The American Industrial Revolution

1793-1850

The Birth of the Factory in America:

• Samuel Slater brought British machinery secrets to U.S.A.

• Opened the 1st factory in Pawtuckett, RI.-focused on production of

cotton thread-Lowell, MA 1st mill to manufacture all aspects of the textile.

-”Mill Girls”= women factory workers

Infrastructure and government:

• Turnpikes= toll roads; money used to improve the roads being travelled on.

• National Road-Western Maryland to the Ohio River. (in present day West Virginia)

Water travel:

• Steamboat is invented by Robert Fulton• Drastically sped up water travel:

before steamboat: New Orleans to Louisville took 4

months.

after steamboat: same trip in 20 days.

Water travel continued…

• Cross Atlantic travel:before steamboat: 25-50 daysafter steamboat: 10-14 days

Canals:

• Began in the Northeast• Erie Canal System, 363 mi. across NY state.

before canals: cost to ship 1 ton of freight=100$

after canals: 4$

“King Cotton”

• Replaced tobacco as the dominant southern crop.

• Eli Whitney, cotton gin, 1793.• Cotton production in 1793: 5 million lbs.

1820: 170 million lbs.

*Southern Plantations created 60% of all cotton used in U.S. and European manufacturing.*

Innovations:

• Interchangeable partsEli Whitney developed the idea and

process of manufacturing goods more uniformly.

-created easy fixes to problematic or old tools.

-shifted jobs from skilled artisans to specialized “assembly line” like work.

Innovations continued…

• Telegraph-Samuel Morse, 1833-provided nearly instant communication.-hugely important for transportation and news.

A Revival of Slavery:

• Slave trade abolished in 1808.• 1.5 million slaves by 1820.• Cotton production neccesitated an increase in

slave labor.• Slavery advocates argued that slave conditions

were better than mill/factory conditions in England.

Economic Developments of the early 1800’s:

Increased Reliance on Domestic Economy:

Decreased Reliance on International Commerce:

National Road Embargo Act, 1807

Erie Canal End of Slave Trade, 1808

Growth of factories/mills

New inventions/innovations

The Increasing importance of cotton?