Moving Americans
This connection between the Hudson River and the Great Lakes helped New York surpass New Orleans in commerce.
What is the Erie Canal?
Production shifted from household workshops into centralized workplaces where workers and machines made goods together.
What is the factory system?
This New England employment system recruited young women to work in textile mills, initially offering housing, meals, and wages.
What is the Lowell System?
These two immigrant groups made up a large share of newcomers arriving in the United States during this period.
Who are the Irish and Germans?
This region became an important center of agricultural production as settlers moved westward from the eastern states.
What is the Old Northwest?
Unlike canals, this method of moving goods could reach communities without relying on existing waterways, helping bring the Canal Age to an end.
What are railroads?
These business organizations made it easier to raise capital and build larger enterprises by allowing groups to obtain a charter for a fee.
What are corporations?
As factory production expanded, these skilled craftspeople struggled to compete with goods made by machines and organized workshops to protect their trades.
Who are artisans?
This belief system favored native-born Americans over immigrants and opposed the growing influence of foreign-born Americans.
What is nativism?
This inventor developed a plow that could cut through the thick, sticky soil of the Midwest more effectively than earlier designs.
Who is John Deere?
This invention allowed businesses to coordinate activities over long distances and newspapers to report breaking news more quickly.
What is the telegraph?
Standardized components that could be substituted for one another, making production and repairs easier.
What are interchangeable parts?
Formed in 1834, this national organization brought together local worker groups seeking better conditions and greater influence.
What is the National Trades' Union?
This growing social group increasingly valued education, respectable behavior, comfortable homes, and leisure activities.
What is the middle class?
This agricultural practice supplied growing cities with fresh fruits and vegetables grown on farms near urban markets.
What is truck farming?
As these major rail lines expanded, they connected regional markets and helped create a more integrated national economy.
What are trunk lines?
This American showman attracted crowds with unusual exhibits, performers, and public spectacles, turning entertainment into a successful commercial enterprise.
Who is P.T. Barnum?
This Supreme Court decision established that labor unions and peaceful strikes were legal.
What is Commonwealth v. Hunt?
This ideal emphasized women's roles as moral guardians of the home rather than participants in public and economic life.
What is the cult of domesticity?
This invention allowed a small crew to harvest as much grain in one day as a much larger group using older methods.
What is the automatic reaper?
By dramatically increasing the speed and volume of printing, this innovation helped make newspapers more accessible to a growing public.
What is the rotary press?
Unlike waterpower, this fuel allowed mills to operate farther from rivers and streams.
What is coal?
This ideal emphasized the belief that individuals should control their own labor, earn wages, and have the opportunity to improve their economic circumstances.
What is free labor?
This secretive political organization advocated immigration restrictions and became known for its members' response when questioned about its activities.
Who are the Know-Nothings?
As white settlement moved farther west and farm families became more isolated, this force remained central to bringing rural communities together.
What is religion?