Antebellum America: Economy Flashcards
In 1820, only 8,000 immigrants arrived from Europe, but by the mid-1850s, hundreds of thousands were arriving each year. Besides the potato famine in Ireland, what other factors contributed to this substantial increase?
In 1848, revolutions broke out throughout Europe. Germany was particularly troubled, and many Germans came to the United States for refuge. The United States had a growing reputation as a place where hard work would be rewarded.
In addition, ocean transport was improving, both in speed and comfort, and several shipping lines specialized in transporting immigrants across the Atlantic. [MN: So here again, revolutions and civil war drove the masses to America. This is why there are so many Germans here.]
Eli Whitney’s invention of the _____ _____ made it economical to use cotton to manufacture clothes.
cotton gin
Short for “engine,” the gin automatically separated cotton fibers from cotton seed, and greatly sped up the production of cotton. The gin made slavery more profitable, allowed cotton to replace wool as the dominant material in clothing, and revolutionized the Southern economy. Though created in 1793, it was not validated until 1807.
Describe Antebellum nativists.
Antebellum nativists were suspicious of the new German and Irish immigrants. Most of the German immigrants, and almost all of the Irish ones, were Catholic. Protestant nativists feared that both groups could undermine American culture and take American jobs.
Anti-immigrant fervor would reach its height in the 1850s, with the formation of the Know-Nothing Party.
In Antebellum America, which section of the country saw the largest influx of immigrants?
Most immigrants settled in the American North.
While Irish immigrants remained in many of the urban centers on the Eastern seaboard, Germans took up residence in the Old Northwest (the states that made up the Northwestern Territories), starting farms in locations such as Minnesota, Ohio, and Indiana.
Why did the South see little immigration?
Since the South had a small manufacturing base, most low-level jobs were agricultural, and centered on the plantation economy. These jobs were held by slaves, and there simply were not enough free labor jobs to support large-scale immigration to the region.
What was the role of unions in the rapidly growing urban manufacturing areas during the Antebellum Period?
To the extent that they existed, unions focused on efforts to limit the workday to 10 hours. Any pressure that unions were able to exert was limited by the depression that followed the Panic of 1837 and led to a surplus of labor, as well as the constant influx of immigrants, who provided an inexpensive pool of non-union labor.
Which group was on top of the Southern class structure?
Plantation Owners
To be considered in the upper echelon of the South’s plantation economy, one needed 1,000 acres of land and 100 slaves.
The earliest factories were labor intensive, and consequently suffered from severe manpower shortages. How did they make up for these shortfalls?
Several factories hired women, some of whom worked in the Lowell System, where workers lived and labored at the factory. Children as young as seven were employed throughout the Northeast.
Both groups were later supplanted by the influx of immigrants in the 1830s and 1840s, most of whom were German and Irish.
Of the 15 largest cities in the United States in 1860, how many were in the South?
Three of the 15 largest cities were in the South, but only New Orleans was in the deep South. The other two cities, St. Louis, Missouri and Louisville, Kentucky, heavily relied on their trade with the West and North. [MN: Interesting that St. Louis is considered South.]
Which religious groups supported slavery in the South?
*
- Methodists and Baptists supported slavery, citing Biblical support for the peculiar institution; as a result, their numbers grew
- Unitarians challenged slavery as an institution, and their membership dropped as a consequence
- Catholics and Episcopalians, present only in negligible numbers in the South, remained neutral over the issue
How much education did the typical slave receive?
None
It was actually against the law to teach slaves to read or write, although a few managed to learn clandestinely.
Who were the Mountain Men?
Mountain Men such as Kit Carson and Jim Bridger were primarily fur trappers and hunters. They were some of the earliest explorers of the American West, following in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark.
As Americans pushed ever westward, many of these same Mountain Men served to guide the wagon trains over the Rocky Mountains. A large number of these men married American Indian and Hispanic women.
During the Antebellum period, most Indians lived west of the Mississippi River. How did they survive?
Most Indians lived a nomadic existence, aided by the introduction of the horse. Indian villages were mobile, and the tribes in the Great Plains and Upper Midwest followed the massive buffalo herds that roamed the prairies.
Describe the lives of women on the Western frontier.
The life of a frontier woman was most often nasty, brutish, and short. Most farm houses were miles away from neighbors, and isolation was intense. A frontier woman not only had to help her husband in the field, but was responsible for keeping house, cooking, and tending to the sick. Many died in childbirth, or succumbed to disease.
Completed in 1825, the _____ _____ connected New York City and Buffalo by water.
Erie Canal
The Canal’s completion allowed goods to be shipped to New York via the Great Lakes from as far away as Wisconsin, and the Canal soon rivaled the Mississippi River as the nation’s aquatic highway.
