History Day One 09 03 2013 OFFICE HOURS Tues Thurs 4 00 Taliaferro Hall Show up to lecture CONSEQUENCES OF HAVING MORE STUFF Where people shop why its important What we buy affects people in those specific industries Think about consumerism in a historical context ASSIGNMENT PAPERS Advertisement paper Museum exhibit on consumer history nominate an item to be in the Movie review in popular film and show how consumerism shows in exhibit pop culture Rethinking Our Nation s Origins 09 03 2013 RETHINKING OUR NATION S ORIGINS Or the Acquisition of Material Goods in Colonial America and the Revolution Key Terms 1 Sumptuary Laws 2 Townshend Acts taxes on imported goods 3 Homespun homespun clothing showed patriotism rebellion vs GBR 4 Edenton Tea Party women gathering to boycott British Their way of being politically envolved Major Themes 1 The use of consumer goods to create identities 2 The debate over the morality of consumer acquisitiveness 3 The political use of consumer choices 4 The economic impact of consumerism Puritans Quakers Leave Europe to avoid overwhelming imperialism Pass laws to stop unnecessary consumption sumptuary laws o Loopholes in law are created by rich why simply pay fines o Poor suffer because they cannot pay the fines o Creates tension between rich and poor Life based off austerity Material goods lead to moral dangers If too caught up in physical appearance not worried about important things Native Americans Ecological responsibility connection btwn spirit a earth Americans bring good the natives want Bring commercial exchange trade of commercial goods to natives Changes the way Natives live they are caught up in consumption Other American Colonies In America for acquisition of goods Want material to create consumer goods Later On Generations later offspring of puritans and Quakers etc decide they want goods pretty much disregard past rules Begin to buy fancy items Clothing tea sets clocks silver candlesticks show refinement Any excess is now used to buy goods to prove their refinement What is this doing to society As people get more and more they want more and more stuff As more people start buying goods more shoplifting occurs because people who cant afford them want them as well Easy credit is offered people wind up in huge debts o 90 of people bout items on credit American Revolution may have been sparked by the wants of the consumers because they wanted lower taxes on consumer goods John and Abaigail Adams Adams writes letter to Abaigail about frugality o frugality my dear must be our refuge Live our lives the right way not fixated on unrighteous domination T H Breen American Revolution was the first large scale political movement in recorded history to organize itself around the relation of ordinary people to manufactured consumer goods People want to prove they re civilized people like upper class o Americans get insulted that they re not identified on the same Englishmen level as the English Sons of Liberty One man hated being dependent upon Great Brittan for a warm coat to save us from freezing in the winter Man hates that America is so dependent on Brittan for everything Conflict that Americans are not treated same way as British because they are taxed unfairly economic slavery Stamp Act Act that requires printed materials to be taxed o Playing cards dice sheet music all taxed Violation of rights being taxed without giving consent One of first things that brings colonies closer shared hate Protests against act get it repealed Townsend Act Tax on imported goods o Lead glass paint tea Englishmen Burns Coffee House By taxing goods the colonists are stripped of their ways to be like Non importation not keeping English goods in stock so no one can buy them Consumers have no say all the power in merchants hands Not foolproof some merchants don t agree and British goods continue to be sold non importation movement falls apart Tea Act Most taxes removed with the exception of tea o Enrages colonists People attempt to smuggle goods to avoid taxes Brits angry This is when British ramp up enforcement of taxes and take greater control of the colonies Boycott Women Find way to produce goods in America and sell to American consumers business British are going to suffer economic burden of loss of American Get women involved Need them to produce consumer goods o Critical for success of boycott Wearing homespun clothing is badge or patriotism Women publically do their work daughters of liberty Morality of Consumerism conception of desiring self leads people to forget about what is important Consumption during revolution is more complicated o People give up wants to create shared experience and new kind of political protest Importation of Slaves and Sugar ends Buying Selling in the 19th Century 09 03 2013 by end of revolution there is 3 9 million people living in United States by civil war there are 32 million people producing 2 3 billion dollars worth of goods beginning of market revolution Major Points Market revolution transformed Americans relationship with goods and shifted the nation from a producers to a consumerist society Changes brought about by the MR affected different regions at different times in different ways The civil war affected and was affected by the new American consumer society Early 19th century Not a lot of goods Less clothing etc Beginning of general stores pots pans food needles thread o Limited inventory o Not much infrastructure to get products to store o Often a barter and exchange system o Can buy things on credit o Shopping for necessities Market Revolution Roughly 1800 1860 Transportation Internal improvements and innovations o Canals Steamboats o Steamboats Robert Fullton o These forms of transportation facilitate travel and transport o Eerie Canal liked Hudson river with great lakes o Railroads o B O built in 1868 Communication o Telegraph Merchans can know when to expect shipments Easier communication Production manufacturing o Interchangeable parts to create products American system Does not take as much skill to make Goods are more uniform can be repaired faster o Eli Whitney cotingin guy hired to make guns with interchangeable parts o Mills factories make production much faster efficient Home manufactures could now be mass produced and transported More goods cheaper goods and uniformity of goods Cash replaces barter and credit from 18th century Self sufficiency replaced by interdependence Anonymity in production and consumption