Shaping of the West, Internal

Improvements and Immigration in

the Early and Mid-1800s


Shaping the West Ecological
Imperialism

1820s Fur Trappers settle in Rocky Mountains
and even as far as the pacific
Beaver pelts for hats, Buffalo hide for Robes and
Sea Otter for Pelts
The West was sort of an safety valve for people
who could not deal with the pressure of living in
the populated East. The West attracted many
convicts and displaced people who wanted to
escape civilization.
Rendezvous System
The trappers were left to themselves most
of the year. For a few (usually two weeks
a year) the trappers all met up at a certain
place and sold their pelts and hides. With
this Rendezvous System, trappers would
never have to go to town. They could buy
everything that they wanted at the
rendezvous point for the coming year.

Mountainmen


The March of Millions: Immigration

Many Europeans came to America from Germany and
Ireland before the Civil War. They saw America as land
of great wealth and opportunity and looked to the leading
sectional cities as: New York was seen as the
Metropolis, New Orleans as the Queen of the South
and Chicago as the Lord Of the Midwest
The draw of the cities was the opportunity to find work,
however, the cities also had many problems, such as:
smelly slums, poor street lighting, impure water, sewage
in the streets, poor policing and no garbage pick-up.
Rats ran the streets and nobody could do anything about
it.
So why did they come?
Many came to America because they dreamed
of becoming wealthy, but most came because
America did not have an aristocracy, a
compulsory military or a state church. Most
knew, especially the Germans, that they had an
opportunity to own land here in America and
because transportation to America would only
take 10-12 days, unlike during the early colonial
period when it took as long as 6-10 weeks,
depending upon winds.

National Origin of Immigrants:
1820 - 1860

The Irish Move West

The Irish began to move to America in large groups
during the potato famines of the 1840s. During this
starving time, 25% of Ireland died of starvation. Some
people were found dead along roadsides with grass in
their mouths, desperately looking for something to eat.
Most Irish were too poor to move West once they got to
America so most huddled in the seaport cities, primarily
Boston and New York. In the cities they lived in squalor
and experienced severe racism, mostly because they
were catholic.
Anti-Irish Feelings
Derogatory names were attached to the
Irish who were labeled and often only
permitted to work certain jobs. Irish
housemaids were usually called biddies
and their hard working male counterparts,
referred to at Paddies, usually dug
canals and built railroads. NINA was a
common sign hung on shops around the
cities which stood for No Irish Need Apply.

The Irish Continued
Eventually, through hard work and
perseverance, Irish were able to rise up
the social ladder and became the police,
thus the vehicles that carried people to jail
became known as the paddy wagon.
The Germans move west

Germans were uprooted due to crop failures.
Some stayed in the cities, but most moved out
West because they usually had more resources
than the Irish.
Germans contributed the Christmas Tree, the
Conestoga wagon and Kentucky rifles to
America. They supported public schooling,
including kindergarten (childrens garden).
Germans also brought Bier (beer) and made
merry on Sunday.
German Immigrants
coming to America

American Population Centers in
1820
American Population Centers in
1860
Know-Nothing Party:
The Supreme Order of the Star-
Spangled Banner
Anti-foreignism; The rise of the
Order of the Star Spangled Banner
Nativists rallied for political power against
foreigners. In 1849, they formed the
Order of the Star Spangled Banner which
developed into the American or Know-
Nothing Party.
Mass violence against Catholics took
place in cities such as burning of convents
and Catholic Churches.
Mechanization and
Economic Growth

1750s -British Invent machines for mass production of
textiles. They defend the secrets of building factories
and refuse to share their technology.
United States was the perfect place for industrialization,
but they did not embrace it right away because of all the
land available (people wanted to be outside farming.
Samuel Slater was known as the Father of the Factory
System in the United States. He memorized the plans
for building a factory and then sailed for America to
spread industrialization.
Samuel Slater was known as the
Father of the Factory System in
the United States
Early Textile Loom
Expansion of Industry in
New England
New England
Textile
Centers:

1830s
1814: The Lowell/Waltham
System:
First Dual-Purpose Textile Plant
Lowell in 1850
Lowell Girls
Lowell Boarding Houses

Irish Immigrants at the Mill
Eli Whitneys Cotton Gin
In 1791, Eli Whitney made the first machine for spinning
cotton. After graduating from Yale, Whitney went to
Georgia to become a plantation tutor. While in Georgia
he listened to the complaint of planters saying that they
could not get enough cotton processed quickly enough.
Ten days after arriving in Georgia he invented his first
cotton gin which does the work of 50 slaves. Slavery was
believed to be on heading for extinction, but the cotton
gin allows planters to clean more crop which enabled
them to produce more because now they know that they
can have it all cleaned. Cotton booms at this time.
Cotton Gin
Slaves using Cotton Gin
Expansion of Cotton
England bought most of the American cotton, but the
cotton gin also made it possible to expand American
industry. Factories spring up in the Northern states. The
factory expansion moment was slow growing until the
era of the War of 1812 (1807 1 815) when the United
States stopped buying English and French made goods.
After the Treaty of Ghent (which ended the War of 1812),
the English began to dump goods on us at prices
cheaper than we could produce our own. Many factories
closed due to the English under cutting our prices. In
response, the American government passed the Tariff of
1816, which helped to protect American industry.
Eli does it again..
Eli Whitney later produced the idea of
interchangeable parts for constructing
muskets. By 1850, the idea of
interchangeable parts was widely adopted.
Whitneys Gun Factory
Western Farmers reap a
Revolution in the fields

John Deere of Illinois produced a Steel
Plow in 1837 for breaking up virgin soil.
Cyrus McCormick produced the
mechanical reaper at this time. The rider
reaper could do the work of five men with
sickles.
Steel Plow
Reapers

Internal Improvements: Highways,
Steamboats, Canals, Rails and
Cable.

Lancaster Turnpike Toll road built and maintained very
well.
National Road or Cumberland Road 591 miles from
Maryland to Illinois, very well maintained.
1807 Robert Fulton produced the vessel the Clermont,
which was dubbed as Fultons Folly. On the first trip,
the steamboat steamed from New York City to Albany
(about 150 miles) in 32 hours moving as fast as 10 miles
an hour at times.
Robert Fulton
& the Steamboat: Clermont
First Turnpike
Lancaster, PA
The National Road
(Cumberland Road)
Railroads
The first railroad appeared in 1828 and by 1860, 30,000
miles of track were laid in the United States (3/4 of which
were in the North). The railroad was not very
dependable at first because arrival and departure times
were only conjectures and the distance between gauges
in track made inter-state travel difficult.
1830 13 miles of track built by Baltimore & Ohio
RR
By 1850 9000 mi. of RR track [1860 31,000
mi.]

The Iron Horse Wins! (1830)
The Railroad
Revolution,1850s
Erie Canal
Erie Canal linked the Great Lakes to the
Hudson River, which flowed to New York
City. It was constructed during the period
of 1817-1825. Barges could navigate the
canal at speeds of five miles an hour. At
this great speed, the cost of shipping grain
per ton decreased from $100.00 per ton
overland to $5.00 per ton by canal.

Erie Canal Begun in 1817;
completed in 1825

Principal Canals in 1840
Samuel F. B. Morse
1840 Telegraph
Elias Howe & Isaac Singer:
The Sewing Machine
Cyrus Field
& the Transatlantic Cable, 1858
Trans-Atlantic Cable
1858 a cable stretched under the deep
North Atlantic waters to Ireland, it worked
for 3 weeks. In 1866, a permanent cable
was laid between America and Europe.
Communications between America and
Europe now only took a few minutes to
communicate. Telegraphs wires were also
stretched from coast to coast making the
pony express riders obsolete.