Antebellum America: Transformation of the Economy Flashcards
Economic plan promoted by Speaker of the House Henry Clay in the years following the War of 1812
Promoted vigorous growth of the American economy and the use of protected tariffs to encourage Americans to buy more domestic goods
American System
Leading American statesman from Kentucky who promoted the “American System”
Served as a congressman, senator, presidential candidate, and diplomat
Known as “the Great Pacificator” because of his ability to craft compromises in the Senate
Henry Clay
Protectionist tariff designed to assist new American industries in the aftermath of the War of 1812
Raised import duties by nearly 25%
Tariff of 1816
First textile production system in England, where merchants gave wool to families, who in their homes created yarn and then cloth
Merchants would then buy the cloth from the families and sell the finished product
Textile mills later proved more efficient
Putting-Out System
Economic panic hit the U.S. in 1819
Caused by the recovery of European economies after the Napoleonic wars, by the money policies of the National Bank, and by speculation on the part of officials of branch banks of the National Bank
Led to distrust of the National Bank
Panic of 1819
American economy suffered deep depression when Great Britain reduced the amount of credit it offered the United States
American merchants and industrialists had to use their available cash to pay off debts, causing businesses to cut production and lay off workers
Panic of 1837
Invented the cotton gin
Eli Whitney
National Road
Cumberland Road
Took eight years and $7 million to construct
Included 83 locks that raised ships a total of 600 feet
Lowered cost of shipping goods between Boston and New York from $100 per ton to $8 per ton
Erie Canal
Made it possible for worker to clean fifty pounds of cotton per day
Led to the explosion of cotton production
Invented in 1793, revolutionized Southern agriculture by making it easier to remove seeds
Cotton Gin
Groups of slaves numbering 30-40 who made the seven week overland trip to the Deep South
Expected to march 20 to 25 miles per day
Slave Coffles
New type of plow that prevented soil from getting stuck on the plow in the thick, clay soil in the American West
By 1857, the company produced some 10,000 plows a year
Deere Plow
Supreme Court case that expand the authority of the government and limited the ability of corporations to use charters to prevent competition
Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge
Tent city in which thousands of people would gather to hear ministers preach
Protestant ministers walked through the meeting and many people had religious experiences
Camp Meetings
Women who had to struggle to provide for their families.
Working Class Women
Trading of labor and goods enabled by developments in manufacuting and transporation and specialization
Market Economy
Innovation originally developed in the manufacture of rifles for the U.S. Army
Allowed more efficient manufacturing and repair of machines
Invented by Eli Whitney
Interchangeable Parts
Invention that allowed textile manufacturers to product both thread and finished fabric in a single factory
Power Loom
Guaranteed employees housing in respectable boarding houses, cash wages, participation in social events
Lasted until great waves of Irish immigration in the 1840s and 1850s made factory labor pentiful
Lowell System
(Waltham System)
3/4 of worlds production of this crop came from southern U.S. and it was the most important U.S. export
Cotton Industry
Small self-sufficient southern farmer
Typically did not own slaves
Represented about 3/4 of the white families
Yeoman Farmer
Represented small portion of overall southern population
< 40,000 families owned > 20 slaves,qualifying as a planter
< 2,000 families owed > 100 slaves or more
Slave ownership led to wealth, status, and influence
Wealthiest were in South Carolina and around Natchez, Mississippi
Planter Class
Racism
Biblical passages about servants obeying masters
Essential to human progress
Allowed whites to be independent
Proslavery Argument
500,000 lived in the United States
Most were descendants of slaves who were freed by their masters, purchased freedom, or ran away
Only 37,000 lived in the Lower South
Could own property and marry
Could not own dogs, firearms or liquor
Free Blacks
Day to day resistance by slaves through doing poor work, breaking tools, abusing animals, stealing food
“Silent Sabotage”
Loose organization of sympathetic abolitionists who hid fugitive slaves
Underground Railroad
Member of Underground Railroad who made 20 trips to the South to escort slaves to freedom
Harriot Tubman
Slave transport ship that was taken over by 53 slaves while traveling up the East Coast
Amistad
Black who studied the Declaration of Independence and started to form a rebellion
Caught before they did anything
Thirty-five slaves and free blacks were executed
Denmark Vesey
Slave preacher and religious mystic who went from farm to farm on August 22, 1831 assaulting whites
Captured and condemmed to die
Virginia legislature tightened bondage of slaves
Nat Turner’s Rebellion
