GROWTH Local economy quasi subsistence national and international marketplace o Many farmers moving from local national marketplace o CAPITALISM INFRASTRUCTURE building things New roads o In new England Paved roads Well put together in contrast to roads in south o Southern roads dirt roads and trails Water transportation o Robert Fulton steam boat Able to bring goods against current o Port of new Orleans important port in Gulf at the end of the Mississippi River o Two way traffic promotes trans continental market o Canals man made rivers Erie canal connects Lake Erie to the Hudson river makes NY a huge economic capital other lakes become more prosperous too 100 5 to move goods Railroads o Makes canals obsolete o Snow and ice don t impede railroads Unlike canals o They go faster than canals stagecoaches etc o Can carry more than canals barges o Over 30k miles of railroads built Clipper ships o Connect with international markets o EXTREME SPEED o Sails larger built sleeker o Only about 1 ton of goods held in one o Steam power steadily replaces them Government or private funding of infrastructure Age of Refinement vs Backwoods culture o Commodities striving for a European lifestyle o Eating utensils drapes rugs to basic furniture pieces o Now cheaper and more abundant in the US o Backwoods culture growing Respectability with having roughly made products with having log cabins Frontier culture associated with being American i e Andrew Jackson Davy Crockett inventions o telegraph Morris connects all major cities o vulcanizing rubber Goodyear makes it stronger and more elastic o sewing machine Silas How o Cotton Gin huge in south Long and short staple cotton o Can be grown inland Westward expansion Expansion of slavery CG increased need for slavery King Cotton Cyrus McCormick o Mechanical reaper Long couple inches couple of places it could be grown labor intensive Short takes off due to cotton gin has too many seeds CG now separates cotton from seeds with short staple cotton Harvest wheat markets in 1847 and sells 2 people can do 12 acres in a day To sell he needs dealers Needs an auto shop salesmen and offer credit be profitable and usable for the farmer Regular farmers can t afford so he has to offer credit By 60 farmers owed him about 1 mill o Consequences Textile mills o The Lowell System Lowell girls o Boston Associates Up in Massachusetts processing southern made cotton into cloth Business good until Jefferson cut off trade with Great Britain Everything produced under one roof processed and made in one building In New England because of the many rivers harvesting water power Used young women because they re cheap open to higher culture access to church and nutritional meals many accidents people killed or severely injured how has technology impacted our relationship with nature o able to alter what we used to have no control over
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