836, 1,000+ miles of track had been laid in 11
states

11.  Railroads:
 Were short
 Connected water routes
 No linkage of one RR company to another
 Track sizes (gauges) were not uniform
 Schedules did not match
 Constant wrecks!
 In competition w/ canals
 Slow improvements in 1830’s

12.  Triumph of RR:
 By 1860, there was almost 30,000 miles of track
 Most was in northeast but reached far and wide
 See map on page 273!!

13. Time to
travel from
NewYork to
various
locations
Maps from the
1932 Atlas of
the Historical
Geography of
the United
States

16.  Linkage of lines to make RR lines longer
 Lots of examples on page 272
 Lines would divert traffic from Erie Canal and
Mississippi River
 Chicago becomes the rail center of theWest
 RR’s helped weaken the connection between
the Northwest and the South (dependency on
Mississippi River lessens)

17.  Several sources:
 Private American investors
 RR companies borrowed large sums of $$$
 Local governments, states, counties, cities, towns
 Federal gov’t
▪ Congressional grants to aid RR’s in 11 states by 1860
▪ 30 million + acres of land
▪ Rail companies earn huge profits & accumulate
enormous strength

18.  Telegraph:
 Samuel Morse, 1844
▪ 1st message, from Baltimore toWashington D.C.=“What
Hath GodWrought?”
 Transmitted from Baltimore toWashington, D.C.
 Low cost system of communication
 50,000 miles of wire connected by 1860 coast to
coast

19. More About Morse Code
More About Morse Code

20.  Steam cylinder rotary press
 Associated Press

21.  Things to consider: (p. 275)
 Retail distribution of goods changed
 Growth of corporations began here
▪ What is a corporation?
 Limited liability
▪ What does this mean?
 Credit was a way to borrow, but bank did not have
enough equity to support the borrowing
 Bank failures were frequent

22.  By far the biggest economic development of
the mid-19th century
 Started with textile industry, water-powered
 Shoe industry in MA
 Total value of manufactured goods rose from
almost $500 million in 1840 to $2 billion in
1860

23.  Over half of the “factories” were in the
northeast
 Those “factories” produced over 2/3 of the
nation’s manufactured goods
 Almost ¾ of the people working in
manufacturing were employed in N.E. and
Mid-Atlantic states

24.  American technology was admired by
Europeans
 Turret lathe, milling machine, precision grinding
machine, sewing machine—all lead to
interchangeability
 Interchangeable parts: EliWhitney and Simeon
North
 Affected watches and clocks, locomotives, steam
engines, farm tools, bicycles, sewing machines,
typewriters, cash registers, automobile in upcoming
years

25.  Patents:
 Charles Goodyear: vulcanizing rubber
 Elias Howe: sewing machine, which Singer
improved

26.  Natural waterfalls could be channeled to
provide power for the mills
 Factories would close if water was frozen in
winter
 That is one reason factories looked for other
power: to be open year-round!

27.  Wood, Coal, Petroleum (later),Water
 Coal:
 Replacing wood and water power as fuel
 Mostly in PA, near Pittsburgh