The Early National Period and Expansion: 1783 to 1859

Volume II

The Early National Period and Expansion 1783 to 1859

Volume II

The Early National Period and Expansion 1783 to 1859

Rodney P. Carlisle general editor

Handbook to Life in America: The Early National Period and Expansion, 1783 to 1859 Copyright © 2009 Infobase Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An Imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York, NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Handbooks to life in America / Rodney P. Carlisle, general editor. v. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents: v. 1. The colonial and revolutionary era, beginnings to 1783—v. 2. The early national period and expansion, 1783 to 1859—v. 3. The Civil War and Reconstruction, 1860 to 1876—v. 4. The Gilded Age, 1870 to 1900—v. 5. Age of reform, 1890 to 1920—v. 6. The roaring twenties, 1920 to 1929—v. 7. The Great Depression and World War II, 1929 to 1949—v. 8. Postwar America, 1950 to 1969—v. 9. Contemporary America, 1970 to present. ISBN 978-0-8160-7785-4 (set : hc : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-8160-7174-6 (v. 1 : hc : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-8160-7175-3 (v. 2 : hc : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-8160-7176-0 (v. 3 : hc : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-8160-7177-7 (v. 4 : hc : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-81607178-4 (v. 5 : hc : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-8160-7179-1 (v. 6 : hc : alk. paper)—ISBN 9780-8160-7180-7 (v. 7 : hc : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-8160-7181-4 (v. 8 : hc : alk. paper)— ISBN 978-0-8160-7182-1 (v. 9 : hc : alk. paper) 1. United States—Civilization—Juvenile literature. 2. United States—History—Juvenile literature. 3. National characteristics, American—Juvenile literature. I. Carlisle, Rodney P. E169.1.H2644 2008 973--dc22 2008012630

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Contents Volume II

The Early National Period and Expansion 1783 to 1859 preface









vii







1

  2  Family and Daily Life





15

  3 Material Culture





27

  4  Social Attitudes





43

  5 Cities and Urban Life





57

  6 Rural Life







73

  7 Religion









91

  8 Education







107

  9  Science and Technology



121

  1  Introduction

10 Entertainment 11 Crime and Violence 12 Labor and Employment 13 Military and Wars 14 Population Trends and Migration 15 Transportation 16 Public Health, Medicine, and Nutrition INDEX









133 145 159 173 191 207

221

237

Preface

“My country is the world; my countrymen are mankind.” — William Lloyd Garrison

The fl avor of daily life in previous eras is usually only vaguely conveyed by examining the documents of state and the politics of the era. What people ate, how they spent their time, what entertainment they enjoyed, and how they related to one another in family, church, and employment, constituted the actual life of people, rather than the distant affairs of state. While governance, diplomacy, war, and to an extent, the intellectual life of every era tends to be well-documented, the way people lived is sometimes difficult to tease out from the surviving paper records and literary productions of the past. For this reason in recent decades, cultural and social historians have turned to other types of physical documentation, such as illustrations, surviving artifacts, tools, furnishings, utensils, and structures. Statistical information can shed light on other aspects of life. Through examination of these and other kinds of evidence, a wholly different set of questions can be asked and tentatively answered. This series of handbooks look at the questions of daily life from the perspective of social and cultural history, going well beyond the affairs of government to examine the fabric and texture of what people in the American past experienced in their homes and their families, in their workplaces and schools. Their places of worship, the ways they moved from place to place, the nature of law and order and military service all varied from period to period. As science and technology advanced, the American contributions to those fields became greater and contributed to a different feel of life. vii

viii

The Early National Period and Expansion

Some of this story may be familiar, as historians have for generations commented on the disparity between rural and city life, on the impact of technologies such as the cotton gin, the railroad and the steamboat, and on life on the advancing frontier. However in recent decades, historians have turned to different sources. In an approach called Nearby History, academic historians have increasingly worked with the hosts of professionals who operate local historical societies, with the keepers of historic homes, and with the custodians of local records to pull together a deeper understanding of local life. Housed in thousands of small and large museums and preserved homes across America, rich collections of furniture, utensils, farm implements, tools, and other artifacts tell a very different story than that found in the letters and journals of legislators, governors, presidents, and statesmen. Another approach to the fabric of daily life first flourished in Europe, through which historians plowed through local customs and tax records, birth and death records, marriage records, and other numerical data, learning a great deal about the actual fabric of daily life through a statistical approach. Aided by the advent of computer methods of storing and studying such data, historians have developed fresh discoveries about such basic questions as health, diet, life-expectancy, family patterns, and gender values in past eras. Combined with a fresh look at the relationship between men and women, and at the values of masculinity and femininity in past eras, recent social history has provided a whole new window on the past. layers of history By dividing American history into nine periods, we have sought to provide views of this newly enriched understanding of the actual daily life of ordinary people. Some of the patterns developed in early eras persisted into later eras. And of course, many physical traces of the past remain, in the form of buildings, seaports, roads and canals, artifacts, divisions of real estate, and later structures such as railroads, airports, dams, and superhighways. For these reasons, our own physical environment is made up of overlapping layers inherited from the past, sometimes deeply buried, and at other times, lightly papered over with the trappings of the present. Knowing more about the many layers from different periods of American history makes every trip through an American city or suburb or rural place a much richer experience, as the visitor sees not only the present, but the accumulated heritage of the past, silently providing echoes of history. Thus in our modern era, as we move among the shadowy remnants of a distant past, we may be unconsciously receiving silent messages that tell us: this building is what a home should look like; this stone wall constitutes the definition of a piece of farmland; this street is where a town begins and ends. The sources of our present lie not only in the actions of politicians, generals,



Preface

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princes, and potentates, but in the patterns of life, child-rearing, education, religion, work and play, lived out by ordinary people. volume ii: Early National and AnteBellum Periods The period from the American Revolution to the Civil War (or War between the States, as it came to be known in the defeated states of the south), has sometimes been treated as two periods: the Early National Period, from Independence through about 1830, and the Antebellum Period 1830–60, the age that preceded the Civil War. During the “four score and seven years” (87 years) from Independence to the Civil War, several contradictory trends were at work that affected the daily life of Americans. One type of contradiction had to do with the newly implemented concept of a large, democratically organized state, a type that had never really existed before. In Europe only small city-states like Venice, and isolated Switzerland, had operated with elected governments. Furthermore by eliminating any hereditary nobility, the American experiment was indeed something quite new. At the same time the Constitution and laws of the states very explicitly protected private property. Thus the accumulation of wealth and the transmission of that wealth through inheritance through families sharpened social inequalities. Not only did some families with land and financial resources grow more wealthy, but the proportion of those with little or no land or tangible wealth grew. In the first few decades, the right to vote was limited to those with property; reforms beginning in the 1830s extended the franchise to all adult white men. An un-democratic consequence of the reforms was the elimination of African-American property holders and in some states, widows who held property, from the suffrage. The widening of the franchise meant that the hold of the wealthiest families on power was beginning to wane, particularly in a number of larger cities, such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. As immigrants from Ireland and Germany, and in the 1850s from other regions of Europe, flowed into America and many settled in cities the political texture changed. More and more, the Democratic Party came to rely on the votes of working class and propertyless voters in the north. Meanwhile in the south, the definition of slaves as property and the protection of property laws meant that wealthy planter families tended to get wealthier and continued to exercise power. The contradictory aspects of democracy had deep social effects. The accumulation of wealth, rather an inherited family line, became the measure of the social elite. Thus a middle-class merchant or middle-range land holder who succeeded could and did represent his rise in social standing through displays of that wealth, in the form of more elaborate homes, more elegant furnishings, more imported clothing, and the hiring of servants. In the south, a middle-range planter who succeeded could further indicate his rise in status by maintaining a larger household and plantation with more slaves.



The Early National Period and Expansion

The design of some homes began to reflect the growing disparity, as homes were built with hallways and passageways through which servants could pass without going through rooms occupied by the master’s family. The homes and furnishings of the period survive today, echoing that era of experimentation with prosperity. The accumulation of wealth in the middle class allowed more and more families to conform to an idealized view of the role of women as the private, moral influence, devoted to home management and childbearing and childrearing, with the men serving in the public sphere, in both the economy and the polity. Although this model was elaborated in some detail in the era, the contradictory elements of democracy prevented its dominance. Those families who were at the bottom of the social heap had no hope of removing women from the economic sphere. Servants, workingclass families, and slave families had no hope of confining women to a private sphere. Women worked throughout the period, often in some of the most undesirable trades, such as laundresses, factory hands doing repetitive and tedious tasks, and household servants for the more prosperous. While lower class women and slaves had to work outside the family in order to survive, many middle-class women took up organizational work outside the home to effect social reforms. the contradiction of slavery The obvious inequalities and injustices in the emerging social structure had moral aspects not lost on both men and women brought up with a strong sense of right and wrong. Slavery, of course, was the most obvious social phenomenon in the United States that contradicted the ideal of democracy. At the same time other issues had great moral overtones. Education was available only to the wealthy and middle class at the beginning of the century, and the concept that taxes should be used to provide free education to the poor was a profound and dramatic reform through the period. Similarly as crimes against property became more prevalent and jails and prisons proliferated, the fact that most of those imprisoned were from the poorest classes was not lost on reformers. Conditions in prisons, many of which also incarcerated the insane, were deplorable, and prison and mental health reform attracted both men and women as a cause. The drug of choice in the period was alcohol, and its cheap availability in the form of whiskey meant that alcoholism devastated many homes, particularly of the poor. With workingmen wasting their families’ limited resources on their addiction, reformers focused on temperance as a means of addressing the problem. Through the period a “second Great Awakening” swept the country, as Christian preachers of a variety of denominations brought tens of thousands into their churches through fervent appeals to consider the damnation that awaited sinners. For all of these reasons, the decades before the Civil War saw social upheaval, religious revivals, and the emergence of overlapping



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reform movements for abolition of slavery, temperance in alcohol, establishment of public schools, prison and hospital reform, and moral uplift. At the same time the huge democratic experiment of America became even larger, with the acquisition of new territories that, by the 1850s, reached the present borders with Mexico and Canada. Never before in history had a democracy existed in as wide a territory as that represented by the first 13 states. Democracy across a whole continent was truly revolutionary. Improvements in transportation contributed to the possibility that it might work, with steam power employed in river steamboats and on railroads that continually expanded from the 1820s onward. At the same time the profound differences between the southern economy and polity sustained on the basis of slavery, and the northern economy, flourishing on the basis of diversified and specialized agriculture and a growing manufacturing sector, was divisive. With the clashing economic interests, and the growing anti-slavery and abolitionist movement in the north fueled with a moral fervor, a clash became almost inevitable. Each chapter of this work is devoted to a different cluster of aspects of life in the period from the Revolution to the Civil War in America. The first chapter, as an introduction, reviews the political and governmental structures that evolved, and offers a summary of that framework. The rest of the volume is devoted to exploring the details of daily life, through the customs and culture, and the physical constructed environment that shaped and reflected that life. Rodney Carlisle General Editor

Chapter 1

Introduction

“Nothing can you bring you peace but the triumph of principles.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

With the Treat y of Paris of 1783 Great Britain grudgingly accepted the loss

of its 13 Atlantic colonies and their establishment as the new United States of America. During the American Revolution the pamphleteer Thomas Paine had written in Common Sense, “we have it in our power to begin the world over again.” Paine’s statement was not hyperbole: the survival of the United States as a democratic republic dramatically changed world history, gradually weakening monarchies in Europe and Asia. The United States indeed came close to dissolution in its first decade, and was saved by timely circumstances. Emerging statesmen of the new country, mainly under leadership of the Federalist political group, established the U.S. Constitution, which both strengthened the national government and limited its power. In 1800 Thomas Jefferson, whose supporters were called Jeffersonian Republicans, was elected the country’s third president, defeating the incumbent John Adams and his Federalist supporters. That Jefferson’s ascension to power was accomplished without violence provides an example for contemporary developing democracies. Early domestic tranquility was hardly possible. Shays’s Rebellion in 1786, a conflict between debt ridden farmers and commercial bankers and lawyers who refused to provide relief, and the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, showing western farmers’ defiance of a national tax on distilled liquor, were put down only by displays of overwhelming military force. In 1803 Aaron Burr, Jefferson’s former 



The Early National Period and Expansion

A print of the USS Constitution and HBM Guerriere in battle during the War of 1812. The war has been termed America’s second struggle for independence from Britain.

vice president, conspired to join the western states to the Spanish Empire. In 1816 Federalists in New England, still reeling from the commercial damages of the War of 1812, met at the Hartford Convention to consider secession. Into the early 19th century national unity and strength seemed unlikely. But the United States did survive, for several specific reasons. Despite its loss of the colonies and then its chronic infringements on American trade, Britain was jealous that no other European power should exploit American weakness. Indeed, America’s purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France in 1804 could be attributed to the French emperor Napoleon’s realization that given both British rivalry and American proximity to Louisiana, he would never be able to make the colony profitable. Similarly, British influence induced Spain to shift its American empire southward, helping render Burr’s conspiracy relatively harmless, and favoring the U.S. acquisition of Florida from Spain in 1819. Also benefiting American foreign relations were the country’s two wars with the Barbary States, one during the period 1801–05 and the other in 1815. These conflicts not only opened foreign ports to American traders, they also induced Congress to use the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps to pressure Britain, finally in the War of 1812, to concede American sovereignty in deed as in word. The War of 1812 was America’s second war of independence, and not only because it provoked Dr. Francis Scott Key to pen the “Star Spangled Banner.”

Introduction





TREATMENT OF NATIVE AMERICANS The War of 1812 also suppressed American Indian armed resistance to white settlement east of the Mississippi River. Many tribes had allied with Britain in the Revolution, and American negotiators for the Treaty of Paris had little interest in acknowledging native claims. However a remnant of the formerly powerful Iroquois confederation, as well as other tribes—Shawnee, Delaware, Miami, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Ojibwa, Wyandot—inhabited lands north of the Ohio River, and peoples of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes—Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole—lived in the south. These groups survived by trading furs with Europeans and white Americans and by maintaining fairly settled agriculture. Native-American men had the right to vote in 25 of the 31 U.S. states in 1850. But Native Americans did not share the Euro-American concept of private property, Native-American men largely did not work as farmers, and most did

Ten Largest Urban Areas and Population, 1800 and 1850

1800 1) New York City, NY 2) Philadelphia, PA 3) Boston, MA 4) Charleston, SC 5) Baltimore, MD 6) Northern Liberties, PA (annexed by Philadelphia in 1854) 7) Salem, MA 8) Newport, RI 9) Providence, RI 10) Marblehead, MA (tie for population) Southwark District, PA (annexed by Philadelphia in 1854)

1850 1) New York City, NY 2) Baltimore, MD 3) Boston, MA 4) Philadelphia, PA 5) New Orleans, LA 6) Cincinnati, OH 7) Brooklyn, NY 8) St. Louis, MO 9) Spring Garden district, PA (annexed by Philadelphia in 1854) 10) Albany, NY

33,131 28,522 18,320 16,359 13,503 9,913 7,921 6,716 6,380 5,661 5,661 515,547 169,054 136,881 121,376 116,375 115,435 96,838 77,860 58,894 50,763



The Early National Period and Expansion

not embrace Christianity. These differences, in addition to white appetite for farmland, rendered natives, to many white Americans, unworthy of maintaining their homelands. Most tribes signed treaties with the United States calling for the tribes to cede lands in exchange for money or farm equipment. Several armed resistance movements also erupted in the early national period, the most significant was led by Tecumseh, a Shawnee leader who created an alliance of Native Americans by traveling from Canada to Georgia, urging rejection of Euro-American culture. In 1813 a territorial force raised by Indiana governor William Harrison killed Tecumseh in Canada. A smaller group of Seminole Indians fought U.S. forces in Florida to a standoff. Today the Florida Seminoles remain the only tribe never to sign a formal peace treaty with the United States. By the 1820s many, if not most native tribes in the United States were attempting to accommodate the pressure to adopt various aspects of white society. These attempts did not prevent the U.S. government from removing the Sauk, Fox, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole peoples to areas west of the Mississippi River. AMERICAN RELIGION An important element of American society at this time was religion. In the colonial period most of the colonists who practiced religion were Anglican or Congregationalist, both state-sponsored faiths. But in the early national period, following the Constitution’s First Amendment, all of the states did away with taxes assessed to support religion. Evangelical denominations such as Methodism, Presbyterianism, and the Baptist church, grew rapidly, as did Quakerism, a holdover from the colonial period, which had appeal in the early United States because of its doctrine of the “Inner Light,” an element of God’s divinity that exists in all persons. These churches emphasized individual moral consciousness and the opportunity of all people—well-born, paupers, immigrants, slaves—for eternal salvation. Quakers were notable for their acceptance of female ministers, and for their evangelical ministers, who like the leader of the Second Great Awakening, Charles Grandison Finney, often lacked formal theological training. All of these movements rejected the institutional and Calvinist emphases of the colonial period, and helped to create a democratic ethos in The new Presbyterian Church in Newark, NJ, from a 1792 illustration in New York Magazine. American religious ways.

Introduction





Other American Faiths

In the open religious culture of the early United States, other significant faiths also emerged, including Unitarianism, the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, and the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, or Mormonism. The Unitarian church, although it shared most American churches’ origins in Europe, differed from them in its central belief in the single personality of God, in contrast to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity (three persons in one God), and its de-emphasis of missions to non-believers. Unitarianism had its strongest appeal in New England, and to intellectuals who found religious experience not through emotion or revelation, but history and scholarship. Transcendentalist intellectuals like Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Ellery Channing, and Margaret Fuller preferred a more intense spiritual experience than Unitarian rationalism could provide. But, all New Englanders, they drew on the Unitarians’ exercise of the free intellect and emphasis on the individual person’s quest for connection with the divine. The AME Church and Mormonism both are indigenous to the United States. Richard Allen, a former slave and an ordained Methodist minister, led the foundation of the AME church in 1816 in protest of racial discrimination by the Methodist church. The AME church established congregations mainly in northern cities before the Civil War, where the largest populations of free African Americans resided at the time. The black abolitionist Frederick Douglass was a licensed preacher for the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The Mormon Church, founded by Joseph Smith in 1830, revered not only the Bible, as did mainstream American Christianity, but also the Book of Mormon, an account of Jesus that teaches his spirit’s visit to ancient American civilizations. Smith, who claimed his authority on the basis of an angel’s revelations to him, urged his followers to see the Mormon Church as the successor of a tribe of Israelites, and to establish a new holy city in the United States. Smith also preached the doctrine of plural marriage for some Mormon men. Smith provoked antagonism with these teachings, and he was killed by a mob in Illinois in 1844, not living to see his followers establish themselves shortly thereafter in Utah.

SLAVERY A crucial element of early American government and society was slavery. AngloAmericans first brought enslaved Africans to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, and at the time of the Declaration of Independence, all 13 states sanctioned slavery. But by 1785 the ideal of liberty of the Revolution, and the lack, especially in New England, of lands suitable to large-scale plantation agriculture, induced Vermont, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York to abolish slavery or to begin gradual emancipation of slaves. And the Northwest



The Early National Period and Expansion

Ordinance of 1787, which established a framework for growth through territories eventually becoming states (not European-style colonies), prohibited slavery in lands north of the Ohio River and west of the Mississippi. Nonetheless the original U.S. Constitution of 1787 guaranteed slaveowners the right to recover runaway slaves who crossed state lines (the fugitive slave clause), and allocated representation in the House of Representatives based on states’ free as well as slave populations (the three-fifths clause), thus strengthening slave states. Such notable signatories of the Constitution as James Madison, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and John Dickinson were slaveowners. Yet all of these individuals were on record as condemning slavery as morally wrong and politically unwise. In short, the United States at its inception compromised over slavery in order to position the Constitution to have broad appeal. a southern institution Two signal developments both strengthened the importance of slavery in the early United States and rendered it an increasingly southern institution. Connecticut mechanic Eli Whitney, working in Georgia as a schoolmaster, invented a machine in 1793 that mechanized the separation of cotton seed from cotton fiber. Before this invention a worker could clean one pound of cotton a day. With Whitney’s cotton gin an operator could clean 50 pounds a day. Suddenly under right conditions of soil and climate, cotton paid, a realization that triggered a vast migration of farmers and slaves from the Atlantic seaboard to the Gulf of Mexico region. The cotton gin and the emergence of the deep south cotton belt—South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Florida—energized the struggling American economy, made the takeoff of textile industries in Britain and New England possible, rendered cotton the largest American export by 1800, and provided a thriving internal slave market. And thus cotton prospects systematically strengthened southern planters’ resolve that slavery was a positive good, not a necessary evil. In 1790 there were 682,000 slaves; in 1850, there were 3.2 million, 1.7 million of whom toiled in the cotton belt. Intermittent slave rebellions, or plots for rebellion, were the other development that solidified slavery as a southern institution. In 1800 a slave named Gabriel plotted to free himself and other slaves by killing the white population of Richmond, Virginia. In 1804 slaves in the French colony of Haiti overthrew the planter class. In 1822 South Carolina free black Denmark Vesey plotted to kill the white population of Charleston, then sail to freedom in Haiti. Both Gabriel’s and Vesey’s plans for rebellion were foiled when other slaves revealed the plans to white authorities. In 1831 Nat Turner, another slave and a religious minister acted on visions he had since his youth that he was an avenging prophet, gathering six other slaves to attack whites in Southampton County, Virginia. Turner’s Rebellion killed 57 whites. All of these black uprisings or plans to do so con-



Introduction



founded white beliefs about the docility of African Americans, slave and free. And Turner’s Rebellion provoked the Virginia legislature to seriously consider freeing all slaves in the state. But ultimately evidence, or more often, rumors of violent slave defiance caused state authorities to strengthen their slave laws. EARLY DEMOCRACY AND ITS LIMITATIONS Despite its failure to protect the liberty or rights of Native Americans and African Americans, the United States in the first part of the 19th century was the most democratic country in the world, measured in terms of male voting rights. In 1790, of the 13 states in the Union, 10 required that residents own property in order to vote. In 1840, of the 26 states in the Union, only seven states had such requirements for voting. The elimination of property requirements during the early republic and the Age of Jackson greatly broadened the American electorate. On the other hand voters were nearly exclusively white. In 1790 only three of the 13 states—Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia—restricted voting rights to whites. But by 1840 20 of the 26 states restricted voting rights to whites, including six of the original 13 states that, although they originally provided African-American men the right to vote, prohibited blacks from voting in 1840. The first modern political party in the United States, the Democratic Party, was the first beneficiary of widespread suffrage. The Democratic Party was formed in 1824 around the leadership the hero of the War of 1812 and the Seminole Wars, Andrew Jackson. First elected president in 1828, Jackson was the first U.S. president not a cabinet member of the outgoing administration. Unlike his predecessors, he actually had to travel to Washington, D.C., (from Tennessee) to take up the presidency. In the campaign of 1828 Jackson did not shirk attention, traveling by steamboat for publicity; this was again different from his predecessors, who remained hidden from public view until after they were elected. Jackson’s raucous inaugural party at the White House and his presidency were symbolic of political power opening to common men, not merely aristocrats. Andrew Jackson, president of the United States, in an 1829 print. Opposition to the Democratic Party



The Early National Period and Expansion

emerged after Jackson’s re-election in 1832 under the name “Whigs,” led by U.S. Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky. The Whigs alleged Jackson was too monarchical in his authority, especially after he effectively closed a U.S. national bank, the Second Bank of the United States, by vetoing renewal of its charter. Their opposition to the veto reflected their interest in developing a more centralized American economy through an American System of protective tariffs, road- and canal-building, and the bank. But Jackson and the Democrats resented the bank’s stock ownership by wealthy Americans and foreigners, and they feared economic centralization. women’s roles American democracy in the period also was nearly closed to women. Only New Jersey allowed women to vote in 1790, and New Jersey excluded women from voting in 1807 (the next time women in America would be able to vote would be in 1870, in Utah). Likewise no woman could be elected to political office or be a member of a jury in a court of law, and in most states married women could not own property by themselves, or divorce their husbands without specific approval of the state legislature. Women had virtually no access to colleges and universities: Oberlin College and Antioch College, both Ohio co-educational college institutions, were exceptions. Radical women’s rights advocates met at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848 to create a Declaration of Sentiments. Modeled on the Declaration of Independence, the Declaration of Sentiments stated the following: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal,” and demanded that American women have full rights of U.S. citizenship. But many Americans were indifferent to women’s rights at the time, or scoffed at such demands as the right to vote. Some women, nonetheless, become important public activists, largely growing out of the relative openness of American religious culture to women’s leadership. Mainly but not exclusively in the north, American women led or played important roles in several reform causes. These included the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, which sought to convert Native Americans as well as peoples outside the Americas to Christianity; the American Bible Society, which distributed Bibles in cities and new settlements; and the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance, which sought to reduce or eliminate Americans’ consumption of alcohol. The temperance movement was the largest antebellum reform cause, organizing state and local chapters throughout the country and successfully convincing hundreds of thousands of Americans to swear off alcohol. Temperance was an example of how many women influenced antebellum national politics. Whigs tended to support temperance efforts, while Democrats tended to oppose them.



Introduction



ANTISLAVERY Women were also active in the antislavery movement, which prescribed various methods of eliminating slavery from the United States. In the first 50 years of the republic, most white Americans actively opposed to slavery supported the American Colonization Society, which sought removal of free African Americans to Liberia, in Africa, as a means to encourage voluntary freeing of slaves by

The Underground Railroad and Uncle Tom’s Cabin

The Underground Railroad was not literally a railroad, but a network of people, modes of transportation, and secure houses that enabled slaves to gain freedom in northern states, or in Canada. The total escaping through these routes has never been determined accurately, but some estimates are in the range of 70,000 to 100,000. Most runaway slaves actually walked, swam, or stowed away in wagons or boats, traveling over remote paths, rivers, or mountain ranges at night. Probably because of the early construction of railroad lines at the time, runaways became known as “passengers,” and those aiding them as “conductors” or “station masters.” Abolitionist societies and the Quaker Church were the most supportive organizations of the Underground Railroad, but its operation relied heavily on brave individuals, including many free African Americans scattered through communities in the north. Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, based the novel partly on her interviews of runaway slaves brought by the Underground Railroad to Cincinnati, where Stowe lived. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a melodramatic indictment of the Fugitive Slave Law, and spread antislavery sentiment more widely than any previous abolitionist publication ever had. Novels such as Stowe’s work normally enjoyed a heavily female leadership, but its political impact reputedly prompted Abraham Lincoln, during the Civil War, upon meeting Stowe to say, “So you’re the little woman who wrote The title page of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s groundbreaking novel. the book that started this Great War.”

10

The Early National Period and Expansion

A symbolic group portrait eulogizing legislative efforts for the Compromise of 1850. The figures pictured here are (front row, left to right): Winfield Scott, Lewis Cass, Henry Clay, John Calhoun, Daniel Webster, and (holding a shield) Millard Fillmore.

their masters, and to racially purify the United States. Beginning in the 1820s African Americans, very few of whom supported colonization, formed antislavery societies, sponsoring speakers, and lobbying northern states for the rights of full citizenship. In the 1830s these societies, in turn, in conjunction with Christian evangelicalism, began to move white Americans to the more radical advocacy of immediate abolition of slavery, without colonization and without compensation to slaveowners (no one at the time, not even abolitionists, considered compensating slaves for lost earnings). William Lloyd Garrison founded the abolitionist New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1831, soon renamed the American Antislavery Society. Committed to nonviolence, the AAS relied on national distribution of millions of antislavery tracts, and collected millions of signatures on antislavery petitions that were sent to Congress. Most white Americans, however, supported slavery or were indifferent to the plight of slaves. Thus antislavery mail and petitions provoked anti-antislavery riots in northern cities, including in Garrison’s home at Boston, where a mob dragged him through the streets. Southern mail carriers, with approval of President Jackson, simply did not deliver antislavery tracts in the south. Congress “gagged,” or refused to officially receive, antislavery petitions. Two controversies arose over slavery’s presence in new states entering the Union. In 1820 Missouri applied for statehood, and in 1836 Texas did the same after achieving independence from Mexico (despite the heroic and suicidal defense of the Alamo). Missouri became a slave state through the Missouri Com-



Introduction

11

promise, which prohibited slavery north and west of the Missouri southern boundary. Texas was denied statehood until 1845 over fear of war with Mexico and northerners’ opposition to a new large slave state. But through the late 1840s the antislavery movement remained on the margins of American politics and society. Slave labor in the south and wage labor in the north developed almost naturally, through slavery’s economic takeover in the south and most northerners’ acceptance of southern slavery as necessary for northern industrial prosperity. Industry centered in such manufacturing areas as Lowell and Lawrence in Massachusetts, New York City, and Philadelphia. WESTWARD EXPANSION AND THE GROWING PROBLEM OF SLAVERY But the potential expansion of slavery westward began to seriously undermine American political stability with the annexation of Texas. President James Polk, representing a pro-expansionist Young America wing of the Democratic Party, believed that the destiny of the United States was to be a continental nation, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Once Texas joined the Union, Mexico announced its intention to recapture what it considered a rebel province. Mexican forces and U.S. forces clashed just north of the Rio Grande River, which Americans claimed as the Texas border, and Congress declared war on Mexico in 1846. The ensuing U.S.-Mexican War, which most Whigs including Illinois Congressman Abraham Lincoln opposed, was a disaster for Mexico. U.S. forces occupied the capital of Mexico City. The treaty ending the war awarded Mexico $15 million, but gave the United States undisputed control of Texas and ceded to the United States California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming. While most Democrats celebrated the vindication of their expansionist agenda, many thought that “Mexico will poison us,” in the words of the poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson. During the war Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot offered legislation banning slavery in all territory that might be gained through the war. Most northern congressmen voted for the resolution, most southern congressmen against, signalling a new north-south sectional alignment. Quarreling over whether slavery should go west worsened after the war, and in 1850 the U.S. Congress enacted measures to attempt to preserve political stability. The resulting Compromise of 1850 involved five laws, the most controversial of which was the Fugitive Slave Law, which criminalized assistance to runaway slaves and authorized law enforcement officials to arrest suspected runaways merely on testimony by a person alleging ownership. The Fugitive Slave Law reflected slavery supporters’ sense that the federal government had never decisively acted to protect slavery, thus encouraging such institutions as the Underground Railroad, a network of routes and houses helpful to slaves running toward freedom in a northern state or Canada. The Fugitive Slave Law brought the controversy over slavery to many northerners, because it made them responsible for upholding the institution.

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The Early National Period and Expansion

ORIGINS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND THE BEGINNING OF SECTIONAL VIOLENCE The Compromise of 1850 probably prevented some southern states from seceding that year. But also gaining brief but powerful influence was the politics of nativism, aimed at restricting Catholic immigration, mainly Irish people and Germans attracted by economic opportunity. Protestant-Catholic clashes erupted in northern cities beginning in the 1830s. In the 1854 elections the American Party, or Know-Nothings, on account of its rank-and-file’s insistence they “knew nothing” of the movement’s secret origins, were elected to Congress, state governorships, and local offices, on a platform of restricting immigration from Catholic countries, restricting political offices to nativeborn citizens, and requiring a 21 year waiting period for an immigrant to gain citizenship. Know-Nothing candidates also argued they represented grassroots reform of a stagnant political system. Most former Whig supporters switched to the Know-Nothing movement, and the Whig Party collapsed. But in 1854 sectional animosities again flared when Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas led Congress to pass the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, opening those territories to settlement with or without slavery, violating the Missouri Compromise. The Kansas-Nebraska Act precipitated formation of the Republican Party, which, though not abolitionist, was committed to stopping slavery from expanding beyond the Atlantic seaboard and the deep south. With strength in New England and the west, they made little attempt to appeal to southern voters. The Republicans, though not as nativist as the Know-Nothings, also appealed to American Party supporters in their message of reform, thus confirming slavery, not nativism, would be the great issue of the late antebellum period. bleeding Kansas Meanwhile Kansas, as it lay south of Nebraska, quickly drew proslavery and antislavery antagonists after it was organized as a U.S. territory. Two territorial governments were actually established, and the U.S. government, committed at the time to allow Kansans themselves to decide about slavery, offered little guidance or mediation. Kansas thus became a symbol of both coming sectional violence and the doctrine of states’ rights. Proslavery forces burned the antislavery town of Lawrence, and John Brown, an abolitionist who believed God directed him to use violence, struck for the first but not the last time. One night in May 1856 Brown and a small guerilla group brutally murdered four proslavery settlers. That same month Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina assaulted Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, who had condemned the sacking of Lawrence and accused Senator Andrew Butler, a relative of Brooks, of taking the “polluted harlot, Slavery” as his mistress. Sumner’s injuries from his caning by Brooks forced him to leave the Senate for three years. Brooks broke his cane during the assault, but received dozens of replacements from southern sympathizers.

Introduction



The caning of Sumner, promoted by the antislavery press as evidence of the “slave power’s” control of the federal government galvanized support for the Republican Party. The party also gained momentum, ironically, from the proslavery decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, Dred Scott v. Sanford, in 1857. Dred Scott was a slave from the slave state of Missouri, whose master had taken him to the Wisconsin Territory and Illinois. Scott sued for his freedom, claiming the Missouri Compromise and an Illinois antislavery law legalA wood engaving of Dred Scott from century Magazine in 1887. ized his freedom. But the U.S. Supreme Court not only denied Scott’s claim of freedom, it also struck down the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and by implication all antislavery laws accumulated in the northern states, or any potential federal antislavery law as espoused by the Republican Party, holding the guarantee of property of the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment. Because the Court denied states the ability to make laws for or against slavery, yet the federal government refused to take a position, the Dred Scott decision weakened Americans’ faith in government. The Dred Scott decision also, in its most outrageous holding, declared African Americans had never been and never could become U.S. citizens, denying the history of free black property ownership, making of contracts, and exercising First Amendment rights of speech, religion, and assembly. This aspect of the opinion, the question of African-American legal equality in America, became a main theme of a series of campaign debates for a U.S. Senate race in Illinois the next year, between the incumbent Stephen Douglas and the challenger Abraham Lincoln. Douglas solidified his Democratic support in the state partly by alleging that Lincoln wished for the races to mix socially and politically, in marriage, jobs, and voting. Lincoln, a long-time supporter of black colonization, actually agreed with Douglas that African Americns were not socially and politically equal to whites. But he emphasized that slavery was wrong because it denied African Americans the fundamental right of all Americans to “the bread which his own hand earns,” and thus was alien to America’s core liberal, capitalist ethos. Douglas won the election for the U.S. Senate, but alienated southern Democrats because he insisted, despite the Dred Scott decision, that the states could still tolerate or prohibit slavery. Lincoln, on other hand, in his eloquence and his distinction between support for racial equality and opposition to slavery, captured leadership of the Republican Party and effectively launched his campaign for the U.S. presidency.

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The Early National Period and Expansion

HARPERS FERRY AND THE BRINK OF WAR Still it was far from a foregone conclusion in 1858 that the United States would see most of the slave states join together and declare independence. Abraham Lincoln, a politician, was not William Lloyd Garrison, an agitator. But in 1859 John Brown, the Kansas fugitive, struck again, this time not on the frontier but in the old south. Brown again collected a small band of ne’er-do-well followers, this time to capture a U.S. armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, apparently in hopes of motivating surrounding slave communities to rise up against their masters. Brown captured the armory but, failing to inform any slaves of his plan, did not liberate a single slave. He did provoke a raid by U.S. Marines on the armory, led by future Confederate commanders Robert E. Lee and Jeb Stuart, who turned him over to Virginia authorities for trial. In jail Brown freely confessed his plan to start a slave insurrection. He was thus quickly tried and executed in accordance with Virginia law. Republican leaders such as Lincoln condemned Brown as a fanatic, but many northern civilians, now sympathetic to the antislavery cause, celebrated Brown as a martyr. Southerners had the opposite view, branding Brown a terrorist. Timothy M. Roberts

Further Readings

Appleby, Joyce. Inheriting the Revolution: the First Generation of Americans. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2001. Douglass, Frederick, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. New York: Signet Classics, 2006. Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815–1848. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Johnson, Paul and Sean Wilentz. The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th-Century America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Levine, Bruce. Half Slave and Half Free: The Roots of Civil War. New York: Hill and Wang, 1992. Masur, Louis. 1831: The Year of Eclipse. New York: Hill and Wang, 2002. McCoy, Drew. Elusive Republic: Political Economy in Jeffersonian America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. Reynolds, David. Walt Whitman’s America: A Cultural Biography. New York: Vintage, 1996. Taylor, George Rogers, The Transportation Revolution, 1815–1860. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1977.

Chapter 2

Family and Daily Life

“In America, more than anywhere else in the world, care has been taken constantly to trace clearly distinct spheres of action for the two sexes...” — Alexis de Tocqueville, 1837

After the American Revolution it became common knowledge that in order

for the new nation to survive as a republic, citizens had to exhibit a willingness to forgo personal interests for the common good. Citizens had to be patriotic, moralistic, and most of all, virtuous. This emphasis on virtue gave the domestic role of women much more recognized importance than it had previously received. In order to better explain the developments in family structure during the early national and antebellum periods, this chapter provides a brief explanation of colonial family roles, it explains republican motherhood and domestic ideology, and it provides an overview of the differences in family structure that developed between the north and the south in the antebellum period. The modern concept of a traditional, nuclear family was a foreign concept in the labor-intensive world of early Americans. Most families consisted of parents and children, as well as extended relatives, apprentices, servants, and even slaves. In the colonial era the individual’s dependence on the family unit enabled him or her to survive. Whether they were related to each other or not, people living, working, and eating under one roof were considered family members. In fact very few people lived by themselves, and those who did were looked upon with suspicion. Unmarried men and women usually lived with other family members. For example Stephen and Olive Walkley of Stonington, Connecticut, shared their home with Stephen’s father and two 15

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The Early National Period and Expansion

A dressmaker’s room in Kirby’s Mill, New Jersey. When married, English and colonial women lost their maiden name and personal identity, and could not own property.

unmarried sisters. One nephew joined the household for a number of years, and the Walkleys had nine children. Similarly the Hale family of Coventry, Connecticut, included the patriarch Deacon Hale and his second wife, Hale’s son John and his wife Sarah, a number of the Deacon’s other children until they grew up and began households of their own, and various cousins and grandchildren. Most importantly the colonial family structure was patriarchal. Within these families, and English families as well, a man had complete power over the property and his wife. When married English and colonial women lost their maiden name and personal identity, meaning that they could not own property, file lawsuits, or participate in political life. A legal principle called femme covert dictated that a wife’s legal interests were considered covered, or represented, by her husband; her domestic services, any wages she earned, and even her children belonged to her husband. In effect women were completely excluded from political and civic duties. Femme covert did not necessarily apply when a woman was widowed, because she could then hold her husband’s property or run his business. However a widow gave up power over any property she inherited if she



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remarried. The role of wives was to raise and nurture healthy children and support their husbands, and most women carried out these duties. In the mid-18th century women usually married in their early 20s and had six to eight children, not all of whom survived to adulthood. In the years following the American Revolution, the republican nature of the new republic brought tyrannical power, in all of its forms, into question. Period writers proclaimed that affection, not duty, bound wives to their husbands, in order to diminish the tyrannical aspects of patriarchal family structure. Republican ideals spread to women’s roles within their families, and a new importance was placed on the role of the mother. Republican motherhood emphasized that a mother should acquire a basic education so that she could teach her sons, the future political players in American society, the value of education and virtue. In part this was a small advance for women, who could now justify spending time on education for the betterment of her family, but republican motherhood focused on subordinating the mother’s interest for her son’s future gain. SEPARATE SPHERES AND FAMILY IN THE NORTH While the patriarchal structure of colonial families prescribed distinct duties for men and women prior to the American Revolution, societal changes during the 19th century brought about a much stricter delineation of gender roles, particularly because of the rise of a small professional class of whitecollar workers. These middle-class men controlled middle-class families who wanted to distinguish themselves from both the excesses of the gentry class, who did not work for their money, and especially from the lower classes. Families could in part achieve this distinction through the actions of particular family members. Like colonial families, antebellum families were also patriarchal in structure, with the husband representing the interests of the family. Middle-class wives were expected not to seek employment outside of the home because their main duties were to take care of the household, to raise the children, and to tend to their husbands’ needs. Because of this delineation of roles—men as breadwinners, women as caretakers—women and men populated separate spheres, with men in the public sphere and women in the private sphere. Men’s roles in farming and at trades gave them the freedom to participate in politics and the economy. Women, on the other hand, were to preserve their virtue as dedicated wives and mothers in the private sphere. Although the idea of the private sphere is not unlike the roles women fulfilled during the colonial period—women still ran the household and educated the children, took care of domestic duties and had no political rights—a much greater emphasis was placed on the distinction between work that was done for wages and work that was not. Within the world of the middle class, it was acceptable for men to work for wages, but women would not. Though housework was very demanding, even if a family employed one or more servants to assist the wife, housework was not rewarded with wages.

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The Early National Period and Expansion

An 1808 engraving of a northern estate in Hoboken, New Jersey. Women ran the household, educated the children, and took care of domestic duties on these grand estates.

The nickname “the angel of the house” encapsulates the domestic ideal of the 19th century. In a book titled The Young Wife (1842), the author advises female readers: “One general rule may here be laid down, which is—‘Do everything for your husband which your strength and a due regard to your health will admit.’ I will not say that it were not wise, sometimes, to go even beyond your strength—to deny yourself—and even to make a self-sacrifice. But I do insist on your going to the borders, at least, of self-denial and self-sacrifice. […] Such advice may seem to be unreasonable. It may be said that I would make woman a slave. No such thing: I would make her a Christian—and a happy one. I would give her that freedom to which Christianity, with its high hopes and promises, bids her to aspire.” The excerpt advises female readers to deny themselves in order to be good wives, and indeed, such actions would make them good Christians at the same time. A woman’s place in the household maintained her status as a paragon of virtue, unaffected by politics or economics. Men, on the other hand, spent many hours in the public sphere, because more and more jobs were available in factories or other institutions outside of the home. In turn men’s homes were supposed to be their moral centers, and their wives were to tend to their emotional and spiritual life, protecting tradition and providing a stable refuge from the harsh, impersonal public sphere.



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In lower-class and rural families, it was impossible to achieve the middleclass dream of a wife who did not work for wages outside of the household. While their wealthier counterparts took care solely of household tasks, lowerclass women worked for wages alongside the men because the survival of their families depended on it. Thus the idealized view of women as domestic angels had no bearing on the harsh realities of women who worked as barmaids, prostitutes, household servants, cooks for the more affluent, laundresses, or as laborers in the expanding mills of the period. And of course, the idealized model did not apply to slave women or to Native-American women who struggled with day to day existence, following cultural patterns of their own. Experiments with employing young women in mills in New England in the 1830s, where they would live in supervised dormitories, returning to their rural homes for part of the year, served as a harbinger of changes to come. PLANTER PATRIARCHY IN THE SOUTH Domestic ideology and separate spheres developed in the north as well as the south during the 19th century. Much like in the north male plantation masters ruled the family and social institutions in the south. On smaller plantations owners directed the work of their slaves themselves. On larger estates, owners could hire overseers to manage the day-to-day operations of the slaves, leaving the owners free to focus on finances and other plantation matters, or to pursue leisurely pursuits like debating politics or hunting. In the antebellum period, as abolitionists brought attention to slavery as an evil institution, planters began to redefine their relationship to their slaves in what historians now call paternalism. This concept characterized slavery as a set of reciprocal obligations between plantation masters and their slaves. Essentially slave owners played up their roles as guardians, claiming that because they provided food, clothing, and shelter to slaves, that they deserved the slaves’ labor and obedience. Thomas Jefferson explained the ideal succinctly in 1814: “We should endeavor, with those whom fortune has thrown on our hands, to feed & clothe them well, protect them from ill usage, require such reasonable labor only as is performed voluntarily by freemen, and be led by no repugnancies to abdicate them, and our duties to them.” While paternalism was in part proAn idealized portrayal of American slavery and the lives of slaves in 1841. paganda, it also made good business

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The Early National Period and Expansion

An 1859 tobacco package label shows a positive vision of slave life before the Civil War. In reality, female slaves had little time to raise their own children in addition to their work on the plantation.

Family Life for the Enslaved

Slave families faced situations and hardships of which white families would not have dreamed. Without legal rights or control over their own fates, enslaved men and women could be sold from blood relatives at any time, in addition to a number of other horrific possibilities. For instance, in the Narrative of Frederick Douglass, the author details witnessing his master whip his mother until she was weak and bloody. While some masters took care not to break up families through the sale of individual family members, others were not so kind. Female slaves bore the burden of their work on the plantation, in addition to bearing and raising their own children. A slave mother may be allowed some time away from her work, but often she was required to resume her duties very soon after having her child. Another family member, either someone too old or too young to work, may have taken care of infants, but others were left alone while their mothers returned to work in the field or house. Enslaved women, particularly light-skinned mulattos, often were targeted by their masters for sexual favors. The “fancy trade” was the nickname of the specific trade of light-skinned females for such purposes. Because these women more closely resembled white women, men saw them as more delicate and less able to do the heavy work required around the plantation. One of the most infamous master-slave relationships occurred between Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings.



family and Daily Life



sense. By providing basic necessities to their slaves, masters could ensure the health and wellness of their property, while also reserving the right to punish a slave if he or she became insubordinate. Plantation mistresses shared the same roles as their northern counterparts, to fulfill the roles of wife and mother. Southern ladies were expected to be the perfect complement to their patriarchs; delicate, beautiful, cultured, and charming, even ornamental. While these female attributes were emphasized, womanly weakness was also a focal point of southern society. Men reserved the roles of chivalrous, strong protectors over not only their slaves, but also their women. In turn, men subordinated women. However a woman’s role as the plantation mistress conflicted with her supposed weakness. She managed all of the house slaves and directed their tasks without the help of an overseer. In addition she bore children and raised her family, perhaps 10 or 11 children over a lifetime. Rarely with the leisure time afforded to the plantation master, the mistress did not leave home often. While a mistress’s life was privileged, it was also circumscribed. beyond one’S accepted Sphere By the outbreak of the Civil War northern women began finding opportunities to enter the public sphere as writers, and as social activists fighting for abolition, temperance, and religious revival movements. In “‘Little Women’ Who Helped Make This Great War,” Glenna Matthews describes this environment as “a female public in the North—one of the first, if not the first, ever.” Matthews’ terminology—“female public”—emphasizes how novel this concept would have been to 19th-century AmerOne of the icans who traditionally only associated best-known female women with the home. The idea of sepabolitionists arate spheres prescribed a sheltered life was Harriet with little public influence for women, Beecher Stowe. until women began to form connections to a wider network of women. Matthews argues that during the antebellum years, the north experienced a “flowering of […] civil society, that is to say, a public sphere independent of the state,” which expanded women’s sphere of influence. With the emergence of a public independent of the state, which was specifically a male domain, women had

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The Early National Period and Expansion

Advice Literature in the Antebellum Period

In order to help young men and women navigate society and to learn about one’s prescribed roles, publishers flooded the market with books of advice and instruction. Before television hosts recommended financial, dietary, and consumer counseling to hordes of television viewers, instructional manuals achieved high popularity among readers in the early 19th-century United States. In a rapidly changing American society, an increasing number of young people faced situations—in work, courtship, health, household management, marriage, or motherhood—to which their parents could not relate. Because Americans faced many new challenges in growing cities, factory jobs, and rural areas, the market for advice books grew. Advice literature does not necessarily tell modern readers exactly how Americans acted, but readers can better understand antebellum society through the prescriptions for proper behavior. Many advice books focused on romantic relationships and the choice of a marriage partner. For instance The Daughter’s Own Book, published in 1833, advised young women, “Do not marry a man who is not industrious in some honourable vocation. It is bad for any individual to be without some set employment: the effect of it is very apt to be, that he abuses his talents, perverts his time to unworthy purposes, and contracts a habit of living to little purpose but that of selfish gratification […] Do not marry a man of an irritable, violent, or overbearing temper. There is nothing with which domestic enjoyment is more intimately connected, than a naturally amiable and affectionate disposition; and the absence of this is sure to render a delicate and sensitive female, in no small degree, unhappy. […] Do not marry a man who is deficient in understanding, or in mental acquisitions. I do not mean that you should look for an intellect of the highest order, or that you should consider yourself entitled to it; but I mean that a woman of decent intelligence can never be happy with a fool.” To gain a better understanding of the range of titles available, here is a short list of some titles published during the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s: The Young Wife’s Book: A Manual of Moral, Religious and Domestic Duties; The Young Man’s Guide; The Young Bride’s Book; Advice to a Married Couple; Advice to a Young Gentleman on Entering Society; The Young Ladies’ Book: A Manual of Elegant Recreation, Exercises and Pursuits; and The Boy’s Guide to Usefulness. Advice books existed for many people in many situations in life, and often this advice was directed based along gender lines. Under the surface of these titles lie a few assumptions about their audience: that the audience is educated enough to know how to read, and that it has the time to read the book and follow its suggestions.



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a limited chance to emerge from the private sphere. Furthermore northern women had more opportunities to socialize and form communities through voluntary associations and attending lectures, civic rituals, and parades; not only did these activities allow connections to be made between women, but these activities took place outside of the home. American society associated morality with women, so women also found a voice in the abolitionist movement. Matthews explains how “slavery gained salience for northern women because assessing its morality involved matters on which they could claim as much or more expertise as their menfolk.” The politics of slavery was a public matter, but because women were associated with morality, they could argue for the moral issues surrounding it, giving them another opportunity to enter the public sphere. Women such as Abby Kelley Foster and Lucy Stone actually joined the antebellum lecture circuit, which was usually populated by male orators. Speaking in front of “promiscuous audiences,” or audiences comprised of both men and women, female abolitionists made powerful speeches that pulled on the heartstrings of hearers, as well as appealed to their reason. Women supported abolition by raising awareness about the cause, by creating sewing circles and Samaritan societies, and later, by helping to hide fugitive slaves in their homes. One of the best-known female abolitionists is Harriet Beecher Stowe, whose Uncle Tom’s Cabin quickly brought the horrors of slavery to life for thousands of readers across the northeast.

An 1859 print shows “Ye May session of ye woman’s rights convention.” A woman speaker is pointing to the men sitting in an upper gallery.

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The Early National Period and Expansion

Boone Hall Plantation in Charleston, South Carolina—one of America’s oldest working plantations. The plantation owner was the ruler of both his slaves and his family.

In the south however, the control over women remained strong because of the planter patriarchy and the devotion to the southern way of life. Southerner George Fitzhugh, a proslavery advocate, wrote in 1854, “woman … has but one right and that is the right to protection. The right to protection involves the obligation to obey. A husband, lord and master … nature designed for every woman.” Thus the patriarchy that ruled over the slaves also enforced the subjugation of all white southern women. In comparison to the north, the south intensified domestic ideology by separating the sexes, as well as assigning them to a hierarchy. In reference to the social activities in which northern women participated, Matthews explains that southerners took part in these activities “to a lesser extent because of that region’s more hierarchical social structure, its lack of public education, and a lessened respect for free speech after abolitionism had begun to pose a terrifying threat to the southern way of life.” Abolitionism formed a surprising link between slaves and southern women: the patriarchy that subjugated women also kept them relatively secluded, keeping women, like slaves, from forming social networks. In conclusion the family structure during the early national and antebellum periods resembled that of colonial families. However during the 19th century, the advent of separate spheres for men’s and women’s work created greater distinction between the proper behaviors and duties of each gender. In the



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south, the plantation owner was the ruler of both his slaves and his wife, and opportunities for southern women to go beyond their sphere did not develop as they did for northern women. Amy Sopcak Joseph

Further Readings

Boydston, Jeanne. Home and Work: Housework, Wages, and the Ideology of Labor in the Early Republic. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. Boylan, Anne M. The Origins of Women’s Activism: New York and Boston, 1797–1840. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth. Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988. Hellerstein, Erna Olafson, et al., eds. Victorian Women: A Documentary Account of Women’s Lives in 19th-Century England, France, and the United States. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1981. Lefkowitz Horowitz, Helen. Attitudes toward Sex in Antebellum America: A Brief History with Documents. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006. Matthews, Glenna. “‘Little Women’ Who Helped Make This Great War.” Why The Civil War Came (Gabor Boritt, ed.). New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Nylander, Jane C. Images of the New England Home, 1760–1860. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994. Roark, James L., et al. The American Promise: A History of the United States: Volume 1: To 1877. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000. Rose, Anne. Voices of the Marketplace: American Thought and Culture, 1830–1860. New York: Maxwell Macmillan International, 1995. Schloesser, Pauline. The Fair Sex: White Women and Racial Patriarchy in the Early American Republic. New York: New York University Press, 2002. Shammas, Carole. A History of Household Government in America. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2002. Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785–1812. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.

Chapter 3

Material Culture

“The open frontier, the hardships of homesteading from scratch, the wealth of natural resources, the whole challenge of a continent waiting to be exploited, combined to produce a prevailing materialism.” — Barbara Tuchman

Historians have often noted the contradictory trends of the period fol-

lowing the American Revolution. Post-revolutionary American life showed signs of both a social revolution and a trend toward gentrification. Republican ideals of democracy and equality were found side-by-side with the trend toward beautifying architecture and acquiring more material possessions. Material possessions became more accessible as American technology and manufacturing advanced, but also remained symbols of one’s aspiration to rise in the social ranks. The democratization of material culture was heralded at the same time that the larger cities were celebrated as the arbiters of taste that small towns and rural areas could only copy through lesser imitations. The rise of ready-made clothing made fine suits and dresses widely available while the concomitant rise of clothiers and custom tailors allowed the wealthy to set themselves apart. Criticisms of European aristocratic excess went hand-in-hand with the rise of imported European finery and styles. Finer homes, clothing, and other material possessions became symbols of wealth more than symbols of social status. Professional architects began to flourish in America at the end of the 18th century. Budding American architects studied British building manuals and would soon begin publishing their own books. Most of these works contained house plans that were specifically described as suitable for certain classes of society. Nationally renowned architects of the period included Richard Upjohn, James 27

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The Ellarslie Mansion, an Italianate villa, was built for Philadelphia lawyer Henry McCall, as a summer home in Trenton, New Jersey. John Notman was the architect, who was known for designing the first Italianate building in America.

Renwick, Asher Benjamin, and Benjamin Latrobe. Other architects achieved renown on a regional level. Aesthetics and beautification of the house and surrounding landscape became the chief architectural goal, reflecting a change in focus from the end of the colonial period, when architects had emphasized a building’s architectural details as opposed to its overall design. This refinement of American buildings occurred at almost every level of society. Architects designed houses with an eye toward how those buildings fit into and enhanced their environment. Outbuildings such as barns and stables as well as nearby entrance paths, walkways, fences, bridges, trees, and gardens were all included in the designs. People began moving their trash dumps out of sight of the house, rather than simply throwing their trash out the door as they had in colonial times. Architects also designed public buildings with the same eye toward creating a beautiful landscape. Stores began to feature large display windows and elegant interior decoration and churches added towers and steeples. The growing number of steamboats and railroad cars catering to the wealthy featured wall-to-wall carpet, fine furnishings, mirrors, stained glass windows, and chandeliers. The rise of American architecture brought European styles to America and diffused them throughout the nation, creating the first truly national architectural styles. Those who could not afford to build new residences commonly redecorated or remodeled their existing dwellings to suit the new popular styles. The Federal, or Georgian, style of architecture first popularized in America in the years preceding the Revolution remained popular into the early 19th



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century. Its emphasis on classical tradition and symmetry would carry over into the Greek Revival style that grew up alongside it. The Greek Revival style dominated American architecture from the early to mid-19th century and was popular throughout the nation. The style first gained popularity in Europe, with European building manuals and European-trained architects like Benjamin Latrobe introducing it to America. Its basis in the building styles of ancient Greece and Rome made it popular among post-revolutionary Americans, who celebrated antiquity and ancient Greece’s association with democracy. The style’s common features included entryways and porches with white pillars, front gables, bold and simple lines, symmetrical design, and friezes. The style was adapted to suit local needs and examples could be seen among both public buildings and elegant mansions and plantation houses throughout the country. Its popularity would fade at the turn of the century, to be replaced by the upsurge in Gothic Revival and Italianate styles. Both Gothic Revival and Italianate styles began to appear during the 1830s and would remain popular throughout most of the remainder of the 19th century. Gothic Revival style in America was an imitation of the Gothic style churches and castles found throughout Europe. The style was popular for both churches and homes, and also can be seen in some public buildings, such as architect James Renwick’s Smithsonian Institution building. Gothic Revival homes were first made of stone and brick, but later became mostly wood frame. They

The Morven House, built in the Georgian revival style, was the Princeton, New Jersey, home of Richard Stockton III, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

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The Development of Professional Architecture in America

The professionalization of American architecture had its birth in the pre­revolutionary period, but did not fully develop until the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The first American architects relied on English books and builder’s guides to learn the popular British styles and import them to America. European-trained architects also helped train their American counterparts in the popular architectural styles of the day. British-born architect and engineer Benjamin Latrobe (1764–1820) began his practice in the late 1700s. He immigrated to Virginia after the 1793 death of his wife Lydia during childbirth and later moved to Philadelphia. There he achieved renown through his design of the Bank of Pennsylvania building, which introduced the Greek Revival style in America. He also aided in the design of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Historians credit Latrobe with professionalizing architecture in the United States. Other well-known American professional architects of the period include Asher Benjamin, Richard Upjohn, and James Renwick, Jr. American architect Asher Benjamin (1773–1845) first achieved fame while designing Federalstyle buildings in Boston. He later began working in the Greek Revival style. He is known for designing private homes and churches in New England as well as for his Greek Revival style builder’s guides, which popularized and diffused that style throughout the country. They include The American Builder’s Companion, The Country Builder’s Assistant, The Rudiments of Architecture, and The Practical House Carpenter. British-born architect Richard Upjohn (1802–78), who immigrated to Boston in 1829 and established his own firm in 1834, served as the first president of the American Institute of Architects. He is most known for his Gothic style churches, including New York’s Trinity Church. American architect James Renwick, Jr. (1818–95), learned the profession from his father and his education rather than from formal training. He won two prominent design competitions in his career, one to design New York’s Grace Church in 1843, and one to design the Smithsonian Institution Building, also known as the “Castle,” in 1846. He also designed New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

featured steep gable roofs and gingerbread trim and were not symmetrical, a departure from the earlier Federal and Greek Revival styles. Alexander Jackson Davis helped spread the style in America with his book Rural Residences. Other noted architects who worked in the style included Richard Upjohn and Andrew Jackson Downing. The Italianate style sought to copy the building



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The parlor of the Lawrence House (New Jersey), which was typical for an early 19th-century home. From the smallest rural towns to the cities, Americans sought to improve their style of living.

style of the Italian Renaissance and featured heavy brackets and moldings as well as arched openings. The trend of building ever more elaborate mansions carried over from the late 18th century. Public and professional men, wealthy merchants and planters, military and government officials, and rising industrialists all hired architects or studied plans to create mansions that would serve as reflections of their wealth and social status. The wealthiest Americans often had more than one residence and country retreats became fashionable among wealthy city dwellers. These mansions featured many rooms, mantels, large windows, ballrooms, piazzas, and extensive gardens. Carriages carried the wealthiest Americans to and from their mansions. The desire to refine one’s home was not the exclusive province of the wealthy. From simple log and frame houses to elaborate brick mansions, and from the largest cities to the smallest rural towns, early 19th century Americans sought to improve their style of living. Those who did not build new residences in the new style often adapted their current residence through redecoration or remodeling. Simple two room houses and one room with loft houses also carried over from colonial times. Stone, brick, and wood remained popular building materials and houses became taller as well as larger. The new “balloon-frame” style that began to replace timber framing featured lighter, thinner walls made of lumber sawn at local mills, and sidings of boards or shingles. The new style provided greater

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flexibility within house design and allowed for quicker construction. These features were instrumental in helping to house the new nation’s rapidly expanding population. Brick or wood-frame I-style houses popular with farming and middle-class families were typically two-stories tall and one room deep. One-story houses featuring four first-floor rooms were popular in the deep south. Many individual variations of the common architectural styles and house plans could also be found throughout the nation. House exteriors were commonly painted, with white the most popular house color. Interior walls were generally smooth and plastered. Landscaped gardens and trees dressed up the fenced-in lawns. Piazzas, porches, and verandas added decorative touches and extended the living space outdoors. Green shutters frequently graced the outsides of windows. HOUSEHOLD FURNISHINGS AND INTERIOR DESIGN During the 19th century the working functions of the house, such as eating and sleeping, moved to the rear of the house and the front rooms were reserved for entertaining and leisure activities. The parlor became one of the most common and significant of a household’s rooms. The parlor had become increasingly common in colonial times, but often housed work tools, beds, and other accoutrements of daily household living. Most middle and upper

The library at Pomona Hall. Begun as a small wood-framed house in 1718, Pomona Hall evolved into a mansion by 1788 and became the home of a prosperous businessman.



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class 19th century parlors, by contrast, were solely dedicated to formal entertaining and featured a family’s finest possessions. Historian Richard Bushman notes that the growing importance of the parlor exemplified the democratic spread of aspirations to a genteel lifestyle. The parlor was also the place where women could practice their music, painting, embroidery, or other refined domestic arts. The formal parlor became less utilitarian, to the point where many families seldom used the room and some people lamented its often stiff, uncomfortable atmosphere. A less widespread mark of gentility was a formal entrance hallway featuring a grand staircase. Finer homes also began featuring sitting rooms, dining rooms, and libraries, continuing the late colonial trend of dividing and specializing space within the home. The period’s stress on self-improvement through reading resulted in the growth of household book collections, as well as libraries and bookcases to hold them. The growth of the publishing industry aided the process by making greater quantities of less expensive books available. Popular subjects besides the ubiquitous Bible included Shakespeare, sentimental fiction, history, and biography, science, etiquette, and almanacs. Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography, with its emphasis on moral living and character development, was a best seller. Like the parlor, a separate library came to symbolize refinement. finer goods and furnishings Estate inventories from the late 18th and early 19th centuries reveal that the earlier interest in steadily acquiring finer goods and furnishings continued throughout this period. Interior decorations, such as wallpapers and fabrics, became richer. There was a growing demand for curtains, sheets, and carpets. Carpets from the most basic scatter rugs to the most luxurious wall-towall carpeting became more popular, as evidenced by the rise of the carpet industry in the 1830s and 1840s. By mid-century most middle and upper class homes featured some form of carpeting. Even those homes that still had wood floors strove to keep them cleaner. The average household’s furniture pieces became more numerous and more decorative. Desks, cupboards, bookcases, sideboards, and secretaries supplemented the basic utilitarian pieces such as chairs, tables, storage chests, and beds. Expensive woods such as walnut and mahogany became more common. Wealthier homes also began to feature sofas and other upholstered furniture, pianos, and washstands. Curtains, Venetian blinds, and lamps provided the wealthy with sources of regulated lighting. The rocking chair, once used solely by the elderly and infirm, had become a popular staple of American parlors by the mid-19th century. Looking glasses (mirrors), clocks, and family portraits could be found in many wealthy and middle class homes. Like furniture, American household ceramics became more widespread, decorative, and refined. Fine tea services had spread throughout most American households in the pre-revolutionary period and post-revolutionary

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Wedgwood Ceramics Many Americans began once again purchasing imported British goods after the American Revolution. A leading example of both the return of British imports and the growing trend toward the diversification of American household goods was the American popularity of Wedgwood ceramics. British potter Josiah Wedgwood came from a long family history in the craft and partnered with leading British potter Thomas Whieldon to open their own line of production in Burslem, England. In 1762 the merchant Thomas Bentley joined the company, adding to the brand’s growing renown through his marketing techniques. The company built a Josiah Wedgwood new factory in 1771 to modernize and increase experimented with a variety production and opened its first showroom in of glazes and clays. 1774 in London. Josiah’s interest lay mostly in the development of fine ceramics, although he also pioneered the mass production of everyday dishes and household items. He maintained separate divisions for the two categories. He was a technological innovator and a pioneer in technology and worker relations. He invented the pyrometer to measure kiln temperatures and was elected to Britain’s prestigious Royal Society in 1783. Josiah spent much time experimenting with a variety of glazes and clays, resulting in the development of three types of ceramics for which the Wedgwood name became most well known. The first was a type of creamware called Queensware after Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III, who was among its early admirers. It was durable earthenware with a cream color and lead glaze. The second was Basaltware, fine purple-black porcelain with a lustrously smooth surface. The third and most recognizable was Jasperware, a white, unglazed stoneware that could be easily tinted an even color and proved both durable in function and delicate in appearance. The light blue version with white ornamentation would prove the most popular, and has remained a highly desirable collectible for over 200 years. Middle class and wealthy American households, like their European counterparts, avidly collected Wedgwood pieces. Josiah Wedgwood died in 1795, but the Wedgwood Company is still in operation and operates a museum and visitor’s center in Barlaston, Staffordshire, England.



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Americans continued the trend toward greater and more specialized household dishes. Many households began supplementing their basic dinnerware on a piecemeal basis over time with such items as specialized dishes, cream pourers, fine tea services, pitchers, wineglasses, decanters, and punch bowls. The cream-colored Queensware developed by renowned British ceramic maker Josiah Wedgwood was one of the most popular ceramic types of the period. His distinctive blue Jasperware is as widely popular today as it was in the early 19th century. Knives and forks, no longer the province of the elite, slowly joined spoons as common utensils. REGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN MATERIAL CONDITIONS Class distinctions were more prevalent in the south, where there was no large middle class between the slaves and poorer farmers, and the large plantation owners at the top. There was little between the rural farmhouse and the elegantly styled and appointed graceful plantation great house. Slave cabins ranged from comfortable single-family dwellings to crude, overcrowded shacks depending on the wealth and intentions of the plantation owner. Larger plantations usually featured separate areas where the slave cabins

The interior of a slave cabin at Boone Plantation in Charleston, South Carolina. Larger plantations usually featured separate slave cabins and material life was more comfortable.

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Class distinctions were more prevalent in the south, and wealthier homes began to feature sofas and other upholstered furniture, pianos, and washstands. This preserved bedroom is in the Bushong home at the New Market Battlefield in Virginia.

were located and material life was generally more comfortable. Many slaves on small farms and plantations often worked, ate, and slept side-by-side with their owners in a simpler form of existence. Basic work clothes of practical, cheap materials and meager material possessions remained the norm for most slave families. Those settlers who chose to travel to the west in covered wagons or to other less settled areas like Florida encountered the same crude living conditions and drive toward self-sufficiency that the original American colonists had experienced. On the frontiers, sod houses, dugouts, and small farmhouses were the norm during the periods of early settlement. For example some of the early Cracker farmers (according to legend, so-named for the cattle whips that “cracked”) to inhabit the new state of Florida after 1821 lived in simple houses made of palm fronds or driftwood recovered from shipwrecks. As frontier towns became more settled, however, even western farmers began to improve, expand, and beautify their homes. They began to purchase or mail order new, commercially produced agricultural implements, such as the mechanical reaper McCormick put into widespread production in the 1850s, guns and ammunition, cloth and clothing, as well as luxury items. Even the frontier was not immune from the effects of social consciousness and the desire to improve one’s status.



Material Culture



America’s large urban cities were beginning the process of separating into specialized neighborhoods and districts during the first half of the 19th century. The growth of manufacturing and consumerism was highlighted by the proliferation of specialized city stores, such as piano shops, coach shops, jewelry stores, music stores, china shops, and dry goods merchants. Most Americans looked to the cities and their inhabitants as the ultimate arbiters of proper fashions and mores. Many wealthy families were abandoning their inner-city houses to build new, lavish new residences further from the city centers with their burgeoning factories. Many abandoned upper and middle class homes began the process of converting to the rundown tenement houses for the poor factory workers and immigrants so prevalent by the late 19th century. clothIng and FaShIon The key changes in fashion during the first half of the 19th century centered on the democratizing effects of the American Revoltion and the development of American manufacturing. The production of cotton, linen, and silk and the sales of readyto-wear clothing made many fashionable looks affordable. New dyes provided an array of colors. The trend toward “off the rack” clothing would accelerate in the 1850s, when the sewing machine first went into mass production in America. Dress was no longer a clear indicator of social order, and many earlier laws regarding what members of specific social classes could wear or not wear were no longer in effect. The desired female silhouette changed during the first half of the 19th century as the waistline gradually shifted downward from a point just below the bosom. The earlier, high-waist style was known as neoclassical. Balloon-style sleeves gradually shrank and high necklines dropped as bell-shaped skirts became longer and fuller. By mid-century multilayered petticoats yielded to stays with hoop frameworks of whalebone, steel, or cane. The stays provided the support necessary for the wider skirts. Corsets and wide skirts helped create the desired illusion of a smaller waist. Party and fancy dresses featured finer, more decorative materials. Silk shawls and silk or kid gloves in white or a pale color provided finishing A Victorian dress and hat

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The Early National Period and Expansion Far left, bloomers, baggy pantaloons with a cuff at the bottom worn below a woman’s skirt, were introduced in the 1850s, but seldom worn. At left, bonnets adorned with large bows, feathers, or flowers were common with hair fashioned into drooping ringlets often showing from underneath.

touches to an elegant ensemble. The practice of carrying handkerchiefs became more commonplace. The popular periodical Godey’s Lady’s Book provided fashion guidance and illustrations for women beginning in 1830. After the American Revolution Americans desired plainer, simpler clothing compared to what they termed the extravagant excess of European styles. The republicanism of post-revolutionary America led many to openly criticize those who sought to display their social status through fine, ornamental clothing. By mid-century however, excessive decoration in both women’s and children’s clothing became increasingly common. Ruffles, silk, lace, satin gauze, ribbons, and other fancy trim appeared on dresses and bonnets in ever-greater abundance. Colorful bonnets adorned with large bows, feathers, or flowers became more and more common. Hair fashioned into drooping ringlets often peeked out from underneath. Bloomers, baggy pantaloons with a narrow cuff at the bottom and worn below a woman’s skirt, were introduced in the 1850s, but were seldom worn and widely ridiculed at the time. They would achieve widespread popularity in the second half of the 19th century. The basic outfit for the 19th-century male usually featured a waistcoat, pants, and shoes. The rise of American clothing manufacturing and retail made clothes more affordable and was heralded as a sign of democratization. For example, newly elected President George Washington wore a suit of Americanmade cloth to his first inauguration in 1789. Early forerunners of the business suit began to appear by mid-century, including the sack suit. The development of ready-made clothing allowed even men of modest means to purchase business-like attire, while the wealthy hired clothiers and custom tailors to fit them with custom suits. Wealthy men wore these suits as leisure wear, but they were the finest clothing possessed by most American men. The suit pieces generally matched, and the most popular colors were black, gray, and plaid. Baggy shirts, replaceable white collars, and large, colorful ties were popular during this period. Wealthier men also owned single- or double-breasted frock coats, generally in black, and single-breasted morning coats, worn with contrasting pants.



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Top hats, black cravats, and silk or embroidered waistcoats provided touches of elegant finery. Clothes for workers also underwent dramatic changes during the period. During the California gold rush beginning in 1849, dry goods merchant Levi Strauss turned cotton tenting into denim work pants. The basic outfit for the youngest infants consisted of long gowns of soft material and cloth or knitted baby boots. Bibs or aprons to protect the gowns and

Godey’s Lady’s Book

Philadelphia publisher Louis A. Godey published the popular Godey’s Lady’s Book in America from 1830 to 1898. 19th-century Americans celebrated both personal improvement and reading, and this new magazine fit both desires. By 1860 Godey’s Lady’s Book had become the most successful women’s magazine in the country, with a circulation of approximately 150,000, and an estimated readership of approximately one million. Women from throughout the country’s various regions, in both urban and rural areas, avidly read the magazine and heeded its advice. Even frontier women with limited access to fashions and other material goods poured over its monthly issues for advice on fashion, as well as a variety of other subjects. 19th-century American women found a variety of articles within its pages, including crafts, health advice, and book notices. Well and lesser-known authors provided short stories and works of poetry. Literary editor Sarah Josepha Hale became a recognizable figure throughout the country. Recipes and helpful hints sought to aid the American housewife. Patterns and illustrations showing the latest fashions offered sartorial guidance. Etiquette lessons taught women the manners and habits of the genteel, refined lady. Other items included house plans, engravings, and even musical scores. Godey’s Lady’s Book would quickly become a pioneer in the field of women’s magazines, with it’s novel format copied and popuA page from Godey’s Lady’s Book, which larized by later publications. had a circulation of about 150,000.

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An advertising print shows fine fashions for men and women for spring and summer 1841, presented outdoors on a pier and indoors in a parlor.

jackets, capes, and hoods were added for warmth or protection from the elements. The gowns became shorter and the baby boots featured cork soles as a toddler began to crawl and then walk. Boys popularized the wearing of trousers before they became popular among American adult males. By mid-century, both young boys and girls began to wear dresses. A girl’s dress buttoned in the rear, while a boy’s dress buttoned in the front. The most noted development in early 19th-century children’s clothing was the end of the practice of dressing children as miniature adults. Girls and boys’ clothing still copied the trends popular for women and men’s clothing, but were also designed with children’s special needs in mind. Material culture of the late 18th and early 19th centuries reflected the new nation’s emphasis on democracy and capitalism, its commercial and industrial growth, and a general rise in the standard of living. These trends combined to create the availability of more material goods in greater variety. Most families became less self-sufficient, purchasing more ready-made clothing, and other items formerly reserved for the elite. Population growth and the rise of a large middle class in most regions meant a greater market for material goods and updated houses. Historian Richard Bush-



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man noted that the period was marked by “the democratization of culture” and that most Americans sought social approval and respectability through their dress, houses, and material possessions. Marcella Trevino

Further Readings

Bushman, Richard L. The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992. Cunningham, Patricia A. and Susan Voso Lab. Dress in American Culture. Bowling Green, IN: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1993. Floyd, Janet and Inga Bryden. Domestic Space: Reading the 19th-Century Interior. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999. Glassie, Henry. Material Culture. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1999. ———. Vernacular Architecture. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000. Glasscock, Jessica. “19th-Century Silhouette and Support.” Timeline of Art History. The Metroplitan Museum of Art. Available online, URL: http:// www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/19sil/hd_19sil.htm (Accessed February 2008). Massey, James C. and Shirley Maxwell. House Styles in America: The OldHouse Journal Guide to the Architecture of American Homes. New York: Viking Studio, 1999. Schlereth, Thomas J. Artifacts and the American Past. Nashville, TN: American Association for State and Local History, 1980. ———. Cultural History and Material Culture: Everyday Life, Landscapes, Museums. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1992. St. George, Robert Blair, ed. Material Life in America, 1600–1860. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press, 1988. Thompson, Eleanor. The American Home: Material Culture, Domestic Space, and Family Life. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1998. Weitzman, David. Underfoot: An Everyday Guide to Exploring the American Past. New York: Scribner, 1976. Zakim, Michael. Ready-Made Democracy: A History of Men’s Dress in the American Republic, 1760–1860. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Chapter 4

Social Attitudes

“I acknowledge that there are some who never were and never will be serviceable to society. And have you not a similar class among yourselves?” — Maria Stewart

The United States in the 1780s came out of a successful revolution against

Great Britain with the task of developing a national identity. The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights gave voice to the basic values that separated the new nation from its colonial past. Political expression at this time was the domain of elite landowning gentlemen of the mid-Atlantic and the southern states, and small, independent businessmen from cities of New England. Americans of British heritage emphasized the separation of church and state for the new country. The majority were from several different Christian denominations. The First Amendment ensured that they could maintain their religious practices in private without governmental interference. The same amendment guaranteed freedoms of assembly, print, and speech—all essential ingredients for maintaining political participation in the new democracy. Slavery was a conundrum that illustrated the regional differences that the former colonies recognized, despite their unity as revolutionists. The point of the revolution had been to gain freedoms that European countries had yet to recognize: the right to representation, liberty, and personal freedom. The former colonists didn’t want soldiers quartered in their houses, their properties confiscated by the government at whim, and repressive social restrictions made by a faraway monarch. While they were united in the recognition that these freedoms were a universal good for the new nation, they were conflicted 43

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Anti-Slavery Sentiments: in a Former Slave’s Own Words

Mr. Olaudah Equiano, known in Europe and the United States as Gustavus Vassa, was a former slave of Nigerian descent who had been born in Benin about 1745, and captured and sold in Barbados. Eventually, he became the property of an English officer in Virginia, in whose service Equiano took part in several naval expeditions. The officer, upon retiring from military service, settled in the West Indies where Equiano purchased his own liberty. As a freedman, he became a merchant. He traveled the world for many years, embraced Christianity, and settled in England, where in 1789, he published an account of his life as a slave. Equiano’s first-person narrative, is a compelling condemnation of slavery and its brutality, and an exciting account of his adventures. By 1791 when the book was published in the United States, it had gone through nine editions in England. The Anti-Slavery Society in New York sold the book and promoted its author as: “a man whom [the reader] cannot fail to love for the excellence of his heart, if he does not admire the brilliancy of his intellect” [Anti-Slavery Record, Volume III, 1838: 136]. Excerpts include: When you make men slaves, you deprive them of half their virtue, you set them, in your own conduct, an example of fraud, rapine, and cruelty, and compel them to live with you. In a state of war; and yet, you complain that they are not honest or faithful! You stupefy them with stripes, and think it necessary to keep them in a state of ignorance. And yet, you assert that they are incapable of learning; that their minds are such a barren soil or moor, that culture would be lost on them; and that they come from a climate, where nature, though prodigal or her bounties in a degree unknown to yourselves, has left man alone scant and unfinished, and incapable of enjoying the treasures she has poured out for him! An assertion at once impious and absurd. Why do you use those instruments of torture? Are they fit to be applied to one rational being to another? And are ye not struck with shame and mortification, to see the partakers of your nature reduced so low? But, above all, are there no dangers attending this mode of treatment? Are you not hourly in dread of an insurrection? But by changing your conduct, and treating your slaves as men, every cause of fear would be banished. They would be faithful, honest, intelligent, and vigorous; and peace, Prosperity, and happiness would attend you.



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about the institution of slavery. Owning slaves seemed a contradiction for men who proposed human rights and liberties. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries white men of European extraction in the newly formed United States for the most part did not regard African slaves and their immediate descendants as equals. Yet they could not disregard their humanity. Revolutionary thinkers like Thomas Jefferson, despite being slave owners, were moved by the bold actions of African Haitians, and former slaves in the 1790s as they struggled in their own war for independence. Increasingly former slaves from the Caribbean and those who escaped from the American south to the north and to Canada published their own narratives as illustrated by the example of Olaudah Equiano. The brutality of slavery could not be ignored for long by the same men who championed their own liberty, won from a European crown. George Washington realized that slavery’s days were numbered in the United States. He made provision in his will that his slaves would be freed, not after his own death, but upon his wife’s death, because she would need them for her economic survival. During his terms as president, he rotated household personnel between his Virginia plantation and his New York residence. New York City had an ordinance that provided that slaves in the municipality who resided there for more than six months be freed, and by 1785 the State of New York also had enacted a law that gave slaves who had served in the Revolutionary War their freedom. Washington got around New York laws by sending his slaves back to his plantation before they would have to be legally liberated. But he realized that the institution of slavery

The only known existing slave auction building in South Carolina, now a museum in Charleston. Revolutionary thinkers such as Thomas Jefferson were conflicted about the issue of slavery.

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would need to be altered in the future, but not during his own political career, a time when he was bound to slavery as an inherited institution and a practical way of maintaining his own financial interests. Politicians like Washington also feared that the outright condemnation of slavery would alienate southern voters and tear the new nation apart. In the U.S. Constitution of 1789, a provision allowed the prohibition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, becoming law in 1808, although the trade in domestic slavery continued with the sale of slaves already in North America and their descendants. Great Britain outlawed the slave trade in 1807, and many other countries followed suit. However illegal transport of slaves, particularly from Cuba and other islands in the Caribbean, continued to be a problem until the American Civil War in 1860. Despite the increasing number of state and local ordinances that banned slavery or provided for the release of slaves under specific conditions in the northern United States, southern plantation owners held onto the institution, without which they feared they could not continue to run their agricultural ventures. The invention of the cotton gin meant that fewer slaves were needed to clean the seeds from cotton. However with the burst in more economical cotton growing, the demand for slaves on the expanding cotton frontier climbed. Other agricultural pursuits like tobacco or rice cultivation also demanded large numbers of laborers. In the 1850s the issue of slavery began to divide the U.S. Congress, particularly as territories in the western United States made application for statehood. Would these territories be slave-holding or free-states? Southern representatives were threatened by the growing attrition of slaves escaping to free-states as well as the territories. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and the Compromise of 1850 attempted to resolve the issue, but further divided the country. An abolition movement grew in force during the early 19th century. It provoked keen debates about the persistence of slavery. It also served as a way for women to express political opinions, serving as one of the venues for the movement of women from a more confined role. Women’s sphere of influence was limited to the domestic arena. But the abolition movement and the Underground Railroad gave northern white and some freed African-American women an outlet for expressing their opinions in public. The issue of slavery, these women maintained, was a moral one. Thus it was entirely appropriate for women to be involved, since women were regarded as the moral guardians of the family. WESTWARD EXPANSION AND ATTITUDES TOWARD NATIVE AMERICANS The history of Native Americans and their interactions with colonial settlers is one of accommodation, compromise, and warfare. In the 1600s and early 1700s Native Americans initially accommodated white settlers in many areas of the northeastern and mid-Atlantic area. As long as small numbers of settlers were present, many Native-American nations initially tolerated their presence and traded with them in places like Massachusetts. But as the lust



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A mid-19th century illustration titled “War dance of the Sauks and Foxes.” Native Americans watched as their land and resources were taken.

for land and resources consumed the settlers, and as settlements expanded, wars erupted and treaties resulted. Native Americans watched their holdings diminish and disappear, and sometimes supported European nations against the English colonists, as in the French and Indian War of 1754–63. Westward expansion and the displacement of Native Americans occurred in three ways: via land grants given to war veterans to reward their Revolutionary War service; through the purchase of land from France in central North America; and via the actual displacement of Native-American nations and Spanish-speaking settlers in the American west via wars, removal plans, and land annexation. By the late 1780s, in the aftermath of the American Revolution, war veterans were rewarded with land grants for their service to their newly-formed country. The grants helped populate new areas as some former colonists left their east coast homes in North America and moved westward into the interior. For example colonial Georgia cities like Savannah and Augusta were established enclaves either on the Atlantic Coast or along easy river access from the coast. In the 1760s Scots-Irish missionaries spread their Baptist faith into the interior to trading posts in places like Mule Camp Springs (later, Gainesville, Georgia) and Dahlonega. In the 1780s Revolutionary War veterans took their land grants and built towns in places like Athens and Sandersville, miles into the interior of what is now the state of Georgia. A series of Indian Wars in the 1820s and 1830s increased the expansion of these interior settlements. Native Americans in Georgia adapted to these changes. The Cherokee and the Creek, a loose confederation of various nations in middle and south Georgia, became “civilized” according to Anglo-American social values. Many converted to Christianity, intermarried with Scots-Irish immigrants, and adopted European architecture, clothing, and other cultural norms. The Cherokee adopted slavery, buying Africans and establishing permanent homes, often in grand European style. Trade items from China, like blue and white porcelain dishes, graced the tables of prominent Cherokee



the early national Period and expansion

families. The Cherokee even developed a writing system for their language and published books and newspapers. However the 19th-century American mindset was that even the Cherokee, despite their acculturation to Euro-American manners, were “savages.” The Gold Rush of 1828 in Georgia sealed their fate, as in 1849 in California. The Cherokee were removed by the federal and state troops. Cherokee leaders went to the Supreme Court prior to the 1839 removal, now known as the Trail of Tears. Despite a favorable ruling that the Cherokee were legally allowed to keep their lands in Georgia, an illegal removal and land grab continued anyway with the support of two presidents of the United States and the Georgia governor who chose to ignore the ruling from the highest court in the land. Lands seized from Native Americans in Georgia were redistributed to white males in a land lottery in the early 1840s. White males were eligible to get these land grants as long as they agreed to settle on the land and make improvements such as building houses and establishing farms for a specified period of time. manIFeSt deStIny, empty land, and eXploItatIon oF reSourceS Westward expansion accelerated with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Thomas Jefferson negotiated this deal with France. Napoleon needed funds and Jefferson looked at the land purchase as a way of securing the United States’ borders against English interests in Canada and Spanish territorial claims to the west, as well as controlling the important port city of New Orleans. The purchase included an area that is now the central portion of the United States, and it doubled the size of the new nation. The Louisiana Purchase opened a new chapter in United States history, one of exploration and frontier fearlessness. A new American male style was born. Gender ideology for the settlers striking out to reinvent themselves in the new western territories called for men whose personal characteristics expressed bold risk taking, self-sufficiency, survival skills, and sheer determination. Their women would have to be tireless, diligent workers steeled by hardship, unafraid to confront the unknown, and willing to create domestic stability out of a blank slate. The frontier men and women who moved west viewed the land, A handbill designed to entice prospectors to California during the Gold Rush. as did the deal makers in Paris and



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Emigrants to the western United States gather around a campfire. When only small numbers of settlers were present, many Native-American nations initially tolerated their presence.

Washington, as empty. But Native Americans inhabited these lands, and they were probably unaware that any exchange of money for land had taken place, a transaction that would seal their fate for the next 100 years. The western boundary of the Louisiana Purchase was established in the Adams-Onis treaty with Spain, signed in 1819. Native Americans were viewed by the east coast settlers moving west as a troublesome problem blocking the “progress of civilization.” Settlers subscribed to the notion of Manifest Destiny in the 1840s as a rationale for the federal government’s annexation of additional western lands, which were at that time under the control of Mexico. The idea of Manifest Destiny was that God had approved this expansion west so that Americans of European stock would spread their culture: conquering, converting, , fighting, and killing as the need arose to transform the tabula rasa of the pure, undisturbed land into a bustling, booming agricultural paradise. When gold and other minerals were discovered in the west in the 1840s, this process increased and new expectations developed. Settlers dreamed about the chance to strike it rich—to discover a vein of gold, or other precious minerals, including those like iron ore needed for new technologies. Men moved west with the idea that anyone could become rich overnight. The reality of mining, however, was quite different from the dream. Going west could be either “boom or bust,” and most people found the latter condition: months or years of hard work and toil, dangerous conditions, and little return. A few speculators,

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An illustration of Gold Rush prospectors with pick axes and a sluice box. As news of the gold discovery spread, about 300,000 people set out for the long trek to California.

merchants, and brokers who prospered spread the gospel of easy wealth. As the settlers kept arriving, a series of wars removed some of the Native Americans, and killed the vast majority of them in an organized and vicious genocide. For example, white settlers in California could earn 50 cents per scalp from local municipal officials, if they took this trophy from their murdered victims. Native Americans became regarded as a vanquished race by white Americans and eulogized in art throughout the end of the 19th century. Manifest Destiny also marginalized the fortunes of people of Mexican and Spanish descent, the Californios, who were first to establish southwestern settlements that were annexed before and reconstituted after the Mexican-American War of 1846–48. EAST OR WEST, HOME IS BEST: GENDER IDEOLOGY IN THE HEARTLAND The early 19th century was marked by distinct differences in gender ideologies in different regions of the United States, as well as in differences in attitudes between rural and urban Americans. America was overwhelming rural, except for the northeastern coast where former colonial cities began to enlarge due to the Industrial Revolution. Mill towns sprouted and established cities expanded, as textile factories were established in the 1830s through the outbreak of the Civil War. Their presence changed attitudes about work and the daily schedule. No longer did the sun determine the work day and seasons determine the work. Factories operated with bells and time tables, shifts of 14 to 16 hour days, bro-



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ken by short meal breaks, six days per week. The Sabbath, on Sunday, was the one day mill workers could call their own, but it was expected that they attend church, which could consume a large portion of the morning. Mills ran yearround, although the schedule changed slightly in the winter due to the diminished sunlight. Large windows provided natural lighting to illuminate the work, and water power channeled via steam engines provided the energy to move the massive machines. The work was regimented, noisy, and dangerous. Children and women worked in the mills in specific jobs, like changing the bobbins (“doffers”) or repairing broken threads while the machines were still running. Men were in charge as supervisors, laborers, and technicians running and repairing the machinery. Initially the wages were good and some mill owners provided housing for the rural workforce who had to relocate to be near the mills. Labor was too valuable to be mistreated in the early 19th century. However conditions changed and workers held one of the first “turnouts” or labor stoppages at the Lowell Mills in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1836. The strike was unsuccessful and the main corporation did not meet the demands of the workers who wanted better pay. urban versus rural While New England cities were changing because of industrialization, the south remained overwhelmingly rural, except for the former colonial coastal cities. New England cities, even before the mills, had been centers where the middle class was well-established. There were merchants, professionals, educators, artisans, tradesmen, and intellectuals. New Englanders were independent, thrifty, frugal, and serious. Both men and women were viewed in this way. In the early 1800s New England women began to move into public life. Some became educated in institutes and colleges; others worked in the mills. These women wrote and spoke their opinions in public forums, particularly on religion. Women were viewed as the moral enforcers of the family. It was the role of women to teach children the moral parameters of proper social life, as well as to reign in the natural wildness of men. Southern gender roles were more rigid. Southern coastal cities had business districts and middle-class life, but most of the south was rural. Foreignborn peddlers visited the widely dispersed plantations with their wares in a pack on their back or in a cart, bringing finer fabrics, sewing notions, and kitchen gadgets. A few northern entrepreneurs established textile mills in the south in the 1830s and 1840s. Some southern yeoman farmers moved into interior lands after the Native-American removals of the 1830s, establishing business ventures like saw mills and general stores, as well as farms that experimented with a diversity of crops and agricultural techniques. However the majority of land in the deep south continued to be used for plantation agriculture, a system which was feudal in its social system, harshly stratified by

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Women and Working in the Mills

Harriet Hanson Robinson wrote an article about her 14 years of working in the textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts. It appeared as “Early Factory Labor in New England,” in the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor’s, Fourteenth Annual Report: Mrs. Robinson began working in the mills at the age of 10 in 1834, and stayed employed there until she was 24 years old. Women, like Mrs. Robinson, usually worked during their adolescence and then, left employment once they married. Gender ideology in middle-class society in the United States in the early 19th century expressed discomfort with the idea of women working outside of the home. However, mill work with its great opportunity for earning wages, paid in cash rather than in the bartered goods traded by farmers, was too great an economic opportunity to resist. Women’s wage labor was tolerated as a temporary measure, especially as the women’s wages were used to benefit the men in her birth family: ‘to secure the means of education for some male member of the family.’ Also, textile mill owners in the 1830s were careful to project a respectable image of their workplace. Mill girls were taught to read, encouraged to write poems and articles for the mill’s published journal. They were often housed in dormitories if the mills were far from the girls’ homes and families. The mill girls were subject to strict codes of conduct, too, so that their work activities would not harm their reputations and their prospects for marriage. The most prevailing incentive to labor was to secure the means of education for some male member of the family. To make a gentleman of a brother or a son, to give him a college education, was the dominant thought in the minds of a great many of the better class of mill ­ girls. I have known more than one to give every cent of her wages, month after month, to her brother, that he might get the education necessary to enter some profession. I have known a mother to work years in this way for her boy. I have known women to educate young men by their earnings, who were not sons or relatives. There are many men now living who were helped to an education by the wages of the early mill­ girls. As late as 1840 there were only seven vocations outside the home into which the women of New England had entered. At this time woman had no property rights. A widow could be left without her share of her husband’s (or the family) property, an “incumbrance” to his estate. A father could make his will without reference to his daughter’s share of the inheritance. He usually left her a home on the farm as long as she remained single. She was a ward, an appendage, a relict. Thus it happened that if a woman did not choose to marry, or, when left a widow, to re­marry, she had no choice but to enter one of the few employments open to her, or to become a burden on the charity of some relative.



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gender and race, and dependent on monocrop production. Cotton, tobacco, sugar, or rice fueled this system. One of these crops was exploited and grown on large tracts of land by 25 to several hundred enslaved workers for the benefit of the wealthy landowning white gentleman and his family. Poorer whites served as paid laborers, servants, or in some cases, as mid-level managers in this system. Europeans often had romantic notions about the southern plantation. Fanny Kemble, a celebrated British actress, after her marriage to Pierce Butler in 1834, had a rude awakening on Mr. Butler’s coastal plantations. Expecting the lifestyle that she enjoyed in London and Boston, she was amazed to discover the primitive living conditions that the plantation owners experienced. Centipedes and other insects were her housemates. She was expected to provide medical services to the workers and slaves on the plantations. The wives of the plantation owners were not women of leisure—they had responsibilities, but little authority. white plantation women Especially painful for wives were their husbands’ affairs with the slave women, whose mixed-race offspring eventually came to live in the manor house and serve as domestic servants to their half-brothers and sisters. Southern women, even the most elite among them, were not allowed to complain about their husbands’ behavior. These women were sometimes fearful of their own slaves, whom they thought might poison them. White plantation women were often isolated in rural areas, and marginalized within their own households, living for the occasional visits of other female kin and brief escapes to the southern cities. Religion and the company of other women were their refuge. Ms. Kemble soon learned that Mr. Butler was not the charming gentleman she married in New York. She saw another side of him as he coerced, beat, and threatened his slaves. Her profound culture shock regarding her married life did not abate; she divorced her husband and left the south. Her Journal of Residence on a Georgia Plantation, 1838–1839, published in New York in 1863, became a stinging indictment of slavery. Southern men, like Mr. Butler, were expected to behave as the master of the house, like little kings, unpredictable in their violence, in order to gain advantage in public and at home. Slavery was a coercive system. Plantation owners and their sons used violence to maintain their control over slaves. Slave women were the victims of white men’s desires and maltreatment, abused and overworked, and often separated from their children. White southern men used ritualized violence, such as fist fights and dueling, at times to gain public advantage with more powerful men. As Captain Thomas Hamilton noticed in his visit, published as Men and Manners in America (1833), elite Southern men were also schooled in the art of being gentlemen, adept at social conversation, and skilled at spending their free time in engaging pursuits.

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Men And Manners: Differences in Northern and Southern Men

Captain Thomas Hamilton (1789–1842) was a Scottish writer and former soldier, known during his lifetime as a contributor to Blackwood’s Magazine, an important Edinburgh periodical known for its satire and for being a vehicle for some of the most celebrated 19th-century authors. His military novel Cyril Thornton (1827) enjoyed great success. When Captain Hamilton published his travel diary Men and Manners in America (1833), documenting his experiences in the United States, his name did not even appear on the title page. The book was attributed to “the author of Cyril Thornton, Etc.” Captain Hamilton in the passage below discusses the differences between northern and southern men in America: The New Englanders are not an amiable people. One meets in them much to approve, little to admire, and nothing to love. They may be disliked, however, but they cannot be despised. There is a degree of energy and sturdy independence about them, incompatible with contempt. Abuse them as we may, it must still be admitted they are a singular and original people. Nature, in framing a Yankee, seems to have given him double brains, and half heart. Wealth is more equally distributed in the New England states, than perhaps in any other country of the world. There are here no overgrown fortunes. Abject poverty is rarely seen, but moderate opulence every where. This is as it should be. Who would wish for the introduction of the palace, if it must be accompanied by the Poor’s-house? The poles are not more diametrically opposed, than a native of the States south of the Potomac, and a New Englander. They differ in every thing of thought, feeling, and opinion. The latter is a man of regular and decorous habits, shrewd, intelligent, and preserving; phlegmatic in temperament, devoted to the pursuits of gain, and envious of those who are more successful then himself. The former—I speak of the opulent and educated—is distinguished by a high-mindedness, generosity, and hospitality, by no means predicable of his more eastern neighbours. He values money only for the enjoyments it can procure, is fond of gaiety, given to social pleasures, somewhat touchy and choleric, and as eager to avenge an insult as to show a kindness. To fight a duel in the New England States would, under almost any circumstances, be disgraceful. To refuse a challenge, to tolerate even an insinuation derogatory from personal honour, would be considered equally so in the South. In point of manner, the Southern gentlemen are decidedly superior to all others of the Union. Being more dependent on social intercourse, they are at greater pains, perhaps, to render it agreeable. There is more spirit and vivacity about them, and far less of that prudent caution, which, however advantageous on the exchange, is by no means prepossessing at the dinner-table, or in the drawing-room.



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An illustration depicts a condemnation of the Fugitive Slave Act passed by Congress in 1850, which increased federal and free-state responsibility for the recovery of fugitive slaves.

THE EARLY 19th CENTURY: A TRANSITIONAL TIME Political, economic, and social changes made the late 18th and early 19th century an exciting, yet uncertain time for Americans. It was a time when white men were favored with land grants, mining opportunities, frontier adventures, and new industrial opportunities. Their women had mixed situations. Women in New England had new social roles as moral leaders to play in the abolition movement, or as educators, or as temporary wage earners in the new textile factories. Frontier wives in the western territories lived with more uncertainty, isolation, and hardship. Plantation elite women, rather than living in luxury as portrayed in fictional movies, were strictly regimented into a lifestyle that had some material comforts, but many social and personal humiliations because of their husbands’ philandering and the brutality and isolation of the plantation system. Slave women lived in the most tortured and difficult circumstance, while slave men also endured difficulties and were denied their basic humanity. New England surged ahead with industrialization and urbanization, while the south was stuck and desperately clung to an earlier economic and social system. The west was viewed as a wild frontier, where it was possible to reinvent oneself and amass a quick fortune. The Native Americans were viewed as a mere inconvenience, though they fought valiantly as genocide

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and relocation vanquished their cultures that white Americans thought was divinely decreed and inevitable. Pamela Sezgin

Further Readings

Barker-Benfield, G.J. The Horrors of the Half-Known Life: Male Attitudes Toward Women and Sexuality in 19th-Century America. New York: Routledge, 2000. Bode, Carl, ed. Midcentury America: Life in the 1850s. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1972. Boyer, Paul. Urban Masses and Moral Order in America, 1820–1920. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978. Branch, E. Douglas. The Sentimental Years, 1836–1860. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1934. Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth. Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1988. Hahn, Steven. The Roots of Southern Populism: Yeoman Farmers and the Transformation of the Georgia Upcountry, 1850–1890. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. Hamilton, Thomas. Men and Manners in America. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea and Blanchard, 1833. Jones, Jacqueline, et al. Created Equal: a Social and Political History of the United States. New York: Longman, 2003. Kemble, Fanny. Journal of Residence on a Georgia Plantation, 1838-1839. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1863. Kornfeld, Eve. Creating an American Culture, 1775–1800: a Brief History with Documents. New York: Palgrave, 2001. Rosenberg, Charles. “Sexuality, Class and Role in 19th Century America.” American Quarterly (v.25/2, 1973). Smith-Rosenberg, Carroll. “The Hysterical Woman: Sex Roles and Conflict in 19th Century America.” Social Research (v.39, 1972). Thompson, Eleanor, ed. The American Home: Material Culture, Domestic Space, and Family Life. Winterthur, DE: Winterthur Museum and University Press of New England, 1998. Wood, Betty. Women’s Work, Men’s Work: The Informal Slave Economies of Lowcountry Georgia. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1995.

Chapter 5

Cities and Urban Life

“The New York of to-day is not the New York of fifty years ago; and fifty years hence where will the New York of to-day be?” — Henry Philip Tappan, 1855

The 40 years before the Civil War saw the most rapid urbanization in

American history. During the period from 1820 to 1850 in the northern states, the number of towns with more than 2,500 residents rose from 56 to 350. New York, combined with Brooklyn, was the largest city with more than one million people living in cramped quarters. Many of those living in the larger cities were transients; for example, in New York one-half of the population moved every 10 years. The rise of the nation’s capital was established during this period. The term of President George Washington (1789–97) oversaw the initial implementation of the U.S. Constitution, and with it came a stronger more centralized government eventually based at a specially selected site located on Virginia’s Potomac River. Construction of the District of Columbia, a 10 mile by 10 mile federal enclave planned by Pierre Charles L’Enfant, began in earnest in 1792 and the new capital city of Washington, D.C. slowly emerged. The potential for a growth in free soil states created worries in the south. It was feared that within a short period of time congressional power would be dominated by those opposed to slavery and therefore the south. The 1832 Nullification crisis led by South Carolina in response to the 1828 Tariff brought an aspect of this tension to the forefront for the first time. South Carolina’s threat of secession from the union was met by 57

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President Andrew Jackson’s steely response that asserted the supremacy of the union at all costs. The Republican Party, founded in 1854, opposed the spread of slavery and quickly became a voice that confronted the south. The increasing levels of violence between pro and anti-slavery settlers in Kansas in 1856 gave the name “Bleeding Kansas” to the political lexicon. Events in Kansas were a clear indication of what was to come. The Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred Scott decision increased tensions even further when it denied the government’s right to ban slavery in any territory. The decision’s dismissal of a slave or ex-slave’s right to citizenship inflamed northern passions to the point that the existing divisions could not last. In the midst of this rising crisis, America’s urbanization accelerated. URBANIZATION In the immediate decades after 1783, the United States remained largely a nation of farms and villages. America’s five largest cities had only a combined population of 170,000. In 1790 New York’s population was 60,000, Philadelphia’s 41,000, Baltimore’s 26,000, Boston’s 25,000, and Charleston’s 18,000. There was a further sprinkling of population in other seaboard cities, but none with more than 10,000 people. Along with the many political changes occurring in this period, the nation was also experiencing the impact of an expanding industrial revolution, which combined with westward expansion, sparked the development and

A 1795 view of the suburbs of the city of Washington, D.C. Construction of the District of Columbia began in 1792 and the new capital city of the United States slowly emerged.



Cities and Urban Life

Emerging Cities of the Urban Frontier: Cincinnati

The city of Cincinnati dates its origins to 1788, when a series of primitive settlements were built upon the northern banks of the Ohio River opposite Kentucky’s Licking River. In 1789 Fort Washington was constructed as a garrison to protect the early settlers, many of whom were Revolutionary War veterans, who migrated to the Northwest Territory. The fort was named for George Washington, the first president. In 1790 Arthur St. Clair changed the town’s name to Cincinnati after the Roman General Cincinnatus, who saved Rome from pillage in 458 b.c.e. The coming of steamships on the Ohio spurred further growth to the point that in 1819 Cincinnati moved from village to incorporation as a city. The completion of the Miami-Erie Canal stimulated the initial growth of the city as a market for the state’s expanding agriculture. Access to a steady supply of hogs allowed Cincinnati to become an important meat packing center, which gave it the nickname Porkopolis in the 1830s. Location on the Ohio opposite Kentucky also allowed the city to penetrate southern markets and through riverboat traffic the Mississippi and New Orleans. The supply of animal fats also gave rise to other business opportunities. British immigrants, William Procter, candle maker, and James Gamble, soap maker, joined forces in 1837 to form the Procter and Gamble Company. Success came through the factory production of the candles and soap necessary for the nation’s frontier expansion. By 1859 company sales had reached one million dollars and the Civil War provided the military contracts that brought further prosperity and spread knowledge of their products across the nation. Cincinnati also became a center for German Catholic as well as German Jewish immigration, which would have an impact upon the city’s character and social development. In addition the city was a center for education, as witnessed by the establishment of the universities of Cincinnati and Xavier in this early period. Cincinnati created public green spaces as early as 1817 at Piatt Park, which was followed by the more extensive Eden Park in 1859. Hospitals were also built as early as 1850. To protect Cincinnati’s citizens, America’s first municipal fire department was organized in 1853. By the 1850s Cincinnati’s growth brought it a population in excess of 115,000 and its importance seemed so secure that it was referred to as the Queen of the West. For a time it compared favorably with other river cities such as Pittsburgh, Louisville, and St. Louis, as well as the emerging lake-based industrial cities of Cleveland, Detroit, and Chicago.

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growth of American towns and cities. The gains in population affected both old and new cities, giving those living in urban areas increased influence and regional importance. These cities were to become the centers of commerce and wealth creation, which gave them far greater political influence than their initially small populations perhaps merited. The older cities along the eastern seaboard and those on the new urban frontier underwent similar expansion and faced similar problems in managing their growth. By the 1820s and 1830s American cities were growing at impressive rates. The overall urban population went up by 60 percent a decade. From 1830 onward American cities (those places with more than 2,500 people) would far outpace the growth of rural areas to the extent that by the end of the 19th century 35 percent of Americans lived in cities. However in contrast the south remained overwhelmingly rural, with only a few exceptions such as New Orleans, Atlanta, Richmond, and Charleston. Leading the way in urban development was New York City, whose population by 1830 reached over 200,000. The city had also become the undisputed center of the nation’s trade and commerce. New York was able to exploit its excellent harbor and its commanding position between New England and the Chesapeake Bay. Its location on the Hudson River allowed the city to penetrate the New York hinterland as well, and after 1825 with the completion of the Erie Canal, the city was directly connected to the Great Lakes, and thus the expanding midwestern markets. By the 1850s with the coming of railroads such as the New York Central, New York’s reach was extended even further. As the principal port of entry to immigrants, New York had a constant supply of low wage workers who were welcomed by the Tammany Society. The society would in later decades evolve into a powerful political organization whose often unsavory practices delivered votes to the Democratic Party, and therefore had a major influence upon the city’s social and economic development. Many western cities also grew particularly fast. For example between 1790 and 1830, Louisville’s population climbed from 200 people A federal doorway in the city of Charleston, one to over 10,000 and became a key toof the few southern cities that had a great deal of urban development in the early 1800s. bacco processing market. Likewise



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New York City in 1849, with the city of Brooklyn in the distance. New York took advantage of its harbor and its commanding position between New England and the Chesapeake Bay.

Pittsburgh’s population grew from 5,000 in 1810 to over 12,000 in 1830. Success here was attributed to Pittsburgh’s location close to coal fields, which permitted it to develop an iron industry. On the western side of Pennsylvania, it was close to the frontier farmers who needed its manufactured products such as nails, glass, and other farming implements. Pittsburgh prospered and like Louisville exploited its river location on the Ohio to penetrate even deeper into the emerging western markets. Yet even with such rapid growth, early national era cities held only six percent of the total population. The majority of the population was still engaged in agriculture, which was becoming more prosperous producing the surpluses necessary for trade. Change though was afoot as farming after 1790 moved toward producing more cash crops that raised the extra revenue needed to buy finished manufactured goods. In addition farmer surpluses such as grain had to be milled and the cattle butchered. This drew people to the emerging cities for such services. These various requirements stimulated the development of city-based industries in grain processing and meat packing, which would later become associated with the new midwestern cities such as Minneapolis-St. Paul and Chicago. More and more traditional artisans were also joining the nascent industrial economy by becoming wage laborers or, with sufficient skills, salaried employees. By 1820 the number of wage earners had quadrupled. With the growth in manufacturing, small-scale artisan craft businesses couldn’t compete, and

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Emerging Cities of the Urban Frontier: Chicago

The name Chicago is a French derivation of the Indian name for the area, shikaakwa, and although French explorers had visited the area in the late 17th century it remained largely in Indian hands until the arrival of white settlers in the early 19th century. A trading post was established in the area during the 1770s by Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, who married a Potawatomi Indian, but the place remained isolated and undeveloped. Chicago’s location on a low portage between the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers and its position on Lake Michigan provided ease of access to crucial waterways. After 1787 the opening of the Northwest Territories, of which Illinois was a part, attracted settlers to the area. In 1803 the American army built Fort Dearborn, which was later destroyed during the war of 1812. Following the defeat of the Indian tribal coalition who were allied to the British during the war, Chicago was formally ceded to the United States by the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. Chicago formally became a town in 1833, with 350 initial settlers. It was incorporated as a city in 1837 and its population reached 4,000 by 1840. The expansion of trade and commerce westward proved a key to Chicago’s growth and success. This commercial triumph became even more pronounced in the latter decades of the 19th century. The arrival of the Galena and Chicago Railroad in 1848, and the opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal in the same year, gave both rail and steamboat access to the city. This permitted Chicago to link the west with the east and ensured its eventual trading success. Chicago’s potential was seized upon by land speculators and other investors. Its rapid growth also attracted European immigrants as well as internal migration, a process that accelerated in the late 19th century, making Chicago one of America’s largest and most influential cities by century’s end. Manufacturing and the meat packing industry led the boom with Chicago’s stock yards gaining a worldwide reputation. Chicago became a crucial transport hub that opened the west and provided connections east to New York as well as down the Mississippi to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. Chicago’s rapid growth brought many of the same poor urban living conditions that plagued other cities during this era. In response the first major city-wide sewage system in America was built in the mid-1850s to improve drainage. Unfortunately the system allowed waste to enter the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, which polluted the city’s fresh water supply and raised health risks. Chicago’s location secured its future and made the city a dynamic symbol of American urban development.



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craft apprenticeships over time declined. The skilled work was now going to the factories that employed unskilled workers to operate its machines, often producing cheaper and better products as well. The factory system was showing the benefits gained from a better division of labor and specialization in the production process. The artisan system found itself in a steady state of decline during this era as working relationships became more impersonal. As the period unfolded the immediate impact of the Industrial Revolution was seen in the introduction of new products that made farming more productive and less labor intensive. This created a surplus farm population able to migrate to the cities in search of employment. In addition the development of the factory system encouraged this movement by increasing the demand for more people to operate the machines. This meant moving to where the work was. As well as the new factory workers, cities needed bookkeepers, clerks, laborers, teamsters, salespersons, and numerous other service workers. By the 1850s the older labor systems of crafts and artisans who lived above their workshops, along with their apprentices and family, had changed. The work patterns now saw individuals forced to fend for themselves and make their own living arrangements, which usually meant shared accommodation in boarding houses in neighborhoods that were close to the factories in which they worked. Urbanization also quickened its pace because of important changes in the transport systems during this period. Improvements were needed because at

The Tontine Coffee House at Wall and Water Streets in about 1797. As the principal port of entry to immigrants, New York had a constant supply of low wage workers.

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the start of this age it took over 15 days to travel by stage coach from Charleston to Philadelphia. What remedied this situation was a transport revolution which began in the 1820s; first in the form of roads, canals, and steamboats, and then in the 1830s through the expansion of steam railThis working reproduction of the John Stevens engine, roads. Transport became maintained at the Pennsylvania State Railroad Museum, represents the forerunner of steam travel in the United States. the key to the growth of cities, which allowed both people and crops to be moved more easily from place to place. The markets steadily grew larger and penetrated the hinterland as the population moved west. By the 1830s steamboats operating on the Mississippi from cities such as St. Louis moved goods to various outposts further west. In return trade brought furs and hides east via the Ohio or Mississippi. Further improvements saw the National Road reach Columbus in 1833 and at the same time the Ohio and Erie Canal connected the Ohio River to Lake Erie. Railroad construction was also seeing more and more track laid mostly in the north. Railroad companies such as the Baltimore and Ohio began operating in the 1830s to link Baltimore with the Ohio River, which was finally accomplished in the 1850s. The railroad would prove of vital importance in joining the midwest and beyond to the eastern commercial cities. During this time arguments were already being put forth for a transcontinental railroad, which would not be finally realized until after the Civil War. Poor transport could also constrain urban growth by tying people to the areas closest to the canals and railroad lines, usually restricting living arrangements to walking distances within two or three miles of the city center. URBAN LIFE Housing became highly concentrated, and rapid growth through immigration and migration soon overran existing facilities. This ultimately led to crowded, noisy, and polluted cities. At the beginning of the early national period immigration accounted for only about 5,000 new residents a year. Yet by the 1830s over 600,000 entered the country. These numbers became 1.7 million in the 1840s and 2.6 million at the end of this era in the 1850s. These immigrants who largely came from Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia were often pushed out by troubles in their homelands such as land



Cities and Urban Life

Emerging Cities of the Urban Frontier: St. Louis

St. Louis, located on bluffs that rise from the western banks of the Mississippi River, was originally identified with the Mississippi Mound Builder Indians who had ancient ties to the area. The exploration of Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette in the 1670s laid French claims to this region, which would eventually be extended to the entire Louisiana territory. St. Louis, named after King Louis IX, began its European existence as a mission and trading post, which grew in the 1760s to become the capital of upper Louisiana. At the end of the century control had temporarily shifted to Spain, but returned to French sovereignty under Napoleon in 1800 when the town’s population had reached approximately 1,000. President Thomas Jefferson acquired St. Louis in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase. In 1804 St. Louis was the staging area for the Louis and Clark Expedition. It became a town in 1809 and was incorporated as a city in 1822, not long after Missouri’s admission to the union as a slave state. The arrival of steamboats after 1817 proved a great stimulant to the city’s growth and development as a Mississippi trade center. Riverboats, because they could travel both upstream and down, increased St. Louis’ commercial range. By the 1830s over 100 steamboats at any one time could be docked in St. Louis, unloading passengers and cargo and then taking on cargo and passengers for travel south or north. European immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and Scandinavia came in large numbers to the city in the 1840s either to settle and establish businesses, or begin a journey further west. During this time the majority of the city’s African-American population were slaves who worked the docks, or in various other occupations. By the 1850s St. Louis had become the largest city west of Pittsburgh with a population in excess of 70,000. It was also the second most important port after New York. Its rapid expansion brought municipal services such as omnibuses as early as 1843. Streetcar tracks for horse drawn carriages came in 1859. Crowding though made St. Louis susceptible to fire and disease, which hit the city in 1849. Cholera proved especially destructive, killing 10 percent of the city’s population. Following these disasters better amenities such as improved channels and levees for flood and water direction were constructed. Sewage systems and water supplies were built. Building standards also improved with brick and stone house construction and the wider dispersal of the population outside of the immediate city center. During the early national era St. Louis’s rise reflected both the nation’s urban growth and its rapid western expansion.

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enclosures, political upheavals, poor harvests, and the loss of traditional handicraft employment. America offered a new start and the prospect of greater freedom and prosperity. The Irish provided a dramatic example of immigration during these years. Initially in the early decades those leaving Ireland did so to escape poverty through labor on America’s canals and railroads. However the failure in 1845 of the Irish potato crop due to blight resulted in famine and actual starvation. Immigration became a means of simple survival. The Irish famine produced a steady stream of immigrants: 92,000 in 1846, 196,000 in 1847, 174,000 in 1848, 205,000 in 1849, and 206,000 in 1850. Within a decade a quarter of Ireland’s population moved to America, settling largely in the cities on the eastern seaboard. The 1850 census revealed that there were 961,719 people in the United States that had been born in Ireland. At this time the Irish mainly lived in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Illinois, Ohio, and New Jersey. URBAN PROBLEMS As cities expanded, other problems were compounded, such as poor sanitation and the absence of clean drinking water. Most urban dwellers relied on outdoor privies. These often leaked and polluted the surrounding water supply, which created numerous hygiene problems. Polluted water became an easy breeding ground for disease. Family waste was thrown into ditches, drains, and garbage piles on the side of the largely unpaved streets. Estimates suggest that each horse added approximately 20 pounds of manure and urine waste a day. Often pigs, dogs, and other animals roamed the streets scavenging through the abundant waste supply. City ordinances to control the spread of waste were few, and those that existed were most often not enforced. With increasing population density and poor sewage systems (open septic tanks were the common feature) disease became rampant, which made the urban experience in the early national period something that had to be endured. Serious sicknesses became commonplace and without the constant influx of new arrivals, city growth might well have been curtailed or even become negative. Epidemics of typhoid, dysentery, cholera, and yellow fever arrived at frequent intervals, killing both the rich and the poor. To make matters worse these early cities were dark and lacked recreation areas such as parks, which made conditions even more dismal and challenging for residents. The poor were increasingly packed in crowded housing. Slums developed in New York City as early as 1815. By the 1840s and 1850s such crowding had become commonplace in many American cities. Thousands were jammed into small spaces, often living up to 20 in a room under damp, poorly ventilated, and dark conditions. Urban amenities were slow in coming, but as the century progressed there were a few improvements. More indoor toilets improved the sanitary situa-



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tion. In 1829 Boston’s Tremont Hotel became the first with indoor plumbing throughout the building, which set an example for future city building. Coal burning internal ranges provided improved heat in the cold eastern winters. The quality of indoor lighting got better with the introduction of new types of lamps that burned whale oil or turpentine. Beginning in Boston in 1822, and soon spreading to other cities, gas fired street lights provided greater security after nightfall. In addition city stage coaches also appeared to help supplement other forms of internal transport to and around the city. Yet even with these improvements, basic living arrangements remained difficult. Even cooking was time consuming, for there was an absence of readymade foods, and much daily work had to go into obtaining and preparing food for cooking. Fires had to be maintained and cleaned of ash perhaps as much as twice a day, and without thermostats the fires needed constant supervision. Some estimates suggest that women spent as much as four hours each day just overseeing the stove. Other domestic chores added to the everyday grind. Dirt from the coal fires and oil lamps was everywhere. Floors and rugs needed frequent cleaning; windows had to be cleaned daily. Wealthy city residents employed servants who helped with these tasks, but for most people, female family members were engaged full time in these and other domestic tasks. At mid-century some changes did occur to the living arrangements in the major cities. Until that time, the city center was the place most people lived, which put them within walking distances of their occupations in warehouses,

An engraving depicting Irish emigrants embarking for America in the mid-1800s. Within a decade a quarter of Ireland’s population moved to America, settling largely in the eastern cities.

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Spanish Cities Inherited by the United States

In the 19th century the United States inherited a number of formerly Spanish cities as part of its territorial acquisitions, two of which were older than any English settlement in the United States (except the lost colony of Roanoke): St. Augustine, Florida, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. St. Augustine was the first successful settlement in the continental United States, founded in 1565 on Florida’s east coast. It became an American city in 1821 as part of the Adams-Onis Treaty, but Americans had long been living there: the British had possessed the city for a few decades and had mingled with the Spanish population, and when Spain resumed ownership, it offered free land to foreign settlers, which brought many Americans in from the neighboring southern states. Santa Fe had been established as the capital of the Kingdom of New Mexico in 1598, on the site of former Pueblo villages. Its strategic position at the head of the Santa Fe Trail was one of the American motivations in the Mexican-American War, which in 1848 brought all of New Mexico under American rule. Unlike St. Augustine, Santa Fe was still predominantly populated by its original owners; the Americans in residence were more likely to be of the intrepid frontiersman type, like the famed scout Kit Carson, whose planned retirement was interrupted by the Native-American raids that were still a problem in the region.

The Church of San Miguel, the oldest church in Santa Fe, New Mexico.



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An 1859 view of Central Park in New York City, looking south from the Observatory. The park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1857.

courts, offices, docks, and shops. The markets, theaters, and entertainment facilities also occupied the center, with the poor pushed to the fringes of the city center outside the range of what few amenities existed. In this era heavy congestion characterized city life. The streets were narrow, many unpaved, and with limited pedestrian walkways. Goods and people were thrown together, competing for what space was available. After the 1850s transport development in trolleys and railroads allowed the city boundaries to expand, which encouraged the development of the first suburbs catering to the wealthy that no longer had to live in the city center close to their places of business. Industry would also move closer to the rivers and railroad yards while the older city centers were devoted more to office buildings and the retail trade. Land on the city’s outskirts attracted speculators who saw the advantages in building the first suburbs that offered proximity to the city’s jobs. The wealthy were later joined by an expanding middle class, who also saw the benefits to be gained from the larger plots and substantial residences. In turn they built large single family houses set back from the streets and with considerable green space between buildings. These developments offered a more spacious, healthy, and country feel to their urban lifestyles. By the 1850s with a population now in excess of 500,000, New York City became the nation’s premier urban example, a situation that brought the city both power and problems. A growing city inhabited by merchants, professionals, and other elites wanted more creature comforts and the type of civic improvements

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Pauper Immigrants in New York

As the 19th century progressed immigration increasingly became a volatile political issue. Excerpted in part below is a letter from the mayor of New York, Aaron Clark, submitted to the Common Council on June 5, 1837. In the letter Mayor Clark reviewed the growing problem with the dumping of pauper immigrants in New York. In response to the letter, the Common Council recommended enforcement of the existing laws, and to increase the amount of commutation money required from foreign passengers. The laws of this state require that the captain of every ship or vessel landing passengers in this city from a foreign country or from another state shall report the name, last legal settlement, place of birth, age, or occupation of such passenger to the mayor of the city, within twenty-four hours after arrival, under a penalty of $75 for each passenger so neglected to be reported; and that every person not being a citizen of the United States coming to this city with the intention to reside shall report himself to the mayor within twentyfour hours after arrival, under a penalty of $100 for neglecting to do so…. The opinion is entertained that there is a settled arrangement in some parts of Europe to send their famishing hordes to our city. The operations of certain companies have been noticed. But contractors are becoming so covetous that they afflict this country with a pauper population in consideration of receiving from steerage passengers more than $2 per head extra for agreeing to land them in New York; instead of which these traders in foreign paupers secretly clear their vessels for Amboy, in New Jersey, there to land the said passengers, and thereafter send them to New York by other conveyance or leave them to provide for themselves. Our city is generally the place to which they contract to be carried on leaving Liverpool. This business is likely to be fiercely driven throughout the ensuing year. Hundreds of thousands of the population of portions of Europe are in a state of poverty, excitement, and wretchedness—the prospect before them very discouraging. The Old Country has more people than it is convenient to support. And although many of them feel no particular anxiety to leave their native land, they see others depart; they read the mixture of truth and fiction published by those employed to obtain passengers; they are assured they can easily return if they are not suited with the country; that certain employment, enormously high wages, and almost sure wealth await them. The times being more unpromising in other countries than in our own, they imagine they cannot change for the worse, and hither they come. They cannot fail to be an intolerable burden to us….



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that would make urban life more bearable. As cities grew city governments had to do more. Improvements demanded funding and this meant raising municipal taxes to pay for better facilities such as harbors, roads, fire and police services, and other amenities. After the 1830s full-time fire and police forces became more common in New York City and elsewhere. New York City’s development of Central Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1857, was a late corrective that was soon copied by other cities as the 19th century unfolded. More sanitary sewage treatment was a technology imported from England during the 1840s, but it required public expense and it proved slow to develop in this laissez-faire age. But by the early 1850s examples were appearing, such as the development of a major city sewage system in Brooklyn. However many of the standard amenities associated with urban living did not become more universally available until the late 19th century. UNIFYING THE URBAN FRONTIER The rise of urban America during the early national period and the creation of an expanding urban frontier depended not only on canals, riverboats, and railroads, but also specialized technology that helped unite urban America. One individual who helped cement American urban unity was the distinguished American artist Samuel F. B. Morse (1791–1872), who developed an interest in the 1830s in the powers of electromagnetism as a method for communicating rapidly and over great distances. Building on the work of others, Morse developed a system that transmitted signals which eventually could communicate using a dot and dash vocabulary. Private financing proved difficult, but in 1843 Congress provided initial funding that allowed an experimental telegraph to be built that connected Washington and Baltimore. In 1844 an electronic message “What hath God wrought?” was for the first time telegraphed to the capital. The Morse code provided a method to deliver the message that appeared on a paper copy as an array of dots and dashes. Success brought investors who enabled the original telegraph line to be extended to Philadelphia and New York, and within 10 years over 23,000 miles of wire were erected, which extended the system throughout the country. Lines were built next to the railroad tracks, and many rail stations established telegraph offices that speeded communication. By 1851 trains were being dispatched by telegraph and the Western Union Company was born in the same year. By 1861 Western Union had completed the first transcontinental telegraph line. The telegraph provided a means for news to travel quickly across long distances. Business information could be transmitted efficiently, which helped unify markets and increase profitability. The emerging urban America now had a method for communicating quickly and accurately. Cities could share information on local conditions, which improved individual city prospects and provided the means for the more extensive unification of the nation.

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The early national period witnessed the vast expansion of America. As the period progressed this growth became even more rapid, and by the end of the era had embraced a continent. American urban development formed a critical part in the general rise of the nation, and provided a window on the future as the cities rooted in this era remain central to the American way of life today. From 1783 until 1859 a remarkable narrative of pioneering struggle, adventurism, sectional tension, and the beginnings of a national consciousness occurred, of which cities played their part. Theodore W. Eversole

Further Readings

Aaron, Daniel. Cincinnati Queen City of the West, 1819–1838. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1992. Calow, Alex B. American Urban History: An Interpretative Reader. Cambridge, MA: Oxford University Press, 1982. Chudacoff, Howard P. and Judith E. Smith. The Evolution of American Urban Society. New York: Prentice-Hall, 2004. Glaab, Charles N. History of Urban America. New York: MacMillan, 1983. Goldfield, David R., ed. Encyclopedia of American Urban History. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2007. Lemon, James T. Liberal Dreams and Nature’s Limits: Great Cities of North America Since 1600. Cambridge, MA: Oxford University Press, 1997. McGraw, Judith A., ed. Early American Technology: Making and Doing Things from the Colonial Era to 1850. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994. Monkonnen, Eric H. America Becomes Urban: The Development of U.S. Cities and Towns From 1780 to 1980. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. Purcell, Sarah J. The Early National Period. New York: Facts on File, 2004. Rilling, Donna J. Making Houses: Crafting Capitalism, Master Building in Early Philadelphia, 1790–1850. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. Rigal, Laura. The American Manufactory: Art, Labor and the World of Things in the Early Republic. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998. Simmons, James C. Star Spangled Eden: An Exploration of the American Character in the 19th Century. New York: Carroll and Graf, 2001. Wade, Richard C. Cities in American Life. Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin, 1971.

Chapter 6

Rural Life

“I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius.” —Henry David Thoreau

In the early years of the Republic, rural Americans were not merely the most

important segment of America. They were America, making up 94 percent of the U.S. population according to the 1800 census. Agriculture, both crops and livestock, as well as extracting and exploiting resources in locations away from the cities and large towns, were the center of the American economy. The period of the early American Republic can be referred to as a golden age for rural life, particularly for those engaged in farming. Despite depressions, crop failures, and other difficulties, the portion of the population living away from cities and towns enjoyed a political, social, and economic importance that would diminish in the years after the Civil War and into the 20th century. The vast majority of those who lived in rural America were engaged in farming. Agriculture was not, however, the only economic activity in rural areas. Because farming was a seasonal activity and other opportunities existed, individuals were engaged in other types of work and crafts either full- or parttime. These economic activities included logging for building and providing firewood, or for ship construction (masts from New England; pitch and pine tar, “Naval stores,” from North Carolina; and live oak for ships’ planks from South Carolina). Wood was also cut and burned to make charcoal that would be used to make iron in local furnaces, with ore extracted locally. All along the Atlantic coast the economic subsistence of many small towns depended 73

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directly upon the fishing industry, as well as other maritime occupations such as coastal transportation. That industry, in turn, gave much work to artisans and craftsmen, as well as specialists who built and repaired boats. The extent of rural, non-agricultural economic activity grew through the years. By the middle of the 19th century the U.S. Census recorded not only farmers among the rural population but brewers, carpenters, teachers, domestic servants, blacksmiths, miners, shoemakers, millers, wagon makers, masons, seamstresses, and merchants. But the vast majority of the rural population was engaged in farming, at least as their prime means of subsistence. Agricultural products formed the economic basis of the United States for both domestic consumption and export. Just as important, farmers and their interests influenced politics in the nation before the Civil War over issues such as building a national infrastructure, national and local finances, and taxes (usually debated in the form of import tariffs). Another significant contribution of the rural population was that based primarily on its agricultural element, helping to define an important part of the nation’s self-image. The wise, hard-working, virtuous farmer who stayed away from the cities and their corruptive elements became a favored icon in early America. Thomas Jefferson proposed a definition of that image when he wrote, “those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if He ever had a chosen people, in whose breasts he has made his particular deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.” For many years afterward many rural Americans believed in it, and politicians professed to believe in it. In the years before the

A modern Amish man plowing, using 19th-century techniques. By the mid-19th century, the vast majority of the U.S. rural population was still engaged in farming.



Rural Life

Rural Rebellion

The American historian Carl Becker wrote that one of the major issues of the Revolution was not only the question of home rule, but who would rule at home. Often in colonial and in post-revolutionary America, that issue came down to a struggle for power between urban and rural populations. The further one went from coastal cities, the greater the discrepancy in economic and political power. In the years before the Revolution groups of rural Americans, known as “The Regulators” in the Carolinas or “The Paxton Boys” in Pennsylvania, opposed the policies of the urban residents, even taking up arms. The end of the Revolution, with its increasing economic difficulties, did not answer the issues nor bring an end to this conflict. The first of these expressions of dissatisfaction occurred in western Massachusetts, where farmers there (like farmers everywhere in the newly independent states) were short on cash. The state legislature had determined that taxes had to be paid in cash rather than in kind. Because the farmers had no cash to pay taxes, they had to sell their land to satisfy the state’s demands. This injustice, as they saw it, combined with the fact that they questioned their adequate representation in the legislature, led to what would be known as Shays’s rebellion. Beginning in August 1786 this rebellion was under the general leadership of a former Army Captain named Daniel Shays. Shays’s small group was eventually defeated by the Massachusetts militia. Two men were hanged but the rest, including Shays himself, were eventually pardoned. Elections held afterward led to changes in policy that corrected some of the injustices that the urban faction of Massachusetts had inflicted on the farmers of central and western Massachusetts. Another rural rebellion, the Pennsylvania Whiskey Rebellion, broke out in 1794 after the adoption of the Constitution. Although precipitated by a new law, its roots lay in inequalities, economic problems, and political dissatisfaction dating back a long time. The new federal government had put a tax on whiskey made by western Pennsylvania farmers, and they did not have the cash to pay the taxes. To make things worse, smaller farmers were assessed at a greater rate than those near the larger towns. The new federal government sent the Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania state militias into federal service and, under the leadership of George Washington, put the rebellion down. The same kind of activity occurred in upstate New York in the 1840s in what was called the Anti-Rent War. Because of conflicts over titles and rents, farmers went to court to fight their landlords. When people were threatened with eviction, protective groups were formed to prevent landlords from sending tenants off the land. This perceived threat to civil order was met by the New York State militia, which put an end to the farmers’ efforts to save their holdings. The Anti-Rent War eventually did result in an improvement in conditions for renters, but it was another example of the political distance and economic differences between the rural and urban populations.

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Civil War both American and European travelers such as Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles Dickens, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Fanny Kemble would write about pastoralism and debate it. From the end of the Revolution to the beginning of the Civil War, Jefferson’s vision of virtuous yeoman farmers tilling the soil and retaining a purity derived from labor on the land and uncompromised by commerce would change. Indeed, if it was ever close to being true, it would depart substantially from that ideal as the entire country grew and changed. In part this would occur because the cities and industry would grow and account for a larger portion of the nation. At the same time the picture would become more complex. In the beginning of this period farmers were primarily oriented toward subsistence with small surpluses. They would become, however, more aware and powerful politically and economically. The precise role of rural society differed in the north and south and would in each case reinforce the differences that would create the Civil War. That war has sometimes been described as an urban and industrial society against a rural and agrarian society. That was not true because in both instances, the rural population outnumbered the urban. The outcome was in large part determined by the way that rural society operated, as well as the ties that it had with its urban counterpart. THE PROGRESS OF RURAL AMERICA FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE CIVIL WAR The daily lives of rural Americans in the 19th century were affected by a number of high-level nationwide factors and trends that would determine their living and working environments and their economic status. Before looking at what rural Americans did on a daily basis, one should look at the major events that influenced them. There were some important developments in the country that would influence even the details of the lives of rural Americans. These included the growth of the population, population movement, acquiring land to settle on, and then regional trends in how the land was used From the very beginning of the Republic, the government conducted a census every 10 years that tells us a great deal about the lives of Americans in this era. At first the census amounted to little more than a head count of Americans, where they lived, their gender, race, and whether they were free of slave. The first census recorded a population of 3,893,874 people, of whom 694,207 were slaves. Nearly all Americans, slave or free, lived in a rural setting and were engaged in agriculture. Although the questions would expand as time went on, the early surveys do not provide all of the information we would like to have. They still tell us a great deal about the rural population of the United States. For one thing, we know that from comprising almost the whole population in 1800 (96 percent), the rural proportion started to shrink in the years leading up to the Civil War, although it was still a sizable majority (80 percent) in 1860.



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An illustration shows Bellevue, Major John Dougherty’s trading post on the banks of the Missouri River in Nebraska, depicted sometime between 1832 and 1843.

Another large-scale trend that the census shows is the migration westward. The census did not ask people where they came from, but between the numbers indicating where they were (and comparing growth from one census to another) and other sources showing their point of origin, tracing the westward streams of population. One interesting development in this period was that after people left one place, and settled in a new, undeveloped region, they often did not stop permanently, but moved on. From New England a family might move to upstate New York and from there to Ohio or Illinois. The next, or even the same generation might find themselves in Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin, or Minnesota. Similarly many New Englanders or individuals from other parts of the northeast moved south and west to Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. Others continued to Texas where Americans had been settling as farmers and ranchers since the late 1820s. In some instances, such as the Mormon migration in the 1840s and 1850s or the silver and gold rushes, areas as far removed as Utah, Nevada, and California were settled. In each of these areas cities began, but the vast majority of the population was rural, making a living primarily by agriculture, mining, and other occupations such as blacksmithing and carpentry. People moved west with the belief and sometimes the assurance that they could easily find land and acquire it cheaply. In theory that was true; there was no shortage of land and the government had created legislation that allowed individuals to purchase it. The catch, however, was that the land was not cheap considering that most of the population moving into these areas (like the rural

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Internal Improvements

One of the most important issues facing Americans in the first half of the 19th century was the problem of transporting the result of rural America’s labors to centers where it could be sold. The solution was the idea of internal improvements. The contemporary term would be “infrastructure,” the collection of systems that allows individuals and corporations to acquire resources, make things, and then ship them to be sold. In the early part of the American republic infrastructure, internal improvements took one major form: transportation systems, such as roads, canals, and later, railroads. Inefficient and difficult transportation, especially from the expanding west to the market centers in the east, made it expensive to send surplus production. Rivers and lakes provided some ability to move things fairly quickly and easily, but only when the rural population lived near water. Although there was opposition to internal improvements by Democratic administrations before the Civil War, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster of the Whig Party managed to secure funding for projects that made the transportation of agricultural goods easier and cheaper. There were several projects that, when completed, made it possible for farmers in upstate New York, Pennsylvania, or Ohio to ship their goods. The first of the major projects was the Cumberland Road, constructed 1811–39, and which eventually ran from Maryland to Missouri. There was also the Erie Canal, more than 350 miles long, that connected Lake Erie with the Hudson River, allowing farmers to bring their crops to New York City. Expanding the idea of internal improvements in roads and canals, the government undertook other projects as well, which were not as immediately obvious. One of these was the importation of plants and animals to see if they were adaptable by American farmers. Such experiments had been conducted by individuals such as George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, but with the government now taking the step, an organized and far-reaching campaign to introduce improvements that would affect the livelihood of the rural population was started. In addition the Army’s Corps of Engineers and Corps of Topographical Engineers oversaw the construction of levees and lighthouses throughout the country. Lighthouses in out-of-the-way places like the Great Lakes would later facilitate shipments of grain and ore to the east. While all canals, roads, and railroads were internal improvements, not all were financed by the government. There were privately constructed canals, roads (where the owner of the road collected a toll), and railroads. Railroads were primarily private enterprises, although they did receive assistance from Army engineers, and financial assistance from cities and towns through which the lines passed—land grants for rights of way, switching yards, and stations. The prices these transportation networks charged to rural Americans to ship their goods were lower per ton-mile than had been the case at the beginning of the 19th century.



rural Life



population back home) did not have the ready cash. Land speculators complicated the process and made the land even more expensive. Some, but by no means all of the speculators, who included George Washington, were honest and not greedy, but in all cases they were in the land business to make a profit. The government’s holdings The Louisiana Purchase increased the territory of the at the end of the Revolution United States by 140 percent, adding land that would be the basis for 13 new states. ran up to the Great Lakes and as far west as the Mississippi River (excluding Florida). The government before the Civil War would acquire rights from the European nations that claimed it (although not from the Native Americans who actually occupied it). In 1803 the United States purchased the Louisiana territory from France. That huge acquisition was followed in 1819 by the purchase of Florida from Spain. The Republic of Texas, independent since 1836, was annexed in 1845 to the United States. The war that the annexation brought about ended with Mexico’s defeat and the acquisition of California and large parts of the southwest. These additions to land coincided with the agreement between England and the United States that resulted in gaining Oregon and Washington. Under these circumstances, it ought to have been easy for a family to get enough land to start a farm. There were attempts to regulate the land grants and titles, beginning in 1785. In that year the Continental Congress, empowered under the Articles of Confederation, passed the Basic Land Ordinance. That legislation declared that land grants would be in lots of six miles square for towns with an allowance of 36, one-mile square lots. That amounted to 640 acres that a farmer could purchase at the government price of $2 an acre. There was no possibility of purchasing a smaller, more affordable lot. While that sounds unbelievably inexpensive to us today, we have to consider the economic situation in which people lived. Rural people simply did not have the cash on hand and it was nearly impossible to find credit for the $1,280 needed to buy a lot. The government did provide the ability to take the land on credit, but the loan in full had to be paid back within one year. There would be changes that would largely, though not completely, make things easier for the individual wanting to establish a new farm. The Land Law of 1820 reduced the minimum purchase requirement to 80 acres, but also took away the ability to pay on credit. Eight years later, a farmer could buy a

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lot as small as 32 acres and in 1854, Congress passed what was known as the Graduation Act, which lowered prices for land. For some farmers, however, there was another solution and, other than the expense of actually moving west, it was free. A family would move west until they found empty land and then would settle on it, or “squat,” without legal title. This informal taking of land became a solution for a large number of people. At first many were driven off, but in time many of them would have the opportunity to keep the land as laws were passed to assist them. The first of these was the 1841 Preemption Act which gave squatters the right to buy the land they had settled in lots up to 160 acres for $1.25 an acre. Regardless of where or how land was acquired, many aspects of life in rural America were similar. A rural family in Ohio had a great deal in common with a family from New England, or New York, or anywhere in the south. Not all rural Americans were farmers, but most were and whatever their trade, their own economic well-being depended on how well farmers did in a particular year. In all cases throughout the country, there was a shortage of hard money and a reliance on credit. All of them were separated politically from the urban centers, and rural populations were often at odds with the people in cities over their role in politics or if they were even represented in state assemblies as they thought they should be. The density of population was another common factor. There simply were fewer people and fewer opportunities for economic growth, culture, or even basic education. There were, however, many differences based on the characteristics of the different regions that would find political expression. New England and New York differed significantly from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and these states differed from the southern states. In turn, the states of what were referred to as the northwestern States (Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio) were very different. The differences were based on their major agricultural products, views toward the necessity of building a national infrastructure using internal improvements, and even the manner in which farmland was cleared. The most significant difference, however, was the use of slavery as a means of the economy in the south. RURAL ECONOMICS While the population in rural America was sparse in any one place and dispersed throughout the country; taken as a whole, it was the foundation of the nation’s economy. By 1860 although manufacturing now accounted for one-third of the country’s worth, agriculture, which was in turn supported by many occupations with their own products, still accounted for two-thirds of the total value of the nation’s production. On the local and personal level, the economics of life in rural America were very different. For one thing, farmers usually had little or no cash on hand, living primarily on credit until they sold their harvest. Selling their produce brought in cash, but in a very short time



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it was gone, used to pay back those who had loaned them money since the last harvest. Despite the fact that rural Americans moved from subsistence farming to producing for commercial markets, cash was scarce and local rural economies were centered on bartering for products or services. The ability to survive by trading crops and animals, or repairing or putting up a building, helped ensure the survival of rural populations because there were several factors that could not be controlled. Among these factors were market conditions brought about by national political and economic events. Beginning with the Revolution but certainly with the treaty that ended it in 1783, Americans lost one of their major markets when they could no longer trade with Britain. Specialized rural enterprises such as northeastern and mid-Atlantic farmers raising livestock for export crashed. Fortunately other rural enterprises such as fishing were not as seriously affected, as Americans could still get to and fish from the Atlantic Grand Banks. Rural America had from the beginning been built on subsistence, but even from the beginning of the colonies there had been a marketing and commercial aspect, even going back as far as Plymouth. One of the characteristics of this period is that the commercial aspect became dramatically more important. Well into the 18th century a large part of the rural economy had benefited from the raising of animals from New England to the mid-Atlantic states for export. With the beginning of the 1790s the European wars that continued until 1815 created markets for American agricultural goods. In the meantime cotton would also become a valued export to France and Britain as the 19th century progressed, creating an economy in the southern United States that rested

A lumber mill built in the mid-1800s in York Springs, Pennsylvania. The three ventilator stacks helped cool the mill’s interior on hot summer days.



the early national Period and expansion

heavily on the annual cotton crop. Europe’s demand for cotton would not only maintain a large part of the rural south’s economy, but would also establish a political expectation in the 1860s that Europe could not live without southern cotton and would go to war to support the Confederate states. The national economy could affect rural Americans, especially as their own personal economy was so heavily credit-based. There were nation-wide financial panics in 1819, 1837, and 1857. What happened to farmers and others was that their credit networks went through a series of middlemen, and any disruption due to a depression or other economic setback could hurt anyone in the network. Unfortunately it was the individual farmer or fisherman who was hurt the most. Further affecting personal economy was the inefficiency of American farming. This meant a fairly low return on personal labor, a condition that while present, actually became less critical as time went on. The gradual success in clearing land and spending more time on cultivation, as well as a change to different crops and the increased use of machinery, made this difference. By 1859 a farmer could feed three people besides himself. This ratio meant that rural America, which always had some sort of surplus, was able to increase its contribution to the national economy. The real economies of scale, however, would not be seen until after the Civil War when crops such as wheat could be increasingly grown and harvested using machinery. Diversification in rural America also meant there were new markets and new sources of income. Upstate New York, for example, began to see in the 1820s an expanded cheesemaking industry that became an important, sometimes central form of economic activity. Along with mining and logging in other parts of the country, rural Americans brought in greater amounts of cash. Sometimes as transportation networks improved, rural Americans, especially young women, left their homes in the winter and moved to cities such as Lowell, Lawrence, or Andover, Massachusetts, to work The southern economy relied heavily on the in the cotton mills. In many cases, success of the annual cotton crop.



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these mill girls would stay, but in many others they would return to the farms in the spring having earned cash that they sent home. As an example of how the rural economies were uniting with urban centers to form a national economy, cotton from the rural south was brought to the urban north to be converted by women from the rural north into cloth. THE TEXTURE OF DAILY LIFE, WORK, AND SOCIETY Daily life in rural America in the years between the Revolution and the Civil War was very different than contemporary life. On the most basic level rural lives were directly affected by the seasons, not only in whether they would succeed in the year, but also in the daily round of tasks that had to be performed. In the 1850s American farmers could have read a 300year old book called Five Hundred Good Points of Husbandry, and while American conditions would have had some differences, for the most part the book would have been relevant in its description of the yearly cycle and the work each season required. The New Hampshire poet Donald Hall, in his Ox-Cart Man, describes the yearly cycle of a New England farmer. Beginning in the spring and working through the summer, he raises his crops, raises animals, and brings them to town in the fall. After selling everything, he returns home and spends the winter making things he can sell in the coming year and so the cycle continued with only minor variations year after year. In addition to being bound by seasonal requirements, rural Americans, whether farmers or those pursuing their trades, did not have the line of demarcation between their work and where they lived that is common today. Much of the work was performed in the home, and not just by farmers. The line separating one’s place of work from one’s home was becoming more common in the cities and towns, but not in rural America. There is no better example of this closeness than to note that many farmers, in fact the vast majority, were engaged in other money-making pursuits. This was particularly true in the winter, a relatively quiet time. That was the season when soap or candles were made, or cloth was woven. Other jobs included piecework on cloth that had been cut to patterns for shirts that would be returned for payment in this final stage of manufacture. Farmers might, like Donald Hall’s ox-cart man, make harnesses in the winter, but there was much else that they and family members would do for additional income. Some people left their farms in the winter to work in towns. In addition there were activities that were not related to farming, but which brought income during those same winter months. Among these was cutting wood for use in building, or for firewood in the towns and cities. In the northeast this had become such a large industry that by the 1820s almost all of the trees in southern New England had been cut down and firewood had to be brought in from northern New England, western Massachusetts, or New York. Another

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An 1853 print titled “Life of George Washington--The Farmer,” with Washington standing among African American field workers harvesting grain and Mt. Vernon in the background.

rural activity was to harvest ice from the ponds, at first going to American cities, but soon to India and other places in Asia. Regardless of the season, a major aspect of rural life at this time was the amount of work required to produce nearly everything. Rural families needed to make most of the items they needed or make something so they could barter for necessities. They built their own homes, often made their own clothes and raised their own food. Because they had to do all of this and because there was no little labor-saving machinery, rural life was extremely labor intensive. Farming was hard from the very beginning: when a family reached where they were going to live they had to clear the land in order to create fields for growing or grazing. Cutting down trees and then removing the stumps was crushing work requiring a year to clear one to three acres. There were variations on how this was done, depending on the region. In the north there was a tendency to expand as much and as quickly as possible so that large fields would be created for crops such as wheat. In the south the process was different, as raising livestock and growing corn was more common, and so clearing every tree was not considered essential. At the same time, but on a lower priority, there was the matter of shelter. Early farmers lived in tents or lean-tos. After a long time, these would be replaced by log cabins that would eventually result in a frame and clapboard house, if the farmer prospered and did not die from ill-health, overwork, or injury.



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In some places the process of settling and clearing was made more difficult by the presence of Native Americans. The threat of raids against individual families or small settlements was a concern in the early part of this period, although east of the Mississippi this was no longer a factor. In the west however, it would continue to be a consideration until well toward the close of the century. One of the most significant parts of rural life was the isolation, though this would decrease as the century progressed. Families were very important, first because they really formed an economic unit. One could not survive alone. Extended families maintained closeness and formed large networks that functioned not only socially, but economically as well. Outside the families there was a strong sense of helpfulness toward neighbors, although there were some limits. A German immigrant living in a widespread community described his American neighbors as being extremely helpful in all sorts of difficulties, although the neighborliness would diminish in the conduct of business. Entertainment was created almost entirely by the rural population themselves, although there were diversions from the outside. Itinerant musicians and occasionally traveling acting companies had been around since the 18th century. In those earlier times, Shakespeare was popular and would continue to be so, although newer plays on current themes became common. Religious revivals not only served a spiritual purpose, but brought something new for people to see and hear. education and literacy Rural Americans, within certain limits, placed a value on education, and while many adults were illiterate, literacy and the general awareness of America’s broad interest in science and technology did show itself. Beginning in the 18th century and growing through the 19th century was the interest in a scientific approach to farming and the growing body of literature giving advice on all aspects of earning a rural livelihood. Rural Americans, whatever their other problems, lived healthier lives than urban dwellers. Despite this difference they were not immune from all diseases, as the casualty figures for the cholera epidemics for 1849–50 show. In addition rural living had its own dangers that resulted in death or maimed bodies. Where there are town records it is not uncommon to find entries describing death by being trampled by a horse, gored by a bull, dying of lockjaw after a cut, or of boys jumping over a stone fence and being impaled on a piece of farm equipment. Religion was an important part of daily life, although because of the sparseness of rural population it was not always organized with regular congregations as was the case in the more populous areas. From 1795 to 1835 a religious movement known as the Second Great Awakening resulted in many revivals throughout America, with itinerant preachers setting up camp and attracting listeners. Already there was some tension between these travelling preachers and local

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clergy; it was generally believed that whatever response a revival would elicit, it would not last and was not as effective as a regularly established church. Yet at this time and for a long time to come, there would not be enough people to support permanent churches. For a long time circuit preachers would visit settlements on a regular basis to minister to a region’s population. Interest in religion was very high at this period, and at the same time experimental colonies of philosophical farmers or utopian communities were coming into existence. A new religion was coming into being that would have a significant effect on American society. Starting from a revelation that he said that he had personally received, Joseph Smith, who came from a very active religious area in upstate New York (called the “Burnt-over District” because so many revivals had swept through the area) began a religious movement. Primarily farmers, this movement (later called Mormonism) grew and moved around to several places in the midwest before finally settling permanently in Utah in the mid-1840s. There was one aspect of daily rural life that existed only in the south and that was slavery. While there were slaves in urban areas and even companies, especially railroad companies, owned slaves, it was primarily a rural institution. By 1800 slavery was illegal in the northern states. As the number of states grew, however, the number of slave states increased as a balancing act based on congressional compromises, and the number of slaves increased.

A recreation of an early 19th-century blacksmith shop. The vast majority of the U.S. population was primarily engaged in agriculture, mining, and other occupations such as blacksmithing, and carpentry.



Rural Life

Science and Technology

Daily life, especially daily working life in rural America immediately after the Revolution was not far removed from how people lived in the Middle Ages. Most work was done by hand or using crude implements drawn by animals. By the time of the Civil War, improved American manufacturing capability and successful inventions made it possible for a farmer to successfully cultivate a larger acreage. One of the first implements to be improved was the plow. In 1797 the first cast iron plow was invented, that would replace wooden plows with metal sheathing at the point where they cut the earth. The next step was to make plows that were not cast as one piece, but made of several pieces joined together so that if broken, they could be repaired by switching the broken part for a new one. In 1837 John Deere invented a one-piece cast iron plow with steel cutting edge. By 1857 his factory in Illinois was manufacturing 10,000 plows a year. The reaper was another invention that allowed farmers to increase their crops and their profits. The first mechanical reaper, a horse-pulled machine that harvested wheat, was invented in 1831. Before the invention of the reaper, a single individual with a scythe or a sickle could harvest one to three acres a day. A reaper allowed a farmer to harvest 12 to 15 acres a day. The increased use of machines not only affected farmers, but also those rural artisans who were able to repair these implements, providing them with added income. All of these inventions, including threshers, balers, and other implements, appeared in a relatively short period of time, mostly in the 30 years just prior to the Civil War. Of approximately 6,600 patents granted in 1857 and 1858, 1,000 were for agricultural implements. By the 1840s and 1850s these implements were becoming more affordable, and in addition to making larger harvests possible, were affecting life in other ways. Because the machinery only worked with certain types of crops, it forced farmers to specialize in the crops they grew, which were chosen based on their commercial desirability. The use of machinery to plow, thresh, and harvest was restricted pretty much to the north. In the south the type of cotton gin invented in 1793 by Eli Whitney revolutionized the production of cotton. It allowed workers to remove the seeds from cotton and could separate 1,000 pounds of cotton fiber from the seeds in a day. This invention had the effect of making cotton cultivation profitable and resulted in the expansion of the amount of cotton exported. In 1790, shortly before the development of the cotton gin, the south produced 3,000 bales (a bale weighed 450 pounds) a year. That production grew to 73,000 bales by 1800. The total was 10 times that amount by 1820 and in 1860, just before the Civil War, the south grew and sent out 3,841,000 bales. Finally, and this is not the smallest consideration, the increased cotton productivity that could be attributed to the use of the gin not only kept slavery alive, but made it key to the southern economy.

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The meat and loom house at Bushong Farm, New Market Battlefield site, Virginia. Larger farms and plantations usually had specialized outbuildings for butchering, weaving, blacksmithing, and other work.

According to the census of 1790, 19 percent of the population was slave, that is, 697,681 out of a total population of 3,929,214. By 1860 the proportion had dropped to 14 percent. That meant in absolute numbers that there were 3,953,760 in a total population of 31,443,321. These numbers can present a misleading picture, however, for in the southern states where slaves lived, they made up a very high percentage of the population. That large number, while a significant asset for work in the fields or performing the other tasks needed to keep a plantation operating, also created anxiety among many of the whites. In the 18th century there had been small slave rebellions and during the Revolution, the British had promised freedom to any slaves who left to join with the British forces. In the early republic, the general anxiety was reinforced by a slave revolt in South Carolina in 1822 and another one in Virginia led by Nat Turner in 1831. Thus while they were masters, the thought that slaves could rebel was never very far from the minds of most slave owners. The fact that such a large part of the population were enslaved affected the economy, the social and political aspects of life, and had a great deal to do with the texture of life for those who relied upon that labor. Plantations were large economic units, growing crops for commercial use. The cotton raised was meant to be sent to cities in the north or to Britain and France. Additionally slaves were extensively used as the labor to grow and harvest not only cotton, but also rice and sugar in a belt that stretched from South Carolina to Texas. In some states, notably Kentucky and Tennessee, slaves



Rural Life

Rural Anti-Rent Sentiments

In 1839 the tenants of the Van Rensselaer estate in New York formed an anti-rent association to end the tenant arrangement and to use force, if necessary, against the agents sent to enforce the leases. In 1844 the anti-rent association petitioned the New York state legislature to terminate the Van Rensselaer’s title to the land and to distribute the land to those who farmed the land. The petition was referred to a sympathetic committee whose final report was not in favor of the tenants. Excerpted below is part of the committee’s report. The lands in the manor are nearly all held under perpetual leases, very similar in character, and granted, for the most part, many years since…. These leases had their origin in Europe in the age of feudalism, and still preserve those restrictions which were engrafted upon them at that barbarous period, and which are so justly odious to every fried of free institutions of government. These restrictions were devised by the sovereigns and nobles of the several nations of Europe, for the express purpose of strengthening their own power and increasing their own wealth, while at the same time they weakened and impoverished their unhappy tenants. Their sole object was to convert their tenants into abject serfs or slaves, and make them mere appendages of the soil, and to be kept forever in a condition of hopeless vassalage, without a prospect of relief. To prevent them from leaving the estates on which they had taken up their residence, the arbitrary restrictions of exacting one quarter of the purchase money of the property of which they occupied, whenever it was transferred to a new tenant, was imposed upon them, thus virtually prohibiting them from changing their residence, without submitting to a ruinous sacrifice of their property. This restriction, known as the quarter sale, exists in many of the leases of the manor of Rensselaerwyck, and constitutes in this country, even more than in that of its origin, a most intolerable grievance…. It is a source of just pride with the American farmer, that he is the proprietor of the soil which he cultivates. This honorable feeling cannot be shared by the unfortunate tenant of the manor of Rensselaerwyck. He cultivates the soil of another, and is liable at any time to have his growing crops destroyed, or his fences demolished by the proprietors of the manor, in the exercise of some one of the numerous privileges reserved to them in their leases. He is consequently depressed by these influences, which tend to generate in the American farmer of more favored districts that spirit of independence which is not humbled by the payment of an annual tribute, acknowledges no superior, and which raises him to a rank in the social scale never attained by the workingman of any country but our own.

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were not profitable as laborers for tobacco, but were raised to be sold to the states where slavery was economically viable. The 76 years between the Revolution and the Civil War brought significant changes in how people performed some of their tasks while increasing productivity. It would bring a wider range of material goods and conveniences and it would also bring about a difference in how rural America thought. Their world view at the end of this period would change as their ability to grow surplus crops and market them turned them from an inward to an outward looking perspective. Robert N. Stacy

Further Readings

Achenbach, Joel. The Grand Idea: George Washington’s Potomac and the Race to the West. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. Appleby, Joyce Oldham. Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2000. Danbom, David B. Born in the Country: A History of Rural America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Heidler, David Stephen. Daily Life in the Early American Republic, 1790– 1820: Creating a New Nation. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004. Hurt, R. Douglas. American Agriculture: A Brief History. Ames: Iowa State University, 1994. Kennedy, Roger G. Mr. Jefferson’s Lost Cause: Land, Farmers, Slavery, and the Louisiana Purchase. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. McClelland, Peter D. Sowing Modernity: America’s First Agricultural Revolution. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997. McMurry, Sally Ann. Transforming Rural Life: Dairying Families and Agricultural Change, 1820–1885. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. Otto, John Solomon. The Southern Frontiers, 1607–1860: The Agricultural Evolution of the Colonial and Antebellum South. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989. Rothenberg, Winifred Barr. From Market-places to a Market Economy: The Transformation of Rural Massachusetts, 1750–1850. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1992. St. George, Robert, ed. Material Life in America, 1600–1860. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press, 1988. Stampp, Kenneth M. The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South. New York: Vintage Books, 1989. Wermuth, Thomas S. Rip Van Winkle’s Neighbors: The Transformation of Rural Society in the Hudson River Valley, 1720–1850. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2001.

Chapter 7

Religion

“From time to time strange sects arise, which endeavor to strike out extraordinary paths to eternal happiness. Religious insanity is very common in the United States.” — Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835

The complex religious history of early republican America had its roots

in the colonial era. While the Church of England was theoretically the mother church of the colony, there was in reality quite a bit of religious diversity stemming from the different ethnic and religious groups that migrated to the New World beginning in 1607. Anglicans and Puritans were clearly in the majority, but Quakers, Catholics, Presbyterians and other sects were also well represented. Religious toleration was one of the founding principles of the colonies of Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Maryland. While it would be disingenuous to say there was no religious friction in colonial America, grudging tolerance was more common that open conflict. Raised in a culture of religious pluralism and steeped in the free-thinking philosophies of the Enlightenment, the founders recognized freedom of religion during the Revolution, and codified it in the Constitution. Between the opening salvos of the Revolution and the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the American religious landscape had undergone significant changes. Quakers, Mennonites, and other pacifist groups had been damaged by their refusal to participate in the war, and they lost much of the public goodwill they had built during the previous century. The Church of England, by definition, could not survive in the newly independent United States. In 1785 the scattered remains of the denomination met and recreated itself as 91

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the Protestant Episcopal Church. Methodists, who had developed as an offshoot of the Church of England and had remained dependent on it for clergy, also had to recast itself in a new light. During the Christmas Convention of 1784 they declared themselves independent of the British body. Unlike the Episcopals, they were quickly able to rebuild their numbers, and were the largest denomination in the country in the 1820s. As enthusiastic participants in the Revolution, Presbyterians, Baptists, Congregationalists, and even Catholics had come out of the war years with fairly strong positions. The Baptists in particular won over many converts from the Church of England, and for a brief period in the immediate post-war era, was the largest American denomination. THE SECOND GREAT AWAKENING In 1775 on the eve of the Revolution, Daniel Boone had broken the trans-Appalachian barrier by blazing a trail through the Cumberland Gap in southern Virginia. Settlers poured through the gap into the wide open lands of the frontier. Between 1792 and 1821 they established the new states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Alabama, Illinois, Mississippi, and Missouri. The opening of the frontier touched off arguably the most important event in U.S. religious history: the Second Great Awakening. Beginning around 1800 and continuing in waves for the next three decades, the Second Great Awakening formed new churches and new styles of worship, launched reform movements that eventually led to the emancipation of the slaves and greater equality for women, and firmly established America as a Protestant nation with a propensity towards evangelical zeal. While the Second Great Awakening would eventually sweep the entire country, it had its roots on the frontier. The established denominations in the east wanted to follow the population west, but the widely scattered frontier population made it impossible to establish themselves in the parish structure they used in the more settled parts of the country. Instead many churches sent in itinerant ministers who would travel from settlement to settlement administering to spiritual needs and trying to win fresh converts. This was not easy work. These traveling ministers were discouraged from marrying and spent most of their time in isolation. Their potential flocks were not always happy to see them—itinerant Peter Cartwright recalled getting into physical fights for the right to preach in a couple of cases. Cartwright and others quickly realized that their audiences, whose lives were filled with hardship, danger, and social isolation, were not interested in theology. They were, however, worried about the final destination of their souls. The most popular preachers were those charismatic types who could hit the right emotional chords. Modern evangelism was born. The revival was a logical outgrowth of this style of ministry. Preachers would send out a call and have all interested parties meet at a camp in the



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wilderness to listen to their ministry. The first notable “camp meeting” was held June 13–17, 1801, at Red River in Logan County, Kentucky. “The scene was new to me and passing strange,” recalled Barton Stone, who later went on to form his own church. “It baffled description. Many, very many, fell down as men slain in battle, and continued for hours in apparently breathless and motionless state, sometimes for a few moments reviving and exhibiting signs of life by a deep groan or piercing shriek, or by a prayer for mercy fervently uttered. After laying there for hours, they obtained deliverance.” This scene would be played out countless times over the next 30 years. People gathered from all over a region and spent two to four days together in an encampment, listening to up to 10 ministers, often from different denominations

The Cane Ridge Revival

The largest camp meeting of the Second Great Awakening took place at a site called Cane Ridge in Bourbon County, Kentucky, in August 1801. A crowd estimated between 10,000 to 30,000 people (at a time with the largest settlement in the state had a population of just over 1,700) assembled at the Cane Ridge site. The revival lasted close to a week. Peter Cartwright, a young itinerant preacher, recalled the scene in his autobiography in 1856: Somewhere between 1800 and 1801, in the upper part of Kentucky, at a memorable place called Cane Ridge, there was appointed a sacramental meeting by some of the Presbyterian ministers, at which meeting, seemingly unexpected by ministers or people, the mighty power of God was displayed in a very extraordinary manner; many were moved to tears, and bitter and loud crying for mercy. The meeting was protracted for weeks. Ministers of almost all denominations flocked in from far and near. The meeting was kept up by night and day. Thousands heard of the mighty work, and came on foot, on horseback, in carriages and wagons. It was supposed that there were in attendance at times during the meeting from 12,000 to 25,000 people. Hundreds fell prostrate under the mighty power of God, as men slain in battle. Stands were erected in the woods from which preachers of different Churches proclaimed repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and it was supposed, by eye and ear witnesses, that between one and two thousand souls were happily and powerfully converted to God during the meeting. It was not unusual for one, two, three, and four to seven preachers to be addressing the listening thousands at the same time from the different stands erected for the purpose. The heavenly fire spread in almost every direction. It was said, by truthful witnesses, that at times more than one thousand persons broke into loud shouting all at once, and that the shouts could be heard for miles around.



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on different stages, preaching their messages. The whole conversion process— identification of spiritual concern, desire to resolve it, anxiety or fear about the state of one’s soul, the conviction to change ways—all had to be compressed into the space of hours or days. Camp meetings were highly emotional events, with participants often breaking into spasms of weeping, dancing, singing, shaking, jumping, speaking in tongues, or even falling to the ground in a trance-like state as described by Barton Stone. Following the revivals, denominations often sent around circuit ministers to periodically visit communities, preach the Word, and see to spiritual ceremonies, including weddings. It was not uncommon in some churches to appoint local lay preachers to administer to ministry when the circuit preacher was away, particularly in Baptist denominations. Individuality was an important facet of religious experience in the early 1800s. In many cases the hierarchy and authority of a church was not as important to congregants as their desire for authentic spiritual expression. joSeph SmIth and the rISe oF mormonISm Revivals were repeated over a period of years. Some parts of upstate New York and Vermont became known as the “burned over districts” because so many revivals had swept through that there was no more wood—that is, unconverted souls—left to burn. A percentage of those who were “saved” in camp meetings eventually slipped back into their old sinful ways, or, more likely, became disenchanted with a denomination chosen in a moment of passion. But the emotion unleashed in revivals made lived spirituality a focus of daily life, and this desire found outlets in a variety of ways. For example spiritualism, or the belief that the spirits of the dead could be contacted through “mediums,” arose in upstate New York in the late 1840s and remained popular through the 1920s and beyond. One of the most enduring institutions to come out of the Second Great Awakening was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons. Church founder Joseph Smith was born in Vermont in 1805 and moved with his family to Upstate New York as a child. Growing up in the “burnt” districts left him, by his own account, deeply conflicted by the theological war of words going on between the sects, and by the time he was 14 or 15, he decided to “do as James directs” in the Bible and took his questions straight to God. Sitting in the woods one day, praying for guidance, Smith suddenly “saw a pillar of light exactly over [his] head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon [him].” In this light he saw two figures. One pointed to the other and announced: “This is my Son, hear him.” Smith Joseph Smith was the founder of Mormonism. asked the glowing figure his question: which of the



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religious sects was right? “I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong, and the personage … said that all their creeds were an abomination in His sight; that those professors were all corrupt.” Over the next months, Smith had more visions. Praying in his room on September 21, 1823, he was visited by another figure he called Moroni, a messenger of God. Moroni told him that hidden in the nearby hills was a book written on golden plates, which could be translated by using two magical stones called Urim and Thummin, which were laying nearby. According to Smith, he found the plates and the stones not long afterward, but had to wait another four years until An 1890 print of Joseph Smith’s original Mormon Temple building in Nauvoo, Illinois. Moroni was convinced Smith was not out to use the treasure for material gain, and was spiritually ready to translate the texts. During those years, Smith said, he paid periodic visits to a place he called Hill Cumorah, where the plates were hidden. Finally in late 1827, Moroni appeared to Smith and granted him permission to take possession of the golden book. By then married and living in Pennsylvania, Smith traveled back to New York, and spirited the book and stones home in a locked box hidden under a bag of dry beans. At his new home near Harmony, Pennsylvania, Smith said he spent the winter and spring of 1827– 28 peering through the “seer” stones at the strange text on the plates, reading out the magically translated text to friends and family, who transcribed what they learned. The result was called The Book of Mormon. The book told an epic tale of the struggle between two Hebrew tribes who emigrated to America around 600 b.c.e. After his crucifixion, Christ appeared to the people, ushering in a period of peace between warring tribes that lasted for the next 200 years. Around 385 c.e., the light-skinned Nephites were decimated by the dark-skinned Lamanites. In the text Mormon was a historian and prophet who had been commanded to write a history of his peoples. He entrusted this book to his son, Moroni, who eventually appeared to Smith in the form of an angel. The Book of Mormon placed America squarely in the

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role of God’s chosen land, and identified Native Americans as one of the Lost Tribes of Israel. The Book of Mormon did not claim to replace the Bible; it was instead a “second” testament of Jesus Christ. Historians and religious scholars have long been divided over Joseph Smith’s story. It is uncertain whether he was a true prophet, or a deluded young man given to hallucinations, or some sort of religious grifter out to take advantage of the spiritual turmoil of his time. In Smith’s account, once translated, he collected affidavits from some of those who had apparently seen the golden plates and then returned them to Moroni, never to be seen again. Without concrete proof of the existence of the original book, it is an open question how the text actually came into being. Some believe that Smith or his early followers wrote the book themselves, either as a conscious act or through “automatic writing” while in a religious trance. Others think it may have been plagiarized from an 1812 novel by a man named Solomon Spaulding. Whatever Smith’s motives and whatever his book’s genesis, at the time his ideas struck a chord among people seeking a different kind of spiritual home. The Book of Mormon was published on March 26, 1830, and on April 6, 1830, Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at his home in Fayette, New York. prejudice and suspicion The new “Saints” were not warmly welcomed into the wider Christian community, to say the least. The early years of Mormonism are an almost unbroken record of encounters with prejudice and suspicion. Seeking a new home, Smith and his followers moved to Kirtland, Ohio, in 1831, then to Missouri. By 1840 they were congregated in Nauvoo, Illinois. In each of these places the Mormon community was fairly prosperous. A key aspect of their religion involved communal sharing of labor and wealth. It was this clannishness that worried the “gentiles,” as the Mormons called non-believers. Tension inevitably built between Mormons and their neighbors, and they were run out of each successive town. The settlement at Nauvoo and Smith himself came to a bad end in the early 1840s. In 1843 Smith had sanctioned polygamy, or plural marriage, placing Mormonism even more outside the mainstream of American religious life. He quickly accumulated an estimated 27 wives, much to the dismay of his first wife, Emma. Smith by then was not just the leader of his church, but the mayor of Nauvoo and the commander of a large personal militia. Mostly due to its Mormon population, Nauvoo had become the second-largest city in Illinois. There was dissent within the Mormon community over Smith’s increasingly autocratic rule, and pressure began to mount from the outside over the growing political influence of the Mormons. In June 1844 Smith was jailed pending charges for treason. On the night of June 27 a mob of 200 Nauvoo



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citizens stormed the jail, and Smith was shot dead. Reorganized under their new leader Brigham Young, the Mormons decided to leave the gentiles far behind, setting off for a new life in the far off Utah territory in February 1846. Setting up their settlement on the edge of the Great Salt Lake, the Mormons finally realized Smith’s dream of a “new Zion.” By 1850 Salt Lake City was home to 5,000 residents. A decade later, there were more than 12,000, and the desert community was blooming. SHAKERS Against the odds the Mormons survived and thrived, but other groups were not so lucky. The United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, more commonly known as the Shakers for their ecstatic, trancelike behavior during religious services, formed in England in 1747 as an offshoot of Quakerism. The founder of the movement, “Mother” Ann Lee, had a vision of herself as Christ reborn in the form of a woman. In 1774 she had another vision, carrying her and her eight followers to America. They established themselves in the small community of Watervliet, New York, near Albany. As pacifists, the small sect took no part in the Revolution, although Mother Lee herself was at one point jailed for treason. Illiterate but charismatic, Lee embarked on a revival tour of New England in 1781 and won many converts to her movement before her death in 1784.

A 19th-century engraving of a Shaker group meeting. At the height of the Shaker movement in the 1840s, there were about 6,000 followers in 19 communities.

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At the height of the Shaker movement in the 1840s, there were about 6,000 followers living in 19 communities stretching from New England to Kentucky. Mother Lee’s religion was built on communal living. Men and women lived and worked in large, dormitory-style buildings. Shakers were celibate, and any interaction between males and females was strictly monitored. Although most Americans looked askance at the Shakers, they were widely acknowledged to be gifted farmers, craftsmen, and technological innovators. Their communities began to decline after the Civil War, as few new converts were drawn to their celibate lifestyle, and interest in utopian or communal living was on the wane. Their legacy lived on largely through their simple, practical approach to furniture and architecture, with only one or two settlements still in operation by the 1960s. TRANsCENDENTALISTS Transcendentalism, a popular movement of the time, occupied another space in the religious landscape of the period. It was actually more of a quasi-religious philosophy than an organized church. In fact, its adherents were more like one-member religions, each functioning under their own individual view of the divine. “We are called like-minded,” one quipped, “because no two of us think alike.” The word “transcendentalism” was adopted from the German philosopher Immanual Kant, who had called those aspects of human experience that went beyond the five senses “transcendental.” The movement was entirely a New England phenomenon, beginning in Boston around 1836. Essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, educator Bronson Alcott (father of the author Louisa May Alcott), philosopher William Ellery Channing, and social reformer Margaret Fuller were among the leading members. With the assistance of Emerson, Fuller edited The Dial, a magazine of transcendental writings published between 1840 and 1844. Members also tried communal living arrangements at the utopian farms Brook Farm and Fruitlands during their most active years. Like most of the spirituality flowing out of the Second Great Awakening, transcendentalism was a rejection of Calvinism, but it was much more open in its embrace of romanticism than other groups. “The Transcendentalist adopts the whole connection of spiritual doctrine,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1842. Emerson continues: “He believes in miracle, in the perpetual openness of the human mind to new influx of light and power; he believes in inspiration, and in ecstasy. He wishes that the spiritual principle should be suffered to demonstrate itself to the end, in all possible applications to the state of man, without the admission of anything unspiritual; that is, anything positive, dogmatic, personal.” To the Transcendentalist, nature was their church; Henry David Thoreau called his daily morning swim in Walden Pond “a religious exercise, one of the best things I did.”



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CATHOLICISM and IMMIGRATION Irish immigration brought close to a million new citizens to the United States between 1815 and 1845, with the bulk of the immigrants coming during the late 1830s and 1840s. This huge influx of predominantly Catholic arrivals in the midst of a Protestant evangelical revival touched off tenuous decades of anti-Catholic prejudice that sometimes spilled over into open violence. The roots of anti-Catholicism can be traced back to the Protestant Reformation in Europe. The churches most prominent in colonial and early republican America had begun as reactions against the Catholic Church. Memories of the religious wars of Europe lingered for generations. The Catholic population in America during the colonial period had been small and confined. But the arrival of so many Catholics so quickly during the 1800s sparked old paranoia about papal plots for global domination.

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“Up! I beseech you. Awake! To your posts!” the inventor and rabid antiCatholic Samuel F.B. Morse wrote in a typical anti-papist screed. “Let the tocsin sound from Maine to Louisiana. Fly to protect the vulnerable places of your Constitution and Laws. Place your guard; you will need them; and quickly, too—And first, shut your gates.” Irish men and women fleeing poverty and starvation in their homeland must have been dismayed at the level of prejudice and derision they faced in their new homes. The natural reaction was to withdraw. By 1829 parochial schools were forming in the new immigrant communities. Sending their children to Protestant-dominated public schools was risky. By 1840 there were about 200 parochial schools around the country. This, like most attempts by Catholics to keep to themselves and worship quietly, was interpreted by antiCatholic activists as an offense at best, or another part of the grand conspiracy to overtake the country at worst. The claim of the nativist anti-immigrant movement that formed in the 1830s was that one could not be a Catholic and an American. Fired-up mobs of “patriotic” nativists set about vandalizing churches and causing trouble in Irish neighborhoods. These groups would seize on any provocation to attack Catholics. Prior to the Mexican War of 1846 American Catholics were strong supporters of American intervention in Mexico, but that did not stop nativists from claiming they were somehow in cahoots with Catholic Mexico. Two anti-Catholic riots in the 1830s and 1840s showed how easily things could get out of hand. In 1834 a mob attacked a convent of Catholic Ursuline nuns in Charlestown, Massachusetts, after rumors spread that young women were being held captive in the convent basement and forced to convert to Roman Catholicism. A mob marched on the convent on the night of August 11, and without any intervention from local authorities, proceeded to A memorial of the Philadelphia Nativist Riot and burn the three-story building to the casualties of the violent clashes occurring the ground. Quick-thinking nuns between “patriotic” nativists and Irish-American ushered the children out a rear Catholics, May 6–8, 1844.



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door before the violence began. Nobody was killed in the blaze, but nobody in the crowd faced any kind of punishment. for the arson Far deadlier were the Philadelphia Nativist Riots of 1844. The trouble began in the spring of that year, when Bishop Francis Kenrick wrote the local Board of Education asking that Catholic children attending the public schools not be required to read from the King James Version of the Bible, or receive Protestant religious instruction during the school day. Over a period of weeks, nativist groups twisted Kenrick’s words to make it appear as if he was trying to get the Protestant Bible and prayers removed from the schools. On May 3 a group of Irish immigrants attacked a group of nativists who were holding a rally in a predominantly Irish Catholic neighborhood. On May 6 the nativists returned, this time in greater numbers. Several people died in the subsequent fighting. The next day, May 7, the fighting was renewed, with 30 homes being burned in the rioting. Bishop Kenrick urged the Irish not to participate in the fighting, and they mostly obeyed, but by this time, the nativist mob was out of control. In the third continuous day of rioting, two churches and a school were torched, and at least 50 people were injured. An uneasy peace settled over the city for the next few weeks. Then, nativists marched in an Independence Day parade, and conflict broke out once more. This time most of the fighting was between Protestant rioters and state militia sent in to protect Catholic neighborhoods. It took 5,000 militia two days to quell the violence. Fifty were injured and at least 15 killed, with more than $150,000 in property damage. Anti-Catholic rhetoric continued through the 19th century, but did nothing to stem the tide of Catholic immigrants flowing in from all over Europe over the next 50 years. As early as 1859 the Catholic church was the largest single denomination in America. ABOLITIONISM AND RELIGION The Second Great Awakening launched a variety of important reform movements, as new converts set out to purge the country of sin. Initiatives were mounted against dueling, gambling, drinking, dancing, prostitution, and other vices. Most religious institutions had maintained silence about the issue of slavery prior to the start of the 19th century. That began to change as an increasing number of Americans began to see the institution of slavery as the greatest sin of all. One side-effect of the Second Great Awakening was a greater willingness among slave owners to let their slaves attend churches, and churches showed more willingness to accept black members—provided they sit in segregated parts of the building. In some areas they were even allowed to attend revivals, again in segregated sections. Giving their slaves access to a spiritual life allowed owners to feel they were doing their Christian duty while neatly sidestepping the moral implications of holding Christian souls in bondage.

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Antislavery Hymns

The singing of hymns was an important part of antislavery meetings during the antebellum period. Countless poems, written by such leading lights of the movement as Elizabeth Margaret Chandler and William Lloyd Garrison appeared in the antislavery press of the era, most of them designed to be sung to the tune of popular hymns. Most expressed the deep emotion antislavery activists felt about the impact of slavery on those held in bondage, and encouraged listeners who might not yet have become active antislavery members to join the movement. Think of our country’s glory, All dimm’d with Afric’s tears -Her broad flag stained and gory With th’ hoarded guilt of years

With olive cheek he made The little Hindoo child, And darkly stained the forest tribes That roam our western wild --

Think of the frantic mother, Lamenting for her child, Till falling lashes smother Her cries of anguish wild!

To us, he gave a form Of fairer, whiter clay -But are we therefore, in his sight, Respected more than they?

Think of the prayers ascending Yet shrieked, alas! in vain, When heart from heart is rending Ne’re to be joined again!

‘Tis th’ hue of deeds and thoughts He traces in His Book -‘Tis the complexion of the heart, On which He deigns to look.

Shall we behold, unheeding Life’s holiest feelings crush’d?-When woman’s heart is bleeding, Shall women’s voice be hush’d?

Not by the tinted cheek That fades away so fast, But by the color of the soul, We shall be judged at last.

Oh no! by every blessing, That Heaven to thee may lend -Remember their oppression Forget not, sister, friend.

The Lord will look at us With anger in His eyes, If we our brother’s darker brow Should ever dare despise.

God gave Afric’s sons, A brow of sable dye -And spread the country of their birth Beneath a burning sky, --



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In the northeast, more and more people were coming to view slavery as a moral evil. They began to push their church organizations, be they Congregationalist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, or Quaker, towards more forceful denunciations of the practice. Debates within individual churches often led to deep denominational schisms. In 1845 the Baptists split when northern members spoke out against the appointment of slave-owners as missionaries. In May 1845 southern members broke away to form their own Conference. The Methodist church had split into sectional bodies a year earlier. Even This image of a supplicant male slave in the Quakers, who had spoken out chains appeared on the 1837 broadside against slavery as early as 1688, saw publication of John Greenleaf Whittier’s antislavery poem, “Our Countrymen in Chains.” divisions by the 1840s. Some prominent antislavery Quakers, including James and Lucretia Mott, joined the more liberal Hicksite faction, which urged more vocal opposition to slavery. “The evidence of God’s grace was a person’s benevolence towards others,” wrote Presbyterian evangelist Charles G Finney. Disinterested benevolence—doing good deeds because it was right, not because the doer expected rewards—was a critical part of religious devotion. Collective actions designed to tackle moral issues lead to the founding of a number of powerful societies in the late 1820s and 1830s: the American Education Society, American Board of Foreign Missions, American Bible Society, American Tract Society, American Home Missionary Society, the American Colonization Society, and the American Anti-Slavery Society all attracted hundreds or thousands of members, and created a structure by which groups could communicate with that membership about important social issues of the era. The social reform movement in the first decades of the 19th century brought religion even more into the orbit of American politics. Just as religion was beginning to inform the ethics of the nation, the idea that these Protestant ethics should be the guiding force in politics had become gospel by the end of the Second Great Awakening. “I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion; for who can read the human heart?” wrote French observer Alexis de Tocqueville during his visit to America in the 1830s. “But I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable

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The Journal of Charlotte L. Forten Charlotte Forten was the daughter of a wealthy African-American merchant from Philadelphia. She was sent to live with a black abolitionist family and attended school in Salem, Massachusetts. While living in Salem she witnessed the capture and return of a fugitive slave, Anthony Burns. In this portion of her journal, published in 1953, Forten discusses the difficulty of living as an African-American Christian, her horror on the return of Anthony Burns, and her belief that at least one prominent member of the Philadelphia clergy supported the institution of slavery. May 26, 1854. Had a conversation with Miss Shepard [grammar school principal in Salem] about slavery; she is, as I thought, thoroughly opposed to it, but does not agree with me in thinking that the churches and ministers are generally supporters of the infamous system; I believe it firmly. Mr. Barnes, one of the most prominent of the Philadelphia clergy, who does not profess to be an Abolitionist, has declared his belief that “the American church is a bulwark of slavery.” Words cannot express all that I feel; all that is felt by the friends of freedom, when thinking of this great obstacle to the removal of slavery from our land. Alas! that it should be so. June 2. Our worst fears are realized. The decision was against poor Burns [Anthony Burns, arrested in Boston under the Fugitive Slave Act], and he has been sent back to a bondage worse, a thousand ties worse, than death. With what scorn must that government be regarded which cowardly assembles thousands of soldiers to satisfy the demands of slaveholders; to deprive of his freedom a man, created in God’s own image, whose sole offense is the color of his skin! And if resistance is offered to this outrage, these soldiers are to shoot down American citizens without mercy; and this by the express orders of a government which proudly boasts of being the freest in the world; this on the very soil where the Revolution of 1776 began. I can write no more. A cloud seems hanging over me, over all our personal race, which nothing can dispel.

to the maintenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or to a party, but it belongs to the whole nation and to every rank of society.” Heather K. Michon



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Ahlstrom, Sydney E. A Religious History of the American People. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1974. Allit, Patrick, and Thomas Paterson. Major Problems In American Religious History. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1999. Gaustad, Edwin S., and Leigh Schmidt. The Religious History of America: The Heart of the American Story from Colonial Times to Today. New York: HarperOne, 2004. Mathisen, Robert R. Critical Issues in American Religious History: A Reader. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2006. Queen, Edward L., Stephen R. Prothero, and Gardiner H. Shattuck Jr. Encyclopedia of American Religious History. New York: Facts on File, 2001. Sernett, Milton C. African American Religious History: A Documentary Witness. 2nd ed. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999.

Chapter 8

Education

“This country must in some future time, be as distinguished by the superiority of her literary improvements, as she is already by the liberality of her civil and ecclesiastical constitutions.” — Noah Webster, 1783

The move toward educational expansion and reform began even before

the end of the Revolutionary War. In 1779 Thomas Jefferson put forth to the Virginia legislature a Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge. The bill proposed creating a system of free public schools that would provide a basic level of education to every child in Virginia. In addition the brightest students (boys) would be selected to continue their free education through the secondary level and beyond. It was possible under this legislation for a young man to receive a free college education at William & Mary. Jefferson’s proposal was not taken up by the legislature in 1779. In fact the educational bill that passed more than a decade later did not provide for the level of public support of education hoped for by Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson joined other political leaders in the young United States and revolutionary France in discussing the need for a general level of education in order to maintain a republican government. Founding father and physician Benjamin Rush in 1786 called for a national educational plan regarding the values and obligations necessary for citizens in a republic. To support this end Rush also called for the establishment of a national university. While the idea of a national university received support from four of the first six presidents—George Washington left stock to begin an endowment for a national university—the idea never made it through Congress. The American Philosophical Society offered a prize in 1796 to the plan 107

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Noah Webster (1758–1843)

Noah Webster was born in Connecticut and educated at Yale during the Revolutionary War. After graduating from Yale in 1778, Webster first taught school in Connecticut before studying for the bar. His experience as a teacher and his desire to unite the new country through the use of a common language moved Webster to produce three schoolbooks. The first book published in 1783, A Grammatical Institute of the English Language was a spelling book. A grammar book was published the following year in 1784, and a reader composed for children who could already read was published in 1785. He published revised editions of the speller (American Spelling Book) and the reader (An American Selection of Lessons) in 1785. Webster’s speller would prove to be the most popular of his schoolbooks. Throughout its various editions, more than 70 million copies of the speller were sold. Noah Webster believed strongly that AmerWebster promoted American ica should declare linguistic independence from linguistic independence from Great Britain. Great Britain as well as political independence. To that end he produced in 1790 his Rudiments of English Grammar. One of Noah Webster’s most important contributions to American education was to change the spellings of certain words from the British spelling. So honour became honor, centre to center, and defence to defense. Americans easily adopted words from other cultures (Spanish, French, and German) for their own use. Noah Webster produced the first American Dictionary in 1828 when his two-volume An American Dictionary of the English Language was published. Webster’s dictionary contained more than 70,000 entries, including 5,000 new words not included in previous English dictionaries. In addition to his schoolbooks and general dictionary, Webster produced school dictionaries that had a profound impact upon the school curriculum of geography and history. Those dictionaries included: Elements of Useful Knowledge (1802, 1804, 1806, 1812), Biography, for the Use of Schools (1830), History of the United States, and Manual of Useful Studies (1839). In addition to his schoolbooks, Webster also was the founder of three newspapers in New York City: the American Magazine in 1787, The American Minerva in 1793, and The Herald. The newspapers were founded by Webster to help support himself since the lack of a federal copyright law until 1790 allowed others to pirate from his schoolbooks. Webster was also active in politics, serving in the Massachusetts legislature and the New Haven Common Council. His academic interests led him to participate in the founding of Amherst Academy and Amherst College.



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that best suited the educational needs of the United States. While the winning essays of this competition and other discussions centered on the need for some type of universal instruction, none of these plans were implemented. The educational background of the founding fathers (those who signed either the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, or the Constitution of the United States) runs the spectrum from little or no formal schooling to possessing a college education. All of them strongly believed that a successful republic depended on an educated populace. Particular emphasis was placed on a moral education since they saw education and religion as working together toward that end. This view is best illustrated in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787: “Religion, morality and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, Schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” However the Northwest Ordinance does not provide any concrete plans for encouraging education. institutions of higher learning While there was broad discussion regarding the need for a universal general education for the youth of America, the majority of activity regarding education centered on the establishment of institutions of higher learning rather than on establishing common schools. The vast majority of the population were involved as either farmers or workingmen. These occupations required very little formal education. Girls only needed to receive the level of education required in order to manage their homes. The population of the United States was very scattered and moving westward, making it very difficult to organize schools. In addition children’s school attendance was often interrupted by the seasonal needs of a farming economy. Finally there was a need to produce an educated elite to govern the new republic. Another aspect of education in this period was the borrowing of European practices. In particular the United States turned to its revolutionary ally France in borrowing educational practices regarding civil engineering education, math, and the education of deaf and blind students. The U.S. Constitution does not address education directly as a federal issue. The Tenth Amendment and its doctrine of reserved powers left education to the states to address within their constitutions and laws. Just prior to the end of the Revolutionary War the Continental Congress encouraged the states to form their governments. The new state constitutions drawn up in response to this call did acknowledge the need to promote education, but offered no concrete plans regarding education. The Pennsylvania constitution calls for the legislature to establish one school in every county to instruct children at low prices and for the public to pay for the salary of the schoolmaster. However the Pennsylvania legislature never moved to establish the county schools. As the American population moved westward, there was a growing demand to establish western colleges. The end of the Revolutionary War began a period

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The Rotunda and lawn of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. The university was established in 1825 through the efforts of Thomas Jefferson.

concluded in 1860 that saw the establishment of 182 viable colleges. Many more colleges were established during the period, but lacked the funds and the students necessary to survive in the long term. While America’s leaders were debating the need for a national university, 90 percent of the new universities were church schools connected to a religious society. This period also saw the establishment of the first nine state universities, beginning with the chartering of the University of Georgia in 1785. However, since the University of Georgia did not physically open until 1801, the first state university to open was the University of North Carolina in 1795. An outgrowth of the admission of western states into the union was the land-grant policy adopted by Congress. This policy assigned two townships to each state for the establishment of a university. Ohio was the first state impacted by the land-grant policy establishing Ohio University in 1804 at Athens and Miami University in 1809 at Oxford. The last of the state universities established during this period was the University of Virginia in 1825 through the efforts of Thomas Jefferson. In actuality these early state universities functioned more like independent colleges and typically were controlled by one of the Protestant denominations since once they were established they received no further financial assistance from their states. An example of the control by Protestant denominations is Miami University, where nine of the first 12 presidents of the university were ordained Presbyterian ministers. The 13th president was a Methodist minister. The movement toward the establishment of state universities was rooted primarily in the south and west. The establishment of colleges and universities also led to the establishment of libraries in support of the colleges. However early university libraries often had meager collections, were not open to the public, and often had very strict rules regarding usage, even by their own students. By 1850 there were only four college libraries whose collection exceeded 50,000 volumes and none had a collection of 100,000 volumes. In the colonial era libraries such as the Philadelphia Library Company established by Benjamin Franklin in 1731 were subscription libraries. The movement to create public libraries begins around 1850 when states began to pass legislation permitting the creation of public libraries by towns. The establishment of school libraries started slowly in the 1830s when



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the states of New York, Massachusetts, and Michigan began to appropriate funds in support of school libraries, although the local school districts were required to match the funds they received from the state. BEGINNINGS OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM Early in the history of the United States, elementary education was narrowly defined. Education did not begin early, nor did it continue for a long period of time. Since the vast majority of Americans were engaged in agriculture, the time spent on education was determined by the seasonal demands of the family farm. There was little concern for developing a curriculum beyond the standard three R’s: reading, writing, and arithmetic. The school building was often a one-room structure with little in the way of equipment. The quality of education varied widely depending on whether the school was located in a rural or urban area. Schools near the eastern seaboard often had college graduates as their teachers, but teachers on the frontier tended to be young and not far removed from their school days. Teachers were poorly paid and young men who taught usually viewed education as a temporary position before moving to their permanent career. Men like John Adams and Horace Mann taught school for a few years before studying for the bar. Beginning in the 1830s expansion

Samuel Gridley Howe (1801–76)

Samuel Gridley Howe was an avid proponent of education for the blind, the deaf, and the mentally ill at a time when the concept of a free public education for all children had not yet been established. Howe was born in Boston, attended Harvard Medical School, and was admitted to the practice of medicine. However, Howe left Boston before he could establish his medical practice in order to participate in the Greek revolution. Once he returned to Boston in 1831 Howe was encouraged to organize the New England asylum for the blind, to be located in Boston. Howe again left for Europe in order to study the problem and methods from the European perspective. Howe’s political viewpoints led to his brief participation and imprisonment in a Polish revolt before he returned to Boston in the summer of 1832 and returned to the problem of how best to educate blind children. Howe began to teach a few blind children in his family’s Boston home, a practice that led to the establishment of the Perkins School for the Blind. Howe’s most famous success story, and the one that would encourage future teachers, was teaching the alphabet to Laura Bridgman, a student who was blind, deaf, and mute. Howe married Julia Ward in 1843 and both were well known for their abolitionist beliefs. Julia Ward Howe is best remembered for composing the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” in 1862.

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and industrial development helped the movement to introduce practical subjects into the curriculum. In addition, steps were taken to improve the quality of teachers with the introduction of normal schools that would formally, although briefly, prepare teachers. Increasing concern was given to school buildings and their equipment. From its inception the high school in the United States was dramatically different from its European counterpart. While both viewed high schools as secondary education, the high school in Europe was for the privileged few, not the common school that developed in the United States. The establishment of high schools tended to be haphazard and arose out of already established common schools and academies. Early in their existence the curriculum at high schools placed a big emphasis on college preparatory work. Massachusetts passed a law in 1827 outlining the circumstances by which towns were obligated to teach secondary subjects. Similar laws were passed by many other states prior to the Civil War. expansion and education As the United States continued to expand in the 19th century there was growing discussion regarding how best to educate the children scattered throughout the frontier, the urban workers, and the increasing number of immigrants entering the United States. In addition there was a growing need to address technical education and the education of girls. Academies, both private and semipublic, were established to meet the educational needs of a middle class who were capable of paying for a better education for their children. In the end the majority of the academies were short-lived institutions and faded from the scene once public high schools were established. Teacher’s organizations and civic and business leaders supported public school systems, and as the century progressed, organized labor called for education. Some who thought it was a waste of resources to educate the common man attacked the move toward public schools. These critics had a more limited and elitist view regarding the sheer numbers of citizens requiring a formal education. The tying of education to social reform by such leaders as Horace Mann supported the emphasis on specialized education for the deaf, the blind, and the mentally retarded. Samuel Gridley Howe is credited with developing the first plan to educate someone who was deaf and blind. These plans would be expanded and improved upon later through the efforts of Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller. The growing American economy led to efforts to establish schools to emphasize agricultural and engineering sciences. The move to establish agricultural and engineering colleges and universities would culminate with the passage of the Morrill Act in 1862. Influenced by Jacksonian Democracy and the rise of the common man, which favored the expanding of democracy, support grew for the establishment of public schools that would provide a free education to all children



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Early schools were often a one-room structure with little in the way of equipment. The one-room Brainerd School in Mount Holly, New Jersey, was the first school in the state, established in 1759.

regardless of their economic class. Ahead of state legislation, many cities such as Cincinnati and Philadelphia established their own public schools. Supporting this movement within the cities was the establishment of schools specific to certain classes of children by philanthropic groups. New York City adopted in 1806 the Lancasterian schools developed in England by Joseph Lancaster (1753–1832). The Free School Society, a private organization that established private schools that were more moderate in cost than other private schools, adopted the Lancasterian system. The Lancasterian system kept costs down by relying on mutual instruction by pupils and a system of monitors. Often the only salaried individual at Lancasterian schools was the principal. The narrow curriculum, aimed at literacy with some basic mathematics, was designed to educate the urban poor. However the Lancasterian schools were increasingly caught up in a religious controversy in the 1840s as the expanding Catholic population in the cities objected to the use of the King James translation of the Bible and the use of some reading books they viewed as offensive to their faith. The Lancasterian and philanthropic schools served as a transition and would come to an end with the rise of the principle of a free public education for all children. The growing support for the principle of a free public education for all also impacted upon teaching principles. Early teaching emphasized the learning

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of basic literary skills coupled with some basic mathematical skills. As the 19th century progressed the ideas and philosophy of a foreigner, Swiss Johann Pestalozzi, began to impact teaching in the United States. Pestalozzi has been dubbed the founder of the modern elementary school because of his emphasis on a liberal education rather than the acquisition of literacy. Pestalozzi’s methods were introduced in the United States through one of his assistants, Joseph Neef. William Maclure brought Neef to Philadelphia. Once in the United States Neef opened a school in Philadelphia and published his book on educational methods, Sketch of a Plan and Method of Education, in 1808. Neff ’s book introduced the United States to the Pestalozzian program that proposed that students learn through inquiry and investigation. The Pestalozzian program introduced students to drawing before they began writing and emphasized oral work and conversational skills before books and reading were introduced.

The Clara Barton free school (foreground) was established in New Jersey by Clara Barton in 1852. Barton started teaching at the age of 17, and founded her first school in 1844.



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Horace Mann (1796–1859)

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Horace Mann advocated for tuition-free public education and may be considered the most influential American educationalist of the 19th century. Ironically, prior to his father’s death in 1809 and the use of his bequest to enter Barrett School in 1816, Mann’s education had been limited to a rudimentary education for several weeks a year. Mann graduated from Brown University in 1819 after two years of study and taught Latin at Brown until he began studying for the bar in 1822. He served on the Dedham School Commission and in the Massachusetts general assembly from 1827 to 1833 before being elected to the state senate in 1834. Elected the senate president, Mann signed the legislation that created the Massachusetts State Board of Education. He resigned his senate seat in 1837 to accept the appointment as the lawyer-secretary to the new Massachusetts Board of Education. Mann viewed education as the best way to achieve social reform. In this position he undertook the reorganization of the Massachusetts system of education that would serve as a model for other states. Under Mann the first normal school opened in Lexington in 1839, the school term was lengthened, educational pedagogy emphasized science, teachers were better trained and paid, and schoolhouses were updated. Mann worked diligently to address the problem of incompetent teachers, and published a biweekly journal for teachers called Common School Journal. During a trip to Europe, after his 1843 marriage to Mary Peabody, Mann learned of Germany’s implementation of a certification process and examinations for teachers, a process he unsuccessfully tried to implement in Massachusetts. Mann was elected to fill the congressional seat vacated due to the death of former President John Quincy Adams in 1848. During his time in Congress (1848–53), Mann led the movement that established education at public expense the right of every child. Mann agreed with the founding fathers that education and religion were inseparable. However Mann thought religious education in the schools should be carried out in such a way as to not violate the students’ rights of conscience, but at the same time inculcate Christian morals. Mann resigned from Congress and accepted the presidency of Antioch College, a new college being built in Yellow Springs, Ohio, after a failed run for the governorship of Massachusetts. Antioch College was a coeducational, nonsectarian school that also admitted African Americans. While Mann developed a strong curriculum for Antioch College, the new college struggled financially from the beginning. Mann turned to a group of New England investors to save the bankrupted college just prior to his death on August 2, 1859. Mann’s views on education and its place within society may be summed up by his last commencement speech at Antioch College: “I beseech you to treasure up in your hearts these my parting words: Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.”

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William Holmes McGuffey (1800–73)

William Holmes McGuffey came to be called “The Schoolmaster to the Nation” due to his authorship of the McGuffey Readers. At a time when it was difficult to find willing and able teachers for frontier schools, McGuffey began to teach in frontier schools in Ohio at 13 years of age. Later he completed his formal education at Washington College, Pennsylvania. Professor McGuffey arrived at Miami University in 1826 to teach Latin and Greek and to serve as the university librarian. McGuffey entered into a contract in April 1833 with Truman and Smith Publishing in Cincinnati, Ohio, to prepare a series of graded William Holmes McGuffey, “The Schoolmaster to the Nation” eclectic readers. Eclectic referred to the fact that the readers would contain selections from a variety of sources. For producing the readers McGuffey received $1,000 and, if the readers were successful, a Christmas ham as a yearly bonus. The first edition of the readers was published in 1836 with a total of 100 million copies being published by the end of the 19th century. McGuffey’s readers illustrated a European educational doctrine popular in the 19th century: what occurs in the schools influences the local community. McGuffey also believed that education should teach children how to behave properly, so each of his lessons incorporated a moral. At what may be the first demonstration of product testing, McGuffey first tested his lessons on local children on his front porch to insure that his readers were responsive to children. McGuffey readers influenced generations of American schoolchildren from the 1830s until they fell out of favor in the 1920s. Still published today, the McGuffey Readers have passed 130 million copies, surpassing all other books in publication but the Bible. In addition to being a professor of ancient languages, William McGuffey was an ordained Presbyterian minister and preached each Sunday at the Darrtown Presbyterian Church while he was a professor at Miami University. William McGuffey left Miami in 1836 to become president of Cincinnati College (1836–39). He left Cincinnati College for the presidency of Ohio University (1839–43) and completed his academic career as the chairman of mental and moral philosophy at the University of Virginia (1843–73). McGuffey is buried in the University of Virginia cemetery in Charlottesville.



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In the mid-19th century, primers with child-friendly illustrations and topics began to replace primers with overtly religious overtones.

Although there is no direct evidence that Pestalozzi’s methods were widely known or fully adopted in the United States, throughout the 19th century there was in an increase in the number of educational journals and associations that permitted the discussion of educational methods. The rise in the number of normal schools also positively impacted upon the quality of teaching. Schoolbooks began to stress the practical and were adapted to appeal to the reasoning abilities of children in an effort to make learning more interesting. In developing his eclectic readers, William McGuffey tested the lessons on children prior to finalizing and publishing the lesson. The educational debate in the 1840s and 1850s centered on how to define the principle of public education. The tendency prior to the Civil War was to define public education as an elementary education for white children. With time the definition expanded to include secondary education and other races and classes of children. The development of public education varied from

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Educating a Young Nation: A National University?

Shortly after the end of the Revolutionary War the attention of the founding fathers turned to education and the need of an educated population in order for a republic to succeed. Excerpted in part below is a May 25, 1786, letter from Dr. Benjamin Rush to Richard Price, a well-known British moral philosopher where he outlines the need for every citizen to have a general education and requests that Richard Price write a pamphlet in support of the idea. One of the ideas discussed in the letter was the need to establish a national university. Dr. Rush was not alone in his preference for a national university. George Washington left money in his will for this purpose. Although the idea was popular among the founding fathers, neither Congress nor the executive branch ever attempted to establish the university. Most of the distresses of our country, and of the mistakes which European have formed of us, have arisen from a belief that the American Revolution is over. This is so far from being the case that we have only finished the first act of the great drama. We have changed our forms of government, but it remains yet to effect a revolution in our principles, opinions, and manners so as to accommodate them to the forms of government we have adopted. This is the most difficult part of the business of the patriots and legislators of our country. It requires more wisdom and fortitude than to expel or to reduce armies into captivity. I wish to see this idea inculcated by your pen. Call upon the rulers of our country to lay the foundations of their empire in knowledge as well as virtue. Let our common people be compelled by law to give their children (what is commonly called) a good English education. Let schoolmasters of every description be supported in part by the public, and let their principles and morals be subjected to examination before we employ them. Let us have colleges in each of the states, and one federal university under the patronage of Congress, where the youth of all states may be melted (as it were) together into one mass of citizens after they have acquired the first principles of knowledge in the colleges of their respective states. Let the law of nature and nations, the common law of our country, the different systems of government, history, and everything else connected with the advancement of republican knowledge and principles, be taught by able professors in this university. Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 2nd Series, XVII.



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state to state. The system that developed in New York served as a model for other states. New York created a Board of Regents for secondary and higher education in 1784 and the office of school superintendent in 1812. Local governments who raised their own funds for schools received additional funds from the state of New York. Additional decisions by the state of New York that aided the development of public education include the establishment of a normal school to educate future teachers in 1844 and funding for high schools in 1853. The educational reforms instituted in Massachusetts under the leadership of several governors and Horace Mann also served as the inspiration for states in the west as they moved to establish their systems of public education. At first public education did not necessarily translate to a free education as the states struggled to establish funding for the new systems. Public schools in Indiana, California, and New York became free only after the Civil War. The western states, having the luxury of learning from the mistakes and successes in the east, established the principle of a free public education. EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH The educational system that developed in the United States prior to the Civil War illustrated differences based the age of the state or territory, the concentration of population, and funding sources. Nowhere are the differences more pronounced than between the north and south. Northern states had accepted the school tax, the principle of public elementary schools, and had moved to the establishment of regulations regarding teachers and curriculum. Public education was far less developed in the south and only received serious attention after the completion of the Civil War and Reconstruction. There are several reasons for the wide disparity between the north and the south. The south was overwhelmingly rural and sparsely populated. The few public schools that developed were concentrated in the few urban areas of the south. The south’s opposition of supporting public education through taxation forced it to rely on less reliable sources of funding such as the disbursement of surplus revenue, land grants, lotteries, taxes, and license fees levied against businesses such as banks and theaters. The south did not follow the north’s growing support of the principle of universal public education. Many families in the south wanted to select the schools for their children. Many, rich and poor alike, did not see the value in educating the poor. Some of the opposition to public education was rooted in states rights philosophy and dread of government involvement in general. In addition education was strictly forbidden for the more than nine million African Americans living in the south, whether they were free or slaves. Fear of a strong government led southern congressional representatives to oppose any federal involvement in education. The passage of the Morrill Act in 1862 was largely due to the absences of the southern congressional delegations. Abbe Allen DeBolt

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Further Readings

Butts, R. Freeman and Lawrence A. Cremin. A History of Education in American Culture. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1953. Coon, C.L. North Carolina Schools and Academies, 1790–1840, A Documentary History. Raleigh, NC: Edwards and Broughton Printing Co., 1915. Cremin, Lawrence A. The Transformation of the School. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1961. Cubberley, Ellwood P. Public Education in the United States. Cambridge, MA: The Riverside Press, 1962. Good, Harry G. Benjamin Rush and His Services to American Education. Berne, IN: Witness Press, 1918. Good, Harry G. and James D. Teller. A History of American Education, 3rd ed. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1973. Honeywell, Roy J. Educational Work of Thomas Jefferson. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press, 1931. Kett, Joseph F. The Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994. King, Clyde S. Horace Mann, 1796–1859: A Bibliography. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications, 1966. Meyer, Adolphe E. An Educational History of the American People. New York: McGraw Hill Book Company, 1967. Minnich, Harvey C. William Holmes McGuffey and His Readers. New York: American Book Co., 1936. Ruggles, Alice McGuffey. The Story of the McGuffeys. New York: American Book Co., 1950. Scully, James Arnold, “A Biography of William Holmes McGuffey.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 1967. Small, W.H. Early New England Schools. Boston, MA: 1914. Tewksbury, D.G. Founding of American Colleges and Universities before the Civil War. New York: Columbia University, 1932. Walsh, James J. Education of the Founding Fathers. New York: Fordham University Press, 1935. Warfel, Harry R. Noah Webster, Schoolmaster to America. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1936, reprinted 1966.

Chapter 9

Science and Technology

“... to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” — Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution granting Congress the power to award patents

Life in Colonial America outside of well-established settlements was a

constant struggle to survive in new and uncharted environments. Scientific thought in the mid-18th century was the domain of a small group of intellectuals and hobbyists. But after the Revolution, and as the new country expanded, science and technology were the handmaidens of economic growth and burgeoning industry, and the solution to many practical problems in communications and transportation. Pure science, in the European sense of making experiments to simply increase knowledge, was not of much interest during the antebellum period. Whereas late 18th-century science was the interest of a few brilliant aristocrats, independence of the new nation and the purchase of the Louisiana Territories from France in the early 1800s soon cast science in a new role. The development of science and technology was seen as a something that would give the new nation an international identity, global prominence, and increased prosperity. One of the earliest studies in this vein was Oliver Evans and Thomas Ellicott’s book, The Young Mill-Wright and Miller’s Guide, first published in 1795 and later reprinted in 1848 due to its popularity. The guide was a practical compendium of engineering information regarding the best practices for running water wheels, separating grain from the chaff, building agricultural equipment, and other useful information. It was one of the first such guides 121

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and inaugurated similar efforts via agricultural and engineering journals. Such journals and guides expounded upon the most efficient discoveries for planting, cultivating, harvesting, and transporting agricultural products. The U.S. government fostered the idea of “scientific farming,” supporting agricultural research in the 1850s onwards. President Abraham Lincoln in 1862 established the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which exists today as a primary source supporting research and improvements in farming methods. The United States in 1800 was primarily agrarian and the vast majority of Americans lived on the farm or in rural areas. In the following century that number was halved as people began to move to cities, a trend that continues today. But for most of the 19th century, technology and the application of scientific principles to farming were seen as progress. The first area for improvement was in the area of machines and tools that were used on the farm. The axe was the most basic of tools used by American farmers to clear their lands and build log cabins. The short-handled Euro-

The Whitney cotton gin was soon improved upon by companies such as the Continental Eagle Corporation, still in operation today in Alabama.



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pean axe was given a long, curved handle made of a hardwood like hickory in the United States, which increased its efficiency. The cotton gin was another tool that revolutionized American farm production, particularly in the south. Hand-cleaning cotton to separate the seeds from the fibers was tedious and labor intensive. It required numerous laborers to accomplish and slowed production. While South Asians had developed a machine for this purpose called a chakra, it was not designed for the species of cotton that grew in the United States. Eli Whitney, who was already known for his innovations with firearms, invented a cotton gin in 1793 that “could do the work of 10 men.” Larger gins were invented that replaced even more workers, and by the 1850s the southern United States was the world’s main supplier of cotton, some two billion pounds of cotton annually. Improving the efficiency of separating fibers from seeds meant that increasingly more workers were needed to pick the cotton, which made getting rid of the ancient institution of slavery increasingly difficult when big profits were to be made from the export of cotton. Like the cotton gin, the iron plow revolutionized American agriculture in the early 19th century. Plows had been made of wood, which made them easy to break, and gave them a short work life. Jethro Wood patented the cast irontipped plow in 1814, a plow that had interchangeable parts. When one part broke, there was no need to replace the entire plow. This plow, however, was not useful on the western prairies where thick soil would stick on the runners. John Deere in 1837 solved that problem by making a wrought iron plow with a steel share that cut through the sod. By 1858 Deere’s factory produced 13,000 of these highly efficient new plows.

American Scientific Societies

Geologists, surveyors, and biologists shared their findings from the expeditions in newly created scientific societies in the United States. The American Association for the Advancement of Science was established in 1848 as a national forum for scientific discussion. It derived from the American Society of Geologists, established in 1840, which in 1842 voted to add “Naturalists” to its scope, making it the ASGN. The nation’s museum, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., was chartered in 1846 as a depository of some of the collections that states and individual scientists had been developing from the 1820s onward. Both the Smithsonian and the American Association for the Advancement of Science were committed to increasing the interest of the American public and press attention to the sciences.

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Wood’s plow illustrated the “American System,” an innovation that brought American technology to worldwide attention. The idea was that machines of various sorts should be manufactured so that they had interchangeable parts. If one part wore out or was broken, it could easily be replaced without having to dispose the entire machine or tool. Eli Whitney, later of cotton gin fame, theorized this idea and tried to develop a musket that had 10 different locks and could be assembled and disassembled using a simple screwdriver. Whitney demonstrated his idea to President Adams and president-elect Jefferson in 1801. The idea wasn’t actually implemented until the 1830s. In 1851 the American-made Colt revolver and McCormick Reaper stole the show at London’s Crystal Palace Exhibition with their removable parts. Cyrus McCormick patented his reaper in 1834, but it was slow to sell because it was too expensive for small farmers to purchase. The reaper was a machine that could do the work of three men, dividing, separating, and cutting wheat, right in the fields. The machine was horse-drawn and increased in popularity by the 1850s as it was improved. POSSESSING THE LAND AND IMPROVING TRANSPORT Americans in the early 19th century viewed the vast expanses of territory to their west as opportunities to reinvent themselves. As the country expanded its boundaries, so too did it need to expand and improve methods of transport. A network of roads connecting the interior was begun in 1802 and completed in 1852. Transport on these roads was still by horse or oxen and wagons. They were dangerous and not paved. Passengers and goods were subject to attack from robbers or hostile natives, breakdowns, floods, and other natural disasters. It was easy to get lost once one left the familiar paths, and where there were no roads, dry stream beds were used instead. It was expensive and cumbersome to travel in this manner. Water transport was a better alternative, especially for agricultural products and imported goods that landed at seaports. These items could be put on barges and sent on rivers to other points in the interior. However barges were slow-moving and relied upon river currents or human labor to move them. In the 1780s some inventors had a better idea: using steam-powered engines to move boats on the rivers, and later, for sea travel. Steamboats revolutionized travel in the late 1700s and throughout the 1800s. They were faster and more efficient than other types of boats, although the early ones were very dangerous and subject to explosions. James Rumsey and John Fitch developed steamboats in the 1780s. They tried paddle wheels and screw propellers. They moved passengers and freight on their boats on the Delaware River, running between Philadelphia and New Jersey. But they were not commercially successful. It is Robert Fulton’s name that we associate with the development of steamboats, although he was not the inventor. Fulton and his partners Robert Livingston and Nicholas Roosevelt



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A print of an amphibious steam-powered carriage and paddle boat designed by Oliver Evans c.1804. Evans was America’s first professional inventor.

obtained a monopoly from the State of New York around 1807 for steamboats on the Hudson River, and later on the Mississippi from the Port of New Orleans into the interior in 1811. A Fulton competitor, John Stevens and his sons, made further innovations on the vessels. Stevens developed a new source of power for the steam: using coal instead of wood for the boilers. There were two types of engines, the Watts and Evans. Of these, the Evans engine was the most powerful, using high pressure. Travel on steamboats in the early 1800s was not at all comfortable. There were fires and explosions as pressure in the boilers was hard to control. Often the steamboats would hit something on the bottom of the river that tore into their hulls. This problem was solved by Henry Miller Shreve with his “snag boat” invention that dealt with underwater obstructions. By the end of the 19th century steamboat travel was luxurious, fast, and much safer due to government regulations. Transatlantic crossings that took months between North America and Europe on clipper ships only took days on the faster steamboats. Water transport also expanded inland into North America. Rivers became linked by a series of man-made canals, begun in 1817 with the construction of the Erie Canal, which was completed in 1825. The Erie linked the Hudson River to Lake Erie, opening up America’s heartland with a waterway, and providing a faster and cheaper alternative to transport grain from the midwest to the east coast. Initially the Erie Canal was 363 miles long, 40 feet wide, and four feet deep, but it was expanded and enlarged several times in subsequent years. The canal’s chief engineer was Benjamin Wright, and the project was

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supported by the governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton. The canal played a role in expanding cities such as Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. The Erie Canal made the Port of New York more important, as goods could be more quickly transported. Where it took almost a month to move goods from Buffalo to New York City prior to the canal’s opening, after the Erie Canal was in use, this process only took a little more than a week. Railroads eventually eclipsed the canals as the primary transport system for goods and passengers in the North American interior by the end of the 19th century. The steam locomotive was invented by an Englishman, Richard Trevithick. In 1825 John Stevens of steamboat fame, at age 76, laid tracks on his own estate and experimented with a steam locomotive. One of the drawbacks of the early trains was their instability on curves, where they often “jumped the track.” This problem was solved by John Jervis, an American inventor, who developed an eight-wheel locomotive that could handle curves. In the 1820s and 1830s the first railroad companies laid tracks in the United States on the Atlantic seaboard. The Baltimore and Ohio, or B and O, was established in 1827. By 1860 30,000 miles of tracks were running. Transcontinental track was laid in 1863 from Omaha, Nebraska, to Sacramento, California. By 1900 there was 200,000 miles of track that crisscrossed the continent. Initially rail travel was very uncomfortable. The first railcars were windowless boxes with poor ventilation, uncomfortable seats, and a tendency toward constant breakdown. Soot was a problem from the coal used to fire the engines.

The first Baltimore and Ohio (or B & O) railroad station in America was built in 1831 in Frederick, Maryland, 61 miles west of Baltimore. The B & O line was established in 1827.



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But by the centuries end, railcars had become elaborate affairs, with dining areas and sleeping berths. Windows gave good views of the scenery and bridges scaled thrilling heights and expansive views across North America. Within cities in the 19th century, travel consisted of horse-drawn carriages, or by foot. Omnibuses were the first type of inner city transport, consisting of large carriages drawn by a team of horses. The omnibus stopped at predetermined locations. They were first implemented in New York City in 1827 and in New Orleans in the 1830s. communIcatIonS and medIa InnoVatIonS With improved transport it became possible to speed up written commuA print shows the telegraph apparatus, with the alphabet and numbers in Morse Code. nications. Letters were sent by the faster steamboats across the Atlantic and up and down the internal rivers of North America. But new forms of communications also developed, which while not replacing the post, facilitated faster transfer of information. One of these new communications technologies was the telegraph. In the 1830s Joseph Henry experimented with electromagnets, sending electric current over a milelong wire that signaled a device to strike a bell. In 1835 Samuel Morse built a one-wire system using a similar system and went a step further. He developed a new language for this machine to use. The language was called Morse Code, and consisted of long and short pulses that combined in different groups to encode words. He gave demonstrations in 1837, and in 1844, actually sent a message between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. By the 1850s railroads were using telegraphs and Morse code to dispatch their train schedules. Book publishing increased in the 1840s and newspapers expanded their readership thanks to innovations in printing. As the population of the United States increased, so did the numbers of books and newspapers available. According to U.S. census data, newspapers expanded from 147 weeklies in 1790 to 2,281 in 1840. When Lewis and Clarke’s report was published in 1814, it opened a watershed of exploration and geological surveying in the United States. Individual

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states as well as the federal government supported these endeavors. These reports not only provided maps of newly acquired areas. Scientists leading the expeditions collected and classified samples of flora and fauna, as well as fossils. William Dunbar and Dr. George Hunter made expeditions into lands acquired via the Louisiana Purchase in 1804 and 1805. They not only collected samples of plants, animals, and rocks, but they made microscopic studies of life forms living in the hot springs of what is Arkansas today. A survey of the coasts of the United States was begun in 1811 by Ferdinand Hassler and continued in the 1850s by Benjamin Franklin’s grandson, Alexander D. Bache. The U.S. Corps of Topographical Engineers, established in 1838, made surveys of public lands. Charles Lyell, the world famous founder of scientific geology, made surveys in North America in the 1840s, which he published in several volumes as Travels in North America (1845) and A Second Visit to the United States (1849). Lyell was fascinated by fossils he found in embankments of American rivers, as well as the changing landscapes. Charles Wilkes explored the west coast of the United States, traveling in the Oregon area on 800 miles of streams and exploring the Pacific Coast. He made further expeditions in the South Seas, exploring 280 islands and the Central Pacific, all the way to 1,500 miles of Antarctic Coast. Wilkes returned to the United States from his four year trip from 1838 to 1842 with specimens of plants, animals, and insects. He published his finds, writing books about meteorology and hydrography. SCIENCE AT WORK AND AT HOME The 19th century is known as the century of industrialization in the United States. Textile mills became established in New England and elsewhere along the eastern seaboard, even as far south as Athens, Georgia, in the 1830s. By the 1850s the mills in Lowell, Massachusetts, employed some 8,000 people and produced 50 million yards of cloth per year. Utilizing steam engines and water power from the Merrimack River, the Lowell Mills were a paradigm for mill culture and efficiency. Mills continued to expand and in the 1890s employed thousands of workers. Women constituted a new workforce in the textile mills. Some scholars, like Howard Zinn, estimate that 80 to 90 percent of the workforce in these mills were women. They were 15 to 30 years of age. After marriage, though, the women returned home and usually did not work outside of the domestic sphere. The mills were a revolutionizing force in society. This industrialization changed American ideas about time, which heretofore had been regulated by nature in the form of seasons and sunlight. Work in the mills was regulated by shifts, marked by bells, and a schedule. It was an artificial system designed to maximize production and was not dependent upon nature, although large windows provided natural lighting. The textile mills needed either a water power source, such as available along the



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An 1859 lithograph showing seamstress work with a sewing machine of the “future,” depicted in 1860. The sewing machine was invented in 1846 but did not become popular until 1851.

“fall line” where rivers and streams dropped on their way to the sea, or coal for firing steam engines, and iron and steel for engine and machine parts. The iron and steel industry became powerful in the 1870s, and coal mining expanded, devising new strategies and techniques for securing the basic resources necessary for industrialization. Industrialization also changed family structure. On the farm, large extended multigenerational families lived and worked together. The farmer and his family were an independent and tough unit working on a barter system, not dependent upon wages, producing what they needed and trading with neighbors for other goods. The mills introduced wage labor. Many made consumer goods, which were mass produced in factories and not the home workshop, within reach of the growing middle-class. Workers moved to mill towns or cities where jobs were plentiful, leaving their extended families behind on the farm. Work determined place, not land ownership, as industrialization expanded U.S. cities and increased urbanization. At home, home-made, self-produced goods were replaced with purchased products. Catalogues and mail order goods were brought to remote, rural villages as the railroads expanded. In the 1830s whale-oil lamps replaced candles for lighting inside the home. When whales started to disappear because of overhunting and over-utilization, other sources of energy were adapted to home uses. The 1840s saw kerosene works and the rise of kerosene lamps. Gas lights were first used in Baltimore in 1816 by burning coal to obtain the gas, but it

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the early national Period and expansion

proved dirty. The byproduct, soot, made the glass globes dirty. Nevertheless socalled “city gas” gas plants, that manufactured the illuminating gas by retorting coal, proliferated, so that by the 1860s dozens of cities had local systems. The sewing machine proved a very popular invention in the United States. Invented by Elias Howe in 1846, it was not a commercial success until Isaac Merrit Singer and Edward Clark invented a needle bar cam and obtained a monopoly on that part in 1851.

The First Photographs

photography was invented in the fi rst half of the 19th century. The fi rst type of photographic image produced in the 1830s was the daguerreotype, developed by Louis Daguerre in france. His students arriving in american cities like New Orleans soon opened their own studios. The daguerreotype consisted of a silver-coated copper plate on which an image was produced by utilizing different chemical vapors. first the plate was exposed to iodine vapors, and then once light was introduced, mercury vapors were used. The image was fi xed using a bath of sodium thiosulfate. The process involved specialized equipment and chemicals, but by the 1850s proved very popular in america where most major cities had daguerreotype studios. New York city had 100, and the daguerreotype became a sought-after consumer good for the middle-class who wanted portraits of themselves and their families. In the 1860s photography improved to using one negative that could make multiple prints. a Matthew Brady image of president Lincoln sold 100,000 copies. Lithographs were also popular in the 19th century. The image was made by having an artist make a drawing on a stone tablet using grease pencils or crayons. Special inks were used that adhered to the drawing and then could duplicate the image onto cotton-based paper. Lithographs served as a kind of news reporting in the 19th century, as famous battle scenes or political events were depicted and sold. for example lithographs of the debates in congress over the compromise of 1850, about whether the new western territories should be free or slave states, were distributed to spread the news about these debates. a View from the Window at Gras (also known as the World’s First Photograph), taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826. The plate was exposed for approximately eight hours resulting in the appearance of shadows on opposite sides of the courtyard.



science and technology



health and medIcIne The 19th century experienced a revolution in health and medicine. At the beginning of the century medical practices were primitive and ancient. For example bleeding to relieve various maladies, frequent amputations, whiskey used to relieve pain, folk remedies involving the use of herbs, and superstitions about causes of illness were common. By the end of the century anesthesia was used for surgeries, inoculations were understood, germ theory replaced superstition, medical schools increased, and large cities began to establish boards of health to deal with problems of disease and sanitation in crowded industrial districts. Epidemics were frequent, widespread, and difficult to contain in the 1820s. Yellow fever, malaria, pills in this container and tuberculosis created serious and widespread contained three grains sulphate of quinine. problems. Whole towns vanished when there was an epidemic. The development of vaccinations and better understanding about sanitation helped contain these problems as the century progressed. In 1800 Benjamin Waterhouse, a Harvard University medical professor, used a vaccination for small pox. Hypodermic needles were used prior to 1850 for injecting medicines. Morphine was overused as a pain killer, and quinine was discovered to help counter the effects of malaria. With these innovations, life expectancy rates increased. For example in Massachusetts in 1850, men were only expected to live to age 50. By 1900 their life expectancy had increased to age 68. The use of anesthesia began as dentists experimented with using nitrous oxide or ether given to patients undergoing tooth extractions. This was a much improved, though initially dangerous technique, which replaced the patient’s squeezing a ball or some other object during the extraction. Horace Wells and William Morton were dentists who experimented with using these gasses. In 1842 Crawford Long of Jefferson, Georgia, used ether during surgery. ScIence In the SerVIce oF the natIon Nineteenth-century Americans viewed science as an obscure domain of aristocrats, but grasped technology as a source of useful, progressive, and practical solutions to new problems. Geological surveys helped conquer new territories. New medical techniques stemmed the spread of dangerous diseases. Science and technology worked hand-in-hand with the exploration and exploitation of natural resources, put in the service of emerging industries. Improvements in technology were applied first to life on the farm, and then implemented to build and expand cities.

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New techniques of transport and engineering linked great distances in the interior together through canals, rail lines, and steamboats in a faster, more efficient and cost effective network to expand business and profits moving goods and people. While science and technology did not bring increased living standards to all Americans, these disciplines helped build U.S. cities and expand the middle-class and their buying power, with industrialization bringing wages and wages providing the means for purchasing new consumer goods. New types of communications brought the news to Americans, too. Science and technology in the 19th century helped to transform the diverse regions of the United States into a more homogeneous nation. Pamela Sezgin

Further Readings

Cravens, Hamilton, Alan I. Marcus, and David M. Katzman, eds. Technical Knowledge in American Culture: Science, Technology and Medicine Since the Early 1800s. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1996. Cutliffe, Stephen H. and Terry S. Reynolds, eds. Technology and American History: An Anthology from Technology and Culture. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1997. Daniels, George H., ed. 19th-Century American Science: A Reappraisal. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1972. Francis, Keith A. Charles Darwin and The Origin of the Species. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007. Habakkuk, H.J. American and British Technology in the 19th Century: The Search for Labour-Saving Inventions. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1962. Kohlstedt, Sally Gregory, Michael M. Sokol, and Bruce V. Lewenstein. The Establishment of Science in America: 150 Years of the American Association For the Advancement of Science. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1999. Reingold, Nathan, ed. Science in America Since 1820. New York: Science History Publications, 1976. Russett, Cynthia Eagle. Darwin in America: The Intellectual Response, 1865–1912. San Francisco: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1976. Timmons, Todd. Science and Technology in 19th Century America. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. Whitehead, Alfred North. Science and the Modern World. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1925.

Chapter 10

Entertainment

“You have but little more to do than throw up your cap for entertainment these American days.” — Henry David Thoreau

The social and economic changes taking place in the United States during

the years between the Revolution and the start of the Civil War were reflected in the world of entertainment. The increase in population, the concentration of more people in cities, continuing westward expansion, a search for national identity, and a feeling that Americans could and should create their own culture affected leisure time pursuits in the interwar years. Wealthier people in city and countryside might have their portraits painted, perhaps commission landscape paintings, or attend exhibitions when they were shown. Visiting with friends and family, sometimes accompanied by food and drink, was a common form of entertainment in both city and country and among people of all socio-economic backgrounds. These gatherings might include music, card games, or storytelling, perhaps songs and stories brought from the homeland. Reading was popular, from dime novels to magazines and newspapers, and churches and taverns both provided gathering places for people to meet and exchange the news of the day. On the frontier, making games out of work activities such as calf roping or log splitting were common on holidays such as the Fourth of July, and people often made social occasions from community work such as barn raisings. With more leisure time, sports grew in popularity, from spectator events such as horse racing to participant sports such as rowing. The range of opportunities 133

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for recreation, from sport to lecture, from looking at painting to splitting logs, was expanding as time and energy to engage in life beyond work became more common, and the diversity of pursuits reflected the diversity of interests and living situations of a changing American society. PORTRAITS AND LANdsCAPES: THE VISUAL ARTS It was both an entertainment, a bit of social history, and an obligation of sorts to have one’s portrait painted, and looking at the results was also a sort of entertainment. The larger cities such as Washington and Boston supported painters who lived in the city, but having one’s portrait painted was a possibility for those in smaller towns and sometimes the frontier as well. In these smaller settlements, the visit of the painter was much more of a social occasion, as the artist would often stay for several days or weeks in an area and families would gather to watch the process and the results. The most skilled painter produced works such as the Athenaeum Portrait of George Washington which, though unfinished, has become the image of Washington that has endured through the centuries. It was painted by Gilbert StuThe unfinished Athenaeum Portrait of George art in 1796. Stuart, as many of the Washington by Gilbert Stuart became the most remembered image of the nation’s leader. painters in early America, took his training in England. Some turned their eye and skill to themes of American history. John Trumball painted scenes of Revolutionary War battles, staging the characters with contemporary dress but with classical design. The American landscape began to attract painters, and those who enjoyed seeing both intimate and dramatic depictions of familiar landscapes, such as those by Thomas Cole and Asher Durand, vivid scenes of unknown lands such as those painted by Fredrick Church, and lively celebrations of everyday life such as the Jolly Flatboat Men, an 1846 painting by George Caleb Bingham. BOOKS, LITERATURE, AND READING As the United States separated itself from England and the rest of Europe politically, so it was thought there should be a national cultural identity too. Painters found this in their choice of American subjects. Writers and scholars wrestled



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with that direction a bit more. American audiences were surrounded by new literature. With rather more leisure time than their ancestors, and a growing rate of literacy and printing technology that led to the availability of cheap reading material, there was a market for all sorts of popular works. Penny newspapers became available around 1830, and the low cost allowed people who did not have access to books to become accustomed to the idea of reading. There were story papers, which cost about six cents for a week’s worth, and there were dime or nickel novels. Westerns and crime novels, trials of the working girls, romantic fiction, and detective stories were all popular genres. Those who read them included the rising middle class and the workers who could now afford this sort of entertainment, as well as those who set out for or lived on the frontier and often took a novel or story along with the almanac and the Bible. Lending libraries were popular sources of reading material as well. James Fenimore Cooper’s adventure tales of the frontier were popular in the 1820s and beyond, and romance remained an enduring novel genre as well. The first best selling novel in the United States was Susan Warner’s The Wide, Wide World in 1850. Two years later, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s dramatic and politically inflammatory novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, became a best seller as well. Magazines were also popular, especially among the middle class. These included Godey’s Lady Book, Graham’s Magazine, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, and Atlantic. Most of these were founded in the 1840s and 1850s. Mrs. Ann S. Stephens, a “dime” novelist and writer who contributed to Graham’s Magazine in 1844.

theaterS and taVernS The rise of population in cites, and the growth of towns into cities, offered more opportunity for plays to be presented. New York’s Park Theater and the Chestnut Street Theater in Philadelphia were well known in the 1790s. Boston saw the opening of the Federal Street Theater in 1794, and Charleston and Washington were among the southern cities hosting performances regularly. American playwrights writing on American themes began to appeal to audiences in the 1790s, alongside Shakespeare and British contemporary works. John Daly Burke’s Battle of Bunker Hill amazed audiences with a long battle scene in 1794, and Sarah Rowson’s melodramas were popular in the early 19th century. The end of the War of 1812 set the

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A print titled “The late theatre in Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Destroy’d by Fire in 1820.” Construction of the theater had started in 1792.

stage for two other factors that would influence the direction of theater in the United States. More competition for audiences in the cities led to the development of the star system for promoting actors and drawing more people in to see the plays. Continued westward expansion and economic prosperity also suggested to enterprising theater people that the time was ripe for expanding touring companies’ routes to the new frontier towns. As the frontier moved westward, so did the traveling entertainment, staging comedies and dramas with what props they could carry with them, improvising along the way. Back in the bigger cities, theater managers began bringing actors over from England and the continent for tours performing limited engagements at the larger houses. Among those receiving most recognition were Edmund Keane, who toured in the early 1820s, and Fanny and Charles Kemble, who appeared in the early 1830s. Another form of public entertainment, available mainly to men, was the smoking, drinking, and talking over issues of the day in taverns. These informal community and neighborhood centers offered a place to exchange views and talk politics for the men of the neighborhood in larger cities, or of the whole town or region in smaller places and rural areas. For women, visiting among the houses of friends and relatives had to make the way for conversation, as



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Music and Slavery

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Music allowed slaves to share good times and hard times, and to hold on to bits and pieces of their culture and families while living in conditions that did not really allow for leisure time. In the process of melding the rhythms and customs of varied African tribes, adapting to new and harsh conditions, and meeting European and developing American cultures, African Americans laid the foundation for a stream of American music that would become jazz and blues, and would contribute greatly to folk music, gospel, and rock and roll. Call and response style singing, in which a leader sings out a line and another singer, or a chorus, or the listeners sing out responses, was part of what people brought with them from Africa, as was bending or sliding or eliding notes in haunting ways that would become the base for blues music. Both complex and simple rhythms were a vital part of the music, as was drumming. Slave masters in America were variously annoyed or frightened by the ease and enjoyment with which their slaves communicated through the drum, and it was a sound that could not be hidden. Soon drums were banned from slave quarters in most places, with the notable exception of Louisiana, where they remained legal long into the century. But musicians adapted, using spoons, bones, hand claps, and other sorts of percussion to keep the beat alive. As with musicians of other races,the fiddle, flute, and banjo were popular in the slave quarters too, all portable and possessing timbres that could be heard beyond the immediate circle of listeners. Slaves who showed a talent for music were often enlisted to play for the master’s dances and might be trained on piano, violin, or flute, or on other instruments to complete a small dance orchestra. They would be trained on the popular dance tunes, polkas, and quadrilles of the day, and would take these ideas and forms back with them and adapt them to their own musical ideas. There were three forms of music common to those living in slavery: work songs, spirituals, and dance or play party songs. The works songs were most often call and response, sung unaccompanied or to the beat of percussion, and tuned to the rhythm of the work being done. Examples of this kind of song are “John Henry,” “Arhoolie,” and “Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad.” Play part or dance songs were often sung to banjo, fiddle, or guitar accompaniment and hand clapping; some of those still known today are “Shortnen Bread,” “Bile Them Cabbage Down,” and those immigrants from Irish and English tradition, “Soldier’s Joy” and “Go to Sleep My Baby.” Spirituals were a mixed bag too, often adding a mix of African rhythms and style to songs of English, German, and Irish origin. Songs of this sort still heard today include “Do Lord Remember Me,” “Go Down Moses,” “Meet Me in Jerusalem,” “Follow the Drinking Gourd,” and “Look Down that Long Lonesome Road.”

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it was not considered proper for women to enter taverns, much less sit and socialize within them. CHURCHES, REVIVALS, AND LECTURES Men, women, and children of all ages were welcome at church. Servants and slaves were usually required to sit in galleries or other seating away from the main part of the building. Churches often became sort of neighborhood centers too, with services leading to conversations afterwards, and especially in more rural areas and small towns, to dinner on the grounds, with much socializing. As people immigrated to the United States from other countries, neighborhood churches also became cultural centers for sharing the traditions, language, culture, and stories of the homeland. Following on a trend that had begun in the years just before the Revolution, revivals staged by traveling preachers were popular as much for their entertainment value as for their religious meaning. People from miles around would come to a tent set up in a convenient field or open space, sit on hard benches or stand around the tent wall, and listen to often dramatic and impassioned descriptions of hell fire, pleas for salvation, and comment on the evils—or virtues—of modern society. This provided not only a chance to get

A painting of George Washington and his family at home by E. Percy Moran shows popular forms of family entertainment—sewing, reading, and playing instruments.



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The game of marbles dates back to the Roman era. Early American marbles were small round balls made of baked or glazed clay, stone, glass, or even nut shells.

out for an evening—often several evenings or a week in a row—and listen to the preaching, but also provided much food for thought and discussion after the preacher had moved on. Though they were sometimes less fiery and dramatic, educational lectures became increasingly popular forms of entertainment as the 19th century progressed. These were especially popular in the larger cities, where regular schedules of programs often were established by learned societies, colleges, or schools. The subjects might range from reports from those who had ventured to the western frontier, to the future of American culture, the latter a subject essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke on before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard in 1837, asserting, “our day of dependence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close.” muSIc and dancIng Music was a popular form of entertainment in early 19th-century America. Most often it was family and friends making music themselves, gathering around the piano if one was to be had, or gathering around someone who played the banjo or the fiddle, and raising their voices in song. Common music included hymns, or depending on the area of the country, folk songs, usually of English origin that most people knew, such as the ballad “Barbara Allen.” Song sheets were popular and people often sang from these, learning newly composed songs such as Stephen Foster’s “Old Folks at Home” or “Camp Town Races.” Singers and musicians from Europe, usually playing a light opera repertoire, gave concerts, and light opera was part of the program at many playhouses and touring companies. These offered musicals evenings based on American themes too. Fiddles or violins, and banjos were popular to accompany dancing, as both instruments had carrying tones, which could pierce through the dancers’ conversations and

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A print titled “The Power of Music,” in which a family can be seen playing a violin and dancing, with a portrait of George Washington on the mantle.

also be heard in large rooms or outdoors. Indoor dancing in the cities included formal quadrilles and waltz style figures, while on the frontier and in the countryside, square dances and polkas were more common, although these found their place in cities at times, too. Music was also a powerful way for those from other countries to stay connected to their native lands and customs. Irish and Scottish immigrants in particular, coming from areas where music was often a daily form of entertainment in the family, brought this tradition and many of their songs and tunes, with them. PUBLIC HOLIDAYS AND EVENTS The main holiday the new country shared was the Fourth of July, and though this varied from region to region, it was often an occasion, as it is today, for parades, feasting, fellowship, and political speeches. Especially on the frontier, the Fourth of July and other times such as election days, bringing in harvest or game, and sharing the work of building by raising churches, barns, or schools became times that included shared meals and sometimes competitions. These competitions made work fun, such as log splitting contests and treasure hunts, as well as foot races, log rolling, and cattle roping. These were for the men of the community; women might have a competition similar to



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The Origins of Baseball

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Misconceptions about the origin of baseball range from theories on Egyptian ball-and-stick games to the popular belief that it was invented by U.S. Army officer Abner Doubleday in 1839. The Doubleday theory accounts for the choice of Cooperstown, New York—where Doubleday is thought to have developed the game—as the site of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. Doubleday is now more famous for his association with the sport than he is for his victories in the Civil War. Just as modern wrestling and boxing were preceded by various grappling and fighting sports, so too have there been many sports combining balls and bats; calling those sports “the first baseball,” though, is like calling radio “the first television.” An English game called stoolball—in which a bowler attempts to hit a piece of wood which is guarded by a batter—is probably the most commonly thought ancestor of baseball. The British games of rounders and cricket also bear similarities. The word “baseball” was used to refer to the game as early as 1744—a 1791 Massachusetts law banned the playing of baseball too close to the town hall, but didn’t define the game. Though cricket predates baseball, it’s unlikely as an ancestor. The important difference between baseball and the stoolball-like games is the essential goal of the game. In baseball, the batter is not guarding anything, but is attempting to hit the ball. The bowler’s goal (now known as a pitcher) has remained the same—throw the ball inside a specific area without the batter hitting it. In this form, baseball dates to sometime earlier than 1845, when a set of rules was published for the New York Knickerbockers, an early baseball team. These rules were used by other teams in order to settle disputes, and over the rest of the century led to the modern-day organized sport.

The Brooklyn Atlantics baseball team was established in 1855. They were founding members of the National Association of Base Ball Players in 1857.

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Boxing and Gambling

For most of the 18th and 19th centuries boxing escaped respectability. There is a reason it was also known as prizefighting—the emphasis was on the money bestowed on the victor, which was raised by the admission charged to see the fight, as well as the profits made by the (generally illegal) gambling establishment hosting the fight. This relationship between gambling and boxing has continued to the modern day, though today it is heavily regulated and overseen by legal agencies. In this era boxing was conducted without gloves—bareknuckle boxing— and was generally governed by the London prize ring rules first formulated in 1743. The rules dealt as much with the nature and resolution of wagers as they did with the rules of the fight, which emphasized punches and throws and defined the loser as the one who either forfeited or failed to rise in a given amount of time after being knocked down. John L. Sullivan (1858–1918) was the last great American bareknuckle boxer, and the first great gloved boxer. His career began in less formal circumstances than prizefighting—he’d enter a bar, lay money on the table, and declare “I can lick any sonofabitch in the house,” fighting on the spot anyone who’d match his wager.

John C. Heenan was a bareknuckle boxer who used the name “The Benicia Boy.” His career spanned 1858–63.

John L. Sullivan was the last great American bareknuckle boxer, who later transitioned to gloved boxing.



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a bake off, or display their sewing skills in items for judging, and there might be spelling bees for children and adults. SPORTS AND GAMES Sports and games were both quite similar and very different from those known today in the first half of the 19th century. Horse racing was popular, so was bowling, so much so that people often gambled on the outcomes of bowling, or ninepin as it was called. Matches were often rigged and the gambling aspect became so rampant that ninepin matches were banned in some states. Golf was also a popular sport, and one of the few that women could also join in. Though social clubs around golf arose after the Civil War, the sport itself had been brought over to America by British soldiers stationed in the colonies before the Revolutionary War. Archery was also popular among those with leisure to pursue sports, and it too was an activity in which woman could join. On the frontier, bow and arrow more often found a practical application than use for leisure, although competitions were sometimes included as part of a fair or festival. Boxing was a popular sport. Among the wealthy this might mean young men would compete to prove their physical prowess, or that slaves might compete to see who was the best representative of the master. Boxing also lent itself to betting and gambling, as did popular card games of the day. Gambling on card games was a popular pastime among all walks of life, and the more skilled, or the more adventurous, gambled on making a living at it. Foot races and walking races were forms of sport around which clubs were sometimes formed. Though track and field in its modern form didn’t take shape until the late 19th century, children and adults competed in foot races, and most often informally along with other holiday games and events. Walking races were common around mid-century and involved competing over distances of 20 miles or more. Rowing was also a widely known sport, and rowing clubs were common at colleges and universities. Harvard and Yale competed in the first collegiate rowing match in 1852. CITY AND COUNTRY At the end of the Revolutionary War and at the beginning of the Civil War, the United States was still largely a rural country. People living in cities might be wealthy, or they might be the poor looking to eke out a living. Those in the countryside could be rich landowners, well-to-do residents of small towns, or pioneers wresting a living and creating a community on the edge of the ever westward moving frontier. What was available for recreation in each of these situations, what people had time for, what they considered proper, and what they chose were influenced by all these factors. Kerry Dexter

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Further Readings

Blumenthal, Shirley, and Jerome Ozer. Coming to America. New York: Delacorte Press, 1980. Center for American Music. Available online, URL: http://www.library.pitt. edu/libraries/cam/cam.html (Accessed May 2007). Christman, Margaret. 1846: Portrait of the Nation. Washington D.C.: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, 1996. Hawke, David. Everyday Life in Early America. New York: Harper, 1989. LaCour-Gayet, Robert. Everday Life in the United States before the Civil War. New York: Ungar, 1972. Larkin, Jack. The Reshaping of Everyday Life, 1790–1840. New York: Harper Perennial, 1989. McInerney, Daniel J. A Traveller’s History of the USA. New York: Interlink Books, 2001. Old Sturbridge Village. Available online, URL: http://www.osv.org (Accessed May 2007). Orsi, Robert A. “Parades, Holidays, and Public Rituals,” The Encyclopedia of American Social History. New York: Scribners, 1993. Ritchie, David. Life a Hundred Years Ago: Sports and Recreation. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1996. Slavery: The American Experience. Available online, URL: http://www.pbs. org/wnet/slavery/experience/education/feature.html (Accessed May 2007). Thomas Cole National Historical Site. Available online, URL: http://www. thomascole.org (Accessed May 2007). White, Shane and Graham White. The Sounds of Slavery: Discovering African American History through Songs, Sermons, and Speech. New York: Beacon Press, 2006.

Chapter 11

Crime and Violence

“I think the first duty of society is justice.” — Alexander Hamilton

The three largest developments in crime and punishment that occurred

in the years between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War involved a reorientation in the way society viewed criminals, the establishment of careers associated with criminal justice, and a growing interest in criminal behavior as pop culture entertainment. In the late 18th century the idea that criminals could be rehabilitated began to gain credence, and a visible move away from the death penalty as a punishment for serious crimes developed. A few decades later, population and industry exploded, urban areas developed, the idea of criminal incarceration spread, and police forces and the establishment of careers associated with criminal justice began to evolve. The growing demographic and political divide between the north and south also meant that people’s daily experience with crime and criminals varied depending on a number of factors. However inexpensive newspapers and other forms of print that created entertainment from criminal activity unified people culturally as they viewed crime and criminals in print. When speaking about crime and violence in the United States between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, the most visible—albeit largely symbolic—change that occurred was that the new nation’s legal system removed the king’s name from all legal forms and writs. The criminal courts retained their basic structure, methods, and procedures despite the upheavals of the war. 145



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Criminal activities were grouped into four main areas: crimes against God, crimes against property, crimes against people, and crimes against the polity. While some crimes were prosecuted freely in colonial British America but not in the new nation—such as witchcraft, fornication and adultery, and blasphemy—others continue as crimes today, such as theft (a crime against property), murder (a crime against people), and counterfeiting (a crime against the polity). Crimes against the nation and government, then as now, had less importance to daily life than criminal activity that directly involved community members. Historians point out that 19th-century criminal justice tended to protect those people and groups already in power—merchants over sailors, masters over slaves, and elite members of society over the poor—and criminals were most often young white men. Female criminals tended to be a few very well-known examples, such as the abortionist Ann Lohman, also known as Madame Restell, who began practicing in the 1830s. Other female criminals were largely from the urban underclass or rural areas. While men were guilty of committing almost all types of crime, women tended to be guilty of a narrow segment of property crimes, usually involving small household goods, or those crimes specifically linked to child-bearing or potential pregnancy, such as prostitution and infanticide. Women tended to be victims of violent crimes rather than offenders. In the south, slaves made up a large body of the population, and they could be punished for a broader range of activities than existed as standard felonies and misdemeanors under criminal law. In addition to the well-known crimes, slaves could also be punished for insolence in language or manner; buying, selling, or renting property such as boats, houses, or livestock; administering medicine without explicit permission from their owner or overseer; hunting; carrying arms; traveling in groups; using means to call together groups of slaves; or running away. The 19th-century experiences of Hispanic, Chinese, and white settlers with crime and violence are closely tied with the settlement of California and other western areas as they became official states or territories in the Union. A print titled “The Wickedest Woman in New York: Madame Restell, the Abortionist,” by Clifford Browder. Ann Lohman (a.k.a. Madam Restell) began practicing abortions in the 1830s.



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The Walnut Street Jail

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The transition from corporal punishment to incarceration occurred relatively recently in history. Historians generally agree that it was in late 18th-century Philadelphia that local reformers first conceived of “penitentiary-style” imprisonment and implemented it at the Walnut Street Prison. In 1776 a group of prominent citizens in Philadelphia secured a state constitutional commitment from Pennsylvania for prison reform. In place of corporal punishment—whipping, branding, burning, and public hanging— Pennsylvania’s law-makers agreed to substitute timed confinement at hard labor while they re-examined the use of capital punishment. From 1786 onwards, reforms were implemented and the number of capital crimes was reduced from over 200 to four: murder, treason, arson, and rape. Corporal punishment was abolished and convicts were sentenced to work with shovels and wheelbarrows on the streets of Philadelphia, collecting trash, cleaning and repairing streets and buildings, for a court-specified amount of time. This was the Wheelbarrow Law of 1786. While many community members supported the new law, others were upset at the impact criminals would have on citizens who were going about their normal lives. People feared indecent or violent exchanges were possible, and that the criminals would have a corrupting influence on children in the city. Within months The Philadelphia Society to Alleviate the Miseries of Public Prisons formed and sparked debate over the nature of crime and correction. The ideas of this group helped change how punishment in America would be represented and delivered. In 1787 Benjamin Rush delivered the first in a series of influential essays arguing against public punishment and the death penalty. Over the next two years the society called for changes and the Pennsylvania legislature agreed. A 1790 law restricted capital punishment; implemented silence, cellular separation, and hard labor at Walnut Street Prison; provided a rudimentary system of criminal classification; and supported the principle of solitary confinement for intractable rule-breakers. As amended in 1794, this law abolished capital punishment for all crimes but firstdegree murder, and promised ”moderate, but certain penalties” for all convicted offenders. While this system was modified over the next decade, penitentiaries modeled on it were developed across the country. By the mid-1790s Philadelphia reformers—drawing on English experiments with the idea of reformation and incarceration—had reformulated the philosophy behind punishments to a rehabilitative prison experience to help mold criminals into citizens. Pennsylvania’s penal system was based on separate confinement where criminals were given time in solitary reflection, rather than the public display of retributive physical punishment that has characterized previous Anglo-American treatment of criminals.

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CRIMES AGAINST GOD While prosecution for crimes against God mostly faded during the colonial years, blasphemy laws did not fade until the 19th century. While prosecutions for blasphemy did eventually end, public toleration of new religions was almost stretched to the breaking point as new religious groups gained fervent devotees in the early- to mid-19th century. Not all new religious groups were accepted within established communities. The departure of Mormons west to Utah in the 1840s is one example of a group that did not find acceptance, and later on, church members also suffered criminal prosecution over their practice of polygamy. While on the surface the republican period carried on the colonial tradition of sexual control—illegal activities included adultery, fornication, incest, bestiality, lewd behavior, sodomy, and printing or selling obscene pictures or books—victimless sex crimes garnered less and less attention as the 19th century progressed, though the idea of moderation and self-control as the key to a healthy life continued to grow. Although gambling continued its popularity, it was illegal, and reformers blamed drinking for almost every social evil, such as crime, pauperism, and general decay. Temperance movements began to gain more advocates as the 19th century progressed, but it was not until the 1870s that societies for the suppression of vice attempted to actively eliminate and prohibit vice. Petty

“Massacre of Conococheague,” shows Native Americans attacking a wagon train. West-bound settlers were aware that once they crossed the Missouri River, they were beyond protection, courts, and judges.



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crimes such as liquor violations, drunkenness, disturbing the peace, vagrancy, and minor assault were also very common between the wars. CRIMES AGAINST PROPERTY As special rulings for specific goods increased during the 19th century, the number of specific property crime legislation increased greatly. Property crimes included, for example, burglary, robbery, stealing, arson, and forgery. While burglary involved breaking into a house or an outbuilding, robbery necessitated the use of force, or threat of force, against a victim. Stealing, also called theft, involved the misappropriation of goods without force and without breaking into a building to do so. Arson involved setting fire to the house or outhouses of another person, and forgery involved creating or altering someone’s writing. CRIMES AGAINST PEOPLE This category of crime contains some of the most serious crimes that can be committed, such as kidnapping, homicide, and rape. Criminal violence tended then, as now, to be more pronounced in urban areas than in rural ones, although settlers who traveled west on the Overland Trail were very aware that once they crossed the Missouri River, they were passing beyond police protection, courts, and judges. The vigilante movement—made up of groups of community members who captured, tried, and convicted criminals on their own without official court involvement—played a large role in monitoring frontiers in the middle of the century, particularly in the form of vigilance committees in 1850s San Francisco and vigilante justice on the Overland Trail as the United States expanded westward in the first half of the 19th century. While the frontier did attract some kinds of criminal violence, for the most part it was limited to gun flights between men. There was relative safety for the rest of the population, property theft was low, and in general women were treated with respect. CRIMES AGAINST THE POLITY Crimes against the polity had two components: crimes against the community, and crimes against the government. This category experienced the most visible shift with the Revolutionary War and the removal of the monarch as part of the government. Crimes against the polity were the laws put in place to punish crimes and to preserve the boundaries of community membership by working to protect the common good. Legislation protecting society itself (rather than individuals within society) from criminal activity had two levels: that which protected the commonwealth and that which protected the monarch and the government. The biggest shift occurred in this category with the removal of the monarch as a variable, although the government fulfilled the same role and encompassed

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Murder and Piracy: The Amistad Revolt and Trial

Sold into slavery in Sierra Leone, the African slaves who revolted aboard La Amistad just off the waters of Cuba on June 30, 1839, killed two crewmembers and lost two of their own group during the struggle on board. Charged with murder and piracy upon their landing and capture in the United States, the trial eventually hinged on the Africans’ identity rather than on their actions. The Amistad set sail for Puerto Prícipe, now called Camagüey, a threeday journey about 300 miles east-southeast of Havana on June 28, 1839. Contrary winds kept the ship at sea for a third night, and on this night the Africans revolted on board. The mulatto cook, Celestino, had been taunting the slaves that they were to be killed, salted, and cooked as meat upon their arrival, so Sengbe Pieh—referred to as Joseph Cinque in most Amistad accounts—led the revolt of Africans in an attempt to defend themselves against this threatened cannibalism. After the successful revolt the Africans attempted to sail back to Africa. However lacking navigation skills they relied upon their captives to aid them in sailing the ship after sundown. While the African’s sailed east—towards the rising sun, and Africa—during the day; the crew they had captured sailed north during the night—guided by the north star—in an effort to reach the United States. Although the Africans eventually realized that they were zigzagging rather than heading directly to Africa, their need for food motivated them to berth at Culloden Point, near Montauk, on August 26, 1839. Captured by a naval patrol, the ship was towed into New London, Connecticut, on August 27, 1839. Because the naval captain was asking for salvage rights and the ship and cargo were valued at nearly $70,000 in the Havana market, the U.S. District Attorney for Connecticut, William Holabird, decided the matter had to be settled in court. It was at this point that the court indicted all the African adults—all of whom had seemingly legitimate papers onboard detailing their Spanish names in Cuba—with murder and piracy. Dwight Janes, an abolitionist, attended the August 29 hearing out of curiosity. Upon hearing that the Africans had been brought illegally into Cuba, he decided to try and use the trial as a way to bring the issue of slavery before a national audience. The case eventually made it to the Supreme Court on February 20, 1841, with the defense led by John Quincy Adams, the 74-year-old former president of the United States. The Supreme Court upheld previous court findings, delivering its decision on March 9, 1841, that the Amistad Africans were kidnap victims—not slaves—and as such, had the right to defend themselves as free men aboard the ship. The fact that the international slave trade was officially illegal in Spanish territories made the Africans free men under Spanish Law.



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A print depicts a pair of young men called the Linn Boys, in hand-to-hand combat in a NativeAmerican village in Kentucky, c.1785.

that which the monarch had previously represented. Crimes against the polity could include, for example, offenses against the trade and peace—such as false measures and breach of the peace—as well as treason. While petty crimes involving such offenses as merchants under or overweighting scales to increase their own profits would have impacted the daily lives of community members, larger crimes such as treason would have been more visible to them in the growing print offerings. REFORM AND THE GROWTH OF PRISONS Despite the fact that the American Revolution was a war for political and economic independence, rather than one for social or legal change, the post-revolutionary age was a period of reform in the criminal justice system. While the Bill of Rights codified ideas about fair trials in 1791, after the Revolutionary War, reformers for the most part worked against the death penalty and other public punishments because such punishments illustrated the naked authority that dominated the monarchical system, rather than the republican ideals of the new nation. While Common Law was an important component of the British legal system, American reformers were interested in a more republican criminal justice system in which all crimes and their punishments would be embodied in a single, clear, definitive code.

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Public punishments were a visible part of daily life in colonial British America. After the war, however, this began to change as lawmakers and society began to view criminals as people who could be rehabilitated, rather than as hardened criminals who had to be physically punished—or executed—as retribution for the crimes that they had committed. People’s interest in privacy, seclusion, and control of emotions and private space in the 19th century meant that public hangings were too inflammatory for the public to view. Society and lawmakers came to see self-discipline, moderation, and sobriety as the hallmarks of a republican society. Pennsylvania played the leading role in limiting the reach of the death penalty in the new nation. In 1790 the Pennsylvania legislature abolished the death penalty for robbery, burglary, and sodomy, while a 1794 law made murder a matter of degrees, with first degree murder (pre-mediated murder) the only type of homicide to merit the death penalty. For the most part, northern and midwestern states followed Pennsylvania’s lead. The shift from a public death penalty that characterized the 17th century, to the solitary confinement in penitentiaries and private executions that characterized the 19th century, embodied the new sensibilities and cultural values that developed between the wars.

The historic Burlington County Prison in New Jersey was designed by Robert Mills in 1810. New prisons were built with separate cells for solitary confinement.



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By the end of the 18th century the prison became the focal point of correctional theory. The remodeling of the Walnut Street institution in Philadelphia in 1790 began a new breed of prison, with separate cells for solitary confinement. Prisons in New York and Massachusetts followed, with much time given to the debate over whether solitary confinement should be required 24 hours a day—as it was in Philadelphia—or for only portions of the day and night—as was the case in New York and Massachusetts. In these new forms of prisons, silence, uniformity of food, clothing, and routine were fundamental to discipline. Despite the growth of the new system of prisons, every state did not universally accept such institutions before the Civil War. Prisons in New Jersey, Cincinnati, and New Orleans, for example, all retained aspects of earlier colonial prisons. South Carolina never built a prison and retributive public punishments remained in use during the 19th century. URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND THE BIRTH OF THE POLICE Before the Revolutionary War very few people spent their entire working lives in criminal justice. There were no police, no prisons as we know them today, and no full-time judges, professional prosecutors, or public defenders. Prior to the Revolutionary War criminal prosecutions had usually depended on victims to make complaints. However with the establishment of urban police forces, the law became more universally enforced, and one of the significant social innovations of the early 19th century was the creation of full-time police forces whose job was to keep the peace, prevent crime, and capture criminals. Crime prevention became an important idea in antebellum America. Urbanization increased dramatically after 1800. Not only did cities grow in size, but the proportion of the nation’s population who lived in urban environments grew as well. Cities became centers of industry, trade, and culture, and helped shape the economy and society of the United States. As cities grew, land use became more specialized. Wholesale, retail, and financial districts appeared as downtown areas emerged for the first time. With the advent of mass transit, social class distribution underwent a significant shift with wealthy and middle-class citizens increasingly moving to the urban periphery, leaving older areas to the poor, and as immigration grew, ethnic enclaves developed in city neighborhoods. As these changes occurred, the opportunities for criminal activity grew along with the population, and the difficulty of controlling that criminal activity grew. Due to the mobility of people between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, crimes such as swindling, bigamy, and murder were more possible. This was due to the opportunity for criminals to move on to other geographic areas. At the same time, theft and street crime were relatively widespread in urban environments, and criminal gangs grew more established. Gamblers and prostitutes saw the emergence of highly visible specialized entertainment

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The trial of the Honorable Daniel E. Sickles for the murder of P. Barton Key, Esquire, in Washington, D.C., from an 1859 issue of Harper’s Weekly.

districts with the attached businesses such as hotels, restaurants, and rooming houses as key places to develop their own activities. As city residents increasingly saw criminal behavior disturbing the tranquility of urban society during the early decades of the 19th century, they turned to the idea that crime could be prevented. First an unpaid volunteer force of militiamen helped suppress public disorder and remained a fixture until the 1850s. Then the cost of preventative policing, with its wage requirements, evolved into police departments in various American cities from 1830 to the 1850s. While police forces in the United States grew out of the prior system of constables and watchmen, the growth of the police force was in part a response to the growing violence of cities, especially urban rioting, and generalized fears about criminal activity. Between 1830 and 1860 almost 40 major riots took place in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Cincinnati. The London Metropolitan Police, set up in 1829, helped inspire American experiments and urban areas in the United States—such as the early police forces of Boston, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Cincinnati—develop their own growing police forces in the 1840s and 1850s. As police forces became established, detective squads began to form as a way to fight crime in Boston (1846), New York (1857), Philadelphia (1859), and Chicago (1861). Along with the development of these new professions came the detective story, or mystery. Both Edgar Allan Poe in the 1840s and Wilkie Collins in the 1860s are prime examples of pioneering authors in the genre.



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CRIME AND THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY The divergence between the north and the south during in the antebellum period—the period between the establishment of the United States as a nation and the break out of the Civil War in 1860—is very pronounced. While the north saw increased urbanization during this time period as industries pulled in workers to urban centers, the south continued to see a demographic pattern that favored small-scale farming and plantation settlements interspersed with smaller towns, even while their profitability expanded with the focus on cotton as a staple crop. While northern states abolished slavery around the time of the Revolution, the south’s system of slavery continued to grow in size. With the growth of slavery came fears about potential slave insurgencies, such as were seen with Gabriel in Virginia (1800), Denmark Vesey in South Carolina (1822), and Nat Turner, also in Virginia (1831). Legislators developed slave codes to combat these fears. While these codes varied by state, their general outlines remained the same: masters and other whites were able to physically correct slaves themselves without having to present information to the courts. For the most part, imprisonment was not really an option for slaves—as slaves they were meant to work—so the south continued to rely on physical punishment of slaves who were involved with criminal activities. In extreme cases where the courts sentenced a slave to be executed, the state reimbursed the slave owner for the investment that he or she lost upon the slave’s death. According to Christopher Waldrep, those accused of crimes in the 19th century south were generally marginal people who had transgressed community norms—often in ways that outraged the community. While lawyers and the law were supposed to make tyranny—such as that exhibited by many slave owners—difficult, in reality white southerners debated just how much the state could intervene between masters and their slaves with masters given wide latitude to correct their slaves’ misbehavior. Plantation discipline did overlap with official courts—usually in special slave courts—when slaves were accused of criminal acts that affected the lives, property, and well-being of other whites, or with behavior that threatened the public order or that seriously offended community norms. According to Waldrep, one South Carolina court operating between 1830 and 1865 documented cases in which authorities charged slaves with such crimes as gambling, consuming liquor, disorderly conduct, theft, insolence, assault, arson, rape, and insurrection. Records in a Tennessee slave court reveal the same range of crimes, with the defendants almost always receiving a guilty verdict. Almost all the guilty were sentenced to be whipped, with half receiving the legal maximum of 39 lashes. As Waldrep argues, “in the southern context, at least, law, lawyers, and judges often supported slaveholders’ demands for absolute power over their human property and too frequently succumbed to white demands for security at the expense of due process. [However] in the last decades of slavery and in the first

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years after emancipation, the rule of law probably did, in some cases, mitigate the worst excesses of slavery.” While the law stood as a neutral force for white male citizens in the antebellum south, women and African Americans infrequently found themselves being tried in the criminal justice system. Even after the Civil War and Reconstruction, the advent of vigilantism in the south—emblematized by the Ku Klux Klan—illustrated that this was a society more devoted to protecting privilege, rather than to the rule of law. Slave owners and slave overseers punished slave misconduct— or rather, what they construed as slave misconduct and minor criminal behavior—on their own plantations with little supervision from For the most part, slaves were not imprisoned, governmental authorities. While as they were meant to work. In extreme cases the courts sentenced a slave to be executed. some slave owners may have been willing to overlook minor theft, drunkenness, or profanity, others punished it severely. Most masters were willing to whip a slave who worked below the accepted pace as “lazy” or one who ran away as recalcitrant. According to Waldrep, Bennet Barrow of Louisiana sometimes had whole gangs of his slaves whipped for such “crimes” as “shallow ploughing” and in one two-year period Barrow administered 156 whippings on his plantation for 331 offenses, most often for faulty work. This is not to say that slaves did not commit heinous crimes. Some did, and they were prosecuted, tried, and sentenced to death for those crimes. Unfortunately, elite fears about racial mixing may have created some situations in which consensual sexual relationships between African American men and white women were painted as violent, coerced relationships. However, there were slaves who committed serious crimes, just as there were Native Americans, immigrants, poor, middling, and elite whites who also committed serious crimes. Antebellum authors spent a lot of time writing about crime. Broadsheets, pamphlets, memoirs, so-called confessions, newspapers, and novels all were print media that authors used to discuss crime and criminals in urban and rural, industrial and agricultural, and established and frontier settings.



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During the 18th century newspapers devoted most of their space to government and international news and classified advertisements. Crime reporting, when it appeared at all, was limited to a few short lines or a paragraph reporting the facts of the case and a criminal’s movement through the court system—if the crime was particularly salacious. During the 18th century execution sermons, broadsheets, and pamphlets were the most popular print media devoted to crimes. That changed in the 19th century, when newspapers became dominant as crime reporting institutions. A fundamental shift in print representations of crime occurred in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The dominant narrative shifted from sacred condemnations to secular accounts. The sacred condemnations came in the form of printed execution sermons, authored by ministers and given orally prior to the public hanging of the offender. These sermons focused on the spiritual condition of the criminal and the transgressions which had led to the capital crime for which the accused was to be executed, while condemning the criminals who did not repent of their sins. The secular accounts which developed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries reported the “facts” in criminal biographies and autobiographies, journalistic narratives, and printed transcripts of murder trials that celebrated the defiant criminals and entertained the reading public with titillating details that both horrified and intrigued. By the 1830s and 1840s publishing newspapers had become cheaper, and new producers and products—such as the penny dailies and the National Police Gazette—experimented with new crime-related portrayals and images, along with romances and scandals, sports, and amusements. The focused attention given to the murder of a prostitute in 1836 New York City, Helen Jewett, combined four of these elements: romance, scandal, murder, and a trial. With industrialization and rapidly growing cities, the cheap press, popular crime fiction, and the very earliest police and detective memoirs all provided new pop culture media, reporting crimes and exploring the world of criminals for a growing audience. daily experiences The daily experiences of the U.S. population in the years between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War varied widely depending on location, economic considerations, and racial and ethnic background. However when it came to crime and violence certain experiences linked these diverse groups together. The narrowing scope of capital crimes and the concurrent rise of incarceration, the growth of police forces in urban environments, the racial hierarchy that controlled punishment and power in the south, and the rise of print representations of crime as a form of popular entertainment all united people’s daily experiences of what exactly crime and violence represented—as a possibility, a deterrent, or merely as escapism. Catherine A. Cardno

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Further Readings

Cohen, Patricia Cline. The Murder of Helen Jewett: The Life and Death of a Prostitute in 19th-century New York. New York: Vintage Books, 1999. Daniels, Christine and Michael V. Kennedy, eds. Over the Threshold: Intimate Violence in Early America. New York: Routledge, 1999. Friedman, Lawrence M. Crime and Punishment in American History. New York: BasicBooks, 1993. Greenberg, Martin Alan. Citizens Defending America: from Colonial Times to the Age of Terrorism. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005. Halttunen, Karen. Murder Most Foul: The Killer and the American Gothic Imagination. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998. Johnson, David R. Policing the Urban Underworld: The Impact of Crime on the Development of the American Police, 1800–1887. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1979. Masur, Louis P. Rites of Execution: Capital Punishment and the Transformation of American Culture, 1776–1865. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Meranze, Michael. Laboratories of Virtue: Punishment, Revolution, and Authority in Philadelphia, 1760–1835. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 1996. Morris, Thomas D. Southern Slavery and the Law, 1619–1860. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. Okum, Peter. Crime and the Nation: Prison Reform and Popular Fiction in Philadelphia, 1786–1800. New York: Routledge, 2002. Osagie, Iyunolu Folayan. The Amistad Revolt: Memory, Slavery, and the Politics of Identity in the United States and Sierra Leone. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000. Reid, John Phillip. Policing the Elephant: Crime, Punishment, and Social Behavior on the Overland Trail. San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 1997. Waldrep, Christopher and Donald G. Nieman, eds. Local Matters: Race, Crime and Justice in the 19th-Century South. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2001. Waldrep, Christopher. Roots of Disorder: Race and Criminal Justice in the American South, 1817–1880. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1998. Williams, Daniel E. Pillars of Salt: An Anthology of Early American Criminal Narratives. Madison, WI: Madison House, 1993.

Chapter 12

Labor and Employment

“... care and labor are as much correlated to human existence as shadow is to light ...” — Harriet Beecher Stowe

The United States was a young nation, but it was not a young economy.

With almost 200 years of economic development and seemingly limitless natural resources, the newly-independent country shifted itself from a colonial possession to a modern industrial power in the space of a generation. Between 1800 and 1850 the Gross National Product increased sevenfold and average American income increased by 102 percent. No other nation in the world at the time came close to matching this rate of development. Changes in the national economy dramatically altered the lives of American workers. Agriculture remained the core of working life, but new industries and the growth of urban areas opened up a vast array of new opportunities for workers. For some this resulted in little more than toil in dangerous factories and life in an overcrowded tenement. Many others were able to climb out of rural poverty and into lives of middle-class prosperity in bustling cities and towns. A lucky few realized wealth beyond their wildest dreams. In 1800 almost 80 percent of Americans lived and worked on farms; by 1850 the number had dropped to 55 percent. Despite this drop America continued to see itself as the embodiment of the Jeffersonian ideal of a nation of small farmers. The most popular books in America through the period were almanacs, annual guides full of helpful hints geared towards farmers, and containing the all-important astrological charts that helped them find the 159

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A Currier & Ives American farm scene from 1853. By 1850, 55 percent of Americans lived and worked on farms, dropping from almost 80 percent in 1800.

best days for planting or harvesting their crops. Farming saw many innovations over the period, with inventors designing a variety of new plows, seed drills, rakes, harvesters, and other tools that made farm worker’s tasks just a bit easier. One of the most important new inventions was the McCormick reaper. Reaping, or the cutting of grains, had been done by hand with the use of a scythe since the days of the ancient Egyptians. Even with the introduction of better scythe blades, it remained one of the most physically demanding tasks. Horse-drawn reaping machines were available in the early 1800s, but did not catch on until Cyrus McCormick introduced his design in 1831. By 1847 he was mass producing his machines from a Chicago factory, and could not keep up with demand. But in general farming in early America remained labor-intensive. Muscle power, human or animal, was still the most important force. By the 1830s pure subsistence farming was becoming a thing of the past. The average farm grew crops and raised livestock for family use, but was increasingly oriented toward producing crops and products for the growing urban marketplace. Corn was the most popular of these cash crops—easy to grow, easy to store, and as transportation improved, easy to ship. The concept of farming for money rather than home or local use was indicative of a maturing national economy. A farmer’s season depended on which region in which he happened to live. In New England, where the growing season was brief, there were whole months where there was no work in the fields, and a man might use that free time to work on other money-making jobs, such as woodworking or black-



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smithing. Further south the growing seasons could be separated by mere weeks, where he might get in two complete crops in a single year. For farm women, work went on year-round no matter where they lived. Their time was filled with “the same dull round of chores” that had to be done every day: cooking, baking, washing, dusting, sweeping, sewing, mending, all to be done while seeing to the needs of households that averaged six people, and could include a cast of characters ranging from children, elderly parents, and unmarried relatives, to hired help. Daily chores were supplemented with seasonal rounds of canning and preserving food, spinning flax or wool, and a host of other tasks. Children were, in the words of newspaper editor Horace Greeley, “early made acquainted with labor.” Once up and walking, even very young children could be made useful as their mothers bustled around the house. Gender roles were introduced from the start. A young boy might learn to muck out a cow’s stall, while a girl was taught how to milk the cow. Milking and churning was woman’s work, while caring for the larger animals was men’s work. Girls worked with their mothers in the kitchen garden, while boys followed their fathers into the fields. Schooling was considered important by most Americans at the time, but trips to the local schoolhouse had to be balanced against the needs of the farming season, leaving many children just a few weeks out of the year for book learning. Still, by the 1850s the United States had some of the highest rates of literacy in the world. KING COTTON The American south entered the post-colonial period facing some serious economic changes. Prior to the Revolution, the southern economy had rested on three staple crops: tobacco, indigo, and rice. Tobacco remained profitable, but the indigo and rice industries had been all but destroyed when British buyers turned to other suppliers during the war and never returned. To maintain its economy, the south needed to find new cash crops. As early as the 1780s, some growers were experimenting with cotton. The rise of industrial textile mills in Britain led to increased demand for the fiber, so the market was there if growers could just overcome some serious issues in the large-scale cultivation of the crop. There were two main varieties of cotton: long-staple (Egyptian), and short-staple. Short-staple cotton proved best for the American climate: it wasn’t too fussy about soil conditions, and it had a relatively short, 200-day growing cycle. However short-staple cotton was filled with small, sticky seeds that were difficult to pull out of the fiber. It has been calculated that while a field hand could pick 50 pounds of cotton in a day, it would take 25 man-days, or over 200 hours of labor, to extricate the seeds by hand. The solution was provided in 1793 by a young New Englander named Eli Whitney. Working as a private tutor on a plantation near Savannah, Georgia,

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the 27-year-old Whitney, who had a degree in engineering from Yale and a Yankee attitude toward inventing, learned about the problems with cotton. He quickly devised a simple, practical device he called a cotton gin (short for “engine”) where raw cotton was placed into the top of a box and drawn around a drum operated by a hand-crank. The fibers were stretched around metal teeth within the box and drawn through a mesh, separating the seeds from the lint. In his initial demonstration to skeptical planters, Whitney showed that he could clean a field hand’s daily load of cotton in an hour. Whitney never saw much direct personal profit from his invention, although several southern states voted cash awards to him. His initial plan was to lease his gins in return for a portion of cotton, which he could then sell, but planters balked at the scheme. The design of the gin was simple, and in a time of lax patent infringement laws, it was easier to reverse-engineer his design and make their own. After a decade of trying to win restitution for the violation of his patent, Whitney gave up and returned to New England, turning his attention to another emerging market. He founded a gun factory and began producing muskets for the U.S. government. The Whitney family went on to become leading industrialists of the 19th and 20th centuries. By the time Whitney died in 1825, cotton was pouring out of the south in an ever-increasing tide. In 1781 the region produced about two million pounds of the fiber. By 1801 the figure had climbed to 48 million pounds. By the 1830s the south produced more cotton each year than the rest of the world combined. By 1860 at the dawn of the Civil War, production had reached a staggering 1,600 million pounds. PLANTATION LIFE One unintended consequence of the rise of the cotton economy was the expansion of slavery. After the Revolution many onlookers believed that slavery was a dying institution. It had already been outlawed in the north, and there was growing moral opposition to the practice. The drive for profits in labor-intensive crops like tobacco, rice, sugar, and especially cotton, changed the equation. There was suddenly no incentive for a slave-owner to free those in his service. The 1800 census showed 893,602 slaves in the United States. In the 1830 census, the slave population had grown to 2,009,043. Much of this growth was due to natural increase; the importation of new slaves had been prohibited by an act of Congress in 1808, although a clandestine international slave trade functioned for many years. By comparison, the free African-American population in the United States was 108,435 in 1800, and had grown to 319,576 by 1830. Most southern families did not own any slaves at all. The average yeoman farmer in the south was very much like his Yankee counterpart: he owned a small spread of land and grew mostly food crops for his immediate family, with perhaps a small cash crop for supplemental income. He did not have the capital or the need for slave labor. Many farmers simply “hired out” slaves from



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The drive for profits in labor-intensive crops like tobacco, rice, sugar, and especially cotton, meant that there was no incentive for a slave-owner to free those in his service.

local plantations during busy seasons. The average slaveholding family owned between two and nine slaves. In 1860 only three percent of families could be considered large slaveholders, with 20 or more slaves. Fourteen families owned more than 500 slaves each, and just one family owned more than 1,000. Most slaves worked in the fields tending crops. As in all farming operations, their work was cyclical. For example work in the cotton fields began in February or March, with workers clearing out dead stalks from the previous year, laying down fertilizers, and building up the planting beds. In April they would begin planting the tiny seeds by hand, in long rows about three to six feet apart. Through May and June, the plants needed thinning and several hoeings. By mid-June the plants were in bloom, and about 45 days later the white cotton bolls opened. Picking and ginning began in mid-August. The clean cotton was collected in bales and shipped to market beginning in September. As this was going on, slaves also worked on food crops for the plantation household, tended livestock, and maintained and repaired farm equipment. If the majority of slaves were field hands, a sizable minority found different paths. Some were put to work as domestic servants, cooks, or other positions within the master’s house. Others worked in plantation shops making everything from nails to fine furniture, while urban slaves sometimes worked in commercial shops and factories. By the 1850s slaves could be found in every craft and trade imaginable. Slave women had fewer opportunities in the trades, but a few went on to become sought-after dressmakers and seamstresses. On some levels, a slave’s life was no different that the average, free-born American: long days of toil at repetitive and backbreaking tasks, punctuated by

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the occasional day of rest or celebration. But unlike free Americans, slaves had no control over their personal circumstances. Their lot in life was determined by factors far beyond their influence. If their master was benevolent, if their overseer did not resort to the lash, their situation could be tolerable. If they were working the cotton fields in the Carolinas, they were better off than those working in the swampy rice or sugar fields of frontier Louisiana. Small graces made all the difference. Slaves were locked out of what was fast becoming an essential part of the American spirit: the fundamental right to change your circumstances, to move away, to re-create yourself through education, hard work, and sheer luck. THE PLANTATION MISTRESS Gender separation had its place on the plantation, just as it did on northern farms. Generally men ran the crops and the business, while women ran the household and the slave community. A plantation mistress might be spared the drudgery of daily housekeeping, but her days were far from idle. The mistress kept the household books and inventories, distributed food and goods to the slaves from her household store rooms, and directed the daily activities of cooking and housecleaning. She was responsible for the kitchen garden and the small livestock, and had to be prepared to roll up her sleeves and participate in the seasonal round of canning, drying, salting, and curing food for the winter. She was also tasked with clothing the slaves, leading many to periodic marathons of sewing. Anne Cocke of Bremo Bluff, Virginia, noted in 1811 that

The interior of an original slave cabin on Oak Avenue in Charleston, South Carolina. A bushel of cotton lies on the floor. It was calculated that a field hand could pick 50 pounds of cotton in a day.



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she had 100 shirts to cut and sew, and many other garments besides. Her gracious home was transformed into “a perfect workshop all the next month, and a part of the month after,” to get the job done. The plantation mistress had a social role as well. She had to tend to her own husband and children, plus the myriad relatives, extended family, and longterm house guests that seemed to be a permanent fixture of plantation life. At the same time, she was also expected to tend to the slaves, caring for the sick or injured, assisting in childbirths, and watching over the dying. THE TRANSPORTATION REVOLUTION The United States might have stayed a limited agricultural nation had it not been for a quiet revolution that began just after the War of 1812. For the first 200 years of American life, the transportation of goods had been limited to the waterways: carried on downriver flatboats plying the navigable rivers, or sailing ships up and down the Atlantic coast. Historian James McPherson notes that before 1815, it cost as much to ship freight to Europe as it did to ship it a mere 30 miles inland. To ship goods from Cincinnati to New York City—a distance of less than 650 miles—could take up to seven weeks to ship down the Ohio River to the Mississippi, then on to a sailboat for the trip around the Gulf of Mexico and up the eastern seaboard. Focus on transportation was spurred by the Panic of 1819, the country’s first real economic crisis. Governments and private companies first began investing in roads. This infusion of money transformed the rutted, muddy footpaths of the past into all-weather, macadamized roadways. It helped somewhat, but loads were still limited to what a team of horses could carry, making road travel unsuitable for many goods. In 1807 inventor Robert Fulton had debuted his steam-powered boat, the Clermont, on the Hudson River. Between 1817 and 1820, the number of steamboats on American waterways jumped from less than 20 to almost 70, and by 1855, there were almost 730 in operation. Steamboats could carry heavy loads, and unlike flatboats and keelboats, they could carry those loads both upriver and downriver. Canals represented another part of the transportation revolution. The first major canal project was the Erie Canal, built between 1819 and 1825. The Erie stretched 363 miles from Buffalo to Albany, connecting the Great Lakes to the New York seaports for the first time in history. Canal miles rose from less than 100 miles in 1817 to 3,700 miles in 1850. Shipping prices dropped from 19 cents per ton mile in 1817 to between two and three cents per ton mile in 1837. Road travel was limited, steamships could explode, and canals were impassible in cold weather, droughts, or floods. Then in 1826 about three miles of railroad track were laid in Massachusetts. In 1827 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was chartered. In 1830 the first American-built steam engine went into service. Rail miles grew from about 9,000 in 1850 to 21,000 miles just a decade later—

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Unions in America

Unions would become a powerful force in American labor in the second half of the 20th century, but they got their start in the final years of the 18th century. The backlash against collective worker action was swift. In 1805 a group of Philadelphia shoemakers called the Federal Society of Journeyman Cordswainers went out on strike for higher wages. After an allegation of violence against striking workers, eight union leaders were brought up on charges of criminal conspiracy. The case, Commonwealth v. Pullis, set a precedent that would not be overturned for 36 years: the prosecution argued that the union was a criminal conspiracy, and that the mere existence of a union was illegal, as “a combination, by means of rewards and punishments, threats, insults, starvings and beatings, to compel the employers to accede to terms, they the journeymen present and dictate. If the journeymen cordwainers may do this, so may the employers; the journeymen carpenters, the brick-layers, butchers, farmers, and the whole community will be formed into hostile confederacies, the prelude and certain forerunner of bloodshed and civil war.” After a three-day trial, Pullis and his co-defendants were found guilty and fined $8 each. Labor unions continued to grow and act, but remained illegal until overturned by a Massachusetts court in Commonwealth v. Hunt in 1842.

more rail than had been laid in the rest of the world combined. Early trains only traveled at about 30 miles per hour, but that was enough to cut the transit time between Cincinnati and New York from 50 days down to five. The transportation revolution opened the American marketplace. For most of American history, food and goods had primarily been consumed or used within 20 miles of their original source. Roads, steamboats, canals, and especially trains, made it possible to ship western wheat and pork to East Coast markets before it spoiled. Butter and cheese could be carried from Vermont farms to Boston tables in a day or two. Manufactured goods could be brought into towns and villages that had always had to make do with homemade. Raw materials could be brought to factories and turned into finished goods, which could then be shipped to markets, in an endless cycle of consumerism. THE FACTORY SYSTEM The American factory system was born in an act of industrial espionage. In 1789 a young Englishman named Samuel Slater made his way to the United States. Slater had been apprenticed as a teenager to a British cotton mill, and had worked under Jedediah Strutt, a pioneer in the design of textile mills. The British were so determined to keep the textile industry protected that they



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forbade the emigration of engineers, so Slater disguised himself as an agricultural worker and came to America carrying Strutt’s design in his head. He got his big break in 1790, when he helped Moses Brown of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, build what would become America’s first water-powered textile mill, using his memorized designs. By 1803 he had enough money to open a mill of his own. Slater employed whole families at his mill, breaking down tasks into small enough bits that even very young children could be put to work. He eventually constructed Slaterville, a company town complete with tenement housing and a company store. The Rhode Island System, as it became known, became the model for dozens of mill towns across New England. When Slater died in 1835 he was eulogized as “the Father of the American Factory System.” The textile industry was the first to benefit from the rise of the factory system. In 1817 mills put out four million yards of cloth. By 1837 output had risen to 308 million yards. Entrepreneurs were quick to see the possibilities of factory work, and within two decades had built what came to be called “the American system of manufactures.” component parts The American system involved breaking an item down to small component parts and building special-purpose machines to mass produce those parts. The whole item was then put together by workers. The idea of interchangeable parts arose in weapons manufacturing in the late 18th century. Eli Whitney of cotton-gin fame is often credited with first applying the concept of interchangeability in his armory around 1803, although some dispute the claim. Once it fully developed, the American system could be used to produce guns, clocks, boots, sewing machines and later, bicycles, typewriters, and eventually automobiles—thousands of different items began rolling out of factories across the country. In the 1830s Samuel Colt developed the revolver, the first practical repeating firearm, forming a company to manufacture the guns exploit the American system. The American factory system fundamentally changed the lives of American workers. For most of the country’s history, people had produced goods in their own homes or shops. An apprentice might work with a master for a period of years, but the idea was that he would eventually become a master himself and create his own shop. These home-based businesses worked around the needs of the people running them. They set their own prices and their own hours. Goods and services might be exchanged for money, or as a form of barter. The factory system simply could not function that way efficiently. In mills and factories, worker’s lives were dominated by supervision and discipline. Time was noted with bells and whistles. If it was a nice spring day, a worker could not simply decided to go fishing and still expect to have a job when he returned. Labor was exchanged for money, and the salary was generally not negotiable. Many American workers resented the control imposed by the factory system, and the phrase “wage slavery” entered the lexicon. New



the early national Period and expansion

England mills and factories first drew on a pool of young women drawn from farming communities all over the region. The typical “mill girl” was between 15 and 25 years old, unmarried, used to hard work, and rarely stayed in the mills more than a year or two before going home to get married or take another job. The introduction to life in industrial mills was a memorable experience for these farm girls. In a short story, one worker wrote that her “first the sight of so many bands, and wheels, and springs in constant motion, was very frightful. She felt afraid to touch the “Mill girls” were under 25 years old loom, and she was almost sure she could nevand worked in the industrial mills for a year or two. er learn to weave … the shuttle flew out, and made a new bump on her head; and the first time she tried to spring the lathe, she broke out a quarter of the treads.” With the help of patient supervisors, a worker could become proficient at her job in about a month. Mill girls worked 12 to 14 hours a day with a half-hour break for breakfast and dinner. They were on duty six days a week. Their Sundays were their own, but most factory owners required that their employees attend church. Most girls lived in dormitories, where they had to abide by strict rules of conduct or risk calling into question their “good character.” The mills were hot and noisy, and the work was tedious. Yet many women thrived in their new environment, making friends among their fellow workers, joining societies, attending lectures, and using their freedom from the confines of home to enjoy their lives. on StrIKe Before there was much in the way of a labor movement in the United States, the women of Lowell, Massachusetts, showed their unwillingness to lay down in the face of unfair practices. In February 1834 factory owners announced a 15 percent decrease in wages to be put into effect the next month. More than 800 women launched a brief strike in protest. Two years later another wage cut set off a series of public meetings. “One of the girls stood on a pump and gave vent to the feelings of her companions in a neat speech, declaring that it was their duty to resist all attempts at cutting down the wages,” said Harriet Robinson, who wrote years later about her life in the mills. “This was the first time a woman had spoken in public in Lowell, and the event caused surprise and consternation among her audience.” This time 1,500 women went out on strike. They did not win concessions from the owners, but this strike did lead to the creation of the Factory Girls’ Associa-



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tion, which had more than 2,000 members at its height and easily organized protests and work slow-downs. In 1845 the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association led the call for a 10-hour workday. They managed to get their case heard by the Massachusetts legislature, the first time in U.S. history that government investigated labor conditions. Largely through their efforts, in 1847,

The Lowell Offering

The Lowell Offering was a magazine written by the factory girls of Lowell, Massachusetts, between 1840 and 1845. A mixture of fiction, personal essays, poetry, and music, the Offering was one of the primary outlets for creativity for the women of the mills. In winter 1841, a young lady named “HT” wrote a letter to the editor describing the astounding diversity of her boardinghouse family: Our Household. Mr Editor—It may not perhaps be deemed intrusive to present to your notice some statistical facts, connected with our domestic circle; if that may be properly called a domestic circle, which in fact a promiscuous collection of females, from many different places, in a house they can scarcely think a home. There are now but 11 boarders in our family, and but 13, including every member of it. Among us, there are regularly received fifteen papers and periodicals. These are as follows: Boston Daily Times; Signs of the Times; Herald of Freedom; Christian Herald, two copies; Christian Register; Vox Populi; Literary Souvenir; Boston Pilot; Young Catholic’s Friend; Star of Bethlehem; Lowell Offering, three copies; Magazine, one copy. We also regularly borrow the Non-Resistant, the Liberator, the Lady’s Book, the Ladies’ Pearl—and the two last have had regular subscribers in the house; also, the Ladies’ Companion. Many other papers are occasionally borrowed. So I think you must acknowledge that we need not be ignorant upon the subjects which are agitating the world around us, nor of the transactions which excite the interest of others besides factory girls. As to our religious tenants, classing the different members of the family according to the meetings which they attend, we have one Calvinist Baptist, two Universalists, one Unitarian, one Congregationalist, one Catholic, one Episcopalian, two Methodists, three Christian Baptists, and one Mormonite— which is a variety seldom found in one famly; and we have here what is not to be found any where else in the City of Lowell, and but a few other places, and that is a Mormon Bible. Notwithstanding the divers faiths embraced among us, we live in much harmony, and seldom is difference of opinion the cause of contention amongst us.

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New Hampshire made the 10-hour workday the law, and other states quickly followed suit. In the 1840 Irish immigrants began to replace young women as the chief labor pool. The devastating potato famine pushed thousands of Irish families to America, where they concentrated in the urban areas, searching for work. These were, said New York Archbishop John Hughes “the poorest and most wretched population that can be found in the world—the scattered debris of the Irish nation.” Only six percent of the Irish immigrants who arrived in New York during the period 1840–50 were skilled artisans, compared with

A 10-Hour Day

On April 28, 1829, the New York Workingmen’s Party (a political party composed of tradesmen and factory workers) issued a remonstrance calling for the establishment of a 10-hour work day and called for the publishing of the names of all employees and employers who exceeded that limit. Resolved, that the Creator has made all equal. Resolved, that in the first formation of government, no man gives up to others his original right of soil and becomes a smith, a weaver, a builder, or other mechanic or laborer without receiving a guaranty that reasonable toil shall enable him to live as comfortably as others. Resolved, that the rights of the rich, or, in other words, the employer, are not greater now than they were then. Resolved, that the rights of the poor or the employed are not less. Resolved, that those who now undertake to exact an excessive number of hours of toil for a days work are aggressors upon the rights of their fellow citizens, invaders of their happiness, and justly obnoxious to the indignation of every honest man in the community. Resolved, that we will not labor for any man more than the just and reasonable time of ten hours a day; and that if our employers are determined to make the experiment, which can longest be suspended, business with them, or with us the supply of the wants of nature for ourselves and families, we will hold them responsible, as we all hold ourselves, to the good sense of our fellow citizens, for the wrongs we may suffer at their hands. Resolved, that a committee of fifty persons be appointed to devise the means of assisting those who may require it in consequences of fulfilling the foregoing resolutions and that they make report at a future meeting. Resolved, that the same committee be authorized and instructed to call another meeting as soon as they shall deem it expedient. Resolved, that the names of those who shall hereafter work more than ten hours a day, or require or receive it, shall be published in the public papers as soon as they shall be ascertained.



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28 percent of German immigrants who arrived in the United States through New York during the same period. Unlike the mill girls, whose conduct was strictly monitored, Irish workers were left to their own resources. The influx of immigrants quickly overwhelmed cities like Boston and Lowell. They were forced to live in overcrowded slums where poverty, violence, and disease were endemic. It took years for them to build up the kind of political capital needed to win improved working conditions or higher wages. THE MODERN AMERICAN WORKER Not all Americans worked in farms or factories. The shift to an industrialized consumer culture created thousands of new jobs, including telegraph operators, railroad conductors, steamboat captains, canal workers, commercial fishermen and whalers, coal miners, factory agents, engineers, shopkeepers and merchants, not to mention a growing corps of doctors, lawyers, teachers, and other professionals to serve a growing population. By the 1850s the United States had begun to take the shape that it would hold through the 20th century. Heather K. Michon

Further Readings

Blatt, Martin. Work, Recreation, and Culture: Essays in American Labor History. Oxford: Routledge, 1996. Charles, Ruth A. Immigrant Women’s Lives: Weaving Garment Work and Legislative Policy. Oxford: Routledge, 1999. Eisler, Benita. The Lowell Offering: Writings by New England Mill Women (1840–1845). New York: W.W. Norton, 1997. Kelley, Robin D. G., and Earl Lewis, eds. To Make Our World Anew: A History of African Americans. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. McNeilly, Donald P. The Old South Frontier: Cotton Plantations and the Formation of Arkansas Society, 1819–1861. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000. Rayback, Joseph G. History of American Labor. New York: Free Press, 1966.

Chapter 13

Military and Wars

“Many were told... they would be having nothing to do but ride on horseback... to explore the western prairies and forests... in delightful and inspiring occupations.” — James Hildreth, 1st Regiment of Dragoons, on 1830s recruitment promises

As the War for Independence wound down, the United States had to face

the legacy of the conflict. Veterans had to adjust to civilian life, while many civilians struggled with debts incurred during the war. The last of the proBritish loyalists or “Tories” had to leave for Canada or other parts of the British Empire. The Native Americans on the frontier were concerned that white settlers would begin pushing across the Appalachian Mountains again, now that the British could not officially prevent it. Congress also began disbanding both the Continental Army and the Continental Navy. Among the major concerns faced by Congress was the settlement of various monetary claims made during the war to officers and soldiers. Failure to meet these claims led to trouble even before the final peace treaty was ratified. In March 1783 two anonymous addresses were issued by a group of disgruntled army officers at George Washington’s camp in Newburgh, New York. These addresses demanded that Congress honor its pledge of granting Continental Army officers a secure pension in the form of half their wartime salaries for life; otherwise, they would no longer obey the government. Washington, while sympathetic to his officers’ plight, was opposed to their methods, and quickly squashed this Newburgh Conspiracy. Congress responded to the threat with a law granting full payment to officers for five years. 173

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The Debate Over a Permanent Military Establishment

The American hostility towards the idea of standing armies and navies went back to colonial times. Almost all of Britain’s North American colonies had been founded in the 17th century, a time of turmoil within Britain itself. Between 1639 and 1660, a series of civil wars had wracked the nation, pitting king against Parliament and, to a lesser extent, Protestant against Catholic. These conflicts led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the execution of King Charles I in 1649. Parliamentary rule was eventually replaced by a military dictatorship under Oliver Cromwell. Following Cromwell’s death, the monarchy was restored in 1660. Britain maintained a standing army after the Restoration, subject to careful government control. However from the 1690s on, members of what became known as the Whig Party frequently criticized it. Whig pamphleteers frequently harped on the issue of the threat that standing armies had posed to government and individual liberty from the time of the Roman state to the more recent activities of Cromwell. American colonists absorbed these ideas in the decades between the founding of the colonies and the outbreak of the War for Independence. In the meantime the colonies developed their own individual armed services in the form of militias, a holdover from local British practice. Militias fit the realities of small population size and frontier conditions of the earliest colonies. The colonial and volunteer militias protected the colonies during times of crises, particularly in early clashes with the various Native-American peoples. When the War for Independence broke out in 1775, many believed that militias would bear the brunt of the fighting, especially after the roles they played in Lexington and Concord. However the United States needed some sort of regular force to take on the British for the duration of the conflict. Thus the Continental Army was born. This was a fortunate decision on the part of Congress, while militias proved valuable at the local level, their actions were often unpredictable when faced by British regulars in the open or subjected to long campaigns. As for the Continental Navy, it consisted mostly of ships operating as raiders on British commerce. After the War for Independence, the controversy over standing armies continued and was intermixed with debates over the size, scope, and power of government. Those who favored a strong central government supported the idea of a large permanent army and navy to secure the nation’s interests abroad and protect against foreign encroachments. Those who favored a less centralized government decried the maintenance of a large military establishment. The result was a compromise between rhetoric and reality: a small, permanent standing army and navy that would be expanded as needed during times of crises. This arrangement functioned well in times of peace, but in times of war the lack of preparation and size in the regular forces often led to defeat in the opening phases of a conflict.



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Uneasiness grew in May when Henry Knox, Washington’s chief of artillery, created the Society of the Cincinnati, intended to be a fraternal organization for Continental Army officers. When the group’s existence became common knowledge, it caused a great deal of public uneasiness, exciting fears that the group’s goal was the establishment of a military aristocracy. A disturbance involving Continental soldiers was responsible for more public disquiet in June. A group of soldiers demonstrated in Philadelphia in an effort to pressure Congress to issue their back pay. This so alarmed the legislature that it temporarily An illustration depicts Continental Army soldiers, relocated to Princeton. their uniforms, and the weapons used during the late 18th century. The fact that all three incidents happened within a relatively short time of each other probably did much to reinforce the perception of a military threat to the republic. They collectively played upon fears that were part of the former colonists’ British heritage. Similar fears were held in regards to the idea of a permanent navy and the possible creation of an aristocratic admiralty similar to Britain’s. Traditional political rhetoric regarding the dangers of military establishments were not the only matters that led to the end of the Continental Army and Navy, as postwar economic retrenchment played a role. Nevertheless the new nation would have to quickly make a decision in regards to some form of military establishment and its role. Washington and others, especially Alexander Hamilton, wanted a strong army to replace the unreliable militia system, and a permanent fleet. Hamilton chaired a committee appointed by Congress in April 1783 to examine military issues. At Hamilton’s request, Washington submitted a memorandum recommending a small army of 2,631 officers and men to protect the frontier from the British in Canada, the Spanish in Florida, and the Native Americans; a revamped, nationalized militia; a military supply system; and the establishment of military academies to train officers. The committee accepted many of these ideas, although their final report reflected Hamilton’s preference for a strong, centralized government by emphasizing a standing army over a national militia. Those

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who feared both a strong government and a standing army took no comfort from the committee’s recommendations, which were rejected by Congress. As pressure mounted to open the Northwest Territory for settlement, Congress in June 1784 created the 1st American Regiment, made up of 700 militiamen raised by four states for a service of 12 months. It was renewed in 1785, although the recruits would be regulars, not militia, and the service would be extended for three years. This marked the beginning of a peacetime army; there was no peacetime navy during the Confederation period. The weakness of the Confederation government’s military establishment was soon demonstrated by Shays’s Rebellion, A print celebrates the evacuation of New York by the British on November 25, 1783. a popular uprising of indebted and overtaxed farmers in Massachusetts in 1786. Although Congress voted to more than double the size of the army, only two companies were raised, and state volunteers put down the revolt. THE FEDERALIST ERA During the Constitutional Convention, issues of military defense again became entangled in the debate over whether or not the country should adopt a strong central government or delegate more power to the states. The outcome represented a compromise. An army and navy were established on paper, although nothing concrete was said about their nature. Congress would have the power to declare war and to raise and finance an army and navy, but the president would be their commander-in-chief. The states retained their militias, regulated by rules provided by Congress, but could not form their own regular units or build their own warships. A militia act was not passed until 1792. It did not provide any national standards and left the issue of regulation up to the individual states. It also limited the circumstances in which the president could call the militia into national service. As tensions over settlement grew between the Native-American peoples in



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The decision to limit the size of the army during the era between the end of the American Revolution and the outbreak of the Civil War proved a dilemma: how to quickly raise troops for national emergencies. State militias were often considered unreliable, due to their checkered service during the War for Independence. Furthermore the Militia Act of 1792 failed to provide reform or create a set of national standards, which would be useful in the event of a crisis. Furthermore, in an era before conscription, the sort of large scale mobilization associated with modern armies at or prior to the outbreak of war was not an option. Instead the government relied on the concept of raising volunteer companies to temporarily expand the army. Volunteer companies were themselves an extension of the militia system, although they tended to be somewhat more elitist in nature. During peacetime, they flourished in states where the militia system was moribund, and thus their memberships with local militia companies tended to overlap. Volunteer companies were organized, paid, and equipped either by the members themselves, or by a wealthy local individual who usually (and not so coincidentally) was elected its captain. During wartime, such companies might volunteer for national service, while new ones were organized specifically for the crisis. They were generally expected to serve for a set period of time, such as six months, or for the duration of the conflict, at which time they would either disband or go back to the prewar status. Volunteer companies were thus a fixture of the American military experience from the beginning. As conflict with the Native Americans of the Northwest Territory increased in 1790, elements of the militia were called up and additional troops were raised, including an organization of 2,000 six-month volunteers. During the crisis between the United States and France in the same decade, Congress authorized the creation of a volunteer corps for the duration of the conflict. However as full-scale war never broke out, it remained largely on paper, with only a few companies organized. Volunteers were used widely in the Mexican War, however, and made up the bulk of the American armies that fought in that conflict. The raising of volunteer companies was useful, however, it presented problems. In the case of companies raised specifically for a crisis, the troops had to be quickly trained and disciplined, and that often proved difficult. Theoretically, volunteer companies with an independent existence might prove of a better quality, since they should have some experience with the rudiments of drill. However that virtue varied widely. The muster and drill of independent volunteer companies during peacetime were often no better than that of their militia counterparts: social events for the community. Despite these problems, the use of volunteer units served the purpose of quickly creating a military force to deal with a conflict.

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the Northwest Territory and the United States, Congress moved to expand the army. Although the Washington administration favored negotiation, by 1790 the political pressures to use military force were growing. The first two expeditions were embarrassing failures. Negotiations were resumed while a new army was created. Dubbed the Legion of the United States, it was commanded by colorful Revolutionary War veteran “Mad” Anthony Wayne. Hostilities resumed



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after evidence emerged that Britain was providing support and encouragement to the Native Americans. Wayne decisively defeated the Native Americans at Fallen Timbers in August 1794. A different problem now loomed on the domestic front. Resentment towards an excise tax on whiskey led to the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania. The Washington administration called out militia forces from four states to deal with the crisis, as the regulars were still tied up in the northwest. The rebellion fell apart as the militiamen approached. The lack of a navy also emerged as a problem. The Barbary state of Algiers in northern Africa preyed upon American maritime commerce in the Mediterranean. In order to deal with this problem, Congress created the U.S. Navy in 1794. It would consist of a small, six-frigate fleet, with construction conditional on peace. Although a peace treaty was signed in 1796, a decision was made to complete three of the ships. By now, war had erupted in Europe between revolutionary France and a variety of enemies, including Britain. The United States found itself caught in the middle. Domestic politics intruded. The Federalists (including Washington, John Adams, and Hamilton) favored a healthy trade with Britain, while the Republicans (led by Thomas Jefferson) emphasized France’s assistance during the War of Independence. Both British and French naval vessels interfered with neutral American shipping to their rivals. In 1798 and 1799, during the Adams administration, a growing fear of war prompted the passage of a number laws designed to increase the country’s military strength, all accompanied by heated debate over the potential

The ruins of the U.S. Capitol following British attempts to burn the building, with fire damage to the Senate and House wings, and damaged colonnade in the House of Representatives.

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A print depicting the British frigate Guerriere, with her masts broken, being captured by the USS Constitution during the War of 1812.

danger the new units might pose to democracy. In effect, four new armies were created to join the old Legion of the United States, consisting of both volunteer and regular forces; two of them remained only on paper and the other two were only partially organized. Congress also authorized the construction of six more vessels before a negotiated settlement was reached with France. THE JEFFERSONIAN ERA AND THE WAR OF 1812 When Jefferson assumed office as president in 1801, there were concerns among supporters of the military that he would gut the armed services in line with Republican rhetoric against the dangers of standing armies and navies. Jefferson’s pragmatic side, however, prevented him from taking any such action as far as the army was concerned, although the navy was reduced to 13 ships. In March 1802 Congress passed the Military Establishment Act, which reduced the army from its on-paper strength to one approximating its real size. The same bill also established the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to educate future officers for service. Under Jefferson the government began using the army for western exploration and surveying, a practice that expanded in earnest after the War of 1812. The most famous expedition during this period was that of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark from 1804 to 1806 to explore the vast territory of the Louisiana Purchase, recently acquired from France.



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Jefferson soon had cause to regret his downsizing of the Navy, as trouble erupted with the Barbary state of Tripoli. Between 1801 and 1805, four separate naval squadrons went to the Mediterranean to deal with the problem. The successful use of gunboats in these operations led to the creation of a gunboat fleet to protect the coasts of the United States from attack. Unfortunately they were not what was needed to deal with the more serious threat posed by the resumption of French and British predations on U.S. shipping. The British actions were

Life in the Navy

Between 1783 and 1859 the U.S. Navy expanded from coastal defense in the Jeffersonian era to fighting Great Britain and Mexico and opening and protecting commercial routes around the globe. The growing need for naval officers prompted the founding of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1845 to train future leaders of the Navy and Marine Corps. While the role of the Navy changed, many aspects of life aboard ship remained constant for sailors. The crew areas of the wooden sailing ships of this period were dark, damp, cramped, and subject to disease. The fresh water that ships carried often went bad, forcing crews to haul in water from nearby rivers; sailors couldn’t drink it until dirt and other sediments had settled out. Commanders tried to ensure good ventilation below decks, but the air was frequently miasmatic. As such, diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and various fevers plagued crews. Vigorous work above decks and shore leave when possible helped, but the latter frequently caused a rise in prostitution wherever a ship was on station. Syphilis also flourished. Men had only two changes of clothes, four pairs of shoes, two hats, a Pea jacket (which had to last two years), a mattress, hammock, and two blankets. Officers encouraged them to wash two or three times a week in the tin bathtubs provided, and they were to change their linens frequently. Diets were based around rations of salt pork and salt beef, rice, and flour (which often became infested with weevils). Other rations included butter, sugar, vinegar, and spirits. Sailors understood vegetables and fruits combated scurvy, and they took them aboard whenever possible. They also fished to supplement their meat rations. Punishments for shipboard infractions were often severe, with flogging by a cat-o’-nine-tails frequently administered. The man to receive punishment was stripped naked to the waist and lashed to a steady object such as a cannon. The sentence for an offense such as drunkenness was 12 lashes, but actual lashes frequently exceeded the number prescribed. Sailors could expect a modicum of medical attention if they were sick or injured, although it was administered by a specified crewmember if no surgeon or surgeon’s mate was available. Space for the infirmed was simply taken from the already close quarters below decks. The Navy used no hospital ships until the Civil War.

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Life in the Army

Change was certainly a factor of Army life between the end of the War for Independence and the outbreak of the Civil War. Army size expanded and contracted; new tactics and technology were adopted. An important development was the founding of the U.S. Miltary Academy at West Point, New York in 1802 to provide leaders of character to the Army and nation. There were also certain constants in Army life. Income was not surprisingly a problem in a profession that was chronically underfunded by the government. Officers’ pay, for example, was much less than that of a civil servant. During the early days of the republic, some sought pay for enlisted men, including recruitment bounties, which fluctuated up and down, but was usually low. As the armies provided for the soldiers’ necessities, they could at least keep their pay, regardless of how small that was. Nevertheless army life for an enlisted man was a steady-enough means of support when compared to the uncertainties of the labor market. For that reason, many of the recruits came from the lower classes, especially out-of-work laborers and immigrants. By the 1840s the Army had become a white institution. Despite the service of African Americans in both the War for Independence and the War of 1812, the racial caste system that pervaded the nation made them unwelcome in the service. Following the War for Independence, especially when the Army was small, recruiters often were less than scrupulous in regards to those who they admitted, even gathering up criminals from jail to fill up their quotas. By the 1850s recruiters had become more selective, seeking to weed out potential troublemakers before they got into the ranks. Recruits were increasingly checked to determine if they were in good health. Disease was always a major killer in wartime or peacetime. Discipline was harsh. Before the War of 1812, the army used a variety of punishments that were carryovers from the European armies of the period, such as execution by firing squad, hanging, flogging, branding, and running the gauntlet. Some of these were dropped over time, such as flogging, which was abolished in 1812. The opportunity to form families was difficult for both officers and enlisted men. This did not stop posts from holding social events, such as dances, to promote what interaction the locale offered. In the case of officers, courtship was often difficult not only due to the absence of “society,” but due to the opposition they faced from their prospective in-laws unwilling to let their daughters marry into such an isolated and low-paying life. Nevertheless marriages did occur, and both officers and enlisted men sometimes had their families with them. Sometimes, though, the isolation of frontier posts was too much among both enlisted men and officers, especially those without families, and they succumbed to vices such as drinking and gambling to relieve the tedium. Army life between the 1780s and the 1850s was thus a grueling, monotonous experience, only occasionally broken by actual warfare, which was a nightmare of a different sort.



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A print of Oliver Hazard Perry standing on the front of a small boat after abandoning his flagship, the Lawrence, during the 1813 Battle of Lake Erie.

considered particularly grievous to not only American commerce, but also to American pride and dignity, as in addition to the capture of hundreds of ships, many seamen were pressed into service with the Royal Navy. The government responded with several measures to increase the size of the army, properly equip the militia, and strengthen the nation’s coastal fortifications. When diplomacy failed, Jefferson persuaded Congress to pass an Embargo Act, halting all exports to the warring powers in an effort to force respect for American neutrality. It accomplished nothing beyond setting off a domestic crisis, as the Federalist-dominated New England states, whose economies were affected the most adversely, angrily protested. In an ironic situation, the classical Federalist and Republican positions on the threat of a standing army were reversed, as Jefferson sent in regular and militia forces to enforce the law. Further troubles loomed on the frontier. A Shawnee chief named Tecumseh revived the Native American alliance in the northwest. Although defeated at the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, the confirmation that the Native Americans had received weapons from the British in Canada further inflamed tensions. In 1812 full-scale war erupted between Britain and the United States, pushed on the American side by a strong group of nationalists dubbed the War Hawks. Neither country was ready for war: the United States did not have a large enough military force to cope with a major struggle, while Britain was tied up with the Napoleonic Wars.



the early national Period and expansion

Along the United States-Canadian border, a seesaw series of campaigns were waged in 1812 and 1813, with neither side gaining advantage. American efforts to invade Canada ended in failure, although the U.S. Navy won a significant victory in September 1813 on Lake Erie. On the seas, U.S. vessels scored some victories in individual encounters, while privateers inflicted a toll on British shipping. Nevertheless the British captured many American ships and instituted a blockade that by the end of the 1813 covered the entire coastline except New England, known to be unenthusiastic over the conflict. The blockade was very damaging to the American economy. By 1814 the United States was in a major financial crisis, with the government unable to meet its various obligations at home or abroad. Soldiers and sailors were not paid, and the supply system was breaking down without the financial support to keep it working. Raids were launched along the seaboard, especially in the Chesapeake Bay area, where several towns were burned. British raiders were often assisted by runaway slaves, anxious to find freedom by assisting the foes of their masters. Slaves were also recruited for military service, raising alarm bells among white southerners. The first fall of Napoleon in 1814 meant Britain could finally turn full attention to the war in America. Eastern Maine was occupied in September. In the Chesapeake Bay region, a British victory on August 24 at Bladensburg, Maryland, led to the occupation of Washington, D.C. on the same day. The British burned several public buildings, including the White House and the Capitol, before withdrawing the next day. In September a joint British army and naval expedition moved against Baltimore. It was turned back at Fort McHenry on September 13 and 14, the incident which inspired the compoOne of the “coffin hand bills” originated in a sition of the words for the “Starcampaign against presidential candidate Andrew Jackson. The six coffins across the top of the Spangled Banner” by eyewitness broadside represent six militiamen executed under Francis Scott Key. Jackson’s orders during the Creek War in 1813. Other In the southwest, the Red coffins represent soldiers and Native Americans Sticks, a Creek Indian faction inallegedly condemned and executed by Jackson.



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British forces assembled off Florida, while Andrew Jackson assembled a force to defend the city, including regulars, militia, and a band of local pirates at the Battle of New Orleans.

spired by Tecumseh, took advantage of the war to launch raids on white settlements in what became known as the First Creek War. Although not allied with the British, the Red Sticks received some assistance from the Spanish in Florida. In 1813 the Red Sticks captured Fort Mims in the Mississippi Territory, killing much of the garrison and the civilians who had taken refuge in it. In March 1814 a force of militia and Native Americans under Andrew Jackson decisively defeated the Creek at Horseshoe Bend on the Tallapoosa River. In August British troops occupied Pensacola, Florida, with the approval of Spain, and in September unsuccessfully tried to take Mobile. Jackson, now commander of American forces along the Gulf of Mexico, captured Pensacola with a mixed force of regulars, militia, and Native Americans. The accumulated military disasters and economic hardships were too much for some, especially in New England, where opposition led to a convention at Hartford, Connecticut, from December 15, 1814 through January 5, 1815. Rumors of New England secession surrounded the convention, and in truth some radicals advocated that course. Instead the convention proposed a number of constitutional amendments, including one requiring a two-thirds congressional majority for a declaration of war. None of the proposals passed in Congress.



the early national Period and expansion

A peace treaty was agreed upon on December 24, 1814. The Treaty of Ghent did not solve any of the issues that led to the conflict; instead things were restored to the prewar status quo. Due to the time it took for the news to be carried across the Atlantic, the treaty failed to prevent one last battle. The same month that the treaty was signed, British forces assembled off Florida for a campaign against New Orleans. Jackson assembled a force to defend the city, including regulars, militia, and a band of local pirates. Jackson’s recruitment of free African Americans into the regular Army, and his acceptance into service of a unit drawn mainly from Santo Domingo refugees, led to a protest from the governor of Louisiana, which Jackson ignored. Fighting erupted on December 23, December 28, January 1, and January 8. The most serious engagement was the last, in which a British assault on Jackson’s defensive line was repulsed with heavy losses. It was perhaps the greatest irony of the war that America’s most famous victory was won after peace was declared. Nevertheless for much of the 19th century, Americans, particularly in the south, celebrated January 8 in memory of the battle. The War of 1812 was in many ways a needless conflict, and the economic cost for the nation was immense. It was also a fruitless victory in regards to the nations involved, as neither side achieved complete victory or won any permanent concessions. The big losers, besides the casualties and those who suffered property loss, were the Native Americans. In both the southwest and the northwest, their efforts to use the conflict to weaken or halt American expansion ended in defeat. the era oF good FeelIngS to the eVe oF the cIVIl War Following the War of 1812 the armed services underwent a brief period of peacetime expansion. Efforts were made to improve logistical support, and to establish a regular chain of command to insure wartime cooperation. Even in the Era of Good Feelings, however, resistance to change hampered efforts at reform. The Panic of 1819 caused a shift to financial conservatism on the part of the government. Congress cut the size of the Army, and the pace of naval construction slowed. Nevertheless professionalA portrait of Andrew Jackson in uniform as he ism among army officers increased fought with the Tennessee forces in 1814.



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Powder magazine kegs for cannons and muskets dating from 1834–39 in Fort Moultrie, built on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, in 1809. It was the third fort built on the site and remains today.

due to the growing influence of West Point, and the establishment of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1845, provided a similar role for the training of naval officers. Army exploration of the west expanded. There were no major conflicts with foreign powers, although there were some minor wars, including a final clash with Algiers in 1815. Clashes with the Native-American nations grew as settlement patterns continued westward. Jackson launched the First Seminole War in 1817 when he led troops into Florida to punish Native-American raiders and recapture runaway slaves; among other dubious accomplishments was his deposition of the Spanish colony’s governor, which led to the cession of Florida to the United States by treaty in 1821. After Jackson became president, the Army was used to enforce his administration’s Native-American removal policy, passed into law in 1830. These removals were driven by land speculators and would-be settlers anxious to open up NativeAmerican territories in both the southwest and the northwest for various commercial purposes. The Native Americans were settled further west beyond the Mississippi River. The main removals took place between 1830 and 1842. The most notorious of these removals was the Trail of Tears in 1838, involving the Cherokees. Many died on the journey. Violent resistance to the removals was limited, with the Second Seminole War (1835–42) the largest case. Tensions between the United States and Mexico over the annexation of the Republic of Texas, where settlers from the United States had declared their independence from Mexico in 1836, led to the outbreak of war in 1846. The

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A Currier & Ives print features the landing of the American forces under General Winfield Scott at Vera Cruz, Mexico, March 9, 1847.

hostilities began in April, when American forces under Zachary Taylor clashed with Mexican troops south of the Neuces River, the traditional Mexico-Texas border. Texas and the United States asserted that the real boundary was further south, along the Rio Grande. Congress passed a declaration of war on May 13, four days after Taylor won a victory at Resaca de la Palma. As in the War of 1812, the United States was not ready for war. President James K. Polk decided to rely primarily upon volunteer units raised for either 12 months or the duration of the conflict. As the volunteers were organized and trained, fighting continued. American settlers in California, aided by a U.S. Army surveying party, revolted in June and declared an independent republic. A U.S. naval squadron arrived in the following month and formally annexed the territory to the United States. A column of regulars and volunteers moved into New Mexico and took Santa Fe, then moved into California to help quell a Mexican counter-revolution. During the next months, Taylor and two other commanders led three columns deep into northern Mexico, capturing several towns. The primary invasion force would come from a different direction, however, as a small army under Winfield Scott was landed by the Navy on the eastern coast of Mexico near Vera Cruz in February 1847. Following a march inland and several battles, the Americans occupied Mexico City on the night of September 13–14. A peace treaty was signed in February, establishing the Rio Grande as the U.S.-Mexican border and recognizing the American takeover of California and New Mexico.



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While many proponents of Manifest Destiny were jubilant about the outcome, others were not. Some felt that the gain of such territory by conquest rather than negotiation marked an ominous turning away from the ideals of the founders. The conflict also exacerbated tensions in the growing sectional crisis over slavery, as many opponents were concerned with the enthusiasm among southerners for the acquisition of additional territory, and viewed it as an opportunity to create more slave-holding states, a fear not without justification. The war also brought a new set of Native-American troubles, as many Native-American nations lived in the region and would inevitably resent the intrusions that an influx of settlers would bring. During the 1850s the United

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States consolidated its gains in the new territories. New frontier posts were established to provide military coverage in the area in the event of NativeAmerican troubles. The United States also flexed its muscles abroad, including a naval expedition to Japan in 1853 and 1854 that let to the opening of two ports to American merchants. Within the nation itself, tensions over slavery led to a disturbing outbreak of paramilitary violence in Kansas in 1855 and lasted for the next several years. In 1859 the nation was rocked when one veteran of the Kansas conflict, abolitionist John Brown, led a band to seize the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (modern-day West Virginia). Brown’s goal was to seize weapons for use in what he hoped would be a massive slave uprising in the south. The revolt was put down by a combination of Virginia militia and U.S. Marines under the overall command of Colonel Robert E. Lee. The stage was set for a wider conflict that would divide the nation and recast it along very different lines. Michael W. Coffey

Further Readings

Beach, Edward L. The United States Navy: 200 Years. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1986. Coffman, Edward M. The Old Army: A Portrait of the American Army in Peacetime, 1794–1898. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. Franklin, John Hope. The Militant South 1800–1860. Cambridge, MA: Beacon Press, 1970. Kohn, Richard K. Eagle and Sword: The Federalists and the Creation of the Military Establishment in America, 1783–1802. New York: The Free Press, 1975. McCaffrey, James M. Army of Manifest Destiny: The American Soldier in the Mexican War, 1846–1848. The American Social Experience Series. New York: New York University Press, 1992. Millett, Allan R. and Peter Maslowski. For the Common Defense: A Military History of the United States of America. New York: The Free Press, 1994. Hickey, Donald R. The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1990. Symonds, Craig L. Navalists and Antinavalists: The Naval Policy Debate in the United States, 1785–1827. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1980. Wallace, Anthony F.C. The Long, Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians. New York: Hill & Wang, 1993.

Chapter 14

Population Trends and Migration

“Go West, young man, and grow up with the country.” — Horace Greeley, 1811–72

the best way to describe the population trend in the United States between

1783 and 1859 is dramatic increase. The three major groups of people were Native Americans, who alone saw a tragic decrease in their population, African Americans, and white Americans. Both of the latter groups made up the increase. This increase came about through a birthrate that was high by standards of the Western world, though it gradually declined 1783–1859. A large portion of the increase also came about due to intense immigration to the United States. As immigration began in earnest, there was also an increase in diversity. Not only did the population increase, but also the size of the country itself. The country expanded from 13 colonies on the East Coast all the way to the Pacific Coast. During this time the permanent boundaries of the country were largely determined and there was a slow, but steady migration westward. When Europeans first came to North America, it is estimated that there were about two million Native Americans north of Mexico. By 1890 the census put that population at 248,253. In addition, the Native-American population was originally scattered all across the continent. But by the 1830s a good deal of the population was living in the Oklahoma Territory 191

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and certainly most of it was west of the Mississippi or on reservations. Historians have divided up the country into seven original Native-American geographic population regions: the Artic Coast, Pacific Northwest, Great Basin and California (the most highly populated), Southwest, Plains, Southeast, and Eastern Woodlands. Each region contained many different tribes. While there is no accurate count of the tribes during this period, there are currently 561 recognized tribes in the United States. Note that the terms “tribe” and “nation” are interchangeable, though some groups, like the Cherokee, prefer “nation.” By 1860 these original regions were severely disrupted through forced migrations. TRIBAL SIMILARITIES The reality of the seven different regions points out that there was great diversity in the Native-American population, with over 300 different languages and many cultural differences. Despite the diversity, some generalizations about Native Americans as a whole can be made. Obviously the decline in numbers affected all of the tribes. Part of the decline came from the introduction of various European diseases into the population, in particular, smallpox, measles, and malaria. These decimated some tribes. No accurate statistics exist on the death toll, but some experts estimate the death rate at 25 to 50 percent of the population. For example half of the Cayuse tribe in the Oregon Territory was killed



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by measles in 1847. This is not to say that Native Americans were free from diseases prior to Columbus. Evidence suggests that Native Americans suffered from a number of degenerative and infectious diseases, possibly including a form of syphilis. In fact, the pre-Columbian life expectancy was probably about 20 years, with a high infant mortality rate. The loss in numbers also came from inter-tribal warfare and from battles for and against European powers and the United States itself. Losses through armed conflicts are estimated at about 10 percent of the population. Various forced migrations also weakened and killed many Native Americans. Adding to the decrease is the fact that most tribes shared a trend for small family sizes. The fact that Native American women nursed their children for two or more years often worked as a natural birth control. The Native Americans universally lost land as the United States pushed westward, and their numbers dwindled. FORCED MIGRATIONS The Treaty of Paris (1783) ceded to the United States the territories of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, as well as lands that would soon be called the Northwest Territory, including what are today Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and a portion of Minnesota, thus doubling the size of the country. But the treaty did not negate tribal land claims within these territories. The American approach to this was to broker treaties with tribes through which the Native Americans would either sell or cede the land to the United States.

A print titled “Dance of the Indians at the Mission of San José in New California.” When Europeans came to North America, there were an estimated two million Native Americans north of Mexico.

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The Trail of Tears

Nunna daul Tsuny is Cherokee for “trail where they cried.” This is the source for the phrase Trail of Tears, signifying the forced migration of Native Americans from the eastern half of the country after the Indian Removal Act of 1830, especially as it refers to the plight of the Cherokee Nation. But for many it also applies to all of the tribes—both in the south and the north— who suffered under the law promoted by Andrew Jackson. The law gave negotiators the right to trade money and land in the west for eastern land held by the tribes. These tribes included the Five Civilized Tribes: the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Cherokee, and Seminole; as well as more northern tribes like the Shawnee, Potawatomi, Sac, Fox, Miami, and Kickapoo. Between 1831 and 1834, 13,000 Choctaw set out—mostly on foot—for Arkansas and Oklahoma. 4,000 of them died along the way. In 1836 15,000 Creeks emigrated, and 3,500 of them died. One of the most resistant of the tribes was the Cherokee. They even fought the removal in the Supreme Court, but the Army forced them to leave in 1838. There are many recorded details for the Cherokee migration. Some 7,000 federal troops took the 16,000 Cherokees who had not yet migrated and forced them on an 800-mile walk to Oklahoma. 600 wagons were provided for the sick and the old, but 4,000 died. The last holdouts were the Seminole. They kept fighting until 1857 when most of the remaining Seminoles were finally paid to migrate to Oklahoma.

In 1784 the Iroquois, because they had sided with the British during the Revolution, were forced to sign the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in which they ceded their lands in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky. But there were other tribes who laid claim to the Ohio Territory besides the Iroquois. Some of them would soon clash with the Americans. The land south of the Ohio River had already been in the process of settlement, but this was not the case with the Northwest Territory. Resistance to white migration there would be fierce. The Land Ordinance of 1785 set the stage for the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and the eventual settling of the Northwest Territory by the Americans. Settlement began in Ohio. To pave the way, a number of treaties were signed with various chiefs and tribes other than the Iroquois: the Treaty of Fort McIntosh (1785), Treaty of Fort Finney (1786), and Treaty of Fort Harmar (1789). In all of these treaties, tribes sold their land. Nevertheless not all of the Native Americans agreed with these treaties and violent resistance ensued. The



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most important resistance was by the Miami Chief Little Turtle. Aided by the British, Little Turtle routed the American Army (sent to enforce the peace on the frontier) at the battle known as St. Clair’s Defeat (1791). In a three-hour battle, the Americans lost 632 soldiers. But the tables were turned at the Battle of Fallen Timbers (1794) where the Americans, led by General Anthony Wayne (whom the Native Americans called “the whirlwind”) defeated them. They were forced, through defeat, to sign the Treaty of Greenville (1795), in which they ceded all of northwest Ohio to the Americans. There was an important chief, however, who refused to sign: Tecumseh. TREATIES, LAWS, AND native-american LAND Two major developments between 1795 and the War of 1812 shaped the relationship between the advancing European American settlements and the Native Americans. First the governors of the territories continued to make treaties that bought Native-American land. Second, Tecumseh tried hard to put together a coalition of Native-American nations to stop the whites. All of this came to naught during the War of 1812 when Tecumseh, fighting with the British, was killed. Still Tecumseh’s attempts had some effect south of the Ohio River until Andrew Jackson was triumphant during the Creek Wars (1813–14). In their treaty, the government required the Creeks to give up 22 million acres of land. Jackson then negotiated with a number of the southern tribes gaining land in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, and North Carolina. There were also three wars with the Seminole Indians in Florida in which they lost most of their land. Serious resistance in the Northwest Territory would only appear one more time in what is known as the Black Hawk War in 1832 when Chief Black Hawk unsuccessfully challenged a land treaty he had signed in 1816. The most profound event of the forced migrations of Native Americans came in the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Signed into law by Andrew Jackson, this forced thousands of Native Americans to migrate west of the Mississippi, nearly emptying the entire eastern portion of the country of Native Americans and negating all previous treaties and creating what has become known as the Trail of Tears. WHITE AMERICANS The first federal census, taken in 1790, put the white population of the United States at 3,172,006 (the census excluded female children and those in the Northwest Territory). The 1860 census put this population at 26,922,537— almost nine times larger. This increase came about through a high fertility rate and immigration. In addition this was a growing and expanding country. In fact the United States grew from the original 13 colonies to nearly its present size (with the exception

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The Census

The American census was mandated in the Constitution in 1787 (Article 1, Section 2). Its purpose was to determine the population of the country in order to properly determine the proportion of representation in the U.S. Congress and to determine the amount of money each state would pay to help defray the cost of the Revolutionary War. The federal government was to manage the census and to do it every 10 years. The first census was taken in 1790. This makes it the second oldest census in the Western world; with only Sweden being older (its census began in 1749). Next in order came Spain (in 1798), and then France and England, both in 1801. The first census counted the number of free white males 16 and older as well as white males under 16 (to see who might be eligible for the military), the number of free white females, all other free persons (including Native Americans who paid taxes), and slaves. It also listed the name of the head of the household. It took a year and a half to complete this first census and the counting was done by U.S. Marshals and their assistants. They had to furnish their own paper and were required to post the results in public places so people could inspect the results. Between 1800 and 1860 they also began to enumerate the state of manufacturing, agriculture, mining, and fishing and to quantify social issues such as taxation, churches, pauperism, and crime. The purpose—beyond simply counting people—was to determine what was happening in the economy, the social life of the populace, and from the numbers obtained, to help business and government to plan the future. Over the years the goal of determining the population has remained. But as the complexity of the economy and the social structure increased, so has the complexity of the questions and the topics analyzed. The advance of technology and the mathematics of sampling have made it possible to deal with the complexity and the huge increases in population and to make it possible to do the analysis and counting in a quicker, more accurate way.

of Alaska, Hawaii, and islands in the Pacific and Caribbean) 1783 and 1859. As a result a portion of the population gradually migrated westward. FERTILITY RATE AND IMMIGRATION Compared to Europe, the U.S. fertility rate for white families was very high during this period, even though it continually decreased from 1800 onward. In 1800 the average family size was a little over seven children. By 1860 it was 5.2 children. About 25 percent of the population increase came from immigrants. The



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first law concerning immigration was passed in 1790. Very liberal in nature, it allowed for the immigration of free whites and for their citizenship after residing in a state for one year and in the United States for two years. There were no restraints on numbers allowed in the country. In 1802 a new law made it necessary to live in the country for a total of five years to gain citizenship. Unfortunately there was no record of immigration kept until 1820 (after an 1819 law required it) and detailed records were not kept until 1830. The first major impetus for this immigration was the Napoleonic Wars, as Europeans, suffering from the ravages of war, sought new beginnings. Also the potato famine in Ireland brought many immigrants. In 1847 for example, 37,000 Irish Catholics arrived in Boston and 52,000 came to New York City. In the same year 53,000 Germans also immigrated to the United States. Between 1831 and 1835 the immigration level was averaging 50,000 a year. And between 1846 and 1850 the level was averaging 250,000 a year. Not all of these immigrants stayed on the eastern seaboard. Estimates are that prior to 1860, 15 percent of the population on the western frontier were new immigrants. The first expansion was a result of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, doubling the size of the country. Then in 1803 France sold its American territory in what is known

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as the Louisiana Purchase. The price was $15 million dollars, or roughly $.03 an acre. This again doubled the size of the United States and added what would eventually become the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, South Dakota; and parts of what would become the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota. Then in 1819 Spain ceded Florida, including the southernmost parts of Alabama and Mississippi, to the United States, though they didn’t officially hand it over until 1821. But even before this, Americans, including some escaped slaves, were living there. In 1818 the British and Americans signed a treaty that, among other things, set the boundary between the United States and Canada at the 49th parallel, thus gaining some land for the United States on its northern border. The treaty also temporarily put off a dispute about what would come to be known as the Oregon Territory. This was a comparatively small addition, but in 1845 the United States created the Texas Territory. This had begun with Moses Austin and then his son, Stephen Austin, in 1821. They had petitioned for, and were at first granted, land in territory owned by Mexico. Due primarily to the instability of the Mexican government, their claims had a rocky history. In 1830 Mexico banned any further immigration by Americans into the territory. By then it is estimated that there were between 16,000 and 20,000 Americans in what would become

Emigrants crossing the plains in a 19th-century engraving. Until the 1840s the American west was considered to be nothing but desert and not of much interest to anyone but mountain men.



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The Lewis and Clark Expedition was one of the greatest acts of exploration in the history of the United States. Difficult, dangerous, but highly productive, it would facilitate the eventual U.S. expansion to the Pacific Coast. It was initiated by President Thomas Jefferson primarily Meriwether Lewis, left, and William Clark, right, explorers of the northwestern United States. to find a river passage across the continent, one more attempt at finding the elusive Northwest Passage. Jefferson chose his personal secretary, Meriwether Lewis (1774–1809), to head the expedition. A former Army captain and a Virginian (as was Jefferson), Lewis was a veteran of the frontier Army, as well as a paymaster for the First Infantry Regiment. He was an expert outdoorsman, had learned about plants, and served as naturalist on the trek. Lewis and Jefferson appointed Lewis’s friend from the military, William Clark (1770–1838), as co-captain of the expedition. It was one of Clark’s main duties to map what was totally unknown territory. His maps were crucial for the migration west that would begin in earnest in the 1840s. In addition to the scientific observations and map making, the expedition was to test the possibility of instituting a fur trade in the territory and to communicate a friendly outlook to the Native Americans, especially to those who had not been informed of the Louisiana Purchase, which had occurred just before their journey began. The expedition included 33 permanent members. Some of the most memorable members of the expedition were York, Clark’s slave and lifelong companion; Toussaint Charbonneau, a French Canadian fur trader who would help to translate; Sacagawea, a Native American and an important translator and emissary to the Shoshone tribe; and her son—born during the journey—Jean Batiste Charbonneau. Sacagawea had been captured by the Hidasta tribe and sold to Charbonneau. All of the members, including York and Sacagawea, were treated as equals on the expedition and given full vote when important decisions were made. The journey was difficult and long. Officially the expedition began on May 14, 1804, and ended on September 23, 1806. Among other things, the party endured terrible winter weather, dangerous river rapids, difficult portaging, sand storms, and walking for days through the Rocky Mountains. Only one person from the expedition died, Charles Floyd, and he of what was probably a burst appendix. Their mostly safe passage demonstrated great leadership on the part of Lewis and Clark, and great teamwork, courage, and stamina from the expedition.

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An 1857 illustration from Harper’s Weekly titled “Mining Life in California—Chinese Miners.” The 1852 census counted 3,396 Chinese in Nevada County, California.

the Texas Territory. Then in 1833 the American residents voted to become independent from Mexico. Stephen Austin was sent to Mexico City to petition for independence and he was arrested. This led to a revolution in Mexico. In 1836 the Texans were able to defeat the Mexican general Santa Anna, and they formally declared themselves an independent country, the Republic of Texas. In 1837 they proposed to be annexed by the United States, but were turned down—due to fears of war with Mexico—until 1845 when the territory was formally annexed and admitted as a state. The territory added to the United States (besides the current state of Texas) also included parts of what would become New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming. After the annexation Mexico went to war with the United States. Between 1846 and 1848 the Mexican-American War was fought with the Americans triumphant. As a result of the American victory, Mexico ceded (in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848) Texas, California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona. Further land was purchased from Mexico in 1853 in the Gadsden Purchase, adding more land to Arizona and New Mexico along the current southern border with Mexico. A very important part of the land jigsaw puzzle of America came in 1846 when the dispute over the Oregon Territory was finally settled with Britain. After negotiations and posturing on both sides were finished, the northern



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boundary was finally set at the 49th parallel, thus unambiguously giving the United States the Oregon Territory. This included Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and parts of Montana and Wyoming. Now this huge tract of land only needed to be settled. MIGRATION OR WESTWARD HO! Even before the Revolution people had been crossing the Appalachian Mountains and moving westward (there were about a half million people living there in 1803), despite the fact that there were only four roads that would have passed through the mountains. But after all of the above acquisitions, and after word spread about the new country, a great many more Americans began to move westward. Until the 1840s the American west was considered nothing but desert and not of much interest to anyone but mountain men. But people like John Fremont, along with Kit Carson, began exploring the possible routes to California and the Oregon Territory. His expeditions made maps and his report, written by his wife Jesse Benton Fremont, made the trek popular. Others like Francis Parkman would also write romantically about the migration west. His book, The California and Oregon Trail, was published in 1849. Though there would be many separate trails, the main trail (often called the Oregon-California Trail, or separately as the Oregon Trail and the Overland Trail) began in Missouri and diverged in Idaho—going north to the Oregon Territory and south to northern California. The Mormons also turned south there, but their destination was Salt Lake City, Utah. Two economic events especially spurred on the migration: the discovery of gold in California in 1848, and in Colorado in 1858. But there were also groups of religious people, including Catholics and Methodists, who made the journey for missionary reasons. Whatever the motivation, it was a difficult trip of nearly 2,000 miles taking anywhere from four to six months. Migrants traveled in wagon trains of covered farmers wagons for safety, often using the Pennsylvania-manufactured Conestoga wagon. Adding to the hardship, a cholera epidemic along the trail broke out in 1849 and persisted until 1853. Despite this it is estimated that between 1841 and 1866 (when the railroad appeared) anywhere from 250,000 to 650,000 people migrated west. The exact numbers are unknown. Whatever the total, about a third went to the Oregon Territory, a third to California, and a third to Utah, Colorado, and Montana. MIGRATION FROM RURAL TO URBAN There was a dual migration going on during this period, not just from the east to the west, but also from rural lands to city. On the eastern seaboard, the population was moving more and more into urban centers. Estimates give the population density in the original 13 colonies in 1790 to be nine people

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The Underground Railroad

The Underground Railroad was a loose-knit organization of people who attempted to transport slaves to freedom. The name supposedly originated in 1831 from what a white slave owner said when the African American he was trying to recapture disappeared as if going onto an underground road. Soon the term generated a whole vocabulary of metaphorical allusions to railroads in the escape process: there was a “conductor,” who helped to facilitate the escape; there were “stations,” places where the fleeing slave could hide; and there were “passengers,” those who were traveling to freedom. For the most part the Underground Railroad was an informal, loosely organized phenomenon. Slaves escaping north, either individually, or guided by a conductor, would stop at safe house, or station overnight, where a sympathetic African American or anti-slavery white family would hide them for a day or two. Then they would be sent on their way north, usually on foot or in a transport wagon, to another known safe house some miles away. Frequently the “station masters” or owners of a safe house only knew a few contacts north and south of their own location. By this process, the fugitives would find their way into upstate New York, New England, or into Canada. Estimates of the total number escaping to Canada were greatly exaggerated both by antislavery and pro-slavery writers, for quite opposite reasons. Even so, the total escaping to Canada between the mid 1830s and 1860 may have exceeded 50,000. Since fugitives almost always evaded census takers, it is unknown how many settled in the northern states, but it may have been a similar number. In addition smaller numbers fled to Mexico and to the Caribbean. Many people helped anonymously (especially Quakers and abolitionists), but there are some known heroes. Levi and Catherine Coffin were Quakers who lived in Newport, Indiana. They lived there for 20 years and helped about 2,000 slaves escape. They later moved to Cincinnati where they helped another 1,300 escape. For 12 years John Fairfield helped slaves escape, often in daring and unusual ways. He is reputed once to have staged a funeral, and put one of the slaves in the casket and then had the rest act as mourners. They walked in procession, unmolested, and kept right on going. Perhaps the most inventive escape, though, was one concocted by a slave, Henry Brown. He shipped himself in a wooden box from Richmond, Virginia to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Frederick Douglass, a former slave, not only was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, but he also published an anti-slavery newspaper, the North Star. He also wrote a famous autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Perhaps the most courageous and daring “conductor” was an escaped slave, Harriet Tubman. She had escaped from slavery in Maryland in 1849, following the North Star, eventually finding a job in Philadelphia. In the years to come, she made 19 trips back into the south, freeing over 300 slaves, despite a $40,000 bounty on her head.



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A 19th-century print shows African Americans in a wagon and on foot, escaping from slavery via the Underground Railroad. Slaves escaped from their owners to find their way north to freedom.

per square mile. This doubled to 20 persons in 1820 and doubled again to 42 persons per square mile by 1860. Historians theorize that this flight to urban centers helped to decrease the fertility rate. The more crowded, less self-supporting environments of the city (unlike those of the rural farming areas) led to greater costs for raising children. This, in turn, led to later marriages and smaller families. AFRICAN AMERICANS According to the 1790 census, the number of African Americans in the United States was 757,181. Of these, 59,557 were free and 697,624 were slaves, putting the African-American percentage of the population (with free and slave combined) at 19.3 percent. By 1860 the total was 4,441,830, with 488,070 free and 3,953,760 slaves, putting them roughly at 14 percent of the total population. Each decade saw an increase between 20 and more than 30 percent in total numbers from the previous decade (the highest percentage, 37.5 in 1810, and lowest, 22.1 in 1860). The slave trade in the United States had begun in 1619. Until the post 1830s European immigration into the United States, this slave trade was the world’s largest oceanic migration. In 1808 the importation of slaves was banned, though slavery was not. So the majority of the increases in African-American population 1783–1859

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A difficult and beautiful terrain faced those who braved the journey west. An emigrant party and their wagons are shown above, weaving through the mountains on the road to California.

came not from the slave trade, but through fertility rates. Since families were often disrupted, the average number of children per family is not actually known. But the birthrate averaged 35–40 births a year per 1,000 African Americans. Like the white population, the birthrate was high but steadily declined over the years, though it was not as high as the white population. The more gradual growth of the African-American population is explained by the fact that the mortality rate was higher than that of whites. Despite this, the birth rate was kept fairly high because slave women had children at an earlier age than white women. The population level of African Americans was much higher in the south than in the north, making up between 35 percent and 38 percent of the total southern population through the period. MIGRATION African Americans were not able to partake in great numbers in the migration beyond the Mississippi River, but some, through the Underground Railroad, did migrate north, including to Canada. They were also brought westward to the slave states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. And there was one migration outside of the United States—though not large—that was actually sanctioned.



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In 1817 a number of prominent white leaders and politicians started the American Colonization Society. Its goal was to colonize African Americans in Africa. The area they chose was what is now known as Liberia (which became a self governing country in 1847). From the 1820s to 1860, an estimated 12,000 to 14,000 African Americans migrated there. In addition several thousand migrated to Haiti, in a separate movement not endorsed or supported by the American Colonization Society. In retrospect, it is clear that the motivations of the society’s members were often racist. Many of them did not want (and feared) free African Americans in American society, and some slave owners in the south feared that free African Americans only encouraged dissent amongst their slaves. While some of the people who migrated were slaves liberated on condition of accepting emigration, many were free prior to leaving the United States. The failure of the society to send greater numbers to Africa had several causes. Only a small proportion of slave holders were willing to free their slaves, even on condition of emigration, as the owners usually received no economic benefit from the emancipation. Furthermore it was difficult to convince free African Americans to take the risks involved in migrating to Africa. Many African Americans at the time felt that they were Americans first, and Africans second. Many of those who were free believed that they had a moral obligation to remain in America and work for the emancipation of all African Americans. Even so, several noteworthy leaders did move to Africa, including John Russwurm, who served for a period as the governor of Maryland in Africa, a colony funded by the state of Maryland that became part of Liberia. Other leaders in the 1850s advocated emigration to Haiti; and one, Martin Delany, advocated settlement in what is now Nigeria in West Africa. dynamics of war From 1783 until 1859 the United States largely became what it is today, not only in physical makeup, but also in national character. Still ahead was the trauma of the Civil War, but all of the moral dynamics of that war were already in place. Physically the United States grew to its current boundaries in the “lower 48” between Mexico and Canada. In terms of national character, the country demonstrated its worst and its best. It opened its arms to immigrants. Slavery and its antithesis, the Underground Railroad coexisted. While there were greedy pioneers who took Native-American land, there were also principled congressmen, like Davy Crockett, who fought against the Indian Removal Act and stated, “I would sooner be honestly damned than hypocritically immortalized.” His defiance cost him his seat in Congress in the next election. And, of course, there were the daring pioneers and homesteaders as well, many who made the dangerous and difficult trek westward. And perhaps nothing better symbolized the best of American character than the Lewis and Clark Expedition and its

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Corps of Discovery: democratic, respectful of all people, ambitious, thirsting for knowledge, demonstrating the best side of both rugged individualism and teamwork. William Toth

Further Readings

Ambrose, Stephen E. Undaunted Courage. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996. Brandon, William. The Rise and Fall of North American Indians: From Prehistory Through Geronimo. Lanham, MD: Taylor Trade Pub., 2003. Haines, Michael R., and Richard H. Steckel, eds. A Population History of North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Johnson, Charles, Patricia Smith, and the WGBH Research Team. Africans in America. America’s Journey through Slavery. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1998. Klein, Herbert S. A Population History of the United States. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. The Library of Congress. “The African-American Mosaic: Colonization.” Available online, URL: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam002. html (Accessed January 2008). Mintz, Steven, and Susan Kellogg. Domestic Revolutions: A Social History of American Family Life. New York: The Free Press, 1988. Nevins, Allan. A Short History of the United States. New York: Knopf, 1966. Rossiter, W.S. A Century of Population Growth. From the First to the Twelfth Census of the United States: 1790–1900. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1909. Taylor, Colin F. Native American Life: The Family, the Hunt, Pastimes and Ceremonies. New York: Smithmark, 1996. Turner, Frederick Jackson. The Frontier in American History. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1920. ———. The Rise of the New West, 1819–1829. New York: Harper, 1906. The U.S. Census Bureau. Factfinder for the Nation. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 2004. ———. Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1976.

Chapter 15

Transportation

“Railroad iron is a magician’s rod, in its power to evoke the sleeping energies of land and water.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

As the country continued to organize after the Revolution, one task

became clear: the physical unification of the country, which occupied an enormous space by European standards, which had contributed to the tendency of Americans to think of themselves as Virginians or Bostonians first, and Americans second. The 13 colonies alone constituted a greater area than any modern European country, with the exception of Russia. The expansion of the country would heighten this need to bridge the physical gaps in order to further trade, travel, transport the mail, and conduct other such processes that help a country act as a union rather than a confederation. Naturally this had a political impact. The anti-Federalists opposed the federal government’s construction of roads because they felt it was outside the mandate of federal government to do so, but as supporters of strong states versus a weak federal government, they may also on some level have been uncomfortable with the increasing nationalization of American identity. This adolescence of the United States happened to coincide with the Industrial Revolution, which enabled the construction of efficient transport in order to further these goals. By the end of the 19th century modern transportation technology would enable regional specialization, with manufactured goods made primarily in the urban industrial centers and shipped elsewhere, and food from the spacious midwest and warmer south shipped 207

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to the north with less spoilage than in past decades. Specialized mills or factories manufacturing a single product, such as a type of textile, machinery, or ceramic, could sell their products over a far-ranging area. In this way, railways and steamboat transportation enabled the development of a national price and market system that started the unification of the economy, and also fostered the development of a more national culture. THE ROADS The example of a vast country unified by state-built roads had been set by the Roman Empire, which was responsible for many of the earliest roads in Europe. The need for these roads became even more pressing when the landlocked states of Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee were created in 1803, inaccessible by the ports that were the centers of trade for the coastal states. It was a paradigm shift, albeit a slow one, away from the original raison d’etre of the colonies as shipping centers for European trade. The private sector led the way in road construction. In 1792 Scotsman John Loudon McAdam, who was involved in road construction in Scotland and England, designed the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike for the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road Company, which was formed when the need for the road exceeded the Pennsylvania’s government ability to pay for it. The road was paved the full length from Lancaster to Philadelphia, and its usefulness was cited in the following decade when Federalists began pressing for the government construction of roads, especially interstate roads which would be beyond the purview of individual state governments. The British blockade during the War of 1812 demonstrated why transportation construction was a federal concern. The war effectively ruined the anti-Federalist Party because of their opposition to it, and so there was no significant political obstacle to the construction of the National Road, which had begun in 1811 but was put on hold during the war. By 1818 the road spanned the distance from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia). Road travel was not yet divorced from waterway transport as it is in the automobile age: in Cumberland, the road began at the Potomac River, while Wheeling lay on the Ohio. This early paved highway connected two major rivers, easing the transport of goods and passengers overland from the riverways. Smaller roads, if they weren’t simply packed dirt, were often cobblestone or plank roads, with wooden planks laid end to end to make wheeled transport easier, or “corduroy” roads made of logs laid side by side. The National Road used the macadamization process developed by McAdam, which used layers of stones compacted with a heavy roller, with ditches dug on the sides of the road for drainage of rain and snowmelt. The improved construction not only needed to be maintained less often, but allowed for heavier loads



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to be carried, with fewer accidents. The Cumberland end of the road had originally been the Braddock Road, built at the Potomac in 1751. In 1820 it was extended to the Mississippi River in Saint Louis, and further extensions followed until it reached Springfield, Ohio, in 1838. The road was built and expanded in fits and starts. The issue of how to pay for the construction was frequently debated, and the notion of federal toll roads, perhaps the easiest way to pay for such construction, was controversial. Local and state roads were improved thanks to advances in technology like McAdam’s, and more and more dirt roads that had been appropriate for horses

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The first U.S. balloon flight was conducted by Jean-Pierre Blanchard, departing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and landing in Deptford, New Jersey.

Early Aviation

Experiments in aviation go back for hundreds of years before the Wright Brothers’ flight at Kitty Hawk. In the 19th century aviation primarily meant ballooning. The first balloon flight in the United States was conducted by a Frenchman, Jean-Pierre Blanchard, in 1793. Commercial balloonists soon began offering flights as novelties to customers, but design remained principally a European endeavor, until John Wise improved the French Montgolfier design in 1838. A cabinetmaker who had recently become a commercial balloonist, Wise was one of the few whose interest in ballooning began with physics, as he used balloons to conduct experiments with pneumatics. His new design improved the balloon’s landing by including a “rip panel” in the balloon for rapid deflation upon descent. His interest in physics also led him to use black balloons, which absorbed more heat from the sunlight and stayed aloft longer. Wise tried to interest the American government in balloons repeatedly, seeking funding for a trans-Atlantic voyage (denied) and proposing a balloon-borne bombing mission during the Mexican-American War (denied). Not until the Civil War were his plans put into action, when the Union Army Balloon Corps was formed. Wise was eventually “lost at air” when his balloon flight over Lake Michigan in 1879 disappeared without a trace. Rufus Porter, the founder of Scientific American magazine and inventor of the prototype of the Colt 45 revolver, attempted to build and fly an 800foot steam-powered airship three times from 1849 to 1854. Each attempt was destroyed by factors unrelated to the ship’s airworthiness (natural disaster and vandalism).



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or light carriages were developed into plank or stone roads. Turnpikes like the P&L were toll roads, paid for by the passengers, which kept the burden of their funding on the commercial interests that required them most. They were known as turnpikes, because a horizontal bar or “pike” would be lifted or turned at the toll stops to allow one to proceed after paying. The expense of maintenance was passed on to customers and was offset by merchants’ and farmers’ ability to sell their wares in a larger area. Most toll roads, especially early on, were built and maintained by private companies chartered by state governments. The tolls went to such companies rather than the state authorities as they do now, which accounted for the controversy over the proposal to have the federal government collect a toll on the National Road. These companies were usually joint stock companies, formed by shareholders who pooled their money together to raise capital, and incorporated by the power of the state government. Early companies like the British East India Company and the Virginia Company had been joint stock companies, which enabled the colonization of North America and created its earliest economy, and so the model was simply adapted to new means and needs. Within cities, streets began to be reorganized. The most famous and trendsetting example is the 1811 Commissioner’s Plan adopted by the New York State legislature. The plan abandoned earlier models of street layouts,

A detail of the 1821 map of Manhattan, as laid out by the Commissioner’s Plan. The plan used a grid system, rather than the prior street layout that followed local topography.

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which were made according to local topography (bending around hills, following waterways, etc.). Though it did not originate the American usage of the grid system, which had been in use in Philadelphia since its founding, it turned Manhattan into the best-known example of it. Numbered and lettered streets were laid out running north to south, with cross-streets arranged at the boundaries of the five-acre lots into which the island had been divided for sale. Each avenue was 100 feet wide, which proved important in the age of the automobile, when multi-lane roads would become an urban necessity. The grid continued to be adjusted throughout the century, notably with the additions of Central Park and the construction of the new Columbia University campus on Madison Avenue, which was built between Fourth and Fifth Avenues (Fourth Avenue was later renamed Park Avenue). With western expansion came the long trails west. The California Trail spanned some 1,000 miles from Missouri (the Gateway to the West) to the Sacramento Valley. Interstate 80 follows much of it now, and you can still see the wagon wheel ruts in places, left by the tens of thousands of westward travelers in the 1848 Gold Rush, after the acquisition of the southwest. The eastern part of the California Trail overlapped with the Oregon Trail, which covered half the continent and was used by the waves of northwestern emigrants before the construction of the transcontinental railroad, many of them traveling to claim the free land offered to settlers. The trail had been

An 1859 print titled “Crossing the Platte.” The image depicts Native Americans peacefully sitting in a group while a wagon train attempts to cross a deep river.



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Express Mail Services

In the 19th century long-distance mail services were generally contracted out by the U.S. Postal Service to small businesses, as the federal government was still small and lacked the necessary resources. The prosperity and growing population of the west helped to increase the profitability of commercial freight and mail services, and necessitated a stable service for the transport of money to the banks—considerable amounts of money, once the California Gold Rush made rich men out of lucky prospectors. Vermonter Henry Wells and New Yorker William Fargo first formed American Express in 1850 and Wells Fargo in 1852, joint stock companies that provided banking services, purchased gold, and operated freight services from New York to California. When the California banking system faced collapse, Wells-Fargo moved into overland mail services, founding the Overland Mail Company in partnership with American Express and their two main competitors, Adams Express and the United States Express. Overland was soon contracted by the federal government to carry the mail from Saint Louis to California, the largest mail contract to that point in American history. Adams Express had been founded in 1839 by Alvin Adams, in the wake of the 1837 Panic, and until the 1850s had handled package and letter delivery primarily in the northeast. His company adapted to westward expansion just as his competitors did, by using the railroads and the stagecoaches along the great western trails to ship as far as the Pacific Coast.

open for most of the 19th century, but the first wagon train to use it departed from Missouri in 1842. Another significant and storied route was the Mormon Trail, blazed in 1847 by the 143-man Vanguard Company, which led the way for the mass migration from Illinois of persecuted Latter Day Saints to the west. Brigham Young wanted to find a site others would be unlikely to want, where they could live and self-govern in peace. The Great Salt Lake Valley in what is now Utah was chosen, requiring travel through the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada only a year after the famous Donner Party had starved to death there, reportedly resorting to cannibalism. The Mormon Trail stretched for 1,300 miles and was traveled by thousands, as well as being used as a trade route for contact with the east. Along such long westward trails, the older Conestoga wagons proved insufficient. The lighter, smaller “prairie schooner” (named for the resemblance the wagon trails had to fleets of white-sailed ships) was adopted instead, and could be pulled by smaller teams of animals, carrying only necessary provisions and

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the tools needed to build homes from the plentiful northwestern lumber. Rock formations were used to scrawl messages with grease for the travelers to follow. THE RAILS The first modern railroads were built in Britain, after 200 years of using rails (originally wooden) and flanged wheels to transport carts and wagons. The Industrial Revolution brought steam power and improvements to metallurgy, and the new technologies were rapidly adopted. The new railways used iron rails, which could support greater loads with less wear and tear and risk of accidents, much like the improvement in building materials for the roads. Various steam engines and steam locomotives were developed in Europe in the early 19th century, but in the United States, steamboats were the more popular form of transport, using the rivers and canals. The first American railroads, like the early American roads, were built to connect points on the waterways. The Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad was chartered by Maryland and Virginia in 1827. The operation was the brainchild of hardware merchant Philip Thomas and banker George Brown, meant to replace the canal system as a means of freight transport from the east coast to the midwest. Construction took some years: the first line from Baltimore to the unincorporated settlement of Ellicott’s Mills in western Maryland was opened on May 24, 1830, nearly two years after construction had begun. By New Year’s Day 1853 it had reached Wheeling, and a line had been added connecting Baltimore and Washington, D.C., with an exclusive charter that would prevent other companies from building a competing railway.

Thomas Russell Crampton’s steam locomotive was one of the first modern railroads built in Britain. The new railways used iron rails, which could support greater loads with less wear and tear.



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“The Rail Road Suspension Bridge: Near Niagara Falls,” a Currier & Ives lithograph from 1856. The first American railroads were built to connect points on the waterways.

Other regional railroads were built at about the same time as the B&O. The Pontchartrain Railroad connected Lake Pontchartrain at one end of New Orleans with the Mississippi River at the other, running down the center of Elysian Fields Avenue. Historic New Orleans streets generally consist of two broad lanes divided by a wide “neutral ground” much larger than the thin median strip seen elsewhere in the country. In the northeast, the Camden and Amboy Railroad and Transportation Company was chartered to connect rivers near Philadelpia and New York City. In the south, the Tuscumbria-Courtland-Decatur Railroad joined Decatur and Tuscumbria, Alabama, and was built for the convenience of the cotton industry. All of these railroads were opened during the 1830s. The New York and Harlem Railroad, the first street railroad and the precursor to the trains and subways that would become a significant part of public transportation in the 20th century, opened in the 1830s in New York City. The first cars were horse-driven, but steam power was eventually adopted, resulting in an 1856 ban on steam power south of 42nd Street because of noise and pollution complaints. The ban was struck down two years later. Elsewhere in New York State, the Long Island Railroad (LIRR), the oldest continually running railroad in America, was chartered and expanded from the Boston and Jamaica Rail Road, which opened just in time to be absorbed by the LIRR in 1836. It faced city restrictions on the usage of steam engines, and at one point had to use multiple lines in order to bypass Brooklyn and its anti-steam ordinances.

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The LIRR became an early commuter line, serving the communities on the shore of Long Island. For passenger transport, streetcars were increasingly used—horse-driven cars pulled along rails either installed on top of the street, or (beginning in the 1850s) dug into it with grooves. Unlike coaches and horse-drawn cabs, streetcars did not need to be hailed or hired in advance—they traveled specific routes with specific stops, just like today’s bus and train routes. Schedules were not as specific as they are today. Standardized schedules are a product of late 19th-century advances in accurate time-keeping. But the routes were fairly consistent, depending on weather and other factors, and the streetcar system was a prerequisite for the modern urban layout, in which people may live in one neighborhood while working and shopping in others. The interplay between transportation and daily life represented by the streetcar was typical of the interdependency of Industrial Revolution developments. By the 1850s many regions of the country, especially in the east, had access to one or more railroad systems. Serious talk of a transcontinental railroad, crossing the bulk of North America longitudinally, began in the 1830s and was tied up in the doctrine of Manifest Destiny and the inevitability of the American dominance of the continent. It might have been built sooner, but the expense and magnitude of the project intensified the stakes in the debate over where to locate it—a northern route to Oregon, a central route through the Rocky Mountains, or a southern route bypassing the Rockies and ending in southern California. Businessman Asa Whitney proposed a railroad from Chicago to northern California, and drummed up support in the 1840s, but not enough of it. When the Gadsden Purchase brought more of the southwest into American control, the issue received renewed attention. Tension between advocates of the northern and southern routes lay behind the heated debates over settlement of Kansas and Nebraska. In order to plan a railroad through the region, it would have to be organized into territories. Whether or not those territories would be organized with or without slavery fed into the mounting north-south debates of the 1850s. The chief engineer of the Sacramento Railroad, Theodore Judah, drafted a lengthy proposal for a Pacific Railroad in 1856, but the Civil War and a secessionist movement in California shelved the plans until later in the 1860s. By 1860 the country was served by over 30,000 miles of railroad, a third of them in the west. THE WATERS Concurrent with the building of the roads in the late 18th and early 19th century was the development of canal systems for freight transport by ship. The oldest continually operating canal in the United States began operations in 1805: the Dismal Swamp Canal on the border of North Carolina and Virginia. George Washington had first suggested it, some 40 years earlier, and years of slave labor



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Alternate Land Transportation

Though the automobile would not become a significant form of transportation until the 20th century, its origins are actually in the 18th century. Delaware inventor Oliver Evans patented a proto-automobile in 1789, and in 1805 he patented and constructed the Oruktor Amphibolos (“Amphibuous Digger”), a steam-powered dredge that traveled on both land and in water. The device used wheels to travel by road to the river, where a paddlewheel took over. He took some of his inspiration from the steam-powered land vehicles that had been built in Europe, but the Amphibolos proved no more successful than they had, despite its practical application. His plan for a network of long-distance railways also fell on deaf ears, proposed years before such a thing became inevitable. The modern bicycle was invented in the 19th century, beginning with the German-made “velocipede” made of wood. Later crank-driven models were developed, and the idea spread across Europe, but the concept wouldn’t really take off until the end of the century, taking advantage of smoother road surfaces.

dug a waterway 22 miles to the Atlantic. This allowed goods to be transported more easily to the landlocked parts of the area. Tolls were charged in order to raise the money for maintenance and for the gradual widening of the channel to accommodate larger ships. Elsewhere, the Santee Canal was built in 1793 to create a water route between Charleston and Columbia in South Carolina, while the Middlesex Canal connected the Merrimack River and Boston in Massachusetts, opening in 1802. The Middlesex Canal was never especially successful, as its route was largely mimicked by the Middlesex Turnpike, which had the added benefit of connecting to the Amherst Turnpike and southern New Hampshire. Both were eventually put out of business by the railroads. The Erie Canal, which remains in operation, grew out of various 18thcentury waterway proposals, and was originally thought insanely impractical. From the Hudson River in Albany, New York, to Lake Erie, the land rises about 600 feet. This required the construction of many lock—gated chambers used to control changes in water level, through which a ship would pass. Canals are expensive and laborious to construct as it is, but locks increase the cost, and the dozens required for the Erie Canal seemed prohibitive. The New York legislature eventually approved the plan in 1817, after years of pressure by grain merchant Jesse Hawley. Construction was slow, further slowed by the miles of forest that had to be cut through, the hundreds of workers who died of fever while working in the Montezuma Swamp, and the limestone that had

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A print depicts an 1850 view of Lowell, Massachusetts, which was the first American factory town and is known for its canals, which date from the early Industrial Revolution.

to be blasted through at Niagara. The canal opened a section at a time, and was finally finished in 1825. An improvement project that took over 25 years to complete was begun in 1834, widening the original canal and adding feeder canals to the many other nearby bodies of water. The Erie Canal suffered less from railroad competition than others did, and was instrumental in opening up the northeast to the import of midwestern farm goods, increasing the importance of New York City as a port, and improving the economies of the upstate cities along its route. Lowell, Massachusetts, the first American factory town, is known for its canals, which date from the Industrial Revolution. The center of the American textile industry, Lowell was founded at the Pawtucket Falls, where the Concord and Merrimack rivers meet. Home to white settlements since the middle of the 17th century, Lowell was not far from the Middlesex Canal, and the region began to attract mill operators and manufacturers because of the ease of access to the waterway. The Pawtucket and Merrimack Canals were turned into power canals, redirecting water for the purpose of generating hydropower. The Merrimack was built for this specific purpose, while the Pawtucket was repurposed when the Middlesex made it obsolete for freight usage. The availability of land and power led to an industrial boom in Lowell, and to the construction of more power and feeder canals. By 1850 Lowell was the largest industrial center in the United States, producing 10,000 horsepower of energy with its canal system. The first American steamboat was built by Robert Fulton in 1807. Fulton’s North River Steamboat ferried passengers from New York City to Albany, us-



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ing the paddle steamer design. Paddle wheels on either side were driven by a steam engine built in Europe, while sails contributed additional wind power. The trip took a day and a half, and departures were made from Albany every Wednesday, and New York City every Saturday. It was the first successful commercial steamboat, and attracted a great deal of attention, as it was widely expected to fail once the novelty wore off. Other entrepreneurs began building steamboats, and after the War of 1812, the ships gradually increased in size and speed. The S.S. Great Western, launched in 1838, was the first steamship to provide trans-Atlantic passage between the United States and Britain, and in 1849 the S.S. California began its regular route between New York and San Francisco, a journey of about five months. When Commodore Matthew Perry opened up Japan to American trade in 1853, he did so by steamboat. But steamboats were particularly used for river travel, and the paddle-wheel riverboats were the lifeblood of the Mississippi River trade. Despite the danger of overheating boilers (which, though rare, was without an analogue in sailing ships), steamships also came to be associated with luxury, and in the 1840s and 1850s, so-called palace steamers offered luxury cruises to passengers upon the Great Lakes. clipper ships For sea travel, the most popular vessel of the 19th century was the Baltimore clipper, a lean ship with tall masts and multiple sails. Refined for naval purposes during the War of 1812, the ship was later relied on for the freight of seasonal goods. Their speed and size also made them ideal for carrying spices and mail, and for use as passenger ships. Many clipper voyages traveled from the northeast to California ports, particularly San Francisco after the Gold Rush. The steamship eventually overtook it, but not until after the Civil War. Whaling, too, which had been such a large part of the coastal economy in northern New England, tapered off in the Civil War years as kerosene replaced whale oil as lighting fuel. The 19th century saw major landmarks in submarine technology. Before he built his steamboat, Fulton built the Nautilus, the first functioning submarine vessel. Built for Napoleon Bonaparte in 1800, the copper and iron vessel was guided by rudders, propelled by a hand-cranked propeller, and used compressed air to sustain a four man crew for six hours. Despite Fulton’s further development of a gunpowder torpedo and successful sinking of sailing ships, the French eventually lost interest in the submarine, and he was unable to find other patrons for the device. A submarine would later be used against the British unsuccessfully in the War of 1812, and despite some overseas developments, there was little interest in the technology until the Civil War. Bill Kte’pi

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Further Readings

Bernstein, Peter L. Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005. Cowan, Ruth Schwartz. A Social History of American Technology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Daniels, Rudolph. Trains Across the Continent: North American Railroad History. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2000. Green, Constance McLaughlin. Holyoke, Massachusetts: A Case Study of the Industrial Revolution in America. New Haven, CT: Yale, 1939. Hindle, Brooke and Steven Lubar. Engines of Change: The American Industrial Revolution, 1700–1860. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute Press, 1986. Lay, M.G. Ways of the World. Sydney: Primavera Press, 1992. Lipman, Jean. Rufus Porter Rediscovered. New York: Clarkson W. Potter, 1980. McGaw, Judith A. Early American Technology: Making and Doing Great Things from the Colonial Era to 1850. Charlottesville: University of North Carolina Press, 1994. Meyer, Balthasar Henry. History of Transportation in the United States Before 1860. New York: Scholar’s Bookshelf, 2007. Morison, S.E. The Maritime History of Massachusetts. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1961. Prendergast, John. The Bend in the River. Tyngsborough, MA: Merrimack River Press, 1996. Sheriff, Carol. The Artificial River: The Erie Canal and the Paradox of Progress, 1817–1862. New York: Hill and Wang, 1996. Sutcliffe, Andrea. Steam: The Untold Story of America’s First Great Invention. New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2004.

Chapter 16

Public Health, Medicine, and Nutrition

“Health, learning and virtue will ensure your happiness; they will give you a quiet conscience, private esteem and public honour.” — Thomas Jefferson

Although the major thrust of the American Revolution ended with the

surrender of British General Charles Cornwallis in Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781, peace was not officially declared until September 3, 1783, when the Treaty of Paris was signed. Released from the mother country, the former colonies struggled to develop a national identity and to attain legitimacy among other nations of the world. The weak Congress, which was initially the only branch of national government, was hampered by its inability to tax or to force 13 sovereign states to comply with its laws. Methods of communication and transportation were slow, which further enhanced the isolation of the individual states. As a result the health and nutrition of Americans varied widely in the first years of the early national period. The medical profession was also struggling, facing considerable opposition to its attempts to improve the quality of medical care in the United States. The Enlightenment, which began in Europe in the 18th century in response to the scientific principles introduced by Sir Isaac Newton (1643–1727), had already spread to the United States, accelerating the movement for independence. After the Revolution, Enlightenment thought was a major influence on the creation of a national government and the writing of the U.S. Constitution 221

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in 1787. Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), the author of the Declaration of Independence, was one of the leading figures of the American Enlightenment. His impact on the evolution of political rights and education was particularly significant. Benjamin Franklin (1706–90), another founding father, reacted practically to the Enlightenment by pursuing the study of science and inventing bifocals, the lightening rod, and a urinary catheter. Over the next decades, the influence of Enlightement ideas and principles of science on health and medicine gradually increased, bringing some benefits by mid-century. Because of Enlightenment-related reforms and the status that came with independence, Americans of the post-revolutionary years had a relatively high standard of living. Compared to much of the world, food and land were plentiful. However the medical profession was still in its infancy; many physicians continued to learn their skills through apprenticeships with experienced doctors. For the most part, those who were ill were still cared for at home by family members, servants, or slaves. Initially there were no public health departments, and only the largest cities such as Philadelphia and New York had sanitation laws. Although five percent of the rural population moved to urban areas in the post-revolutionary period, 90 percent of Americans still lived in rural areas. For most Americans, daily life revolved around the seasons. Planting was accomplished in the spring, followed by cultivation. In the fall crops were harvested, and food was laid away for winter. Families completed repairs and other tasks as the land lay dormant, preparing for the cycle to begin again. Since artificial light was expensive and often dangerous, nightfall signaled the end of the day for farm families. By the age of seven, children were expected to work on farms. By 1840 30 percent of all Americans lived in urban areas. The 70 percent who remained on farms had access to agricultural advances that made farming more productive. As roads, canals, river transport, and railroads began to link rural areas with urban areas and with wider regions, many farmers began specializing, devoting themselves to dairying, poultry, or growing particular vegetables and fruits. HEALTH and home New homes built in the early national period tended to be larger than those built during the colonial period. Homes of the less affluent had only two or three rooms, and the public section of the house served as both a living area and kitchen. Children often slept in the public area. Separated by gender, they slept several to a bed. This close proximity made it easy for germs and diseases to travel quickly among family members. Because of the climate and the danger of fires, wealthy planters in the south initiated the practice of erecting separate buildings for cooking. Over time others adopted the practice of building separate rooms for cooking and eating. Sanitation laws were almost nonexistent, and the outside of homes were filled with debris and animal droppings



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since animals were allowed to roam freely. Garbage was removed from homes by throwing it out windows or doors, where it sometimes remained for weeks or months before being buried. When the weather was warm, windows were left open, providing easy entry for insects, germs, and pollutants. However a new understanding of how germs were spread emerged over the course of the first half of the 19th century. Respiratory problems were common throughout the country among all age groups. Although illnesses and complaints were considered a fact of life, Americans were becoming rapidly more health conscious. During the colonial period, average life expectancy had been less than 25 years. By 1850 it had risen to 40.5 years for white females and to 38.3 for white males. Nevertheless life in America remained precarious. In cities such as New York, the urban poor crowded into poorly ventilated tenements that became prime sources for the spread of disease, and tainted air and water posed major health hazards. The city averaged more than 500 deaths a week. In a September 26, 1857, article for the New York Times, author Francis S. Smith wrote of the “mud-choked cess pools and decomposed garbage heaps” that combined with animal waste to poison both the air and lungs of New Yorkers. Smith contended that the streets of New York were

An account of George Washington’s death reads: “On the 13th of December, 1799, Washington was exposed to a storm of sleet, and took cold. At three o’clock in the morning of the 14th he awoke, and found himself the victim of a severe attack of membranous croup.”



the early national Period and expansion

filled with “little, ragged dirty children [who had become] crime-stained in their babyhood” and the aged who were “tottering on the verge of the grave.” Infants continued to be vulnerable to a host of diseases. Most mothers nursed their babies for at least a year, providing some natural protection and keeping their infants safe from diseases contracted by ingesting spoiled or tainted milk or food. Outside the south, the practice of using wet nurses rapidly declined. Because the Enlightenment had changed the way in which children were viewed, the quality of life for many infants and children improved. Parents began dressing infants in looser clothing and exposing them to fresh air. New cradle designs allowed fresh air to circulate around infants. Boys began wearing long trousers at an earlier age, and girls were allowed to wear loose dresses until 12 or 13. Parents, however, continued to believe that cold water was healthy, and children were often bathed in icy water. The children of poor and rural families and those of slaves were put to work at an early age, losing their right to childish play. Children who attended inadequately ventilated one-room schoolhouses, which were often either too hot or too cold, were exposed to a variety of diseases because both students and inadequately trained teachers lacked a basic understanding of personal hygiene and the ways in which germs were transmitted. Infant and child mortality remained high, and one out of every six infants died before reaching age one. Ten percent of all children died before reaching adulthood. Because of this, some parents attempted to maintain emotional distance from small children, refusing to name them until they were several months old. Many children were named after elder siblings who had died in infancy. Most deaths were the result of intestinal and respiratory diseases or secondary infections from diseases such as measles and chicken pox. Whooping cough, diphtheria, and scarlet fever were major causes of infant and childhood deaths. Because physicians knew little about the cause of diseases, treatments tended to be largely It was thought that alcohol could ineffective. Children were dosed with alcoprevent a host of diseases, and it was hol and opiates. Since it was assumed that a common practice to give children spirits to combat illnesses. alcohol could prevent a host of diseases, it



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Yellow Fever Breaks Out in Philadelphia In the early years of the American republic, Philadelphia, a city of some 40,000, was considered the cleanest city in the country. Unlike the streets of most cities, Philadelphia’s streets were paved, and garbage was picked up on a regular basis. One of the residents of the city was Benjamin Rush, the foremost physician of his day. Because Rush advised his students to offer treatment to the poor and destitute, health care was more accessible in Philadelphia than in most America cities. Nevertheless the most severe epidemic of the early national period occurred when yellow fever broke out in the city in 1793. Before the epidemic had run its course, 5,000 Philadelphians had died, about 10 percent of the total population. Conditions in Philadelphia were ripe for an epidemic in 1793 because an abnormally wet spring had given way to a hot, arid summer. As a result, the water that had pooled in streets, alleyways, and fields became a breeding ground for disease-bearing mosquitoes. Because Philadelphia was the capital of the United States at the time, most of the founding fathers lived in the city, including President George Washington, Vice President John Adams, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. The first yellow fever cases were reported along the city’s garbage and manure-infested waterfront area where ships and immigrants arrived from all over the world. Some historians believe that refuges from the slave uprising in the Caribbean nation of Santa Domingo were responsible for bringing the disease to Philadelphia. As soon as it became clear that an epidemic was imminent, the Philadelphia College of Physicians issued guidelines advising Philadelphians to inhale camphor or vinegar from saturated handkerchiefs to ward off the disease. Rush was one of the first physicians to advise his patients to leave the city. Overall about half the population fled the city, including members of Congress and the Supreme Court. All mail service in and out of the city ceased. President Washington refused to leave until his regularly scheduled visit to his Virginia home on September 10. Those who remained in Philadelphia barricaded themselves in their homes as the death toll mounted. The epidemic reached its peak in September and early October before the first frost killed all remaining mosquitoes. On November 10 Washington arrived in Philadelphia from his home in nearby Germantown. His arrival was the signal for businesses and government to resume normal activities.

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was a common practice to give children spirits at the first sign of an approaching illness. The introduction of the temperance movement into the national consciousness led to the practice of using cough syrups especially designed for children. However many of these still contained large amounts of alcohol. germs and filth Most illnesses contracted by Americans between 1793 and 1859 were the result of poor sanitation, bad water, or tainted food. Even among the most affluent Americans, daily baths were almost unheard of. Hands and faces might be washed once a day in cold water. While the wealthy had access to mild soaps, other Americans were afraid of putting lye-based soaps on their skin. On farms dirt, manure, and perspiration permeated the clothing and shoes of all workers, bringing germs and filth inside homes. The situation was even worse among those Americans who had no shoes, a group that comprised approximately a fourth of the population. Pneumonia and tuberculosis were particularly lethal in homes where ventilation was poor. Around the country, the stench of privies was ubiquitous. Even after laws were passed banning public expectoration, open spittoons served as repositories for germs. In January 1799 Congress added the weight of the national government to that of state and local health authorities by establishing guidelines for quarantines during epidemics. Despite these efforts, between 1820 and 1874, epidemics of smallpox, yellow fever, cholera, and typhoid occurred in all major American cities. In 1796 British physician Edward Jenner (1741–1823) developed a vaccination for cowpox in preparation for developing a vaccine for the more virulent smallpox. By 1800 physicist Benjamin Waterhouse (1754–1846) had introduced an effective smallpox vaccination in America. Despite their effectiveness, smallpox vaccines remained controversial until the middle of the 19th century. Yellow fever proved to be harder than smallpox to eradicate. Between 1702 and 1800 epidemics occurred on 35 separate occasions. As the American population grew and trade expanded, the threat of yellow fever became even more alarming. The worst outbreak of the early national period occurred in Pennsylvania in 1793. Over the next several decades, other outbreaks occurred in New York City, Baltimore, and Boston. At the time physicians had not discovered the cause of the disease, which was later found to be spread through contact with disease-carrying mosquitoes. By 1806 yellow fever had virtually disappeared from the northeast. In most states the mosquitoes that caused yellow fever were killed when cold weather arrived. The shorter winters of the deep south, however, allowed the insects to flourish for longer periods. As a result, both yellow fever and malaria were endemic in the south. Savannah lost a third of its population to yellow fever between 1817 and 1820. Because of its unique geography and its status as a major seaport, New Orleans was particularly vulnerable. Between



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Mid-19th century “medical” treatments included Indian Expectorant, “for pulmonary and consumptive complaints of all kinds,” Arnica Liniment, “the nerve and bone oil cure” for everything from rheumatism to neuralgia, and Dr. Wieland’s Celebrated Sugar Worm Lozenges, that were “warranted free of mercury or opium in any form.”

1800 and 1820 the city experienced five separate yellow fever epidemics. An epidemic in 1853 affected 40 percent of the population of New Orleans and killed 10 percent of the population. Medical practitioners, healers, and family members with limited medical knowledge treated patients with bleeding, calomel, herbal concoctions, and folk remedies that did little to stem the course of the disease. Since quinine had proved effective in fighting malaria, it was unsuccessfully used to combat yellow fever. After several generations, descendants of immigrants had lost their immunity to diseases that had been endemic in Europe, becoming more vulnerable to diseases such as Asiatic cholera, which struck the United States three times in the 19th century. An epidemic in New York City in 1832 led to the deaths of 5,000 people and the exodus of more than a third of the city’s population. The Board of Health recommended calomel, opium, brandy, and cayenne pepper to treat stricken patients. Between 1840 and 1850 cholera spread to Ohio and to California during the Gold Rush. Many patients died from the rapid dehydration that accompanied the disease. The tendency toward dehydration was exacerbated by physicians who purged and bled weakened patients. It was not

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until the 1860s that more effective treatments were discovered, including the use of ice water to prevent dehydration. medical training in europe After the Revolutionary War, many physicians enhanced their medical education with training in Europe. Because France had proved instrumental in America’s victory, many American doctors studied in France until the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. Once relations with Britain were reestablished, medical scholars resumed the practice of training in Britain and Scotland. Although the number of trained physicians continued to increase, no license was needed to practice medicine, and quackery flour-

Dr. Crawford W. Long (1815–78)

Before anesthesia became available in the United States, physicians were forced to depend on analgesics, willow bark, herbs, hypnosis, and alcohol to dull pain during surgery. Although his work was performed in isolation that initially prevented his being given credit, Dr. Crawford W. Long of rural Georgia is now considered the first American physician to use ether as a surgical anesthetic. At the age of 14, Long began attending Franklin Academy, which later became the University of Georgia. In 1836 he enrolled at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. A year later, Long transferred to the University of Pennsylvania where he received a medical degree in 1839. While pursuing a post-graduate internship, Long visited hospitals throughout New York City to learn as much as he could before returning to rural Georgia in 1841. Basing his belief that anesthetics could be used to ease pain during surgery on the “laughing gas parties” held in medical school and observations of patients during surgery, Long began experimenting with anesthetics. On March 30, 1842, Long used ether to remove a tumor from the neck of a patient, using a towel saturated with ether to anesthetize the patient. Over the next three years, Long used ether in four more operations. Many residents of Long’s rural community thought surgery could not be performed without pain. This belief led to claims that he was practicing witchcraft on his patients. Because Long was well aware of the skepticism with which many physicians viewed the use of anesthetics, he failed to publish his findings until 1848. By the time Long’s article was published in by the Medical College of Georgia, two other physicians had already reported their own use of surgical anesthetics. Although a follow-up article on Long’s work was published in 1949 in the Southern Medical and Surgical Journal, Long did not receive full credit for his pioneering efforts until after his death. Today the Crawford W. Long Memorial Hospital in Atlanta stands as a monument to his contribution to the American medical profession.



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ished. Even those medical practitioners who had received some training failed to understand how diseases were spread. However they had begun to develop an understanding of the importance of basic hygiene. Surgery was rare at the beginning of the early national period and was used only as a last resort for ulcers, abscesses, gunshot wounds, injuries, fractures, hernias, diseased teeth, and amputations. Because knowledge of hygiene remained woefully inadequate, many surgical patients died from infections spread by physicians and others who cared for them during the post-operative period. Others died as a result of post-operative shock or hemorrhage. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin had introduced major European medical advances into the United States after the Revolutionary War. By the early 19th century physicians had begun experimenting with emergency surgeries to save the lives of their patients. These early pioneers included Ephraim McDowell (1771–1830) and J. Marion Sims (1813–83), who developed obstetric and gynecological surgical techniques. The first Cesarean-section was performed by French American physician François-Marie Prevost (1771–1842). Between 1810 and 1840 26 new medical schools had been established in the United States, and an additional 47 were founded over the next 35 years. The expansion of the medical profession led to the creation of numerous state and local medical societies. However a deep chasm existed among medical practitioners, with “regular” trained physicians opposing “others” who consisted of numerous sects who advocated their own right to practice medicine without a license and who accused trained physicians of endangering the health of Americans. During the mid-19th century, the chaos in the medical profession left an opening that allowed American women such as Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910) to train as physicians for the first time. medical ethics and licensing Beginning in 1811 most American medical schools established medical codes of ethics, and most were based on the British code established by physician Thomas Percival (1740–1804). By 1830 13 states had passed licensing laws for physicians. At mid-century American physicians realized the importance of presenting a united front in order to combat alternative practitioners. The New York Medical Society hosted a meeting that led to the establishment of the American Medical Association in 1847. The stated purpose of the AMA was to represent the interests of state medical societies and medical schools, but the underlying intent was to raise the standards of medical schools and initiate licensing procedures throughout the country. The AMA ran into strong opposition from “others,” political groups, and the public. Consequently 11 of the 13 states that had passed licensing laws repealed them. In order to battle the opposition, physicians retreated from standard medical treatments such as bleeding and purging and began

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placing increased emphasis on good nutrition, proper nursing, improved hygiene, and disease prevention and intervention. congressional bean soup When the Revolutionary War ended, American food supplies except for fish and rice were still intact. The New England fishing fleet, however, was about a fourth of its pre-war size. As part of the peace treaty with Britain, negotiator John Adams demanded fishing rights for American fishermen in British Columbia, including the right to dry and process fish in Canada. The rice growers of the Carolinas who had been forced to ship seed rice to Britain traders during the war had no way of renewing rice crops. Virginian Thomas Jefferson, who was serving as the first ambassador to France, solved the problem by smuggling seed rice out of Italy and sending it to the Carolinas. Once foreign trade resumed, American foods were shipped around the world. During the early national period, many dishes took on patriotic names such as independence cake, federal cake, election cake, and ratification cake. Congressional bean soup, which was introduced during this period, remains on the congressional menu to this day. Once the Revolutionary War was over, most American families returned to growing their own food. Surplus produce was initially sold in regional markets. As transportation improved, so did avenues for exporting American foods around the country and the world. Spring houses were built over or near water resources to store milk and dairy products, greatly enhancing the ability of dairy farmers to preserve and import their products. In the south, corn continued to be the staple crop, except in areas where rice and sugar were grown. Because of the dependence on corn, the diet of the poorest southerners consisted chiefly of corn-related products. This was also true in many frontier areas because corn was easy to grow. Ground meal was easy to preserve, and just a small amount could feed a whole family. When wheat rust attacked grain crops in New England in mid-18th century, farmers shifted to rye and oats. After knowledge of the connection between diet and health was established in the first half of the 19th century, American diets improved, although foods were not always healthy. Americans consumed an average of more than 300 pounds of meat per year by 1848. Beef and pork remained the most popular meats. Because preservation methods were still primitive, salt pork was a staple in American homes throughout the 19th century. Bread was the second staple food, but methods for preparing it varied according to region. In coastal areas, seafood products were plentiful. As families moved westward where food was less readily available, hunting provided a variety of game for family consumption. Vegetables, which had been a relatively unimportant element of the American diet during the colonial period, became more important in the 19th century. The longer growing season in the south provided most southerners with greater access to vegetables and fruits than those in other areas. Eggs were



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The early life of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, illustrates the harsh life of frontier families during early expansion. In 1816 Thomas Lincoln moved his family to the Indiana wilderness from Kentucky. On the trip the family lost most of its possessions in a flat-boat accident on the Ohio River. Their first dwelling was a three-sided structure. Winter weather was only slightly mitigated by a roaring fire that faced the open side. The nearest source of water was a mile away. Game such as wild turkey hunted in the surrounding woods supplemented the meager diet of hoecakes and water. The Lincolns had only a few cooking utensils and almost no furniture. However Thomas Lincoln and his young son managed to construct a bedstead, a dining table, and four chairs. In 1818 after grazing cattle consumed poisonous plants, “milk sickness” struck the region with lethal results. The loss of young Abe’s uncle and aunt was a major blow, but the most devastating loss occurred when his mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, died on October 5. Abe was 9 years old, and his sister Sarah was 12 years old. Sarah took on the responsibility for cooking and cleaning, while Abraham and Dennis Hanks, the younger brother of Nancy Lincoln, divided their time between helping Sarah and Thomas. Food remained scarce, and the children outgrew the clothing that had been worn to rags. In order to improve the quality of life for his children, Thomas Lincoln returned to Kentucky in 1819 to seek a new wife. He chose childhood friend Sarah Johnston, a widow with three children, who was working as a servant to pay off family debts. Lincoln paid her debts, and moved Sarah and her children to Illinois. Life did improve for Abe and Sarah after the arrival of their new stepmother. She had a good deal of furniture, and she set about improving the interior of the cabin, while Thomas Lincoln worked on the exterior. Sarah Lincoln helped to forge the two sets of children into a united family, and Abraham Lincoln became close to his stepmother who encouraged him in his love of reading and in his The log cabin where President Lincoln is said to have been born.

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generally reserved for making other foods more palatable. In general Americans used only salt, pepper, and sugar to season foods. The first cookbook written by an American was published in 1796 by Amelia Simmons. The people of France cemented their alliance with the United States by adopting American cuisine with a French twist. The most popular American dishes were turkey and cornmeal mush. Americans returned the favor by trying French recipes. When the French Revolution broke out, large numbers of French cooks immigrated to the United States, and American menus soon included fondues, ices, bonbons, and French soups and salads. President George Washington had a French steward, and White House menus exhibited a French influence. A White House dinner in 1789, which some guests claimed was the best meal they had ever eaten, included soup, roasted and boiled fish, iced

Gold Miners and Food

In 1848 the pace of westward expansion accelerated significantly with the accidental discovery of gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountain in California. Within three years 200,000 immigrants from all over the United States and the world had swelled the population of California. Initially miners’ diets consisted of traditional fare such as bacon and beans accompanied by what was known as “California sour dough bread.” As more gold was discovered, the salaries of miners rose to around $2,000 a day, the equivalent of $48,000 per day in 21st century dollars. Thereafter the miner’s diet expanded to include a range of items such as galantine truffles. It was not unusual for miners to cook tongue and sardines over campfires or to supplement meals with tins of turtle soup and lobster salad. Whiskey was the drink of choice for many miners, and champagne sold for $10 a bottle. Few Americans of the day ate at restaurants in the mid-19th century. Nevertheless by the 1850s California’s expanding population was being served in Spanish fondas, German saloons, and Chinese chow chows. Western Americans were also introduced to other foreign items such as Mexican red peppers and French delicacies. The St. George Hotel in Sacramento offered pigeon à la crapaudine in a tartare sauce and calf’s head à la financière. The time was ripe for entrepreneurship, and some of the food-related businesses that survive today began in California during the expansionist period. Philip Danforth Armour, for instance, who is known today for hot dogs and bacon, opened his first business in California before moving to Chicago where he established the largest meatpacking business in the world. James Folger of Folger coffee fame discovered as a teenage immigrant to California that miners were eager to purchase coffee that they did not have to roast or grind before drinking.



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creams, jellies, watermelons, apples, peaches, and nuts. After years of living in Europe Thomas Jefferson was totally enamored of continental cooking. He had brought back a waffle iron from Holland and a spaghetti-making machine from Italy. For the rest of his life, Jefferson continued to introduce seeds and plants from Europe into the United States. When he became president in 1801, the French influence on White House menus was strengthened. Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase in 1803 introduced what became known as Cajun cooking to other Americans. When James and Dolley Madison entered the White House in 1809, they The first American cookbook by Amelia Simmons was continued to serve French published in 1796. Simmons’s “Pompkin Pudding,” baked in a crust, is the basis for American pumpkin pie. dishes because the First Lady had fallen love with Louisiana’s brand of French cooking. When Britain again attacked the United States in 1812, the price of tea rose to $1.13 a pound. In response Americans turned to coffee, permanently breaking the English habit of drinking hot tea on a daily basis. One of the best overviews of American nutrition during the 1830s was provided by British social reformer and writer Harriet Martineau (1802–76). In Stockbridge, Massachusetts Martineau was offered bread, potatoes, hung beef, eggs, and strong tea for breakfast. In Gloucester, Massachusetts she dined on fish chowder for the first time. In Sweet Springs, Tennessee, the menu included stewed venison, ham, hominy grits, and fruit pies. In Kentucky she was served meat with fresh vegetables enhanced by champagne. Cooks in New Jersey also offered champagne, along with turnip juice, brandy, and honey. In Montgomery, Alabama, Martineau was surprised by a company meal consisting of cornbread, buckwheat cakes, broiled chicken, bacon and eggs, hominy grits, fresh pickled fish, and beefsteak. She found that as she traveled south from Kentucky, it became almost impossible to get fresh milk because of the

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A recreated dinner table is set at the restored historic Pomona Hall in Camden, New Jersey. It was the home of Marmaduke Cooper, one of the area’s most prosperous early 19th-century businessmen.

difficulty in preserving milk in hot southern climates. Because she was served corn so often, Martineau concluded that corn was a more valuable commodity than gold in the south. When the potato famine struck Ireland in 1845, Irish immigrants fled to the United States. In New York City they made up almost a third of the population. Around half of the new immigrants were single women who accepted jobs as cooks, housemaids, and nursemaids, remaining in service until they married. With a ready supply of help, the lives of many American homemakers improved. Breakfast was usually limited to oatmeal and coffee, with milk for children. Among the more affluent, dinner menus included eight courses. A typical dinner menu might consist of soup, fish, poultry or meat with sauce, a variety of side dishes, fruits, dessert, and cheese. Less affluent Americans dined on corn, pork, molasses, puddings, fried potatoes, and whiskey. Food reformers eschewed the lavishness of the wealthy and complained about the unhealthy American diet, opting for plain foods. When suffragist Elizabeth Cady Stanton visited abolitionist friends Angelina (Grimké) and Theodore Weld, she was served cold oatmeal with apples and water. The Welds were followers of radical food reformer the Reverend Sylvester Graham (1794–1851), who was the first in a long line of food reformers who influenced the way that Americans ate and lived. Graham advocated vegetarianism, temperance, and sexual abstinence. He focused much of his reform efforts on restoring the nutrients that had been removed from processed bread and ridding bread of additives such as sulfate



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of zinc, sulfate of copper, chalk, and alum. Today Graham’s only claim to fame is the cracker that bears his name. Elizabeth R. Purdy

Further Readings

Bennett, James T. and Thomas J. DiLorenzo. From Pathology to Politics: Public Health in America. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2000. Boland, Frank Kells. The First Anesthetic: The Story of Crawford Long. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1950. Cassedy, James H. Medicine in America: A Short History. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. Duffy, John. From Humors to Medical Science: A History of American Medicine. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993. ———. The Sanitarians: A History of American Public Health. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990. Ewers, Justin. “California Dreamin’.” U.S. News and World Report, August 15, 2005. Grob, Gerald N. The Deadly Truth: A History of Disease in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002. Haber, Barbara. From Hardtack to Home Fries: An Uncommon History of American Cooks and Meals. New York: Free Press, 2002. Heidler, David S. and Jeanne T. Heidler. Daily Life in the Early American Republic, 1790–1820: Creating A New Nation. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2004. Leavitt, Judith Walzer and Ronald L. Numbers, eds. Sickness and Health in America: Readings in the History of Medicine and Public Health. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999. Miller, Brandon Marie. Just What the Doctor Ordered: The History of American Medicine. Minneapolis: Lerner, 1997. ———. Dressed for the Occasion: What Americans Wore, 1620–1970. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner, 1999. Pillsbury, Richard. No Foreign Food: The American Diet in Time and Place. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1998. Schmidt, James. What Is Enlightenment? Eighteenth Century Answers And Twentieth Century Questions. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996. Smith, Francis S. “A Startling Revelation of City Life.” New York Times, September 26, 1857.

Index

Index note: page references in italics indicate an illustration, and references in bold indicate main discussion.

A abolitionism, movement of xi, 5, 9–11, 19, 23, 24, 46, 150 abortion 146, 146 Adams, Alvin 213 Adams, John 1, 111, 179, 230 Adams, John Quincy 115, 150 Adams Express 213 Adams-Onis Treaty 49 advice literature 22 African Americans colonization in Liberia 9, 10, 205 population trends and migration 202, 203, 203, 204, 205 published narratives of 104 voting rights 7 See also Slaves/slavery African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church 5 African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church 5 “Age of Jackson” 7 237

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Index agriculture/farming cyclical nature of 163 daily life 160–161 education of children 161 exports of 81 gender roles 161 implements and tools 36, 87, 122, 122, 123, 160 journals and guides for 122, 159 populations of 159, 160, 160 scientific principles applied to 122, 122, 123 as subsistence to market economy 61, 74, 76, 81, 160 Alabama cash crops 6 territory of 92, 193 alcohol abuse/dependence on x combating illness with 224, 224, 225 as form of public entertainment 136 temperance movement and x, 8, 148, 226 Alcott, Bronson 98 Alcott, Louisa May 98 Algiers 179, 187 Allen, Richard 5 American Antislavery Society (AAS) 10, 103 American Association for the Advancement of Science 123 American Bible Society 8, 103 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 8 American Board of Foreign Missions 103 American Colonization Society 9, 103, 205 American Dictionary of the English Language, An (Webster) 108 American Education Society 103 American Express 213 American Home Missionary Society 103 American Magazine 108 American Medical Association (AMA) 229 American Minerva, The 108 American Party 12 American Philosophical Society 107 American Selection of Lessons, An (Webster) 108 American Society for the Promotion of Temperance 8



Index American Society of Geologists 123 American Spelling Book (Webster) 108 “American System” of manufacturing 124 American Tract Society 103 Amherst Academy 108 Amherst College 108 Amherst Turnpike 217 Amish populations 74 Amistad revolt 150 anesthesia 131, 228 Anglican Church 4, 91 Annapolis 181, 187 Antebellum Period ix, 155 Antioch College 115 Anti-Rent War 75 Anti-Slavery Society 44 Appalachian Mountains 92, 173, 201 apprenticeships 63 archery 143 architecture, of new American republic 27–28, 28, 29, 29, 30–31, 31, 32 Arizona, territory of 11, 200 Arkansas, territory and statehood of 198, 204 Armour, Philip Danforth 232 Arnica Liniment 227 Articles of Confederation 79 Asiatic cholera 227 Atlanta 60 Atlantic 135 Atlantic Grand Banks 81 Austin, Moses 198 Austin, Stephen 198, 200 automobile 217

B Bache, Alexander D. 128 “balloon-frame” architectural style 31–32 balloon travel 210, 210 Baltimore ix, 226 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) 126, 126, 165, 214

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Index banking system 8 Baptist Church 4 post-Revolutionary membership 4, 92, 99 split membership on slavery issue 103 Barbary states 2, 179, 181, 187 bareknuckle boxing 142, 142 barges 124 Barrett School 115 Barrow, Bennet 156 Barton, Clara 114 baseball 141, 141 Basic Land Ordinance 79 “Battle Hymn of the Republic” 111 Battle of Bunker Hill (Burke) 135 Becker, Carl 75 Bellevue 77 “Benicia Boy, The” 142 Benjamin, Asher 28, 30 Bentley, Thomas 34 bicycles 217 Bill of Rights 43, 151 Bingham, George Caleb 134 Black Hawk 195 Black Hawk War 195 blacksmiths 86 Blackwell, Elizabeth 229 Blackwood’s Magazine 54 Bladensburg, Battle of 184 Blanchard, Jean-Pierre 210 “Bleeding Kansas” 12–13, 58 blind, education of 111 blues 137 Bonaparte, Napoleon 2, 48, 65, 184, 219 “Book of Mormon, The” 5, 95, 96 books/literature 22, 127, 133–135, 135 Boone, Daniel 92 Boone Plantation 24, 35 Boston epidemics 226 Federal Street Theater in 135



Index population growth and development ix, 58 street lighting 67 Tremont Hotel in 67 Boston and Jamaica Rail Road 215 bow and arrow 143 bowling 143 boxing 142, 142, 143 Braddock Road 208–209 Brady, Matthew 130 Bridgman, Laura 111 Britain in Napoleonic Wars 183 outlawing slave trade 46 War of 1812 with. See War of 1812 British East India Company 211 broadsheets 156 broadsides 103 Brook Farm 98 Brooklyn Atlantics 141 Brooks, Preston 12–13 Browder, Clifford 146 Brown, George 214 Brown, Henry 202 Brown, John 12, 14, 190 Brown, Moses 167 Burke, John Daly 135 Burlington County Prison 152 “burned over districts” 86, 94 Burns, Anthony 104 Burr, Aaron 1–2 Bushman, Richard 33, 40–41 Butler, Andrew 12 Butler, Pierce 53

C calf roping 133, 140 Calhoun, John 10 California American acquisition of 11, 79, 188, 200 gold rush 39, 48, 201, 212, 213, 227

241

242

Index Native American populations 50, 193 public school system in 119 statehood of 146 California and Oregon Trail, The (Parkman) 201 California Trail 212 californios 50 Calvinists/Calvinism 4 Camden and Amboy Railroad and Transportation Company 215 camp meetings 93, 94 Canada, American invasion of 179, 184 canals, American system of 64, 78, 125–126, 165 candles 59, 83, 129 Cane Ridge Revival 93 Carson, Kit 68, 201 Cartwright, Peter 92 Cass, Lewis 10 Catholic Church anti-Catholic riots 100, 100, 101 immigrant populations 99–101 post-Revolutionary membership 91, 92, 99 Cayuse Indians 193 Celestino 150 ceramics 33–34, 34, 35 Cesarean-section 229 chakra 123 Chandler, Elizabeth Margaret 102 Channing, William Ellery 5, 98 Charbonneau, Jean Batiste 199 Charbonneau, Toussaint 199 Charles I 174 Charleston population growth and development 58, 60, 60 slave market in 45 Charlotte (Queen of the United Kingdom) 34 Cherokee Indians 3, 4, 47, 187, 192, 194 Chesapeake Bay 178, 184 Chicago, lake-based commerce 59, 62 Chicago River 62 Chickasaw Indians 3, 4, 194 chicken pox 224



Index children clothing 39–40 as laborers 51, 222 mixed-race 53 vulnerability to disease 224 Chinese populations, in California 146, 200 Choctaw Indians 3, 4, 194 cholera 65, 66, 85, 181, 201, 226, 227 Christmas Convention 92 Church, Frederick 134 Church of England 91 Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints 5, 94, 96, 213 Cincinnati population growth and development 59 public school system 113 river commerce 59 Cinque, Joseph 150 cities and urban life 3, 60, 61, 63, 64 crime and violence 153–154 crowding conditions 64, 66 factories and manufacturing 63, 166–171 immigrant populations 64, 66 in new American republic 57–72 rural migration to 63, 201, 203 specialized land use and neighborhoods 37, 153–154 transportation 63–64, 64 urban problems 66–67, 69–71 Clara Barton free school 114 Clark, Aaron 70 Clark, Edward 130 Clark, William 180, 199, 199 Clay, Henry 8, 10, 78 Clermont 165 Cleveland, lake-based commerce of 59 Clinton, DeWitt 126 clipper ships 219 cloth 83, 128 clothing and fashion 37, 37, 38, 38, 39, 39, 40 coal 61, 67, 129 coastal transportation 74

243

244

Index Cocke, Anne 164 coffee 232, 233 Coffin, Catherine 202 Coffin, Levi 202 “coffin hand bills” 184 Cole, Thomas 134 College of William and Mary 107 Collins, Wilkie 154 colonization, of free African Americans 9, 10, 205 Colorado gold rush 201 territory of 11, 198, 200 Colt, Samuel 167 Colt revolver 124, 167, 210 Common School Journal 115 Common Sense (Paine) 1 Commonwealth v. Hunt 166 Commonwealth v. Pullis 166 communication, long-distance 127, 127 Compromise of 1850 10, 11, 12, 46 Conestoga wagons 201, 213 Congregationalists 4, 99 Constitutional Convention 176 Continental Army 173, 174, 175, 175 Continental Navy 173, 174 Cooper, James Fenimore 135 Cooper, Marmaduke 234 corn 160, 230 Cornwallis, Charles 221 cotton as cash crop 6, 46, 53, 82, 82, 155, 161–164 export of 81 as labor-intensive crop 37, 88, 161–163, 163, 164 varieties of 161 cotton gin viii, 6, 46, 87, 122, 123, 162, 167 covered wagons 49, 148, 201, 204, 212, 213–214 Cracker farmers 36 Crampton, Thomas Russell 214 Creek Indians 3, 4, 47, 184, 185, 194 Creek War 184



Index cricket 141 crime in new American republic 145–157 changes in public punishments 151–153 against God 146, 148–149 against people 148, 149 police forces 153–154 against polity (community and government) 146, 149, 151 prison reforms x, 151–152, 152, 153 against property 146, 149 punishment and penalty 145, 147 reporting and stories 145, 157 role of “common law” 151 types of crimes 146 vigilante movements 149, 156 See also Violence in new American republic Crockett, Davy 205 Cromwell, Oliver 174 “Crossing the Platte” 212 Cumberland Gap 92 Cumberland Road 78 Currier & Ives 160, 188, 215 Cyril Thornton (Hamilton) 54

D Daguerre, Louis 130 daguerreotype 130 Dahlonega 47 daily life in new American republic 15–25 dairy products 230 “Dance of the Indians at the Mission of San José in New California” 193 dancing 137, 139–140, 140 Davis, Alexander Jackson 30 deaf, education of 111 death penalty 145, 152–153 Declaration of Independence 5, 222 Declaration of Sentiments 8 Deere, John 87, 123 Delaware Indians 3 Delaware River 124

245

246

Index democracy, American experiment of vii–xi Democratic Party ix, 7, 60 dentists 131 Des Plaines River 62 Detroit, lake-based commerce of 59 Dial, The 98 Dickens, Charles 76 Dickinson, John 6 dictionaries 108 dime novels 133, 135, 135 diphtheria 224 disease/illness concoctions and “medical” treatments 227 epidemics 66, 192, 226–227 in military troops 181, 182 Native Americans 192 respiratory problems 223, 223, 224 sanitation 65, 66–67, 71, 131, 222–223, 226–228 scientific and technical applications to 131 Dismal Swamp Canal 216 District of Columbia, construction of 57, 58 doctors 131, 221–230 Doniphan, Alexander 189 Donner Party 213 Doubleday, Abner 141 Dougherty, John 77 Douglas, Stephen 12, 13 Douglass, Frederick 20, 202 Downing, Andrew Jackson 30 Dr. Wieland’s Celebrated Sugar Worm Lozenges 227 Dred Scott v. Sanford 13, 13, 58 dressmaking 16 Dunbar, William 128 Durand, Asher 134 du Sable, Jean Baptiste Point 62 dysentery 66, 181

E “Early Factory Labor in New England” (Robinson) 52 Early National Period ix



Index eclectic readers 116 education in new American republic 107–119 access to x, 52 agricultural and engineering colleges 112 of girls 8, 112 high schools 112 of immigrant populations 112–114, 117 institutions of higher learning 109–110, 110, 111 lyceums 112 national university 107, 118 parochial schools 100 public schools xi, 107, 109, 111–118, 119 of rural populations 85–86, 112–114, 117 school libraries 110–111 in southern states 119 teaching and education methods 112, 114 technical education 112 1828 Tariff 57–58 Ellarslie Mansion 28 Ellicott, Thomas 121 Ellicott’s Mills 214 Embargo Act 183 Emerson, Ralph Waldo 5, 11, 98, 139 employment in new American republic 159–171 engineering journals 122 Enlightenment, influences on American thought 221–222, 224 entertainment in new American republic 133–143 books and literature 30, 134–135, 135, 156–157 church activities and revivals 138–139 lectures 139 leisure time pursuits 133–143 music and dancing 137, 139–140, 140 portraits and landscapes 134, 134 public holidays and events 140, 143 in rural populations 85, 143 sports and games 133–134, 141, 141 theaters and taverns 135–136, 136, 138 epidemics 66, 192, 226–227 Episcopal Church 92, 99 Equiano, Olaudah 44, 45

247

248

Index “Era of Good Feelings” 186–187 Erie Canal 60, 78, 125, 165, 217, 218 ether 228 Evans, Oliver 121, 217 Evans steam engine 125

F Factory Girls’ Association 168 factory systems 166–168 American/component system 124, 167 labor for 167–168 “Rhode Island System” 167 ten-hour workdays 169–171 Fairfield, John 202 Fallen Timbers, Battle of 179, 195 families catalogues and mail order goods 129–130 daily life 15–25 gender roles 17–19, 22, 24–25 public and private spheres of 17 of slaves 20, 20 Fargo, William 213 farmers Cracker 36 image as wise and hard-working 74–76 tenant 89 yeoman 51, 76, 162 See also Agriculture/farming Federal architecture style 28 Federalists 1, 2, 179 Federal Society of Journeyman Cordswainers 166 Fillmore, Millard 10 Finney, Charles G 4, 103 First Creek War 185 First Seminole War 187 1st American Regiment 176 fishing, industry of 74, 81, 230 Fitch, John 124 Fitzhugh, George 24 Five Hundred Good Points of Husbandry 83



Index flat-boats 231 Florida 6, 79, 185, 185, 198 Floyd, Charles 199 Folger, James 232 foot races 143 Fort Dearborn 62 Forten, Charlotte 104 Fort McHenry 184 Fort Mims 185 Fort Moultrie 187 Fort Washington 59 Foster, Abby Kelly 23 Foster, Stephen 139 Founding Fathers 109, 222 Fourth of July 140, 143 Fox Indians 4, 194 France 179, 232 Franklin, Benjamin autobiography of 33 influences of Enlightenment 222 libraries established by 110 scientific and medical contributions of 229 as slaveowner 6 Free School Society 113 free soil states 57 Fremont, Jesse Benton 201 Fremont, John 201 French and Indian War 47 French Revolution 228, 232 frontier army posts in 182 dwellings and houses 36 emigrant populations 48–49, 49 expanding urban areas 71–72 gender ideology and 48–49, 55 impact of Louisiana Purchase 48, 49 origins of Second Great Awakening 92 western expansion viii, 49, 71, 77, 198, 212, 212, 213–214 Fruitlands 98 Fugitive Slave Law 9, 11–12, 46, 55

249

250

Index Fuller, Margaret 5, 98 Fulton, Robert 124, 165, 218, 219 furniture 32, 32, 33, 34 fur trade 64

G Gabriel, in slave rebellion 6, 155 Gadsden Purchase 200, 216 Galena and Chicago Railroad 62 Gamble, James 59 gambling 143, 148 Garrison, William Lloyd 10, 14, 102 George III 34 Georgia cash crops 6 gold rush 48 Native American populations 47, 48 voting rights 7 Georgian architecture style 28, 29 Germany, immigrant populations from 64 germ theory 131, 223, 226–228 Godey, Louis A. 39 Godey’s Lady’s Book 38, 39, 39, 135 gold, discovery and mining 39, 48, 49–50, 50, 77, 201, 212, 213, 227, 232 golf 143 Goodrich’s First Reader 117 Gothic Revival architecture style 29 Graduation Act 80 Graham, Sylvester 234, 235 Graham’s Magazine 135 Grammatical Institute of the English Language, A (Webster) 108 Great Awakening, Second x, 4, 85, 92–94, 98, 101 Great Lakes 60, 79 Great Salt Lake 97, 213 Greek Revival architecture style 29 Greeley, Horace 161 Grimké, Angelina 234 guns/firearms 124, 162, 167



Index

H Haiti 6, 205 Hale, Deacon 16 Hale, John 16 Hale, Sarah 16 Hale, Sarah Josepha 39 Hall, Donald 83 Hamilton, Alexander 175, 179 Hamilton, Thomas 53 Hanks, Abraham 231 Hanks, Dennis 231 Harpers Ferry 14, 190 Harper’s New Monthly Magazine 135 Harper’s Weekly 200 Harrison, William 4 Hartford Convention 2 Hassler, Ferdinand 128 Hawley, Jesse 217 HBM Guerriere 2, 180 health in new American republic populations 131, 221–235 Heenan, John C. 142 Hemings, Sally 20 Henry, Joseph 127 Herald, The 108 Hickory Grounds, Battle of 186 Hidatsa Indians 199 Hispanic populations, in California 146 history daily life features of vii–xi layers of viii–ix Nearby History approach viii physical documentation of vii–ix Holabird, William 150 horse racing 133, 143 Horseshoe Bend, Battle of 178, 185 hospitals xi Howe, Elias 130 Howe, Samuel Gridley 111, 112 Hudson River 60, 78, 125, 165, 217 Hughes, John 170

251

252

Index Hunter, George 128 hydropower 218 hygiene 229

I Idaho, territory of 201 Illinois 80, 92, 193 Illinois and Michigan Canal 62 immigration European migration to America 12, 191, 197, 197, 205 “nativist” anti-immigrant movement 12, 100 See also Population trends and migration Indiana 92, 119, 193 Indian Expectorant 227 Indian Removal Act 194, 195 Indian Wars 47 indigo, as cash crop 161 industrial espionage 166–167 Industrial Revolution 63, 166–167, 207–208, 218, 218 infants, vulnerability to disease 224 inoculations 131 intestinal disease 224 Iowa, territory of 198 Ireland mass migration to America ix, 64, 65, 67, 99–101, 169, 197, 197 potato famine 65, 170, 197, 234 iron industry 129 iron plow 123, 124 Iroquois Confederacy 3, 194 Italianate architecture style 28, 29

J Jackson, Andrew Indian Removal Act signed by 194, 195 military career 7, 179, 184, 185, 185, 186, 186, 195 as president 7, 7, 58 Seminole Wars launched by 187 Janes, Dwight 150 Japan, trade with 190, 219 Jasperware 34, 35



Index jazz 137 Jefferson, Thomas as ambassador to France 230, 233 Declaration of Independence written by 222 Louisiana Purchase negotiated by 48, 65, 180, 199, 233 on planter paternalism 19, 19 as president 1, 179, 180–181, 183 relationship with Sally Hemings 20 scientific and medical contributions of 78, 229 as slaveowner 20, 45 views on public schools 107 Jeffersonian Republicans 1 Jenner, Edward 226 Jervis, John 126 Jewett, Helen 157 Johnston, Sarah 231 Jolly Flatboat Man 134 Journal of Residence on a Georgia Plantation (Kemble) 53 Judah, Theodore 216

K Kansas, slavery issues in 12–13, 58, 190, 198, 200 Kansas-Nebraska Act 12 Kant, Immanuel 98 Keane, Edmund 136 Kearny, Stephen 189 Keller, Helen 112 Kemble, Charles 136 Kemble, Fanny 53, 76, 136 Kenrick, Francis 101 Kentucky, territory and statehood of 92, 193, 231 kerosene 129 Key, Francis Scott 2, 184 Key, P. Barton 154 Kickapoo Indians 194 Kitty Hawk 210 Know-Nothings 12 Knox, Henry 175 Ku Klux Klan 156

253

254

Index

L labor in new American republic 159–171 factory system 166–171 home-based businesses 167 immigrant populations as 168–171 strikes by 51, 168–171 ten-hour workday 169–171 unions in 166 wage earner populations 52, 61–62 Lake Erie 64, 78, 125, 165, 217 Lake Erie, Battle of 178, 183, 184 Lake Michigan 62 Lamanites 95 Lancaster, Joseph 113 land grants 47, 59, 79, 110 Land Law of 1820 79 Land Ordinance of 1785 194 Latrobe, Benjamin 28, 29, 30 Latrobe, Lydia 30 Lawrence 183 Lawrence House 31 Lee, Ann 97, 98 Lee, Robert E. 14, 190 Legion of the United States 178–179 L’Enfant, Pierre Charles 57 Lewis, Meriwether 180, 199, 199 Lewis and Clark Expedition 127, 180, 199, 199, 205–206 Liberia 9, 205 libraries 110–111 Licking River 59 Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (Douglass) 202 “Life of George Washington-The farmer” 84 Lincoln, Abraham childhood of 231, 231 as congressman 11 debates with Douglas 13 as president 122 views on slavery and rights of blacks 13–14 Lincoln, Nancy Hanks 231 Lincoln, Sarah 231



Index Lincoln, Thomas 231 Linn Boys 151 literacy 135 literature 156–157 literature/books 22, 30, 127, 133–135, 135 lithographs 130 Little Turtle 195 “Little Women’ Who Helped Make This Great War” (Matthews) 21 livestock 81, 231 Livingston, Robert 124 log splitting 133, 140 Lohman, Ann 146, 146 Long, Crawford 131, 228 Long Island Railroad (LIRR) 215, 216 Louis and Clark Expedition 65 Louisiana cash crops 6 as slave state 204 territory of 92, 198 Louisiana Purchase expeditions/exploration of 127–128 from Napoleon’s France 2, 121 territories gained 48, 180, 198 territory gained 79, 79 western boundary of 49 Louis IX 65 Louisville, river commerce of 59, 60, 61 Lowell Female Labor Reform Association 169 Lowell Mills 51, 82, 128, 168, 218, 218 Lowell Offering 169 lumber/timber, industry of 81, 82, 83 lyceums 112 Lyell, Charles 128

M macadamization 165, 208–209 Maclure, William 114 Madison, Dolley 233 Madison, James 6, 233 magazines 135

255

256

Index mail services 213 Major League Baseball Hall of Fame 141 malaria 131, 192, 227 Manifest Destiny, ideal of 49–50, 189 Mann, Horace 111, 112, 115, 119 manufacturing xi, 27, 63, 124, 166–171 marbles 139 Martineau, Harriet 233 Massachusetts educational reforms in 119 nativist anti-Catholic riot 100–101 State Board of Education 115 “Massacre of Conococheague” 148 material culture architecture 27–28, 28, 29, 29, 30–31, 31, 32 carpets and rugs 33 clothing and fashion 37, 37, 38, 38, 39, 39, 40 furniture 32, 32, 33, 34 household ceramics 33–34, 34, 35 in post-Revolutionary America 27–40 regional differences 35, 35, 36, 36, 37 Matthews, Glenna 21, 23, 24 McAdam, John Loudon 208 McCall, Henry Sr. 28 McCormick, Cyrus 124, 160 McCormick reapers 36, 124, 160 McDowell, Ephraim 229 McGuffey, William Holmes 116, 116, 117 McGuffey Readers 116 McPherson, James 165 measles 192 medicine American medical schools 229 anesthesia 131, 228 European training 228–230 germ theory 131 profession of 221–230 scientific and technology applications to 131 vaccinations and inoculations 131, 226 melodramas 135



Index Men and Manners in America (Hamilton) 53, 54 mentally ill, education of 111 Merrimack Canal 218 Merrimack River 128, 217 Methodist Church 4, 92, 99, 103 Mexican-American War American military advances 177, 189, 189 anti-Catholic riots and 100 events leading to 187–188 territories gained 11, 50, 68, 200 Mexican Revolution 200 Miami-Erie Canal 59 Miami Indians 3, 194, 195 Miami University 110, 116 Michigan 80, 193 Middlesex Canal 217, 218 Middlesex Turnpike 217 migration of African Americans 202, 203, 203, 204, 205 to western frontier 77, 201, 204 See also Immigration; Population trends and migration military defense challenge of quickly raising 174, 177 conscription 177 Continental Army 173, 174, 174 Continental Navy 173 debates over standing army 174, 175, 177 Legion of the United States 178–179 militias 75, 174, 176 naval forces 173, 179 peacetime army 176 veterans of 173 volunteers 177 See also War/warfare Military Establishment Act 180 Militia Act of 1792 176, 177 “milk sickness” 231 mill girls 50–51, 168, 170 Mills, Robert 152

257

258

Index mill towns 50–51 mining 82, 200, 232 “Mining life in California—Chinese miners” 200 Minneapolis-St. Paul 61 Minnesota 193 Mississippi cash crops 6 territory and statehood of 92, 185, 193 Mississippi Mound Builder Indians 65 Mississippi River commerce and trade 64, 219 Native American settlements 3, 4 Missouri as slave state 11 territory and statehood of 10, 92, 198 Missouri Compromise 11, 13 Missouri River 77, 148, 149 Montana, territory of 198, 201 Montezuma Swamp 217 Montgolfier balloon design 210, 210 Moran, E. Percy 138 Mormons teachings of 5, 94, 94, 95, 95, 96–97 temples of 95, 96 westward migration of 77, 201, 213 Mormon Trail 213 Moroni 95 morphine 131 Morrill Act 112, 119 Morse, Samuel 71, 100, 127 Morse Code 127, 127 Morton, William 131 Morven House 29 mosquitoes 225, 226 Mott, James 103 Mott, Lucretia 103 Mt. Vernon 84 Mule Camp springs 47 murder 148, 149, 150 music 137, 139–140, 140



Index

N Napoleon. See Bonaparte, Napoleon Napoleonic Wars 183, 197 Narrative of Frederick Douglass (Douglass) 20 National Association of Base Ball Players 141 National Police Gazette 157 National Railroad 64 National Road 208, 211 Native Americans 148, 151, 212 battles in War of 1812 178, 179, 186 conversion to Christianity 8 cultural and language diversity of 192 decrease in populations 191 diminishing lands of 46–47, 187, 194–195 family size 193 Five Civilized Tribes 3, 194 geographic population regions 192 interactions/conflicts with white settlers 3, 46–47, 47, 48, 85, 148, 151, 176–177 inter-tribal warfare 193 men’s voting rights 3 populations before European contact 191 removal/forced relocation of 4, 47–48, 55–56, 187, 193, 194, 195 “nativist” anti-immigrant movement 12, 100 Nautilus 219 naval stores 73 “Nearby History” viii Nebraska, territory of 198 Neef, Joseph 114 Nephites 95 Neuces River 188 Nevada, territory of 11, 200 New England Anti-Slavery Society 10 New Mexico, as American territory 11, 188, 200 New Orleans Battle of 186 population growth and development 60 port commerce of 125 yellow fever epidemics 226–227 newspapers 108, 127, 135, 156, 157

259

260

Index Newton, Isaac 221 New York 63, 176 Central Park in 69, 69, 71 death rates 223 education system 113, 119 epidemics 226, 227 Grace Church in 30 grid system 211, 211, 212 harbor and port commerce of 60, 61, 126 as immigrant port of entry 60 Park Theater in 135 population growth and development ix, 69–71 rapid urbanization 57, 58 sanitation practices 222 St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 30 Tammany Society 60 trolleys and railroads 69 New York and Harlem Railroad 215 New York Knickerbockers 141 New York Medical Society 229 New York State Militia 75 New York Times 223 New York Workingmen’s Party 170 nickel novels 135 Niépce, Joseph Nicéphore 130 ninepin 143 North Dakota, territory of 198 northern states economies of xi, 63, 124, 166–170 female social activism x, 9, 21, 21, 22–23, 23, 101–103, 103, 104 gender roles 17–18, 22 North River Steamboat 218 Northwestern States 80 Northwest Ordinance of 1787 6, 109, 194 Northwest Territory 59, 62, 176, 177, 178, 193, 194, 195 Notman, John 28 Nullification crisis 57 nutrition/diet in new American republic 230–235 first American cookbook 233 food reform movements 234–235



Index navy rations of 181 proper storage of food 230, 232 regional variation of 233–234

O Ohio, territory and statehood of 80, 92, 193 Ohio and Erie Canal 64 Ohio River Native American lands along 3, 194, 195 railroad links 64 steamship transport on 59 white settlements near 6, 194, 195 Ohio Territory 194 Ojibwa Indians 3 Oklahoma Native American populations 191 as slave state 204 territory of 198, 200 Olmsted, Frederick Law 69, 71, 76 omnibuses 127 Oregon-California Trail 201 Oregon Territory 79, 193, 198, 200, 201 Oregon Trail 201, 212 Oruktor Amphibolos 217 Ottawa Indians 3 “Our Countrymen in Chains” (Whittier) 103 Overland Mail Company 213 Overland Trail 149, 201 Ox Cart Man (Hall) 83

P paddle-wheel boats 125, 219 Paine, Thomas 1 paintings, portraits and landscapes 134, 134 Panic of 1819 165, 186 Parkman, Francis 201 paternalism 19, 19 Pawtucket Canal 218 “Paxton Boys” 75 Pennsylvania, penal system of, 147

261

262

Index Percival, Thomas 229 Perry, Matthew 219 Perry, Oliver Hazard 183 Pestalozzi, Johann 114, 117 Philadelphia as capital of United States 225 Chestnut Street Theater 135, 136 nativist anti-Catholic riot 100, 101 population growth and development in ix, 58 public school system in 113 sanitation laws 222 Walnut Street Prison in 147 yellow fever epidemic 225 Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike 208, 209, 211 Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road Company 208 Philadelphia College of Physicians 225 Philadelphia Library Company 110 Philadelphia Society to Alleviate the Miseries of Public Prisons 147 photography 130, 130 physicians 131, 228–230 Pieh, Sengbe 150 pirates/piracy 150, 186 Pittsburgh population and development 60–61 river commerce 59 planters/plantation system daily and seasonal life 162–163, 163, 164 dwellings and houses of 35–36, 36 economic units of 88 gender roles 19–21, 164–165 patriarchy of 24, 55 racial hierarchy and discipline 155–156, 156 social isolation of 53 as southern institution 24, 24, 35, 35, 36, 36, 45, 51–52 Platte River 212 plows 87, 123, 124, 160 pneumonia 226 Poe, Edgar Allan 154 Polk, James K. 11, 188 polygamy 96, 148



Index Pomona Hall 32 Pontchartrain, Lake 215 Pontchartrain Railroad 215 population trends and migration 191–206 federal census 195–196 fertility rates 12, 100, 191, 196–197 immigrant populations in America 191, 197, 197, 205 rural to urban migration 201, 203 westward migration 77, 201, 204 Porkopolis 59 Porter, Rufus 210 Potawatomi Indians 3, 62, 194 Potomac River 57, 208 “Power of Music, The” 140 “prairie schooner” 213 Preemption Act 80 Presbyterian Church 4, 4, 91, 92 Prevost, François-Marie 229 Price, Richard 118 prizefighting 142, 142 Proctor, William 59 property, inheritance/ownership ix, 16–17, 52 Protestantism 91–92, 99 public schools 107, 109, 111–118, 119 publishing 127, 135 Puritans 91

Q Quakers antislavery views of 9, 103, 202 doctrine of 4 offshoot of 97 as pacifist group 91 Queensware 34, 35 quinine 131, 227

R railroads 64 Chicago’s links to 62 connecting national interior viii, 71, 78, 126, 126, 127

263

264

Index impact on marketing and shipping 165–166 regional expansion of 214, 214, 215, 215, 216 steam-powered xi, 64, 165 transcontinental 64, 126, 216 travel by 28, 126–127 “Rail Road Suspension Bridge, The: Near Niagara Falls” 215 rakes 160 reapers, mechanical 87, 124, 160 Red Sticks, in Creek War 184, 185 “Regulators, The” 75 religion in new American republic 4–5, 91–104 anti-Catholic riots 100, 100, 101 anti-slavery activism and 101–103, 103, 104 “burned over districts” of 86, 94 role in rural daily life 85–86 Second Great Awakening x–xi, 4, 85, 92–94, 98, 101 toleration and pluralism in 91 traveling ministers and clergy 86, 92–93 Rensselaerwyck, tenant arrangements 89 Renwick, James 28, 29 Renwick, James, Jr. 30 Republican Party 179 founding of 12, 58 platform of 58 Resaca de la Palma, Battle of 188 Restell, Madame 146, 146 Revolutionary War colonial militias 174 painted scenes of battles 134 rights gained with 43 slaves serving in 45, 182 veterans of 47, 59 rice as cash crop 46, 161, 230 as labor-intensive 53, 88 Richmond, population growth and development 60 roads/roadways in American republic infrastructure 64, 78, 208–209, 209, 211, 211, 212–214 macadamized 124, 165, 208–209



Index science and technology applications to 124, 165, 208–209 toll roads 211 Robinson, Harriet 52, 168 Rocky Mountains 199, 213, 216 Roosevelt, Nicholas 124 rounders 141 rowing 143 Rowson, Sarah 135 Royal Navy 183 Royal Society 34 Rudiments of English Grammar (Webster) 108 Rumsey, James 124 rural life in new American republic 73–90 anti-rent sentiments 89 census of 76–77 daily life and work 83–84, 84, 85, 88 diversified activities 82 economic activities 80–81, 81, 82, 82, 83, 88 education and literacy 85–86 entertainment 85 gender roles 19 image of hard-working farmers 74–76 isolation of 85 populations 73–74, 76 rural rebellions 75 shortage of hard money and reliance on credit 79, 80, 81, 82 southern institution of slavery 86, 88, 90 subsistence and non-agricultural activities 73–74, 76 Rural Residences (Davis) 30 Rush, Benjamin 107, 118, 147, 225 Russwurm, John 205

S Sacagawea 199 Sac Indians 194 Sacramento Railroad 216 St. Augustine, Spanish settlement of 68 St. Clair, Arthur 59 St. Clair’s Defeat, Battle of 195 St. Louis

265

266

Index population growth and development of 65 river commerce of 59, 64, 65 sanitation practices 65 slave populations in 65 streetcar transportation in 65 sanitation 65, 66–67, 71, 131, 222–228 Santa Anna, Antonio Lopez 200 Santa Fe Church of San Miguel in 68, 68 Spanish settlement of 188 Santee Canal 217 Sauk Indians 4 Savannah, yellow fever epidemic 226 Scandinavia, immigrant populations in America 64, 65 scarlet fever 224 science in new American republic 87, 121–132 Scientific American 210 Scott, Dred 13, 13, 58 Scott, Winfield 10, 188, 188, 189 scythe 160 Second Great Awakening 85, 92–94, 98, 101 Second Seminole War 187 Second Visit to the United States, A (Lyell) 128 seed drills 160 Seminole Indians 3, 4, 194, 195 Seminole Wars 7, 187 sewing machines 37, 129, 130 Shaker movement 97, 97, 98 Shakespeare, William 135 Shawnee Indians 3, 4, 183, 194 Shays, Daniel 75 Shays’s Rebellion 1, 75, 176 Shoshone Indians 199 Shreve, Henry Miller 125 Sickles, Daniel E. 154 Sierra Nevada 213 silver, discovery and mining 77 Simmons, Amelia 233 Sims, J. Marion 229 Singer, Isaac Merrit 130



Index Sketch of a Plan and Method of Education (Neef ) 114 Slater, Samuel 166, 167 slaves/slavery abolition movements and xi, 5, 9–11, 19, 44, 101–103, 103, 104, 155 Amistad revolt and trial 150 as contradicting democracy x, 43, 45 daily life 20, 20 “fancy trade” of 20 first appearance at Jamestown 5 fugitive 6, 9, 11–12, 46, 55, 104, 202 international trade of 46, 162 misconduct and crimes 146, 155–156 music and 137 as property ix published narratives 44, 45 rights 164 separate quarters 35, 35, 36, 164 slave codes 155 as southern institution 6–7, 86, 88, 90 Underground Railroad and 202, 203, 203, 204, 205 uprisings/rebellions 6, 88, 150, 155 used by Cherokee Indians 47–48 westward migration 11 Sloat, John 189 smallpox 131, 192, 226 Smith, Emma 96 Smith, Francis S. 223 Smith, Joseph 5, 86, 94, 94, 95, 95, 96–97 Smithsonian Institution 29, 30, 123 “snag boats” 125 soap 59, 83 social attitudes class distinctions 51, 53 developing national identity 43–56 gender ideologies 50–52 regional differences in manners 53, 54 wealth and ix Society of Cincinnati 175 South Carolina

267

268

Index cash crops 6 plantations 24, 24, 35 threat of secession 57–58 voting rights 7 South Dakota, territory of 198 Southern Medical and Surgical Journal 228 southern states class distinctions 35, 35, 36, 36 domestic ideal of women 24, 24, 25 economies of xi education systems 119 gender roles 18–19, 51–52 slavery as institution of 6–7 Spain, former territories of 2, 68, 68 Spaulding, Solomon 96 S.S. California 219 S.S. Great Western 219 Stanton, Elizabeth Cady 234 “Star-Spangled Banner” (Key) 2, 184 steamboats accommodations for wealthy passengers 28 national impact of viii, 64, 124–125, 165, 218–219 transport of goods and passengers xi, 64, 124–125, 125, 165, 218–219 steam engines 214, 214 steam locomotives 126 steamships 59 steel industry 129 Stephens, Ann S. 135 Stevens, John 125, 126 Stockton, Richard III 29 Stockton, Robert F. 189 Stone, Barton 93, 94 Stone, Lucy 23 stoolball 141 Stowe, Harriet Beecher 9, 23, 135 Strauss, Levi 39 Strutt, Jedediah 166, 167 Stuart, Gilbert 134, 134 Stuart, Jeb 14



Index submarines 219 suffrage ix, 7 sugar, as cash crop 53, 88 Sullivan, Anne 112 Sullivan, John L. 142, 142 Sumner, Charles 12–13 syphilis 181, 193

T Tallapoosa River 185 taverns 136, 138 taxes cash payment of 75 providing free education x, 119 on whiskey 1, 75, 179 Taylor, Zachary 188, 189 tea 233 technology in new American republic 121–132 Tecumseh 4, 183, 185, 195 telegraph 71, 127, 127 temperance movement x, 8, 148, 226 tenant farmers 89 Tennessee 92, 193 Texas cash crops 6 statehood of 10, 11, 79, 204 territory and republic of 187–188, 198, 200 textiles, manufacturing of 6, 50, 82, 128, 161, 167 theaters/playhouses 135–136, 136 Thomas, Philip 214 Thoreau, Henry David 98 timber/lumber, industry of 73, 81, 82, 83 Tippecanoe, Battle of 183 tobacco as cash crop 46, 53, 60, 161 as labor-intensive crop 90 smoking as public entertainment 136 Tocqueville, Alexis de 76, 103–104 toll roads 211 Tontine Coffee House 63

269

270

Index Tories 173 Trail of Tears 48, 187, 194, 195 transcendentalism 5, 98 transportation in new American republic advances/progress of 165–166, 207–219 canal systems 59, 125–126, 165, 216–219 coastal transportation 74 connecting national interior 207–219 by covered wagon 49, 148, 201, 204, 212, 213–214 early aviation 210, 210 Industrial Revolution and 207–208, 218, 218 infrastructure of systems 78, 207–209 inner city transport 64, 127, 216 schedules of 216 scientific and technological applications 124–125, 125, 126, 126, 127, 127 water transport and travel 124–125, 125, 165, 216–219 See also Railroads; Roads/roadways; Steamboats trash dumps 28 Travels in North America (Lyell) 128 Treaty of Fort Finney 194 Treaty of Fort Harmar 194 Treaty of Fort McIntosh 194 Treaty of Fort Stanwix 194 Treaty of Ghent 186 Treaty of Greenville 195 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo 200 Treaty of Paris 1, 3, 193, 197 Treaty of St. Louis 62 Trevithick, Richard 126 Tripoli 181 Trumball, John 134 tuberculosis 131, 226 Tubman, Harriet 202 Turner, Nat 6, 88, 155 Turner’s Rebellion 6 turnpikes 208, 209, 211, 217 Tuscumbria-Courtland-Decatur Railroad 215 typhoid 66, 226



Index

U Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Stowe) 9, 9, 23, 135 Underground Railroad 9, 11, 46, 202, 203, 203, 204, 205 Union Army Balloon Corps 210 Unitarianism 5 United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing 97 United States Army 182 United States Army Corps of Engineers 78 United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers 78 United States Census 74 United States Constitution on basic values 43 Enlightenment as influence 221–222 establishment of 1 First Amendment 4, 43 Fifth Amendment 13 Tenth Amendment 109 fugitive slave clause in 6 implementation of 57 outlawing slave trade 46 “three-fifths” clause in 6 United States Corps of Topographical Engineers 128 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) 122 United States Express 213 United States Marine Corps 2, 14 United States Military Academy 180, 182, 187 United States Naval Academy 181, 187 United States Navy 2, 179, 181, 184 United States of America, establishment of 1 United States Postal Service 213 United States Supreme Court Amistad case 150 Dred Scott decision 58 proslavery decision 13 University of Georgia 110 University of Virginia 110, 110 Upjohn, Richard 27–28, 30 Urim and Thummin 95 USS Constitution 2, 180 Utah, territory of 11, 200, 213

271

272

Index

V vaccinations 131, 226 Vanguard Company 213 Vassa, Gustavus 44 Vera Cruz, Battle of 188, 188 Vesey, Denmark 6, 155 View From the Window at Gras, A (Niépce) 130 vigilante movements 149, 156 violence in new American republic 145–157 See also Crime in new American republic Virginia Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge 107 plantations 45 voting rights 7 Virginia Company 211 visual arts 134, 134 voters/voting ix, 3, 7

W Waldrep, Christopher 155, 156 walking races 143 Walkley, Olive 15 Walkley, Stephen 15 Walnut Street Prison 147 Ward, Julia 111 “war hawks” 183 Warner, Susan 135 War of 1812 178, 180, 183, 184, 185, 186 economic hardships associated with 2, 183, 184, 185, 186 naval battles 180 as second war of American independence 2, 178–186 slaves serving in 182 treaty and end of 186 war/warfare French and Indian War 47 Mexican-American War 11, 50, 68, 177, 187–188, 189, 189, 200 Napoleonic Wars 183, 197 Native American inter-tribal warfare 193 War of 1812 178–186 See also Military defense



Index Washington, George 138 American-made clothing of 38 Athenaeum Portrait of 134, 134 command of Continental Army 173 death of 223 as Federalist 179 importation of plants and animals by 78 as land speculator 79 on a permanent army 175 presidency of 57 as slaveowner 6, 45–46 views on national university 107, 118 Washington, territory of 79, 201 water, safety of 66, 223 Waterhouse, Benjamin 131, 226 Watts steam engine 125 Wayne, Anthony 179, 195 weapons 187 Webster, Daniel 10, 78 Webster, Noah 108, 108 Wedgwood, Josiah 34, 35 Wedgwood ceramics 34, 34, 35 Weld, Theodore 234 Wells, Henry 213 Wells, Horace 131 Wells-Fargo 213 Western Union Company 71 West Point 180, 182, 187 whaling, industry of 129, 219 wheat 82, 230 “Wheelbarrow Law” 147 Whieldon, Thomas 34 Whigs 8, 11, 12, 78, 174 Whiskey Rebellion 1, 75, 179 Whitney, Asa 216 Whitney, Eli 6, 87, 123, 124, 161–162, 167 Whittier, John Greenleaf 103 whooping cough 224 Wide, Wide World, The (Warner) 135 Wilkes, Charles 128

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Index Wilmot, David 11 Wisconsin 80, 193 Wise, John 210 witchcraft 146 women clothing and fashion 37, 37, 38, 38, 39, 39, 40 coverture system and 16–17 criminal behavior 146, 146 domestic roles of 15, 164–165 education of 8 “fancy trade” of attractive slaves 20 as mill laborers 50–51, 82–83, 128, 168, 170–171 moral enforcer roles of 51, 55 property rights of ix, 16–17, 52 right to vote ix, 7 social reform activism of x, 9, 21, 21, 22–23, 23, 101–103, 103, 104 southern roles of 19, 21, 164–165 working outside home x, 17 Wood, Jethro 123, 124 Wool, John 189 Wright, Benjamin 125 Wright Brothers 210 Wyandot Indians 3 Wyoming, territory of 11, 198, 200, 201

Y yellow fever 66, 131, 225, 226 “Ye May session of ye woman’s rights convention” 23 yeoman farmers 51, 76, 162 Yorktown, Battle of 221 Young, Brigham 97, 213 Young Mill-Wright and Miller’s Guide, The (Evans and Ellicott) 121–122 Young Wife, The 18

Z Zinn, Howard 128



Index PHOTO CREDITS. Photos.com: 50, 67, 91, 97, 122, 163, 210; Library of Congress: vii, 2, 4, 7, 10, 13, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 27, 38, 39, 40, 43, 47, 48, 49, 55, 58, 61, 63, 68, 69, 77, 79, 84, 94, 95, 100, 103, 108, 110, 116, 125, 126, 127, 129, 133, 134, 135, 136, 138, 140, 141, 142, 148, 151, 154, 156, 160, 175, 176, 179, 180, 183, 184, 185, 186, 188, 193, 198, 199, 200, 203, 204, 207, 211, 212, 214, 215, 218, 221, 223, 224, 227, 231, 233; Loretta Carlisle Photography: 1, 16, 24, 28, 29, 31, 32, 35, 36, 37, 45, 57, 60, 64, 73, 74, 81, 82, 86, 88, 107, 113, 114, 121, 139, 145, 146, 152, 159, 164, 173, 187, 191, 234; Ontario National Archives: 9; Dover Stock Art: 38, 168; University of Missouri Library: 117; Harry Ranson Research Center, UT Austin: 130; National Park Service: 131; iStock: 34. Produced by Golson Media President and Editor J. Geoffrey Golson Layout Editor Mary Jo Scibetta Managing Editor Susan Moskowitz Copyeditor Ben Johnson Proofreader Mary Le Rouge Indexer J S Editorial

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