U.S. History CH 9

The Transformation of Law

-The corporate form of business organization became central to the new market economy -Many Americans distrusted corporate characters as a form of government-granted special privilege. -The Supreme Court ruled on many aspects of corporations and employer/employee rights.

The Cult of Domesticity

-A new definition of femininity emerged based on values like love, friendship, and mutual obligation -Virtue came to be redefined as a personal moral quality associated more and more closely with women. -Women were to find freedom in fulfilling their duties within their sphere.

The West and Freedom

-American freedom had long been linked to the availability of land in the West. a) Manifest Destiny -In national myth and ideology the West would long remain "the last home of the freeborn American." a) The West was vital for economic independence, the social condition of freedom

Irish and German Newcomers

-American religious and political freedoms also attracted many Europeans fleeing from the failed revolutions of 1848. -The Irish were refugees from disaster, fleeing the Irish potato famine. a_ They filled many low-wage unskilled jobs in America. -German immigrants included a considerably larger number of skilled craftsmen as compared to Irish immigrants. -Whereas most Irish immigrants remained in the Northeast, many Germans established themselves in the West, including Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Milwaukee

The Industrial Worker

-Americans became more aware of clock time. -Working for an hourly or daily wage seemed to violate the independence Americans considered an essential element of freedom.

Individualism

-Americans came to understand that no one person or government had the right to interfere with the realm of the self. -Thoreau worried that the market revolution actually stifled individual judgment; genuine freedom lay within the individual. a) Walden

The Growth of Cities

-Cities formed part of the western frontier a) Cincinnati b)Chicago -The nature of work shifted from that of the skilled artisan to that of the factory worker.

The "Mill Girls"

-Early New England textile mills largely relied on female and child labor

The Growth of Immigration

-Economic expansion fueled a demand for labor, which was met, in part, by increased immigration from abroad. a) Ireland and Germany b) Settled in the northern states -Numerous factors inspired this massive flow of population across the Atlantic a)European economic conditions b) Introduction of the ocean-going steamship

Race and Opportunity

-Free blacks were excluded from the new economic opportunities -Barred from schools and other public facilities; free blacks laboriously constructed their own institutional life. a) African Methodist Baptist Church -Free blacks were confined to the lowest ranks of the labor movement - Free blacks were not allowed access to public land in the West

The Unfree Westward Movement

-Historians estimate that around 1 million slaves were shifted from the older slave states to the Deep South between 1800 and 1860 -Slave trading became a well-organized business. a)Slave coffles -Cotton became the nation's most important export

The Rise of the West

-Improvements in transportation and communication made possible the rise of the West as a powerful, self-conscious region of the new nation. -People traveled in groups and cooperated with each other to clear land, build houses and barns, and establish communities. -Squatters set up farms on unoccupied land. -Many Americans settled without regard to national boundaries. a) Florida

Roads and Steamboats

-Improvements in transportation lowered costs and linked farmers to markets. -Toll roads did little to help the economy -Improved water transportation most drastically increased the speed and lowered the expense of commerce

Liberty & Prosperity

-Official imagery linked the goddess of liberty ever more closely to emblems of material wealth -Opportunities for the self-made man abounded. a) John Jacob Astor -The market revolution produced a new middle class.

-Women and Work

-Only low-paying jobs were available to women. a) Domestic servants, factory workers, and seamstresses -Not working outside the home became a badge of respectability for women a) Freedom was freedom from labor -Although middle-class women did not work outside the home, they did as much work as wives and mothers

The Awakening's Impact

-Promoted the doctrine of human free will -Revivalist ministers seized the opportunities offered by the market revolution to spread their message

Railroads and the Telegraph

-Railroads opened the frontier to settlement and linked markets -The telegraph introduced a communication revolution

The Transcendentalists

-Ralph Waldo Emerson believed that freedom was an open-ended process of self-realization by which individuals could remake themselves and their own lives.

The Factory System

-Samuel Slater established America's first factory in 1790. a) It was based on an outwork system. -The first large-scale American factory was constructed in 1814 at Waltham, Mass a) Lowell -The American System of manufactures relied on the mass production of interchangeable parts that could be rapidly assembled into standardized, finished products. -The South lagged in factory production.

Early Labor Movement

-Some felt the market revolution reduced their freedom a) Economic seings widened the gap between classes -The first Workingman's Parties were established in the 1820s a) By the 1830s strikes had become commonplace

Commercial Farmers

-The Northwest became a region with an integrated economy of commercial farms and manufacturing cities. -Farmers grew crops and raised livestock for sale. -The East provided a source of credit and a market. -Between 1840 and 1860, America's output of wheat nearly tripled. a)John Deere's steel plow b) Cyrus McCormick's reaper

The Second Great Awakening

-The Second Great Awakening added a religious underpinning to the celebration of personal self-improvement, self-reliance, and self-determination -The Reverend Charles Grandison Finney became a national celebrity for his preaching in upstate NY. -The Second Great Awakening democratized American Christianity. a) Proliferation of ministers b) Evangelical denominations (e.g. Methodists and Baptists) grew tremendously

The Erie Canal

-The canal was completed in 1825 and made NYC a major trade port -The state-funded canal typified funding for internal improvement.

The Rise of Nativism

-The influx of Irish elevated the presence of the Catholic Church in America, which many native-born Americans viewed with great suspicion. -Those who feared the impact of immigration on American political and social life were called nativists. They blamed immigrants for: a) Urban crime b) Political corruption c) Alcohol abuses d) Undercutting wages

The Cotton Kingdom

-The market revolution and westward expansion heightened the nation's sectional divisions. -The rise of cotton production came with Eli Whitney's cotton gin. -The cotton gin revolutionized American slavery.

The "Liberty of Living"

-Wage workers evoked "liberty" when calling for improvements in the workplace -Some described wage labor as the very essence of slavery a) Economic security formed an essential part of American freedom

When did Ohio enter the Union?

1803