Chapter 9

Transformation of American Society 1815-1840

Quick Review of Dates

• French and Indian War?• 1756-1763• American Revolution?• 1776-1783• War of 1812?• 1812-1814

Change was happeningMost were farmers, rode horses,

didn’t live in cities

• Yet, life was changing: by 1840, many farmers moved west

• Westward migration happened after the war of 1812

• No longer subsistence farming: transportation now available meant distant markets available

• Alternatives to farming meant that families and social relationships were changing

Life in the West• Successive

economic and social changes

• Improvements in transportation

• 1825: Erie Canal completed

• Consequently the development of towns and cities

Innovations:

• 1790: Samuel Slater opened his first Rhode Island mill for the production of cotton yarn

• 1793: Eli Whitney: Cotton Gin• 1807: Robert Fulton introduced the

steamboat Clermont on the Hudson River• 1811: Construction of the National Road• 1817: Erie Canal started• 1834: First Strike at Lowell

Market Economy

• In 1790: most lived on East coast

• Now in 1840: 1/3rd lived between Appalachians and Mississippi River

• Fur traders worked along the Missouri River

• The west was advertised as “all east, tranquility, comfort” when it was really harsh

• Pioneers migrated as families, clustered near rivers, were sociable

Federal Government and West

• Northwest Ordinance of 1787 allowed for the creation of states

• Louisiana Purchase 1803 brought Mississippi River

• Transcontinental Treaty of 1819 took out Spanish control of area

Land Grants by Government

• War of 1812 soldiers repaid with land

• National Road authorized 1816

• Misery for the Native Americans

Removal of Indians

• 5 civilized tribes: Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, and Seminoles

• Monroe and Adams asked for their “voluntary” removal

• 1830’s Jackson passed Indian Removal act which took 100 million acres of Native American land

• Bitter war ensued with Seminoles, cost $20 million

• “Trail of Tears”

Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831)

• Andrew Jackson had forced them to leave

• But Cherokee nation took their case to the Supreme Court

• Cherokee Nation v. Georgia 1831

• Worcester v. Georgia: Indians are distinct political community with rights.

This was Federalism

tested

• John Marshall had sided with the Native Americans

• Jackson sneered: “John Marshall has made his

decision, now let him enforce it.”

The Faces of Industrialization

• Waltham and Lowell mills turned out finished products, where before it had been cottage manufacturing: carding and spinning into yarn by Slater

• 80% of workforce: were young unmarried women who were “wage slaves”

• Strict rules: housing, church, food restricted

Equality and Inequality

• Antebellum America: gap between rich and poor widened

• Small fraction of people in cities owned 59% of wealth

• “Rags-to-Riches” story: John Jacob Astor: built a fur-trading empire

The Poor• The Irish were “expiring from the want of

sustenance”, fleeing the Famine• They were Catholics, despised by Protestant majority

The Poor• Free Blacks in the North:

prejudice deeply engrained• Slavery had largely disappeared

by 1820 due to Missouri Compromise

• Yet, right to vote restricted in various ways:

1. Needed to own property2. Segregated facilities