APUSH Chapter 10 ID's

Potato Famine (1845-1849)

1845-1849. potato crop failed and nearly a million people died of starvation and disease. drove well over a million people to the US.

Associated Press (1846)

1846 newspaper publishers from around the nation formed the Associated Press to promote cooperative news gathering by wire.

Population Growth

American population between 1820 and 1830 increased rapidly much of it was moving form the countryside into the industrializing cities of the northeast and northwest. in 1790 had 4 million in 1840 17 million people. improvements in public health, number and ferocity of epidemics had decreased.

De Witt Clinton

De Witt Clinton was a late but ardent convert to the causes of building a canal and he became governor in 1817.

The Erie Canal

Digging began on July 4, 1817. greatest construction project the US had ever taken on. a ditch forty feet wide and four feet deep. filled with towpaths along the banks. Hundreds of difficult cuts and fills and some enormous were required to enable the canal to pass through hills and over valleys; stone aqueducts were necessary to carry it across streams; 88 locks of heavy masonry with wooden gates to permit ascents and descent. opened in October 1825

Factory System

Entrepreneurs were beginning to make use of new and larger machines driven by water power that allowed them to bring textile operations together under a single roof. factory system spread rapidly in the 1820s and began to make serious inroads into the old home based system of spinning thread and weaving clothe.

Urbanization

Growth of cities accelerated dramatically between 1840 and 1860. the population of New York rose from 312000 to 805000 y 1860 26 percent of the population of the free states was living in towns or cities. up 14 percent from 1840

"Shanty Irish"

Irish workers who had no leverage and had terrible working conditions and pay. work was uncertain. lived in flimsy shanties.

Supreme Order of the Star Spangled Banner

Many nativist groups combined in 1850 to form the Supreme order of the star-Spangled banner. Endorsed a list of demands that included banning Catholics or the foreign-born from holding public office, more restrictive naturalization laws and literacy tests for voting. strict code of secrecy which included the secret password used in lodges across

Nativism

Native born Americans saw new immigration as source of great opportunity. Industrialists and other employers welcomed the arrival of a large supply of cheap labor. viewed growing population of foreigners with alarm. fears led to the rise of nativism, defense of native born. defense of native born people and hostility to the foreign born usually combined with a desire to stop or slow immigration.

Northeastern Agriculture vs. The Old Northwest (modern Midwest)

Northeastern: moving west farmers of section couldn't compete with new richer soil of the North West

Irish and German immigrantion

Overwhelming majority of immigrants came from Ireland and Germany. in 1850 the Irish constituted approximately 45% and the Germans over 20%by 1860 more than 1.5 million Irish born and about 1 million German born. Germany economic dislocations of industrial revolution caused widespread poverty. Ireland oppressiveness and unpopularity of English rule drove people out. also potato famine.

P.T. Barnum

P.T. Barnum opened the American museum in New York in 1842 as a great freak show populated by midgets. tried to draw visitors t museum by engaging lecturers.

Railroad developments

Played no more than a secondary role in the nation's transportation system in the 1820s and 30s. railroad pioneers laid the groundwork in those years for the great surge of railroad building in the mid century. Railroads became the primary transportation system for the United States. invention of tracks, creation of steam powered locomotives, development of railroad cars that could serve as public carriers of passengers and freight.

The Know-Nothing (American Party)

after the election of 1852 created a new political organization that they called the American party. East organization scored immediate and astonishing success in the 1854 elections. the know-nothings cast a large vote in Pennsylvania and New York and won control of the state government in Massachusetts

"Safety Valve" of discontent

availability of western lands a a safety valve for discontent. allowed some workers to save money buy land and move west.

Oberlin College

became the first college in America to accept female students it permitted 4 to enroll in 1837. despite criticisms it continued.

Native American Association

began agitating against immigration in 1837 first society created to combat what nativists had come to call the "alien menace" most originated in northeast.

Casting Iron Stove

began to replace fireplaces as the principal vehicle for cooking and also as an imporant source of heat. wood or coal burning devices were clumsy and dirty. allowed for cooking several things at once.

Central Park

construction of central park began in 1850s was part of the result of pressure form the members of high society who wanted an elegant setting for their daily carriage rides.

Growth of Corporations

corporations started to overtake the individual merchant. began to develop particularly rapid in the 1830s when some legal obstacles to their formation were removed. previously a corporation could obtain a charter only by a special act of the state legislature a cumbersome process that stifled corporate growth. 1830s states were beginning to pass general incorporation laws under which a group could secure a charter merely by paying a fee.

Interchangeable Parts

creation of better machine tools was that principle of interchangeable parts which Eli Whitney and Simeon North had tried to introduce into gun factories they had designed decades earlier.

Falling birth rates

decline in birth rates. in 1800 average american woman could expect to give birth to approximately seven children by 1860 fell to 5 many Americans had access to birth control deices. rise in abortions, increased abstinence.

Merchant Capitalists

entrepreneurs who were engaged primarily in foreign and domestic trade and who at times invested some of their profits into small scale manufacturing ventures. declining by the middle of the century

Immigration from 1820-1840

immigration was choked off by wars in Europe and economic crises in America during the 19th century however around the 1830s immigration began to rapidly increased. Reduced transportation costs and increasing economic opportunities helped stimulate the immigration boom. also deteriorating economic conditions in some areas of Europe.

Advances in Technology

important advances in technology particularly in textile manufacturing. most important was the manufacturing of machine tools. tools used to make machine parts.

Trade Unions

larger cities each craft formed societies for mutual aid. unions started to be set up and workers joined. Early on fared poorly. struggled against the handicap of hostile laws and hostile courts

Sarah Bagley

led the Lowell women and created the Female Labor Reform Association

Social Mobility

most laborers standard of living was improving. mobility within working class, working one's way up the economic ladder, some workers managed to move from poverty to riches by dint of work, ingenuity and luck.

"Express Contracts"

new Hampshire and Pennsylvania passed 10 hour work day laws limiting workday unless workers agreed to an express contract calling for more time on the job. Employers could force employers to sign contract as condition of hiring.

Industrial Capitalists

new ruling class, the aristocrats of the Northeast with far-reaching economic and political influence.

Divided Working Class

newcomers were usually willing to work for lower wages that native workers. manufacturers had little difficulty replacing workers on strike. internal bickering rather than shared grievances about employers.

Recruitment of a Labor Supply

not easy task to recruit a labor supply in early years of factory system. most people were skilled artisans who didn't want to work unskilled labor jobs. whole families from farms moved to the mills. enlisted young women to work for them.

"Paupers"

people who were not merely poor, but were almost entirely without resources often homeless and dependent on charities for their survival

McCormick Reaper

reaper enabled crew of 6 or 7 men to harvest in a day as much wheat as 15 men could using older methods. established a factory at Chicago in 1847 to manufacture these devices

The Lowell System

relied heavily on young unmarried women. In England and other areas of industrial Europe conditions were often horrifyingly bad. Lowell mills were considered a female paradise from English who visited.

Importance of Religion in Rural communities

religion drew farm communities together. town or village churches were popular meeting places. social events and services.

Changing economic role of the family

shift of income earning work out of the home and into the shop mill or factory. farm owners in need of labor began to rely less on families and more on hired male workers. farm women in the northeast tended to have less of an economic impact.

Samuel Morse

spent years of experimenting and eventually succeeded in transmitting communications. Morse code named after him.

Commonwealth v. Hunt

supreme court of the state of Massachusetts declared that unions were lawful organizations and that the strike was a lawful weapon.

Telegraph

telegraph burst into american life when in 1844 Samuel F. B. Morse after several years of experimentation succeeded in transmitting from Baltimore to Washington the news of James K. Polk's nomination for presidency. low cost of constructing wire systems made the Morse telegraph system seem the ideal. 1860 more than 50,000 miles of wire connected most parts of the country.

"Trunk Lines"

trend toward consolidation of short lines into longer lines (know as trunk lines). by 1853 four major railroad trunk lines had crossed the Appalachians barrier to connect the northeast with the northwest. tow the new York central and the New York and Erie;

Female Labor Reform Assoication

tried to agitate for 10 hour work days and improvements in conditions inn the mills. Not only made demands to the management asked state governments and legislative investigations of conditions in the factories.

Gody's Lady's Book

women's magazines edited after 1837 by Sarah hale who had earlier founded magazine of her own. Scrupulously avoided dealing with public controversies of political issues and focused on fashions, shopping, and homemaking advice.

"Cult of Domesticity"

women's responsibility to provide religious and moral instruction to their children and counterbalance the acquisitive secular impulses of their husbands. called cult of domesticity brought both benefits and costs to middle class women. allowed for living of lives of material comfort and placed a higher value on their female virtues and their roles as wife and mother. left women increasingly detached form the public world.