The New York Irish Emigrant Society tried to get Congress to set aside land in Illinois for Irish immigrants.

Large scale commercial agriculture emerged in the Midwest as big farms raised corn, wheat, pigs, and cattle to be sold in distant markets and across the Atlantic. Cotton became so profitable in the South that wealthy farmers and planters moved into the new states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas.

Most of the clothing for people around the world was provided by cotton from the American South. Many of the enslaved workers who were sold by slave traders and relocated to the Old Southwest were from Virginia and the Carolinas.

The Northeast experienced a surge of industrial development.

The region's economic and social life was shaped by labor- saving machines and water- and steam- powered industries. The way people labored, dressed, ate, and lived was changed by factories. The rise of the factory system led to more economic activity outside of the home and on the farm. An urban middle class began to emerge as Americans, including young women, moved to towns and cities, lured by jobs in new factories, stores, and banks.

The United States had the world's fastest- growing economy by 1850.

Politics, the legal system, family dynamics, and social values were all changed by the industrial economy. The developments helped expand prosperity and freedom for whites and blacks.

They sparked debates over economic policies, transportation improvements, and the extension of slavery into the new territories. The nation was divided into three regions-- North, South, and West-- whose alliances and disputes would shape political life until the Civil War.

The transformation of the American economy into a global power house was begun before the war for independence.

Their lives began with the rooster crowing at dawn and continued with the chickens sleeping at night,punctuated by the changing seasons and unpredictable weather.

According to the president of the New York Agricultural Society, "production for consumption" was the main purpose of the farm economy until the 19th century. No farmer could find it profitable to do everything for himself. Farm families were able to buy more land, better equipment, and the latest manufactured household goods with the cash they earned.

Americans enjoyed unprecedented opportunities for economic gain and geographic mobility as the standard of living rose.

To improve the flow of goods, deeper harbors, lighthouses, and a national network of canals, bridges, roads, and railroads were needed. The United States desperately needed a national transpor tation system. He told the House of Representatives to conquer space.

The federal government's role in funding transportation improvements was not mentioned in the Constitution.

The Constitution gave the federal government broad power to promote the general welfare, according to others. Throughout the 19th century, the debate over internal improvements would continue.

Travel was slow, tedious, and expensive before the 19th century. It took a horse- drawn coach four days to get from New York City to Boston. Many farm products were only sold in local stores before they spoiled.

The over- the- mountains route from North Carolina into Kentucky and Tennessee was opened to wagon and stagecoach traffic.

When Ohio became a state, Congress ordered that 5 percent of the money from land sales in the state should be used to build a National Road. Construction began in the late 18th century. The Cumberland Road was the first interstate to be financed by the federal government. The road was open from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, Virginia, where it crossed the Ohio River. The National Road was extended 600 miles to Vandalia, Illinois.

The emergence of a market economy was spurred by the National Road, which opened up new markets and reduced transportation costs. Farmers are selling produce and livestock in distant markets.

The Philadelphia- Lancaster Turnpike opened in 1794 and spurred a movement for paved roads to the northeast. By 1821, 4,000 miles of turn pikes had been built, and stagecoach and freight companies emerged to move more people and cargo at lower rates.

The turnpike boom was giving way to advances in water transportation by the early 1820s. Steamboats, flatboats, and canal barges carried people and goods much more cheaply than did horse- drawn wagons. There were hundreds of flatboats floating goods, farm produce, livestock, and people from Tennessee, Kentucky, Indi ana, Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and other states down the Ohio and Mis sissippi Rivers. Flatboats went downstream.

They were sold and dismantled to provide lumber for construction.

Much of the nation's cotton, timber, wheat, corn, cattle, and hogs were produced by the commercial agricultural empire created by steamboats. There were 750 steamboats on American rivers by 1836. The price of shipping goods plummeted as steamboat use increased.

The city of New Orleans developed even faster.

Since it was acquired from France, its population has grown tenfold. By 1840, it was perhaps the wealthiest American city, having developed a thriving trade with the Caribbean islands and the new Latin American repub lics that had overthrown Spanish rule. A lot of steamboats visit New Orleans. New York City was bled by the amount of trade shipped through the river city dou because of the explosion in cotton production.

steamboats were a risky form of transportation. Accidents, explosions, and fires were common. People are on board with pigs and cattle. Passengers on steam boats shared the same bathroom facilities until the 1850s.

In the first half of the 19th century, steamboats were the fastest and most convenient form of transportation.

The market revolution was sped up by canals.

It wasn't just a boast. It took eight years to build the Erie Canal, but it drew much of the midwestern trade that had been forced to go to Canada or New Orleans. Thanks to the Erie Canal, the backwoods vil age of Chicago developed into a bustling city because of its commercial connection via the Great Lakes to New York City and eventually to Europe.

The Erie Canal was a triumph of engineering audacity.

New York from Albany in the east to Buffalo and Lake Erie in the west will rise over 700 feet in elevation. The canal was built by thousands of labor ers, mostly German and Irish immigrants who were paid less than a dol ar a day to drain swamps, clear forests, build stone bridges and aqueducts. The "river of gold" brought lumber, grain, flour, and other goods to New York City and unlocked the western settlement. The cost of moving a ton of freight was reduced from $100 to $5 by the canal. It paid off its construction costs in seven years.

The Erie Canal had enormous economic and political conse quences, as it tied together the regional economies of the Midwest and the East while further isolating the Deep South. One of the most productive grain-growing regions in the world was the Genesee Valley in western New York. Syracuse, Albany, and Buffalo all experienced dramatic growth.

More than 25,000 workers and 4,000 boats were involved in the moving of goods and people along the canal.

The "packet" boats carrying passengers traveled between two and four miles an hour and were painted in bright colors. The time was lost waiting at one of the eighty-eight locks, where boats would enter one at a time to be raised or lowered to match the changing water level of the canal. The boat captains would often take their families with them. Most boatmen were rough.

The Erie Canal and the New York canal system inspired other states to build thousands of miles of waterways. Canals made it cheaper and faster to transport goods and people. Real estate prices for the lands surrounding them were boosted and sleepy vil ages were transformed into booming cities.

The canal era was brief. The railroad emerged in the second quarter of the 19th century as a more efficient and versatile form of transportation. It became a more desirable form of transportation because of its speed.

The world's first steam- powered railway began operating in England in the year 1824. The United States was invaded by a railroad- building. The nation only had three miles of railroad track in 1830. The railroad erage grew to 30,626 miles over the next twenty years.

The railroad was able to move people and freight faster, farther, and cheaper than other forms of transportation. Rail travel over canals that froze in winter and dirt roads that became rivers of mud during rainstorms was made easier by the fact that locomotives were able to operate year-round.

Encouraging western settlement and the expansion of commercial agriculture were some of the benefits provided by railroads. The emergence of three new villages along the rail line was reported by a westerner. Every town has a public place where people from all walks of life congregate.

Railroads stimulated the national economy by creating a huge demand for iron, wooden crossties, bridges, locomotives, freight cars, and other equipment. Railroads became the nation's largest employers.

Railroads enabled towns and cities not served by canals to compete in the market economy. Railroads made possible larger industrial and commercial enterprises from coast to coast by transforming what had been a cluster of mostly local markets into an interconnected national marketplace for goods and services. Railroads were the first "big" businesses, huge corporations employing thousands of people while exercising extraordinary influence over the life of the regions they served.

Railroad mania had negative effects. Political corruption was often caused by its quick and shady profits. Railroads often bribe leg islators. The decline of Native American culture was accelerated by the railroads. The noise of everyday life was increased by dramati cal y.

The older merchant ships were slower.

Long and lean, with taller masts and larger sails than conventional ships, they cut a colorful figure during their brief but colorful career, which lasted less than two decades. The clipper boom was caused by the American thirst for Chinese tea.

The fast clipper ships made it possible for Asian tea leaves to reach markets quickly.

The clippers met the urgent demand for goods on the West Coast. clippers did not have enough space for cargo or passengers. The steamship replaced the clippers after the Civil War.

Improvements in communications were sparked by innovations in transportation. Traveling was difficult at the beginning of the 19th century. It can take days or weeks for news to travel along the Atlantic Seaboard. Word of George Washington's death did not appear in New York City newspapers until a week later.

The Mr. Smith & Co. Ship Yard is in Manhattan, where shipbuilders are busy shaping timbers to construct a clipper ship.

Mail deliveries improved. The number of post offices increased from 1790 to 1860. The cost of newspapers was reduced from 6C/ to a penny each because of the new steam- powered printing presses.

The postal service was slow in the new western states. Wel's Fargo & Company was formed by Henry Wel and William G. Fargo to address the problem.

Within a few years, Wel's Fargo stagecoaches were full of passengers, mail, and "strongboxes" filled with gold from coast to coast. The regular twice- a- week mail service between St. Louis and San Francisco was established in 1856 by Wel s Fargo and other express companies. Mail service was once a month by steamship.

People wanted faster delivery. The Pony Express was founded in 1860 to deliver mail between Missouri and California. Riders were able to change horses every ten to fifteen miles thanks to the established 150 relay stations. Lincoln's inaugural address arrived in California in eight days.

The first telegraph message from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore, Maryland was sent in May 1844.

Most major cities benefited from telegraph lines by the end of the decade.

Railroad operators were helped by the telegraph system to schedule trains more precisely and thus avoid accidents, as a result of allowing people to communicate faster and more easily across long distances.

Steamboats, canals, and railroads connected the western areas of the country with the East, boosted trade, helped open the Far West for settlement, and spurred dramatic growth in the cit ies. Between 1800 and 1860, a nation of scattered farms, modest local markets, and primi tive roads became an engine of capitalist expansion, urban energy, and global reach.

Both state govern ments and private investors funded the transportation improvements.

After the success of the Erie Canal, the national government gave land grants to western states to support canal and railroad projects. In 1850, Stephen A. Douglas, a powerful Democratic senator from Illinois, convinced Congress to provide a major land grant to support a north- south rail line connecting Chicago and Mobile, Alabama. The congressional land grant set in motion a chain of events that led to 20 million acres being covered by other bounties by 1860. When compared to the land grants that Congress would award transcontinental railroads during the 1860s and after, this would be a small amount. Federal cavalry troops were sent to help the Indians along the route of the railroads.

The number of potential customers for given products was greatly increased by the concentration of huge numbers of people in cities.

"It is an extraordinary era in which we live," reported DanielWebster in 1847. Improvements in industrial efficiency and the introduction of new machines led to an increase in productivity.

By 1860, one farmer, miner, or mill worker could produce twice as much wheat, twice as much iron, and four times as much cotton cloth.

Improvements in productivity were made possible by the practical inventiveness of Americans. Between 1790 and 1812, the Patent Office approved an average of 77 patents a year, but by the 1850s, they approved more than 28,000 new inventions a year.

Dramatic changes were generated by many inventions. Charles Goodyear patented a process for "vulcanizing" rubber in the 19th century, making it stronger, more elastic, waterproof, and winter- proof. It was soon being used for everything from shoes and boots to seals and hoses.

Howe patented his sewing machine design. It was improved upon by the founding of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, which initially produced only industrial sewing machines for use in textile manufacturing but eventually offered machines for home use. The use of sewing machines made it easier for women to make clothes at home, freeing up more leisure time for them.

The living conditions were improved by technological advances. The first sewer systems helped rid the streets of waste. More goods could be produced faster and with less labor, and machines helped industries make parts that could be assembled by unskilled workers. Machine- made clothes fit better and were less expensive than those sewn by hand; machine- made newspapers and magazines were more plentiful and affordable; and clocks, watches, guns, and plows were more abundant and affordable.

Eli Whitney, a New Englander, visited a plantation on the Georgia coast in the 19th century where he heard about the difficulty of gining cotton. Cotton cloth was rare and expensive until the 19th century because it took so long to separate the lint from the seeds.

A person working all day could only separate a pound by hand.

Whitney was told that the person who could invent a machine to make gin cotton would become wealthy overnight. Within a few days, he had come up with a way to remove the seeds from cotton using a roller and nails. It made America's most profitable crop almost overnight. It transformed southern agriculture, northern industry, race- based slavery, national politics, and international trade.

The New England mill owners were drawn by Eli Whitney.

The cost of pro from the fiber was due to the widespread use of side and top of the machine.

The mid- nineteenth century saw people wearing cotton clothing that was easier to clean.

America's largest export product was cotton. British textile mills were processing a billion pounds a year by 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266

The Piedmont region of the Carolinas and Georgia has cotton growing. After the War of 1812, it migrated to the west-- Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas. Cotton grown throughout the region and shipped down the Mississippi River made New Orleans a bustling port and an active slave market. Cotton made up more than half of American exports from the mid- 1830s to 1860. Textile mills in New England, Great Britain, and France spun cotton into thread and fabric after it was Harvested in the South. The growth of global cotton capitalism was financed by bankers in New York City and London.

Cotton growers believed that only slaves could make their farms and plantations profitable. The price of slaves went up. When farmland in Maryland and Virginia lost its fertility after years of relentless tobacco planting, many whites shifted to growing corn and wheat, since the climate was too cold for cotton, and they sold their surplus slaves to work in the new cotton-growing areas in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louis In 1790, planters in Virginia and Maryland owned 56 percent of the slaves in the United States, but by 1860 they owned only 15 percent.

Cotton made boom times. Slaves became so valuable that it became a problem to steal them in the south.

More than half of the nation's pop ulation resided west of the mountains. Farmers from the rocky hil sides of New England and the exhausted soils of Virginia came to the Midwest to work the flat, fertile farmlands.

By 1860, an estimated 30 to 40 percent of Americans born in New England had moved west, first to upstate New York and then to Ohio and the Midwest.

The process of clearing underbrush and felling trees, burning the debris, grubbing out the roots by hand, and using horses and oxen to remove rocks and boul ders followed the old pattern.

The first crop was corn. Women and children planted seeds in small mounds.

Pumpkin, squash, and bean seeds would be planted around the sprouted corn. The strong corn stalks provided a pole for the bean vines to climb, the squash and pumpkins plants grew and spread over the ground, and the weeds around the corn stalks were smoth ering. Corn stalks were stored to provide winter feed for the cattle and hogs, as well as being boiled to make porridge or ground up to make flour and cornmeal, which was baked into a bread called johnnycake.

Increased agricultural productivity was a result of technological advances.

The backbreaking job of tilling the soil was made easier by the development of iron plows. When needed, the iron plow parts were easy to replace.

John Deere's steel plow could cut through the tough prairie grass in the Midwest and Great Plains.

Massachusetts alone had seventy- three plants making more than 60,000 plows a year by 1845. The emergence of a national marketplace for goods and services made possible by the transportation revolution was one of the reasons why most were sold to farmers in the western states and territories.

The growth of commercial agriculture was aided by technological improvements. The process of sowing seed by hand was replaced by mechanical seeders. The development of a mechanical reaper that was pulled by horses to harvest wheat is significant to the agricultural economy of the Midwest, Old Northwest, and Great Plains.

The scale of commercial agriculture was changed by the reapers.

Two people could cut twelve acres of wheat a day with a McCormick reaper, while a farmer could harvest half an acre with a handheld sickle.

The catalog of the Great Exhibition was held at the Crystal Palace in London. The transformation of the tough grass on the plains and prairies into fertile farmland was aided by the steel plow and reaping machine.

Other advances altered the economic landscape even more profoundly than technological break throughs. The revolutionaries of the nineteenth century were the industrialists who financed and built the first factories.

Coal- fired steam engines powered the initial s and factories. The shift from water to coal as a source of energy started a worldwide industrial era that will end Britain's domination of the global economy.

The invention of the steam engine in 1705 and the improvement of it by James Watt in 1765 were the foundations of Britain's advantage. Britain did not allow the export of machines or the publication of descriptions of them, as well as the emigration of skilled mechanics.

The secrets could not be kept forever. Samuel Slater arrived in America from England in 1789 with a detailed plan for his spinning machine. Nine children turned out a satisfactory cotton yarn, which was then worked up by the putting- out system, after he contracted with a merchant- manufacturer in Rhode Island to build a mill.

In 1800, America's mil s and factories produced only one sixth of Great Britain's production, and the growth rate remained slow until Thomas Jefferson's embargo in 1807 stimulated the domestic production of cloth. Hundreds of textile mills in New England, New York, and Penn sylvania produced thread, cloth, and clothing by the year 1816. By 1860, the output of America's factories would be a third of that of British industry.

After the War of 1812, British textile companies flooded the United States with cheap cotton cloth in order to regain customers who had been shut off by the war. The American textile industry was almost killed off by such postwar dumping. The owners of New England mills traveled to Washington, D.C., in order to get a federal tax on imported British cloth. Their efforts created a culture of lobbying for congressional protection against imported products.

The mill owners didn't admit that import tariffs hurt consumers by making them pay higher prices.

The embargo of 1807 resulted in the establishment of a textile mill. More than 600 people would eventually be employed by the Union Manufactories.

Competition is the engine of innovation and efficiency in a capitalist economy, even though tariffs help protect American industries from foreign competition.

New England shipping companies opposed higher tariffs because they would reduce the amount of goods carried in their vessels across the Atlantic from Britain and Europe. Many planters in the south opposed tariffs because of fears that Britain and France would retaliate by imposing tariffs on American cotton and tobacco shipped to their ports.

Congress passed a bill in 1816 that placed a tax on every yard of imported cloth. The tariffs were a factor industrialization. American manufacturers were able to dominate the national marketplace because of the tariffs.

The first textile mill in the world was built in Massachusetts in 1813 by a group known as the Boston Associates, which brought together the processes of spinning yarn and weaving cloth under one roof.

A cotton mill was built along the Merrimack River north of Boston in 1822. It became the model for textile mill towns throughout New England.

The brick- built mil s were located along the rivers.

Young women from farm families were hired by the mill owners. Women were pre-ferred by the owners because of their skill in operating textile machines.

Massachusetts mill workers were photographed holding shuttles used in operating spinning machines and spinning thread and yarn.

The first proof wage was lower than the men's wage. The highest wages for women in the world were offered by these jobs.

New England had a surplus of women because so many men migrated west. A steady stream of single women began flocking to Lowel in the early 1820s. Mill owners promised to provide the "Lowell girls" with work, prepared meals, comfortable boardinghouses, and educational and cultural opportunities.

The "Lowell idea" worked initially. The girls lived in dormitories staffed by house mothers who enforced curfews and church attendance.

They were paid more than other people.

First proof 31p0 x 20p6 groups publish a literary magazine. There were two mil s and two factories in Lowel by 1840. Charles Dickens was impressed by the model of industrial development.

The once rural vil age became a grimy trial city. Mill owners produced too much cloth, which depressed prices. They cut wages and sped up the pace of work to maintain their profits. A worker said, "We go in at five o'clock in the morning; at seven we come out to breakfast; at half- past seven we return to our work, and stay until twelve."

About a sixth of the native- born women mill workers went on strike in 1834 to protest their working and living conditions. The striking women were labeled "ungrateful" and "unfeminine" by the mill owners.

Two years later, the workers walked out again in protest of the owners raising rents in the company- owned boarding houses.

They rarely complained about their jobs. 40 percent of the mill workers were Irish by 1850.

In the Carolinas and Georgia, there were a few mil s, but they struggled because whites resisted factory work and planters refused to allow slaves to leave the fields. The planters were rich because of agricultural slavery.

The expansion of cities and mill vil ages was driven by the rapid growth of commerce and industry. In 1820, Lowel's population was 200.

Smoke, noise, and stench filled the air as other factory centers sprouted up across New England.

In addition, the profusion of dams-- built to harness water to turn the mill wheels-- flooded pastures, decimated fish populations, and spawned rapid urban growth.

Farmers near the Massachusetts textile factories tried to destroy a massive dam in New Hampshire in the 19th century, but their axes and crowbars caused little damage. The process of industrialization could not be stopped. The textile mill system was transforming lives and property.

The number of Americans engaged in manufacturing increased by 800 percent between 1820 and 1840. The United States was quickly becoming a global industrial power.

The proportion of urban to rural people grew from 3 percent to 16 percent between 1790 and 1860. The Atlantic seaports of New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston were the largest cities because of their strategic locations. New York's economy and industry grew quickly in the early 19th century.

New York grew faster than its competitors. New York was the first city to surpass 1 million in population because of its superior harbor and access to commerce along the Erie Canal and the Atlantic Ocean.

Americans had little time to amuse themselves during the colonial era. Adults worked from dawn to dusk six days a week. In rural areas, free time was often spent in communal activities, such as barn raisings, shoot ing matches, and footraces, while coastal residents sailed and fished. People in cities went to dances, went on sleigh rides, and played games such as billiards, cards, and chess.

By the early nineteenth century, an increasingly urban soci ety enjoyed more diverse forms of recreation. New forms of leisure and entertainment were sought by laborers and shopkeepers.

The first half of the 19th century saw a lot of social drinking. The secretary of war estimated that three quarters of the nation's laborers drank at least four ounces of hard liquor daily. The centers of recre ation and leisure were taverns and social clubs.

Blood sports were popular among the working poor. cockfighting and dogfighting attracted a lot of money, but prizefight ing became popular with all social classes. Irish or English immigrants who fought with bare knuckles were the early contestants. A match ended when the contestant couldn't continue. A fight in 1842 ended when the fighter died in his corner. Several cities banned boxing after the deaths, only to see it reappear as an under ground activity.

Theaters were the most popular form of indoor entertainment. Shakespeare's tragedies, "blood and thunder" melodramas, comedies, and minstrel shows were all popular with people from all walks of life.

Blood sports were a popular urban entertainment for men of all social classes.

The prevailing "cult of domes ticity" kept "respectable" women at home. The audience cheered the heroes and hissed at the vil ains. Spectators threw curses, nuts, eggs, fruit, shoes, and chairs if an actor did not meet expectations.

Blackface minstrel shows, featuring white performers made up as blacks, were the first uniquely American form of mass entertainment. "Minstrelsy," which was based on African American folklore, featured banjo and fiddle music, "shuffle" dances, and lowbrow humor. Between the 1830s and the 1870s, minstrel shows were popular among northern working class ethnic groups and southern whites.

Stephen Foster wrote the most popular songs. It became a national favorite. Foster responded with equally well- received tunes such as "Old Folks at Home", "Massa's in de Cold, Cold Ground" and "My Old Kentucky Home."

The sheet- music cover was printed in the 19th century. Minstrel shows were popular while reinforcing stereotypes.

The United States was still a nation of immigrants.

Travel to America was restricted at the start of the 19th century because of warfare in Europe. When Napoleon was defeated and forced into exile, new U.S. territories and states in the West gave immigrants from Europe special incentives such as voting rights after only six months of residency.

America offered jobs, higher wages, lower taxes, cheap and fertile land, no entrenched aristocracy, and voting rights.

The global economic slump accelerated the pace of immi gration. American employers aggressively recruited foreigners because they were willing to work for lower wages than native- born Americans.

The years from 1845 to 1854 had the greatest proportional influx of immigrants in U.S. history. Ireland and Germany were home to the largest number of immigrants between 1840 and 1860.

Ireland sent more of its people to America than any other nation.

Irish people fled their home land in the mid- nineteenth century due to a lengthy agricultural crisis. Irish farmers depended on the potato harvest to survive.

The Irish Potato Famine was caused by a fungus that destroyed the potato crop. Ireland's population was only 8 million and more than a million people died. 90 percent of the people who traveled to Canada and the United States were Catholics. They knew that America had plenty to eat and plenty of jobs paying twice as much as they did in Ireland.

The Irish made up more than half of Boston and New York City's population by the 1850s. Irish neighborhoods were plagued by crime, diseases, prostitution, and alcoholism, and most of them were crowded into filthy tenement apartment houses.

There were newspapers and magazines that were anti-Catholic and anti-Irish. Thousands of Irish immigrants are the most corrupt, debased, and ignorant race in America, according to a New England magazine. Irishmen were depicted as apes. The anti-Catholic/ anti-Irish crusade was led by Samuel F. B. Morse, an artist who invented the telegraph. He claimed that the Pope in Rome was sending Irish immigrants to America to take over the nation.

Progressives like Mann, who fought for public schools across the nation, embraced nativism.

The Irish took on the most dangerous jobs. Water, steam, horse- power, and Irish power are some of the things that work at the fabric of the Republic. Irish men who built the canals and railroads and Irish women who worked in the textile industry were the majority of the population. One Irishman who was hired to dig under houses groaned that he worked like a slave for the Americans.

Irishmen were often hired to do hazardous work in the South. A southern rice planter told a northern visitor that he hired groups of Irishmen to drain flooded areas. It's dangerous work and a negro's life is too valuable to be risked.

Irish immigrants were caricatured as filthy, bad, and heavy drinkers by nativists.

Irish Americans could be mean to other groups, such as free African Americans who competed with them for low- wage, unskilled jobs.

The Irish were viewed with contempt by many African Americans.

Irish immigrants used to work as dockworkers and deliverymen, jobs that had been held by African Americans.

Some Irish immigrants did great things in America. Alexander T. Stewart arrived in New York twenty years ago and became the owner of the nation's largest department store.

The Cudahy Packing Company was founded by Michael Cudahy at the age of fourteen and he developed a process for curing meats. Irish dancers and playwrights dominated the stage as Victor Herbert emerged as one of America's most revered composers.

By the start of the Civil War, Irish immigrants had become the most important ethnic group supporting the Dem ocratic party, and the Roman Catholic Church was the nation's largest denominations. Irish Americans and Protestants were attracted to the same passion for Catholicism.

The number of German and Irish immigrants was almost the same. The Germans included a large number of skilled craftsmen and well- educated professional people who were refugees from the failed German revolution of 1848.

The Germans had a variety of religious preferences. Most were Protestants, a third were Roman Catholics, and a significant number were Jews.

Many of their native traditions were maintained when German immigrants established their own communities.

Germans often settled in rural areas. Independent farmers, skilled workers, and shopkeepers were some of the people who were able to establish themselves. They migrated in families and groups. The clan nish quality helped sustain elements of their language and culture.

More of them went back to their native country. 14 percent went back to their homeland, compared to 9 percent of the Irish.

The first half of the 19th century saw large numbers of Immi grants from Great Britain and Canada. Professionals, independent farmers, and skilled workers were included. There were two large groups of immi grants.

The cold climate and dense forests of the Minnesota Territory reminded Norwegians and Swedes of home. The Emergence of a Market Economy where trains took them upriver to Buffalo, then west along the Erie Canal, and finally to the prairies of the upper Mississippi Valley. About 400 place names in Minnesota are of Nordic origin.

Thousands of Chinese immigrants were attracted to California by the rapid development of the state. The Chinese were hired to build the transcontinental railroads, while others excavated the irrigation canals that enabled an agricultural revolution in the California river valleys.

The Chinese made more in China than they did in America. During recessions, the hostility of whites forced them from many jobs. Laundrymen in China were not included from the mines and farms. The Chinese were ineligible for citizenship because of a 1790 federal law that limited the privilege to whites.

A growing number of people who were born in the United States wanted to restrict or stop immigration. Prot estants were angered by the flood of Irish and German Catholics.

The arrival of German and Irish Catholic immigrants in the 1840s made Catholicism a national movement. The Native American party was formed in New York in the 19th century. In 1845, the Massachusetts philosopher- poet was not a fan of the new movement. The dog is in the manger. He said that the strongest nations in history were formed by many different peoples and cultures.

As the number of immigrants increased, nativism grew stronger. The Order of the Star- Spangled Banner was founded as a secret society in New York City in 1849. The American party grew into a powerful political group in the early 1850s. The American party became a national organization.

Members will not vote for foreign- born or Catholic candidates.

The Catholic Church is said to be manipulating American religious and political life through Irish immigration.

When the number of immigrants was five times as large as it had been during the 1840s, the Know- Nothings appeared to be on the verge of major party status. In 1854, they swept the Massachusetts legislature, winning all but two seats in the lower house, and in the fall of 1854, they elected 43 congressmen across the nation.

The Know- Nothings focused on the political clout of newcomers. They wanted immigrants and Roman Catholics to be excluded from public office and the waiting period for citizenship to be extended. The party was not strong enough to pass such legislation.

The Know- Nothings generated a lot of opposition.

I am not sure. The emergence of a market economy was rapid.

The American party never grew powerful enough to implement its bigoted policies. The Know- Nothings gained strength in New England, New York, and Maryland, but the anti-Catholic movement subsided when the future of slavery became the focal issue of the 1850s.

While most Americans continued to work as farmers, a growing number found employment in textile mills, shoe factories, banks, railroads, retail stores, teaching, preaching, medicine, law, construction, and engi neering. The nature of work for both men and women was changed by technological innovations and their social applications.

40 percent of Americans worked for wages by 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 800-381-0266 Wage workers grew at the expense of skilled artisans and craftsmen who owned small shops where they made or repaired carriages, shoes, hats, saddles, silverware, jewelry, glass, ropes, furniture, boats, and a broad array of other products. Blacksmiths, printers, and barrel makers were some of the skilled craftsmen.

As the number of factories and mil s increased, the number of self- employed craftsmen declined. The low prices for similar products made in much larger numbers in factories and mass- production workshops made it hard for those who emphasized quality and craftsmanship in their custom- made products to compete.

The shift to mass manufacturing transformed the production of shoes. Local customers used to make boots and shoes by hand.

The shoemakers work in Massachusetts.

In the early 19th century, the number and size of shoe shops increased in New England, largely due to the demand for inexpensive shoes, which were shipped south for the rapidly growing slave population. The master shoemaker became a manager rather than an artisan as shoe shops were displaced by factories. Instead of creating a shoe from start to finish, workers were given specific tasks such as cutting the leather or stitching the "uppers" onto the soles.

The skilled workers were forced to make the transition to mass production and a strict division of labor resented the change. A Massachusetts worker said that the factory owners were self-centered and forced workers to follow their orders. The Board of Health in Lynn, Massachusetts, reported in 1850 that the life expectancy of a shoe worker was less than that of a farmer.

These workers formed interest groups for their trades.

The first type of labor unions were trade associations. They made sure politicians had tariffs to protect their industries from foreign imports, provided insurance benefits, and drafted regulations to improve working conditions. They wanted to control the number of people in their profession so as to maintain wage levels.

The early labor unions were cut off from the outside world. If an employer hired laborers who refused to join the union, the court said they could strike.

Until the 1820s, labor organizations took the form of local trade unions, each confined to one city and one craft or skil. Organizations on a larger scale began to take hold in the 19th century. National craft unions were established by shoemakers, printers, carpenters, and weavers.

Many tailoresses would join labor unions to fight for better working conditions in the textile industry.

Women formed unions.

Political organizations were formed by skilled workers.

Retail stores, printing shops, post offices, newspapers, schools, banks, law firms and medical practices were required in new towns. Henry Day gave a lecture at the Western Reserve School of Medicine in 1849.

In the first half of the 19th century, teaching was one of the fastest growing professions. The idea of free public education as the best way to transform children into disciplined, judicious citizens was promoted by Horace Mann of Massachusetts. The number of schools exploded when many states agreed. Mann helped create "normal schools" to train future teachers. Public schools usually hire men at a young age as teachers. The pay was so low that few stayed in the profession their entire career, but for many educated, young adults, teaching offered independence and social status, as well as an alternative to the rural isolation of farming. Private academies were started by church groups and civic leaders.

Men who became lawyers started out teaching.

In exchange for their labors, they would learn the practice of law.

Unlike attorneys, physicians had little formal academic training. Most were self taught or had assisted a physician for several years, while occasionally taking classes at the handful of medical schools. Many of the self- styled physicians were "quacks" or frauds.

The public lost confidence in the medical profession due to this.

Engineering became the nation's largest profession for men after the industrial expansion of the United States. It was necessary to build canals and railroads, develop machine tools and steam engines, and build roads, bridges, and factories.

The majority of women still work in the home or on a farm. The only other professions that were readily available to them were nursing and teaching. Middle class women did social service work.

A few women pursued careers that were dominated by men. Despite the disapproval of the faculty, Elizabeth was admitted to the medical college in western New York.

In 1849, Elizabeth had the last laugh when she finished first, but later the United States would be awarded a medical degree.

The market- based economy that emerged during the first half of the 19th century helped spread the idea that individuals should have equal opportunities to succeed. Equal outcomes did not assume equality of opportunity. Americans wanted to be able to earn the same amount of wealth.

The same ideals that made so many white immigrants come to the United States were also appealing to African Americans and women. The political arena would soon be filled with desires for equality of opportunity. Progress in those arenas was slow.

The theme of political life in the first half of the 19th century would be the democratization of opportunities for white men, regardless of income or background, to vote and hold office.

Rural communities were connected to a worldwide marketplace through improvements in transportation and communication.

In the North, mil s and factories were powered first by water and then by steam engines. Southern cotton was used to make clothing and bedding. The growth of domestic manufacturing was encouraged by reducing imports of British cloth. The number of Americans engaged in manufacturing increased between 1820 and 1840. Increased commerce helped spur the growth of cities. Urban areas held 16 percent of the country's population by 1860.

Millions of immi grants were given to America because of the promise of cheap land and good wages. Almost one in four of the population was foreign born by the year 1844.

An influx of Irish Catholic families was caused by the potato famine.

German migrants, many of them Catholics and Jews, migrated to New York and Boston during the same time period, as they represented a significant portion of the urban population in the United States. Most of the Swedes and Norwegians who arrived in large numbers moved to farming communities in the upper Midwest. Not all Americans welcomed immigrants.

Artisans formed trade associations to lobby for their interests.

The number of people grew quickly. By the mid- nineteenth century, women, African Americans, and immigrants began to demand equal social, economic, and political opportunities.

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Philadelphia butcher William White organized a parade to celebrate America's high- quality meats.

The new nationalism that emerged in America after the War of 1812 was captured in this watercolor by John Lewis Krimmel.

The British stopped interfering with American shipping after the War of 1812. The United States can now exploit new markets around the globe. Alex ander Hamilton's financial initiatives and the capitalistic energies of wealthy investors and entrepreneurs sparked America's dramatic eco nomic growth. Prosperity came from the willingness of ordinary men and women to take risks, uproot families, use unstable paper money, and tinker with new machines, tools, and inventions.

By 1828, the young republic was poised to become a commercial nation connected by networks of roads and canals as well as regional economic relationships.

Nationalists promoted the interests of the country as a whole, an outlook that required each region to recognize that no single section could get all it wanted without threatening the survival of the nation. Shipping, manufacturing, and commerce in the Northeast, slave-based agriculture in the South, and low land prices in the West were all priorities for many nationalists. The expansion of slavery proved to be the most difficult issue to resolve.