Chapter 9: Workers, Farmers, and Salves: The Transformation of the American Economy, 1815-1848

1. 1 Visions of America, A History of the United States
CHAPTER
Workers, Farmers,
and Slaves
The Transformation of the American Economy, 1815–1848
9
1 Visions of America, A History of the United States

2. 2 Visions of America, A History of the United States

3. Workers, Farmers, and Slaves
I. The Market Revolution
II. The Spread of Industrialization
III. The Changing Urban Landscape
IV. Southern Society
V. Life and Labor Under Slavery
THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMY, 1815–1848
3 Visions of America, A History of the United States

4. Workers, Farmers, and Slaves
I. The Market Revolution
A. Agricultural Changes and Consequences
B. A Nation on the Move: Roads, Canals,
Steamboats, and Trains
C. Spreading the News
THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE AMERICAN ECONOMY, 1815–1848
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5. The Market Revolution
How did technology change agriculture in
the era of the market revolution?
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6. The Market Revolution
Market Revolution – A set of interrelated
developments in agriculture, technology, and
industry that led to the creation of a more
integrated national economy. Impersonal
market forces impelled the maximization of
production of agricultural products and
manufactured goods and increased
consumption.
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7. Agricultural Changes and Consequences
What role did technological change play in
the improvements in agriculture during the
era of the market revolution? What kind of
impact on values did such changes foster?
Why did the Farmer’s Almanac frown on
huskings and frolics?
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8. 8 Visions of America, A History of the United States

9. A Nation on the Move:
Roads, Canals, Steamboats, and Trains
What role did the railroad play as a symbol
of American progress?
What impact did the Erie Canal have on
New York’s economy?
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10. 10 Visions of America, A History of the United States

11. Images as History
• How did George Inness view technological progress in
his paintings of the Lackawanna Valley?
NATURE, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE RAILROAD:
GEORGE’S INNESS’S THE LACKAWANNA VALLEY (1855)
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12. Images as History
NATURE, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE RAILROAD:
GEORGE’S INNESS’S THE LACKAWANNA VALLEY (1855)
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Inness increased size of
roundhouse to please
patron.
Figure of boy evokes
harmony with nature.
Tree stumps suggest
cost of progress to
nature.

13. Spreading the News
How did the telegraph transform
communication?
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14. Spreading the News
Telegraph – Invention patented by Samuel
Morse in 1837 that used electricity to send
coded messages over wires, making
communication nearly instantaneous
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15. 15 Visions of America, A History of the United States

16. Spreading the News
Why was the firm of Currier and Ives so
successful?
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17. 17 Visions of America, A History of the United States

18. The Spread of Industrialization
A. From Artisan to Worker
B. Women and Work
C. The Lowell Experiment
D. Urban Industrialization
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19. From Artisan to Worker
How did the factory change work?
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20. From Artisan to Worker
Artisan Production – A system of
manufacturing goods, built around
apprenticeship, that defined the preindustrial
economy. The apprentice learned a trade
under the guidance of an artisan who often
housed, clothed, and fed the apprentice.
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21. Women and Work
How did nineteenth-century ideas about
gender roles affect the organization of the
Lowell system?
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22. The Lowell Experiment
What was the Lowell system?
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23. The Lowell Experiment
Waltham System – Also known as the mill
town model, a system that relied on factories
housing all the distinctive steps of cloth
production under a single roof. The Waltham
System depended on a large labor force
housed in company-owned dormitories.
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24. 24 Visions of America, A History of the United States

25. Urban Industrialization
How did urban industrialization differ from
other models of industrialization such as the
Waltham and Lowell systems?
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26. 26 Visions of America, A History of the United States

27. 27 Visions of America, A History of the United States

28. Competing Visions
Lowell mill women
identified with American
Revolution and sought
support by focusing on
issues of rights and
independence.
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THE LOWELL STRIKE OF 1834
How did ideas about gender shape the response
of those who were critical of the Lowell strike?
Supporters of the mill
owners highlighted the
radical and unladylike
behavior of the strikers.

29. The Changing Urban Landscape
A. Old Ports and the New Cities of the
Interior
B. Immigrants and the City
C. Free Black Communities in the North
D. Riot, Unrest, and Crime
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30. Old Ports and the
New Cities of the Interior
What was the Five Points neighborhood and
why did it become so well known?
What does the creation of gated parks such
as Gramercy Park tell us about urban life in
this period?
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31. 31 Visions of America, A History of the United States

32. 32 Visions of America, A History of the United States

33. Immigrants and the City
How did immigration patterns change in the
early nineteenth century?
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34. 34 Visions of America, A History of the United States

35. Free Black Communities in the North
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36. Riot, Unrest, and Crime
Why did urban violence increase in the early
nineteenth century?
What does the murder of Helen Jewett
reveal about nineteenth-century city life?
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37. 37 Visions of America, A History of the United States

38. Envisioning Evidence
Does the historical
evidence support
the concerns
expressed by moral
reformers about the
prevalence of
commercial sex in
New York?
THE ECONOMICS AND GEOGRAPHY OF VICE
IN MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY NEW YORK
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39. 39 Visions of America, A History of the United States

40. Southern Society
A. The Planter Class
B. Yeomen and Tenant Farmers
C. Free Black Communities
D. White Southern Culture
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41. The Planter Class
What do plantation architecture and the
arrangement of buildings tell us about
slavery?
What values defined the planter class?
How did the experience of free blacks in the
South compare with those in the North?
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42. 42 Visions of America, A History of the United States

43. Yeomen and Tenant Farming
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44. White Southern Culture
What role did honor play in Southern
culture?
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45. 45 Visions of America, A History of the United States

46. Life and Labor Under Slavery
A. Varied Systems of Slave Labor
B. Life in the Slave Quarters
C. Slave Religion and Music
D. Resistance and Revolt
E. Slavery and the Law
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47. Varied Systems of Slave Labor
Where was the Black Belt?
What role did violence play in slave society?
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48. Varied Systems of Slave Labor
Black Belt – A swath of dark rich soil well
suited to cotton agriculture that stretched
westward from Alabama and eventually
reached the easternmost part of Texas
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49. 49 Visions of America, A History of the United States

50. 50 Visions of America, A History of the United States

51. Life in the Slave Quarters
Why did so many slaves marry slaves living
on other plantations?
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52. Slave Religion and Music
How did slaves modify Christianity to
articulate their distinctive religious vision?
Why did biblical themes from the story of the
Exodus figure so prominently in slave
spirituals?
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53. Slave Religion and Music
Spirituals – Religious songs created by
slaves. Spirituals’ symbolism drew heavily
on biblical themes.
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54. 54 Visions of America, A History of the United States

55. Resistance and Revolt
Who was Nat Turner?
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56. Resistance and Revolt
Nat Turner’s Rebellion – Am 1831 slave
uprising in Virginia led by Nat Turner that
shocked many in the South and led to a host
of new repressive measures against slaves
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57. 57 Visions of America, A History of the United States

58. Slavery and the Law
Why did Judge Ruffin (see Choices and
Consequences: Conscience or Duty? Judge
Ruffin’s Quandary) argue that the power of
the master over the slave must be absolute?
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59. Slavery and the Law
State v. Mann – The 1829 North Carolina
Supreme Court case that involved a white
man’s assault on a slave. The case asserted
that the domination of the master over the
slave was complete.
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60. Choices and Consequences
• State v. Mann was appealed to state Supreme Court
• Judge Ruffin had to decide between what he felt was
right and what law required
CONSCIENCE OR DUTY? JUSTICE RUFFIN’S QUANDARY
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61. Choices and Consequences
Choices regarding State v. Mann
CONSCIENCE OR DUTY? JUSTICE RUFFIN’S QUANDARY
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Affirm that
temporary master’s
power to discipline
was limited
Affirm that even a
temporary master’s
power over slaves
was unlimited
Affirm lower court
ruling and focus on
use of excessive
force

62. Choices and Consequences
Decision and Consequences
• Master’s unlimited authority over slaves was
affirmed
• State v. Will later asserted that slaves did not
surrender basic right to self-defense
CONSCIENCE OR DUTY? JUSTICE RUFFIN’S QUANDARY
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Does the law of slavery support the claim that the
law is a tool of the powerful or that it is a
constraint on them?

63. Choices and Consequences
Continuing Controversies
• What role did ideas of justice play in
Justice Ruffin’s understanding of the rule
of law?
CONSCIENCE OR DUTY? JUSTICE RUFFIN’S QUANDARY
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