| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Samuel Slater | He has been called the founder of American industry. He built the first modern textile mill in the United Sates, doing so by importing secrets from his native country, England. Given his expertise, however, leaving England posed a problem. The British government did not want any plans for textile manufacturing to leave the country out of fear that other nations would use them to gain an industrial advantage. He circumvented the English restrictions in two ways. First, memorized the details about its machinery. Second, when he departed in 1789, he did so without telling anyone, and he wore a disguise. |
| Francis Cabot Lowell | Through his founding of textile mills in the early 19th century, this man changed the character of textile manufacturing and contributed significantly to America's early industrialization. He opened his first factory at Waltham, Massachusetts in 1814. It was the first mill in the world that converted raw cotton into finished cloth at a single location. For laborers he hired mainly young single women who lived in company housing under strict supervision. |
| Waltham System | Named after Francis Lowell, the Lowell Mills were a complex of textile mills built by the Boston Company in 1823 in the town of East Chelmsford (later renamed Lowell), Massachusetts. Staffed largely by young women, the Lowell Mills were famous for this system--an innovative method of factory management that provided on-site dormitories, cultural activities, and strict supervision of its workers. By 1840, for economy reasons, the women were replaced by immigrant laborers. |
| factory system | This system brought the means of production together in buildings where water power (later steam and electricity) supplied the energy to run the machinery that increased productivity and reduced labor costs. It was introduced to the United States in textile manufacturing in 1790. |
| Irish/German Immigration | For most of the first century after the United States was formed, immigration to the country was essentially open. By the mid-19th century, as more third-, and fourth-generation Americans began to feel a strong sense of an increasingly American heritage and national identity, they began to regard immigrants as foreign elements who competed with native-born Americans for jobs and corrupted American traditions. Anti-immigration hysteria reached fever points during periods of massive influxes of foreigners, especially when these groups came between 1840 and 1860. Nativist sentiment skyrocketed, with the formation of the Know-Nothing Party in the 1850s |
| household system | This system of manufacturing predated the factory system. In it, local artisans produced goods to supply local needs. Central shops supplied materials to houses and small shops on a piecework basis, then marketed the finished goods to the regional market. When Samuel Slater and Francis Cabot Lowell introduced the factory system to the Untied States, this system of manufacturing became increasingly obsolete. |
| Eli Whitney | This skilled and prolific inventor invented the cotton gin in 1793. It almost immediately transformed southern agriculture and revitalized slavery. He also was successful in manufacturing rifles for the government by employing the idea of interchangeable parts. |
| cotton gin | Invented in 1793 by Eli Whitney, this simple machine could clean the seeds from 50 pounds of cotton in one day, whereas previously a laborer could clean only one pound a day. The machine was largely responsible for revitalizing the plantation system and the Southern state's dependence on slave labor. This device made the United States the dominant world supplier of cotton by the 1820s. |
| turnpikes | These early improvements in the nation's transportation system were somewhat improved roads built by private companies to replace old wagon trails. The companies then charged tolls to all who used the roads. |
| Robert Fulton | He was an excellent inventor, engineer, and naval architect. He was especially recognized for his inventions that substantially improved steamboats. His first steamboat, called the Clermont, left New York City for its first trip up the Hudson River to Albany (about 130 miles) in 1807. A huge success, he built many more steamboats and vastly improved the fledgling transportation network in the United States by making upstream river transport more efficient, reliable, and affordable. |
| Erie Canal | The construction of the 363-mile long canal began the canal boom of the 1820s and 1830s. It was financed by the state of New York with public funds. Begun in 1817, it was completed in 1825 and was an immediate financial success. It was the first transportation route between the eastern seaboard (New York City) and the western interior (Great Lakes) of the United States faster than carts pulled by draft animals, and cut transport costs by about 95%. |
| Marshall Court | This term refers to the Supreme Court under the 35-year tenure of Chief Justice John Marshall. Firmly committed to the need to create a strong and effective national government, Marshall's historic effect on the Court began with his decision in Marbury v. Madison (1803) that established the Supreme Court as the final arbiter on the constitutionality of laws. Marshall combined his belief in the need for a strong central government with a deep appreciation for the rights of individuals and the sanctity of private property. His decisions guided the United States through a period of rapid physical and economic growth. |
| Dartmouth College v Woodward | This 1819 Marshall Court decision was one of the earliest and most important U.S. Supreme Court decisions to interpret the contracts clause in Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution. The case arose from a dispute in New Hampshire over the state's attempt to take over Dartmouth College. By construing the Contract Clause as a means of protecting corporate charters from state interventions, Marshall derived a significant constitutional limitation on state authority. As a result, various forms of private economic and social activity would enjoy security from state regulatory policy. Marshall thus encouraged the emergence of the relatively unregulated private economic actor as the major participant in a growing national economy. |
| Gibbons v Ogden | In this Marshall Court case, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a state monopoly and reaffirmed Congress' power to oversee commerce between states. Of all the cases that have interpreted the scope of congressional power under the commerce clause, none has been more important than this "steamboat case." The case established a basic precedent because it paved the way for later federal regulation of transportation, communication, buying and selling, and manufacturing. Today, little economic activity remains outside the regulatory power of Congress. |
| Charles River Bridge v Warren Bridge | In this 1837 Supreme Court Case, Chief Justice Roger Taney that a state had a right to place the public's convenience over that of a private or particular company, over the presumed right of monopoly granted in a corporate charter. Thus a company that had a prior long-term contract for a toll bridge over the Charles River between Boston and Cambridge—and hence a monopoly on bridge traffic—could not prevent a second company from receiving another state contract to construct a competitive toll-free bridge. It advanced the interests of those who favored economic development. |
| Roger Taney | When John Marshall died on July 6, 1835, Jackson nominated this man as chief justice of the Supreme Court. He was a less fierce nationalist than Marshall had been, and his Court would tend to back Jackson's ideas of "democratizing" the country's economic and political life. Until the Dred Scott case, he was a proponent of the idea of judicial restraint. Scott v. Sandford (1857), however, brought politics and the issue of slavery directly to the court. Personally, he was opposed to slavery, but he believed that the Constitution recognized and protected slavery. The infamous Dred Scott decision declared that territorial governments could not be granted the power to prohibit slavery. The nation took one step closer toward Civil War. |
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