Identify the major transportation improvements in this period and explain how they influenced the market economy.
How did the market revolution change women’s work and family roles? How did women use their new found positions in society to push for work place reform?
How did the market economy and westward expansion intensify the institution of slavery? How did westward expansion and the market revolution drive each other?
resources:
Read: Loomis “Lowell Mill Girls’ Strike”
Actions
Think about how these girls were going against the social gender norms in going to work in a factory. How did that empower them to take it even further and organize a strike?
Foner Chapter 9 summary The Market Revolution, 18001840
This chapter concentrates on two of the three historical processes unleashed by the Revolution and accelerated after the War of 1812: the spread of market relations and the westward movement of the population. Americans understanding of freedom was changing to include economic opportunity, physical mobility, and participation in the democratic system. A Voices of Freedom piece, Recollections of Harriet Noble, gives a womans perspective on migrating to the West for better opportunity. The chapter chronicles the important advancements made in transportation and communication, the growth of western cities, and the expansion of the Cotton Kingdom and slavery. The chapter then explores the market society through early industrialization. First, in discussing agriculture, the chapter illustrates how commercial farmers began replacing self-sufficient farmers. Then, turning to manufacturing, it explores how factory workers were replacing skilled artisans. Most of the early New England textile workers were women, and a Voices of Freedom selection highlights the plight of one of these operatives. With early industrialization came the growth of immigration, particularly from Ireland and Germany, and the prejudices that came along with it in the form of nativism. The materialism of the market society and loss of the self-sufficient farmer and artisan are in stark contrast in the next section, titled The Free Individual, which explores the growth of the transcendentalist movement, with its emphasis on individualism, and the religious ferment of the Second Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening also promoted religious pluralism with new denominations like the Mormons springing up. Next, the chapter looks at the limits of prosperity, noting that women and blacks were excluded from the fruits of the market revolution. As liberty became increasingly identified with economic independence, free blacks were left to the lowest jobs and working women were left with few opportunities. A cult of domesticity was created by middle-class women; for them, the ultimate badge of freedom was to be free from work. Labor organizations were also established and the workers demanded more rights and liberties. The chapter concludes with the observation that the market revolution opened opportunities for some but led others to believe that their traditional economic independence was eroding
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|