Antebellum Economy Flashcards
_____ _____ invented the steamboat, revolutionizing travel on the nation’s waterways.
Robert Fulton
Fulton’s invention made it possible for farmers in the West to get their products to Eastern ports inexpensively and quickly, and for manufacturers to get their goods to the West.
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.
What was the major source of power for the earliest American factories?
Water Power
Early factories were located by rivers and water power was used to operate the mills. Water mills were especially useful in early textile mills.
What change in business law in the early 1820s revolutionized the way in which companies raised capital?
In the early 1820s, New York permitted the formation of corporations. A corporation allows many individuals to purchase a percentage of ownership (known as a share). By allowing companies to issue stock to raise funds, corporations were able to invest capital in property, plants, and equipment, speeding the growth of manufacturing.
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.
How did new farming innovations such as Cyrus McCormick’s reaper and John Deere’s plow fuel the growth of urban centers?
New farming implements (and larger farms in the American West) meant that for the first time, farmers were able to produce surplus goods, beyond merely what they needed to sustain themselves and their families. These surplus goods were shipped to the new urban centers that were springing up along canals and railroads.
Why did the new states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas experience an influx of Southerners from other states?
Much of the farmland in areas such as Georgia and South Carolina had been exhausted by years of cotton farming and poor crop management. The lands in these new states proved fertile and ideal for cotton growing.
The new arrivals typically brought their slaves with them, and the price for field slaves doubled between 1825 and 1845.
Define Sectionalism.
Sectionalism is having excessive interest in one’s own local region over the country as a whole.
Beginning in the 1820s, the interests of the sections of the country began to diverge. For example, the South resented the Tariff of Abominations, which was being used to fund improvements such as roads and canals in the West. Meanwhile, Westerners did not like the Bank of the United States, which they felt was being used by Northern merchants to enhance their wealth.
Roughly speaking, what were the three main sections of the country during the Antebellum Period?
The three main sections of the country were the North, the South, and the West. The West was generally considered anything beyond the Mississippi River.
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.
Besides immigrants, what other group migrated in significant numbers to the Old Northwest?
The Old Northwest became the new home of many migrants who left New England. Their migration was the first of many that would continue to push the frontier ever farther westward, and they brought with them much of the culture of the New England colonies.
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.
In 1800 approximately 5% of the population of the North was urban. What percentage was urban by 1850?
About 15% of the population was urban by 1850. This rapid urbanization brought with it many problems, from the growth of slums and disease, to crime and inadequate sanitation.
Between 1845 and 1852, a million immigrants fled Ireland due to what cause?
the Irish Potato Famine
Most of the immigration between 1845 and 1852 can be attributed to the Irish Potato Famine. The potato was an Irish dietary staple, and another million inhabitants of Ireland died of starvation.
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.
