History CH 13

Ch 13 Sec 4

The South's population consisted of wealthy slaveholding planters, small farmers, poor whites, and enslaved African Americans.

William Gregg

While most Southerners felt confident about the future of the cotton economy, some leaders wanted to develop industry in the region. They argued that, by remaining committed to cotton production, the South was becoming dependent on the North for manufactured goods. These Southerners also argued that factories would revive the economy of the Upper South, which was less prosperous than the cotton states. One Southerner that shared this view was a merchant from Charleston, South Carolina. After touring New England's textile mills in 1844, He opened his own textile factory in South Carolina.

Ch 13 Sec 3

Cotton was vital to the economy of the South.

strike

In the mid-1830s skilled workers in New York City refused to work in order to put pressure on employers. Workers wanted higher wages and to limit their workday to 10 hours. Groups of skilled workers formed the General Trades Union of New York. In the early 1800s doing this was illegal. These workers could be punished by the law, or they could be fired from their jobs. In 1842 a Massachusetts court ruled that workers did have the right to do it. It would be many years, however, before workers received other legal rights.

field hands

Worked from sunrise to sunset planting, cultivating, and picking cotton and other crops.

Upper South.

1790 the South seemed to be an underdeveloped agricultural region with little prospect for future growth. Most Southerners lived along the Atlantic coast in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. These states produced tobacco, hemp, wheat, and vegetables. became a center for the sale and transport of enslaved people throughout the region.

The Underground Railroad

A network of "safe houses" owned by free blacks and whites who opposed slavery—offered assistance to runaway slaves. Some slaves ran away to find relatives on nearby plantations or to escape punishment. Most runaways were captured and returned to their owners. Discipline was severe; the most common punishment was whipping.

overseer

A plantation manager that watched over the field hands.

Barriers to Industry

Because agriculture was so profitable, Southerners remained committed to farming rather than starting new businesses. Another stumbling block was the lack of capital in the South. To develop industries required money, but many Southerners had their wealth invested in land and slaves. Planters would have had to sell slaves to raise the money to build factories. Most wealthy Southerners were unwilling to do this. They believed that an economy based on cotton and slavery would continue to prosper. In addition the market for manufactured goods in the South was smaller than it was in the North. A large portion of the Southern population consisted of enslaved people with no money to buy merchandise. So the limited local market discouraged industries from developing. Yet another reason for the lack of industry is that some Southerners did not want industry to flourish there.

Moving Goods and People

Along with canals, the railways transformed trade in the nation's interior. The changes began with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 and the first railroads of the 1830s. Before this time agricultural goods were carried down the Mississippi River to New Orleans and then shipped to other countries or to the East Coast of the United States. The development of the east-west canal and the rail network allowed grain, livestock, and dairy products to move directly from the Midwest to the East. Because goods now traveled faster and more cheaply, manufacturers in the East could offer them at lower prices. The railroads also played an important role in the settlement and industrialization of the Midwest. Fast, affordable train travel brought people into Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. As the populations of these states grew, new towns and industries developed.

Baltimore

Although the South was primarily agricultural, it was the site of several large cities by the mid-1800s. By 1860 the population of ___________ had reached 212,000 and the population of New Orleans had reached 168,000. The ten largest cities in the South were either seaports or river ports. With the coming of the railroad, many other cities began to grow as centers of trade. Among the cities located at the crossroads of the railways were Columbia, South Carolina; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Montgomery, Alabama; Jackson, Mississippi; and Atlanta, Georgia. The population of Southern cities included white city dwellers, some enslaved workers, and many of the South's free African Americans. The cities provided free African Americans with opportunities to form their own communities. African American barbers, carpenters, and small traders offered their services throughout their communities. Most states would not allow them to migrate from other states.

literacy

Although the number of schools and teachers in the South grew, the South lagged behind other sections of the country in the number of people who can read and write. One reason for this was the geography of the South. Even in the more heavily populated Southern states there were few people per square mile. Virginia and North Carolina had fewer than 15 white inhabitants per square mile. In contrast, Massachusetts had 124 inhabitants per square mile. It was too great a hardship for many Southern families to send their children great distances to attend school. In addition, many Southerners believed education was a private matter, not a state function; therefore, the state should not spend money on education.

Samuel Morse

An American inventor had been seeking support for a system of telegraph lines. On May 24, 1844, He got the chance to demonstrate that he could send messages instantly along wires. As a crowd in the U.S. capital watched, Morse tapped in the words, "What hath God wrought!" A few moments later, the telegraph operator in Baltimore sent the same message back in reply. The telegraph worked! Soon telegraph messages were flashing back and forth between Washington and Baltimore.

Lowell, Massachusetts

Between 1820 and 1860, more and more of America's manufacturing shifted to mills and factories. Machines took over many of the production tasks. In the early 1800s, in the mills established in ______, ___________, the entire production process was brought together under one roof—setting up the factory system. In addition to textiles and clothing, factories now produced such items as shoes, watches, guns, sewing machines, and agricultural machinery.

Cyrus McCormick

Born on a Virginia farm, this man became interested in machines that would ease the burden of farmwork. After years of tinkering, he designed and constructed the mechanical reaper and made a fortune manufacturing and selling it. His reaper ensured that raising wheat would remain the main economic activity in the Midwestern prairies. New machines and railroads helped farmers plant more acres in "cash" crops—crops planted strictly for sale. Midwestern farmers began growing more wheat and shipping it east by train and canal barge. Farmers in the Northeast and Middle Atlantic states increased their production of fruits and vegetables that grew well in Eastern soils. Despite improvements in agriculture, however, the North turned away from farming and increasingly toward industry. It was difficult making a living farming the rocky soil of New England, but industry flourished in the area. The number of people who worked in factories continued to rise—and so did problems connected with factory labor.

Deep South

By 1850 the South had changed. Its population had spread inland to the states of Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. The economy of the South was thriving. Slavery, which had disappeared from the North, grew stronger than ever in the South. These states were committed to cotton and, in some areas, to rice and sugarcane.

trade union

By the 1830s workers began organizing to improve working conditions. Fearing the growth of the factory system, skilled workers had formed organizations of workers with the same trade, or skill. Steadily deteriorating working conditions led unskilled workers to organize as well.

credit

Cotton prices, however, varied from season to season, depending on the market. To receive the best prices, planters sold their cotton to agents in cities such as New Orleans, Charleston, Mobile, and Savannah. The cotton exchanges, or trade centers, in Southern cities were of vital importance to those involved in the cotton economy. The agents of the exchanges extended a form of loan to the planters and held the cotton for several months until the price rose. Then the agents sold the cotton. This system kept the planters always in debt because they did not receive payment for their cotton until the agents sold it.

Eli Whitney

Cotton production was revolutionized when This man invented the cotton gin in 1793. The cotton gin was a machine that removed seeds from cotton fibers, dramatically increasing the amount of cotton that could be processed. A worker could clean 50 pounds of cotton a day with the machine—instead of 1 pound by hand. Furthermore the gin was small enough for one person to carry from place to place. The cotton gin led to the demand for more workers. Because the cotton gin processed cotton fibers so quickly, farmers wanted to grow more cotton. Many Southern planters relied on slave labor to plant and pick the cotton.

Ch 13 Sec 1

During the 1800s, advances in technology and transportation shaped the North's economy.

African American Culture

Enslaved African Americans endured their hardships by extending their own culture, fellowship, and community. They fused African and American elements into a new culture. The growth of the African American population came mainly from children born in the United States. In 1808 Congress had outlawed the slave trade. Although slavery remained legal in the South, no new slaves could enter the United States. By 1860 almost all the enslaved people in the South had been born there. These native-born African Americans held on to their African customs. They continued to practice African music and dance. Although a large number of enslaved African Americans accepted Christianity, they often followed the religious beliefs and practices of their African ancestors as well.

Family Life

Enslaved people faced constant uncertainty and danger. American law in the early 1800s did not protect enslaved families. At any given time a husband or wife could be sold away, or a slaveholder's death could lead to the breakup of an enslaved family. Although marriage between enslaved people was not recognized by law, many couples did marry. Their marriage ceremonies included the phrase "until death or separation do us part"—recognizing the possibility that a marriage might end with the sale of one spouse. To provide some measure of stability in their lives, enslaved African Americans established a network of relatives and friends, who made up their extended family.

Working Conditions

Factory owners wanted their employees to work longer hours in order to produce more goods. By 1840 factory workers averaged 11.4 hours a day. As the workday grew longer, on-the-job accidents became more and more common. the long leather belts that connected the machines to the factory's water-powered driveshaft had no protective shields. Workers often suffered injuries such as lost fingers and broken bones from the rapidly spinning belts. Young children working on machines with powerful moving parts were especially at risk. In the summer, factories were miserably hot and stifling. The machines gave off heat, and air-conditioning had not yet been invented. In the winter, workers suffered because most factories had no heating. Factory owners often showed more concern for profits than for the comfort and safety of their employees.

spiritual

For many enslaved African Americans, Christianity became a religion of hope and resistance. They prayed fervently for the day when they would be free from bondage.an African American religious folk song. The song "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel," for example, refers to the biblical story of Daniel who was saved from the lions' den. They provided a way for the enslaved African Americans to communicate secretly among themselves. Many spirituals combined Christian faith with laments about earthly suffering.

Robert Fulton

Improvements in transportation contributed to the success of many of America's new industries. Between 1800 and 1850, construction crews built thousands of miles of roads and canals. The canals opened new shipping routes by connecting many lakes and rivers. The growth of the railroads in the 1840s and 1850s also helped to speed the flow of goods. This inventor demonstrated a reliable steamboat in 1807. Steamboats carried goods and passengers more cheaply and quickly along inland waterways than could flatboats or sail-powered vessels. In the 1840s canal builders began to widen and deepen canals to accommodate steamboats. steamboats traveled the major rivers and canals of the country as well as the Great Lakes. Steamboats spurred the growth of cities such as Cincinnati, Buffalo, and Chicago.

Technology and Industry

In 1800 most Americans worked on farms. Items that could not be made at home were manufactured—by hand, one at a time—by local blacksmiths, shoe-makers, and tailors. By the early 1800s, changes took place in the Northern states. Power-driven machinery performed many tasks that were once done by hand. Industrialization and technology were changing the way Americans worked, traveled, and communicated.

Midwest

In 1840 the United States had almost 3,000 miles of railroad track. By 1860 it had almost 31,000 miles, mostly in the North and the __________. One railway linked New York City and Buffalo. Another connected Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Yet another linked Baltimore with Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia). Railway builders connected these eastern lines to lines being built farther west in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. By 1860 a network of railroad track united the __________ and the East.

Joseph Reid Anderson

In Richmond, Virginia, this man took over the Tredegar Iron Works in the 1840s and made it one of the nation's leading producers of iron. Years later during the Civil War, Tredegar provided artillery and other iron products for the Southern forces.

nativist

In the 1830s and 1840s, anti-immigrant feelings rose. Some Americans feared that immigrants were changing the character of the United States too much. People opposed to immigration were known as _________ because they felt that immigration threatened the future of "native"—American-born—citizens. Some nativists accused immigrants of taking jobs from "real" Americans and were angry that immigrants would work for lower wages. Others accused the newcomers of bringing crime and disease to American cities. Immigrants who lived in crowded slums served as likely targets of this kind of prejudice.

clipper ship

In the 1840s sailing ships were improved. This ship—with sleek hulls and tall sails—were the pride of the open seas. They could sail 300 miles per day, as fast as most steamships of the day. The ships got their name because they "clipped" time from long journeys. Before the clippers, the voyage from New York to Great Britain took about 21 to 28 days. This ship could usually make that trip in half the time.

domestic slaves

Large plantations needed many different kinds of workers. Some enslaved people worked in the house, cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, sewing, and serving meals.

Ch 13 Sec 2

Many cities grew tremendously during this period.

Morse code

Morse transmitted his message in a series of dots and dashes representing the letters of the alphabet. A skilled operator could rapidly tap out words in the dot-and-dash alphabet. Americans adopted the telegraph eagerly. A British visitor marveled at the speed with which Americans formed telegraph companies and erected telegraph lines. Americans, he wrote, were driven to "annihilate [wipe out] distance" in their vast country. By 1852 the United States was operating about 23,000 miles of telegraph lines.

Southern Transportation

Natural waterways provided the chief means for transporting goods in the South. Most towns were located on the seacoast or along rivers. There were few canals, and roads were poor. Like the North, the South also built railroads, but to a lesser extent. Southern rail lines were short, local, and did not connect all parts of the region in a network. As a result Southern cities grew more slowly than cities in the North and Midwest, where railways provided the major routes of commerce and settlement. By 1860 only about one-third of the nation's rail lines lay within the South. The railway shortage would have devastating consequences for the South during the Civil War.

land

New methods in technology and business allowed the country to tap its rich supply of natural resources, increase its production, and raise the money needed for growth. The United States had the resources needed for a growing economy. Among these resources are productive resources often called the factors of production. The first factor of production, means all natural resources. The United States held a variety of natural resources that were useful for industrial production.

tenant farmer

Not all Southern whites owned land. Some rented land, or worked for landlords' estates.

Education

Plantation owners and those who could afford to do so often sent their children to private schools. One of the best known was the academy operated by Moses Waddel in Willington, South Carolina. Students attended six days a week. The Bible and classical literature were stressed, but the courses also included mathematics, religion, Greek, Latin, and public speaking. During this era, no statewide public school systems existed. However, cities such as Charleston, Louisville, and Mobile did establish excellent public schools. By the mid-1800s, education was growing. Hundreds of public schools were operating in North Carolina by 1860.

Small Farms

Popular novels and films often portray the South before 1860 as a land of stately plantations owned by rich white slaveholders. In reality most white Southerners were either small farmers without slaves or planters with a handful of slaves. Only a few planters could afford the many enslaved Africans and the lavish mansions shown in fictional accounts of the Old South. Most white Southerners fit into one of four categories: yeomen, tenant farmers, the rural poor, or plantation owners.

prejudice and discrimination

Slavery had largely disappeared from the North by the 1830s. However, unfair opinion not based on facts and unfair treatment of a group remained in Northern states. For example, in 1821 New York eliminated the requirement that white men had to own property in order to vote—yet few African Americans were allowed to vote. Both Rhode Island and Pennsylvania passed laws prohibiting free African Americans from voting. Most communities would not allow free African Americans to attend public schools and barred them from public facilities as well. Often African Americans were forced into segregated, or separate, schools and hospitals.

Peter Cooper

The development of railroads in the United States began with short stretches of tracks that connected mines with nearby rivers. Early trains were pulled by horses rather than by locomotives. The first steam-powered passenger locomotive, the Rocket, began operating in Britain in 1829. This man designed and built the first American steam locomotive in 1830. Called the Tom Thumb, it got off to a bad start. In a race against a horse-drawn train in Baltimore, the Tom Thumb's engine failed. Engineers soon improved the engine, and within 10 years steam locomotives were pulling trains in the United States.

Industry in the South

The economy of the South prospered between 1820 and 1860. Unlike the industrial North, however, the South remained overwhelmingly rural, and its economy became increasingly different from the Northern economy. The South accounted for a small percentage of the nation's manufacturing value by 1860. In fact, the entire South had a lower value of manufactured goods than the state of Pennsylvania.

yeoman

The farmers who did not have slaves made up the largest group of whites in the South. Most owned land. Although they lived throughout the region, they were most numerous in the Upper South and in the hilly rural areas of the Deep South, where the land was unsuited to large plantations. Their farm usually ranged from 50 to 200 acres. Yeomen grew crops both for their own use and to sell, and they often traded their produce to local merchants and workers for goods and services. Most Southern whites did not live in elegant mansions or on large plantations. They lived in far simpler homes, though the structure of their homes changed over time. In the early 1800s many lived in cottages built of wood and plaster with thatched roofs. Later many lived in one-story frame houses or log cabins.

telegraph

The growth of industry and the new pace of travel created a need for faster methods of communication. An apparatus that used electric signals to transmit messages filled that need.

The Impact of Immigration

The immigrants who came to the United States between 1820 and 1860 changed the character of the country. These people brought their languages, customs, religions, and ways of life with them, some of which filtered into American culture. Before the early 1800s, the majority of immigrants to America had been either Protestants from Great Britain or Africans brought forcibly to America as slaves. At the time, the country had relatively few Catholics, and most of these lived around Baltimore, New Orleans, and St. Augustine. Most of the Irish immigrants and about one-half of the German immigrants were Roman Catholics. Many Catholic immigrants settled in cities of the Northeast.

famine

The largest group of immigrants to the United States at this time traveled across the Atlantic from Ireland. Between 1846 and 1860 more than 1.5 million Irish immigrants arrived in the country, settling mostly in the Northeast. The Irish migration to the United States was brought on by a terrible potato shortage. Potatoes were the main part of the Irish diet. When a devastating blight, or disease, destroyed Irish potato crops in the 1840s, starvation struck the country. More than one million people died. Although most of the immigrants had been farmers in Ireland, they were too poor to buy land in the United States. For this reason many Irish immigrants took low-paying factory jobs in Northern cities.

slave code

The laws in the Southern states that controlled enslaved people—became more severe. In existence since the 1700s, slave codes aimed to prevent the event white Southerners dreaded most—the slave rebellion. For this reason these laws prohibited slaves from assembling in large groups and from leaving their master's property without a written pass. These laws also made it a crime to teach enslaved people to read or write. White Southerners feared that a literate slave might lead other African Americans in rebellion. A slave who did not know how to read and write, whites believed, was less likely to rebel.

fixed cost

The main economic goal for large plantation owners was to earn profits. Such plantations had regular expenses such as housing and feeding workers and maintaining cotton gins and other equipment. They remained about the same year after year.

the American Party

The nativists formed secret anti-Catholic societies, and in the 1850s they joined to form a new political party: Because members of nativist groups often answered questions about their organization with the statement "I know nothing," their party came to be known as the Know-Nothing Party. The Know-Nothings called for stricter citizenship laws—extending the immigrants' waiting period for citizenship from 5 to 21 years—and wanted to ban foreign-born citizens from holding office. In the mid-1850s the Know-Nothing movement split into a Northern branch and a Southern branch over the question of slavery. At this time the slavery issue was also dividing the Northern and Southern states of the nation.

Great Plains

The railroads gave farmers access to new markets to sell their products. Advances in technology allowed farmers to greatly increase the size of the harvest they produced. In the early 1800s, few farmers had ventured into the treeless _____ ________ west of Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota. Even areas of mixed forest and prairie west of Ohio and Kentucky seemed too difficult for farming. Settlers worried that their wooden plows could not break the prairie's matted sod and that the soil was not fertile.

labor

The second production factor. Large numbers of workers were needed to turn raw materials into goods.

capital

The third production factor is the equipment—buildings, machinery, and tools—used in production. Land and labor are needed to produce capital goods. These goods, in turn, are essential for the production of consumer goods.

Memphis

The wife of a plantation owner generally was in charge of watching over the enslaved workers who toiled in her home and tending to them when they became ill. Her responsibilities also included supervising the plantation's buildings and the fruit and vegetable gardens. Some wives served as accountants, keeping the plantation's financial records. Women often led a difficult and lonely life on the plantation. When plantation agriculture spread westward into Alabama and Mississippi, many planters' wives felt they were moving into a hostile, uncivilized region. Planters traveled frequently to look at new land or to deal with agents in New Orleans or ____________. Their wives spent long periods alone at the plantation.

Nat Turner

This slave was a popular religious leader among his fellow slaves. He had taught himself to read and write. In 1831 he led a group of followers on a brief, violent rampage in Southhampton County, Virginia. Before being captured he and his followers killed at least 55 whites. He was hanged, but his rebellion frightened white Southerners and led them to pass more severe slave codes. Armed rebellions were rare, however. African Americans in the South knew that they would only lose in an armed uprising. For the most part enslaved people resisted slavery by working slowly or by pretending to be ill. Occasionally resistance took more active forms, such as setting fire to a plantation building or breaking tools. Resistance helped enslaved African Americans endure their lives by striking back at white masters—and perhaps establishing boundaries that white people would respect.

John Deere

Two revolutionary inventions of the 1830s changed farming methods and encouraged settlers to cultivate larger areas of the West. One was the steel-tipped plow that this man invented in 1837. Far sturdier than the wooden plow, his plow easily cut through the hard-packed sod of the prairies. Equally important was the mechanical reaper, which sped up the harvesting of wheat, and the thresher, which quickly separated the grain from the stalk.

Sarah G. Bagley

Women had played a major role in the developing mill and factory systems. However, employers discriminated against women, paying them less than male workers. When men began to form unions, they excluded women. Male workers wanted women kept out of the workplace so that more jobs would be available for men. Some female workers attempted to organize in the 1830s and 1840s. In Massachusetts the Lowell Female Labor Reform Organization, founded by this weaver petitioned the state legislature for a 10-hour workday in 1845. Because most of the petition's signers were women, the legislature did not consider the petition. Most of the early efforts by women to achieve equality and justice in the workplace failed.

rural poor

lived in crude cabins in wooded areas where they could clear a few trees, plant some corn, and keep a hog or a cow. They also fished and hunted for food. They people of the rural South were stubbornly independent. They refused to take any job that resembled the work of enslaved people. Although looked down on by other whites, they were proud of being self-sufficient.

Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass,

two African American leaders who were born into slavery, gained their freedom when they fled to the North.