Women and the Economy

Radha Patel, Kaitlyn Lawson, Madeline Walker, Alley Metzger, Josh Bunch, Tom Goode

Women and the Economy  Farm women and girls had an important place in the preindustrial economy, spinning yard, weaving cloth, and making candles, soap, butter, and cheese.  Women were forbidden to form unions and they had few opportunities to share dissatisfactions over their harsh working conditions  Catharine Beecher: urged women to enter the teaching profession  The vast majority of working women were single  Cult of Domesticity: a widespread cultural creed that glorified the customary functions of the homeworker  During the Industrial Revolution, families were small, affectionate, and child-centered, which provided a special place for women.

Western Farmers Reap a Revolution in the Fields  The Trans-Allegheny region- especially the Ohio-Indiana-Illinois tier- was becoming the nation’s breadbasket and before long it would become a granary to the world.  Liquor and hogs became the early western farmer’s staple market items because both of these items were supported by corn.  Most western produce was at first floated down the Ohio-Mississippi River system, to feed the lusty appetite of the booming Cotton Kingdom but western farmers were as hungry for profits as southern slaves and planters were for food (cultivated more land).  One of the first obstacles that frustrated the farmers was the thickly matted soil of the west, which snapped fragile wooden plows and John Deere of Illinois in 1827 finally produced a steel plow; sharp and effective, it was light enough to be pulled by horses.  They began to dream of markets elsewhere but they were still largely land-locked; commerce moved north and south on the river systems; before it could begin to move east-west in bulk, a transportation revolution would have to occur.

Highways and Steamboats  In 1789, around the time of the constitution, there were some sketchy forms of transportation. Water transportation was slow and dangerous. Stagecoaches were bumpy rides over broken roads. Horses would sometimes sink to their deaths in mud pits just like Artax in The Neverending Story.  If raw materials were to make it to factories, there would need to be cheap and efficient carriers.  In the 1790’s a private company made the Lancaster Turnpike. It was a hard surface that you would have to pay to go across.  Western road building was expensive & had many obstacles  States’ righters (opposed federal aid to local ‘projects’)  Eastern states were unhappy w/ the taking of their population  In 1811, the federal government began the National Road (or Cumberland Road)  From Cumberland in western Maryland, to Vandalia in Illinois.  The construction was interrupted by the War of 1812 but was eventually finished in 1852 by the states & federal government  Robert Fulton began the “steamboat craze”  Created the Clermont, otherwise known as “Fulton’s Folly”  In 1807, the small ship traveled up the Hudson River, toward Albany, for a total of 150 miles in 32 hours.  Fulton had changed all of America’s navigable streams into a two-way passage  By 1820 there were 60 steamboats on the Mississippi  By 1860 there were about 1000 steamboats  Rivalry arose, steamboat ‘races’ were urged  The steamer Sultana blew up in 1865 & 1700 passengers were killed  Steamboats  Vital role in the West & South  Caused population growth among the rivers  Created a cheaper method of transportation

“Clinton’s Big Ditch” in New York  Governor Dewitt Clinton led a project called “Clinton’s Big Ditch,” which was when the Erie Canal was made  The canal stretched for 363 miles  Shipping costs went down dramatically  Cost of the land along the canal went down, which attracted immigrant  Costs of produce went down, which forced farmers to abandon their holding o Some became mill hands, others got land south of the Great Lakes

The Iron Horse  Railroads soon overran the production of canals o Transportation was easier and they were cheaper to make  The first railroad in the United States was built in 1828  Railroad pioneers were faced with many challenges

Cables, Clippers, and Pony Riders  Other forms of transportation and communication were binding together the United States and the world

 In 1858, the “greatest wire-puller in history” Cyrus Field stretched a telegraph cable under the North Atlantic waters from Newfoundland to Ireland

o Although this initial cable went dead after three weeks of public rejoicing, a heavier cable laid in 1866 permanently linked the American and European continents.

 The United States merchant marine encountered rough sailing during much of the early nineteenth century.

o But by the 1840s and 1850s, a golden age dawned for American shipping.

 Clipper ships had become the next big thing in American shipping

o There features included being long and narrow o They handled much of the tea-carrying trade between the Far East and Britain

o Clipper ships didn’t last long though because of the British steamers (“teakettles”)

o Although slower than the clippers, they were steadier, roomier, more reliable, and therefore more profitable

 Even more dramatic was the Pony Express established in 1860

o Mainly used to carry mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California

o Riders and there stations were stationed about ten miles apart

o Riders had to be brave and be able to bear any type of weather

o The trip in total took around ten days

o Only one trip was missed

o But the enterprise folded after 18 months

o Samuel Morse and his code put them out of business in 1861

The Transport Web Binds the Union  The desire of the East to tap the West stimulated the transportation revolution

 The revolutionary changes came in the three decades before the Civil War

o Ditch-diggers and tie-layers offset the “natural” flow of trade on the rivers by creating a grid of internal improvements

o Building other pathways for transportation was extremely success

o The Mississippi in turn became less busy

 By the eve of the Civil War, a truly continental economy had emerged

 Each region now specialized in a particular type of economic activity

o The South raised cotton for export to New England and Britain

o The West grew grain and livestock to feed factory workers in the East and in Europe

o The East made machines and textiles for the South and the West

 The economic pattern thus woven had fateful political and military implications

o Southern rebels would have to fight not only Northern armies but the tight bonds of an interdependent continental economy o Economically, the two northerly sections were conjoined twins

The Market Revolution  Changing the political and economic landscape o Self-sufficient households to new market economy o Cities sprouted along with factories  Law and Economy o Chief justice Marshall intended to protect contract rights until his death o New chief justice Roger B. Taney promoted a more free market, increasing entrepreneurship and competition between businesses  Quiet and gradual revolution o Separate sphere of women in household o Home was now a safe haven from the everyday struggles of the hard labor and low wages associated with factory jobs o Advancements in manufacturing and transportation  Extremes in the cities o Displayed the widening gap between the rich and the poor o Unskilled workers were “drifters” from town to town o Social mobility did exist, but rags to riches stories were rare  America becomes a place of opportunity o Urban sprawl of cities o Countless jobs with the opening of factories o Higher standard of living with lower wages