The 19th Century

Beginning in 1800 the pace of change quickened in the United States. By the late 19th century, the United States would grow to rival Great Britain as the most powerful industrial nation in the world. The rate of change was dramatic. On the eve of the 19th century, the United States had roughly 4 million people and the nation was still predominantly rural, with approximately 3.7 million persons employed in agricultural pursuits. The nation’s population was divided half and half between the North and South, although some 700,000 slaves were included in the latter. Urban living was a rarity. There were no cities with a population in excess of 50,000 persons, only two with a population more than 25,000, three with 10,000 to 25,000 persons, seven with 5,000, and only a dozen with 2,500. On the eve of the Civil War, the United States had acquired a different complexion. Although a majority of workers still toiled on the land, the population had increased six times to over 30 million. Whereas in 1790 relatively few people lived west of the Appalachian Mountains, in 1860 half of the nation’s population resided there. The shift in population from rural to urban began to accelerate. The nation began the new century with a birthrate of 55 per 1000, an incredibly healthy rate that reflected the push west for land and the necessity of farming families to have as many hands as possible for labor.7 In 1820 one person in twenty lived in a city of

8.000  or more persons, in 1840 it was one in twelve, and in 1850 it was one in seven. The old cities of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia had new rivals such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Louisville springing up along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Nine American cities had populations in excess of 100,000 persons. Furthermore, the population increase and westward expansion resulted in an increase in the number of states from 16 to 39 on the eve of the Civil War.8

The economic relationship that had been restored between the United States and Great Britain following the American Revolution experienced fundamental challenges as a result of warfare in the first two decades of the 19th century. The Napoleonic Wars changed the dynamic as Napoleon’s Continental System attempted to strangle Great Britain by preventing British goods from entering Europe. In retaliation, Britain aggressively attempted to sever the lines of raw materials headed for France. As the contest evolved, each side vied for advantage by stopping and searching all ships, even from neutral nations. President Jefferson countered with the Embargo Act of 1807 that halted all American vessels from departing the country for foreign destinations. The embargo had two different outcomes. Those individuals and firms engaged in the export business suffered terrific losses of revenue as the demand for United States’ exports declined precipitously from $108 million to just $22 million in the first year. On the other hand, manufacturers who could make articles formerly bought abroad found a brief but profitable niche. Before 1808 only fifteen cotton mills existed in the United States. By 1809 more than one hundred cotton mills were in operation, and more continued to be built for the next three years. A report issued during the middle of the war recorded that there were 76 cotton factories containing more than

50.000  spindles in operation within a thirty-mile radius of Providence, Rhode Island.9

However, after 1812 the situation reversed itself. An unfettered wave of British goods flowed into the country and undermined the infant industries that had emerged just several years prior. Furthermore, the imposition of additional tariffs after the War of 1812 ended merely accumulated additional revenues and did little to stimulate growth of America’s young industries. Even the major tariff passed in 1828, referred to as the ‘‘Tariff of Abominations” by Southern agricultural interests because it increased the cost of imported manufactured goods, was in reality a resurrection of the anti-Hamilton economic views and brought the nation to the brink of a political crisis in the early 1830s.

At that moment, however, the nation was poised to take its next step in the industrialization process, one that took the form of new factory enterprise approaches and the creation of a transportation network that stimulated a market revolution. On the surface, the United States potential for industrial growth in 1815 seemed to be no stronger than the situation in 1800. The nation was still one of farmers. Only ten percent of the population lived in urban areas, defined as communities with 2,500 or more residents. In the American South the number was half that amount. The dominant economic pursuits in these cities still revolved around merchant business, sea trade, simple handicrafts, or service activities that supported these endeavors. It is estimated that the total number of factory workers in textile, iron, saw mills, paper mills, and flour mills numbered no more than

15,000 persons.

In 1815 the nation faced several challenges if it was to realize any ambition for industrial development. First, the geographical magnitude of the United States posed an impediment to industrialization, especially since the country expanded and consolidated so rapidly after 1815. Great Britain, with its relatively compact size, an intricate port, river, and canal network, and short distances between natural resources and industrial centers, did not have to contend with constructing an infrastructure to overcome the obstacle of the sheer breadth of a nation like the United States. Indeed, no town in Great Britain was situated farther than 70 miles from the sea, and by the early 19th century the country had approximately 20,000 miles of roads and an important network of canals. In many respects the United States remained a rough and primitive country. In 1815 it took a yoke of three oxen three days to make a round trip between New York and Boston. Furthermore, the overland transport of items such as iron or corn might be greater than transatlantic shipment and could only sustain a profit by moving them only a few miles from their source. Second, the shortage of labor was also a key hurdle. As a result of the enclosures, Great Britain had experienced a long, steady transition of its labor supply (men, women, and children) from the rural areas to the factories in the cities. The situation in the United States was similar in that a population boom was underway, but there was also an abundance of land to occupy and own. Third, despite some flashes of individual technical ingenuity such as the invention of the cotton gin and the perfection of steam powered transportation on waterways, the United States lacked sufficient capital investment to finance the construction of machines necessary for the factory system to operate profitably. During the last three decades before the Civil War, these three obstacles would be overcome through the creation of a vast transportation network, the employment of women, children, and immigrants in the mills, and the growth of technological capabilities to support new transportation and factory organizations.