Transportation of the Economy and Society in Antebellum America (Very Important)

The transportation revolution
-Turnpikes (Lancaster and National Roads), (Erie) Canals (linked east and west), Steamboats, Rise of Railroads, Pony Express, Overland Trails (all moved people, ideas, and goods more easily)
Creation of a national market economy
-Manufacturing in the north (Samuel Slater’s Factory System), Mechanical inventions (Whitney’s interchangeable parts and COTTON GIN), Raise Capital of Investment (corporations), Labor in mills and factories (Lowell System), Rise of labor unions, King Cotton in the South (cotton gin)
-Rise in cities (Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Cincy, St. Louis, all on major rives) , Lower cost of goods, people move westward, country became smaller, specialization of jobs, single and young women sought jobs (Lowell System), increased need for slaves, difficulty in finding labor (later use old “Irish” immigrants), Agriculture in the Old Northwest (King Wheat & King Corn)
Beginnings of industrialization (South and North began to look different, Rise of Sectionalism)
-Factory System, better transportation system, rise in investment banking, people moved from farms to cities, rise of organized labor unions (Commonwealth v. Hunt)
Changes in social and class structures
-South more dependent of slaves, women increase role in economy and the home, women married for love and had fewer children, real wages improved, upward mobility came generationally, Native Americans moved west of the Mississippi after Indian Removal Act, Mountain Men of the West (traders and trappers), White Settlers on the Western Frontier (faced difficult life)
-Free American Americans (250,000 in the South and 250,000 in the North), faced prejudice and discrimination, Slaves (increased from forced immigrants and natural reproduction, worked on plantations, resisted through work slowdowns and Revolt: Stono Rebellion, Denmark Vesey), slaves sold “down the river” from Upper South (VA) to Deep South (Cotton Belt)
White Society in the South: Aristocracy (wealthy landowners owning many slaves), Farmers (some owned a few slaves, worked side by side with slaves), Poor white/Yeoman Farmers (lived in hills, didn’t own slaves, subsistent farmers, hoped to obtain slaves one day), Mountain people (disliked planters and slavery), Limited number of cities, Slaves at the bottom of the social hierarchy
Immigration and Nativist Reaction
-Old Immigrants: dramatic increase from better ocean transportation, famines and revolutions in Europe, growing reputation of the US
Irish: Moved to Northeastern cities, Drank alcohol, Catholic, worked in the lowest paying jobs (took jobs away from others), voted Democratic
Germans: faced less discrimination than the Irish, moved to mid-western farm lands, farmers and artisans
Nativism: Know-Nothing Party, strong reaction to foreigners who were Catholic, drank, and held different traditions, eventually assimilated making the US more diverse