Social Change From 1815 To 1860

Sean Lee. Ignoring the institution of slavery, look at the social change between 1815-1860, How did the US change socially and for what reason?

During the period from 1815 to 1860, the North began to modernize into a market society, a process that began during the War of 1812 and got along with the westward expansion. In doing so, the North became distinctly different from the South which, developed more clearly into a slave society during the same period. We first look how the US – typically the North change socially then turn to a discussion of for what reason it did so.

As the North began the transition from a society with markets to a market society, the lives of farmers and artisans began to change. The farmers became commercial

ones who grew crops and raised livestock for sale. For same purpose of commercializing farming, John Deere's steel plow was invented to make possible the rapid subduing of the western prairies. With a source of credit and a market provided by the East, the Northwest became a region with an integrated economy of commercial farms and manufacturing cities. With the expansion of manufacturing came the emergence of specialists in commercial transactions. Specialization, another of the major characteristics of a market economy, is also seen in the emergence of commercial farming in the North as many farm families shifted from the mixed agriculture of pre- industrial times to specialization in cash crops. The growth of cities formed part of the western frontier (e.g. Cincinnati and Chicago). The nature of work in manufacturers in cities shifted that of the skilled artisan to that of the factory worker. The first large-scale American factory was constructed in 1814 at Waltham, Massachusetts (e.g. Lowell). The American System of manufactures began to rely on the mass production of interchangeable parts that could be rapidly assembled into standardized, finished products.
Industrial innovations and an available labor force for emerging factories also further promoted to transform the Northern economy to be dependent not only on mass production and interchangeable parts but also dependent on the development of a precision machine-tool industry. Growth and development in the economic sphere brought more changes to the workplace and to the worker as well. For the first time, female labor was largely relied outside household like it was in the "Mill Girls" at the early New England textile mills. The emergence of the textile industry was also accompanied by an increased demand for ready-made clothing, the invention of the sewing machine, and the emergence of the garment industry. The labor system in the New North offered an opportunity for farm women to acquire the money necessary to buy more fertile farmland in the West. From then on the production of goods was for the larger marketplace rather than for one’s family, one of the major characteristics of a market society, began to alter people’s lives and the nature of work like never before.
The shift from a subsistence economy to an industrialized, market-oriented economy was also made possible by a “transportation revolution” that was encouraged by state governments that provided economic aid for such internal improvements as turnpikes, canals, and railroads. Improvements in transportation thanks to national roads lowered costs and linked farmers to markets. Improved water transportation thanks to steamboats most dramatically increased the speed and lowered the expense of commerce. The Erie Canal is the most successful example of the state-funded canals typified funding for internal improvements. The canal was completed in 1825 and made New York City a major trade port. Railroads and the Telegraph was also developed in this period of time. Railroads opened the frontier to settlement and linked markets. The telegraph introduced a communication revolution. Improvements in transportation and communication made possible the rise of the West as a powerful, self-conscious region of the new nation. People traveled in groups and cooperated with each other to clear land, build houses and barns, and establish communities. Squatters set up farms on unoccupied land. Many Americans settled without regard to national boundary (e.g. Florida).
Economic expansion fueled a demand for labor, which was met, in part, by increased immigration from abroad. Ireland and Germany contributed the major part to the Growth of Immigration. Many settled in the northern states. Numerous factors inspired this massive flow of population across the Atlantic. European economic conditions were going down. Introduction of the ocean-going steamship made so much convenience for trans-Atlantic transportation.
American religious and political freedoms also attracted many Europeans fleeing from the failed revolutions of 1848.

The Irish were refugees from disaster, fleeing the Irish potato famine. They filled many low-wage unskilled jobs in America. German immigrants included a considerably larger number of skilled craftsmen as compared to Irish immigrants. Many Germans established themselves in the West, including Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Milwaukee or the "German Triangle." The heterogeneity that had been a distinctive characteristic of American society since colonial times became more pronounced as some five million immigrants poured into the nation between 1830 and 1860. The Irish and Germans were numerically the two major immigrant groups during this period. These immigrants often faced the prejudice in American society. They were blamed for urban crime, political corruption, alcohol abuses, and undercutting wages. The growth of immigration caused the rise of nativism. The influx of Irish during the 1840s and 1850s led to violent anti-immigrant backlash in New York City and Philadelphia. Those who feared the impact of immigration on American political and social life were called "nativists."

A second group, free blacks, was allowed, unlike Native Americans, to remain within American society but was not allowed equality of economic, political, or social opportunity within that society. As they faced the daily assaults of white racism, African Americans, like Native Americans,

struggled in various ways to maintain their dignity, self-respect, and cultural identity
Market society also helped transform some laws. The corporate form of business organization became central to the new market economy. Many Americans distrusted corporate charters as a form of government-granted special privilege. The Supreme Court ruled on many aspects of corporations and employer/employee rights.
American freedom had long been linked to the availability of land in the West.

Manifest destiny in national myth and ideology long inspired the West to remain "the last home of the freeborn American. The West was vital for economic independence, the social condition of freedom. The transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson believed that freedom was an open-ended process of self-realization by which individuals could remake themselves and their own lives. Henry David Thoreau worried that the market revolution actually stifled individual judgment; genuine freedom lay within the individual. The Second Great Awakening added a religious underpinning to the celebration of personal self-improvement, self-reliance, and self-determination. The Reverend Charles Grandson Finney became a national celebrity for his preaching in upstate New York. Many believed the Second Great Awakening democratized American Christianity. Evangelical denominations (e.g., Methodists and Baptists) grew tremendously with the proliferation of ministers. The Awakening's impact promoted the doctrine of human free will. Revivalist ministers seized the opportunities offered by the market revolution to spread their message. The Limits of Prosperity Liberty and Prosperity Opportunities for the "self-made man" abounded. The market revolution produced a new middle class. Race and Opportunity Free blacks were excluded from the new economic opportunities. Barred from schools and other public

facilities, free blacks laboriously constructed their own institutional life. African Methodist Episcopal Church Free blacks were confined to the lowest ranks of the labor market. Free blacks were not allowed access to public land in the West. The Cult of Domesticity was a new definition of femininity emerged based on values like love, friendship, and mutual obligation. Women were to find freedom in fulfilling their duties within their sphere. Women and Work Only low-paying jobs were available to women. Domestic servants, factory workers, and seamstresses. Not working outside the home became a badge of respectability for women.
Freedom was freedom from labor. Although middle-class women did not work outside the home, they did much work as wives and mothers. The Early Labor Movement with some felt the market revolution reduced their freedom. Economic swings widened the gap between classes. The first Workingman's Parties were established in the 1820s. By the 1830s, strikes had become commonplace. The "Liberty of Living" Wage workers evoked "liberty" when calling for improvements in the workplace. Some described wage labor as the very essence of slavery. Economic security formed an essential part of American freedom.
The family and the gender roles within it are usually affected by economic changes within society. With the shift toward job specialization in a market economy, the work of men and women diverged. In the urban environment, men left home to go to work. When women were gainfully employed, they usually sold their domestic skills rather than working in the new shops and factories. As work assumed more gender identification, the concept of the separate-sphere ideology emerged. It was held that women, by their nature, were more moral, virtuous, and nurturing than men. Therefore, it was believed, they should play a special role in the building of a moral, self-sacrificing, virtuous republic. Except for teaching, paid work was believed to conflict with this domestic ideal. Economic changes and urbanization also led to more family planning and a reduction in family size. Yet even with fewer children, the new domestic ideal placed increased demands on women. Working-class women had to work in order to provide additional income for their families. As a result, they did not have the option of staying home. Therefore, middleclass reformers often condemned them as being morally inferior because, seemingly, they did not aspire to fulfill the domestic ideal. Even though most middle-class women could stay home, new standards of cleanliness placed many new demands on their time. This meant that they could not devote the time expected of them by adherents to the separate-sphere ideology to the upbringing of their children. Therefore, even middle-class women found that they could not attain the ideals of the cult of domesticity. we find that urban growth brought not only changes in commerce and trade but transformed cities into teeming metropolises. This led to the urban problems of overcrowding, lack of adequate housing and sanitation, and pollution. In an effort to deal with such problems, cities began to offer the services associated with modern urban governments—garbage collection, water service, and sewer service. Although America, built on the ideal of equality, did offer opportunity to many within the market society of the North, equality of opportunity was not available to all. In early nineteenth-century America, class, ethnic, and religious divisions remained. Such divisions led to increased urban tensions and riots, which often had an ethnic or religious base. The starkness of class divisions may be seen in the contrasts between the lives of the working classes and the urban poor on the one hand and the lives of the urban elite on the other. Though a great source of strength, the ethnic and cultural diversity of the North was also asource of tension and division. Such tension and division are natural components of a society that is a mix of ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic groups with divergent belief systems and value systems. Life in an urban environment led to new uses of leisure time. Furthermore, leisure time and recreational activities became more organized within the urban environment. People became spectators of entertainment and sporting events rather than participants in such events. Again, in response to the mix of peoples within the urban environment, exclusive clubs and associations emerged, allowing like- minded people a way to find and associate with each other. Many saw the growth of Northern urban areas as a sign of progress. Yet many, especially middle-class reformers, saw the disease, poverty, and crime in urban areas as evidence of moral decay that they feared would eventually blight the entire nation. In addition, such reformers tended to blame such things on the depravity and immorality of immigrants and the urban poor, not as the consequence of cramped living conditions and poverty. In other words, such reformers blamed the victim and believed that such conditions could be alleviated if the poor simply worked hard and led virtuous lives. This was, therefore, a moral expression of the free-labor ideology, an ideology eventually accepted by most Northerners, and an ideology that convinced many Northerners that they were morally superior to what they perceived to be the backward slave society found in the South.
However, the unification brought about by these internal improvements was regional, for while the North and the West were evolving in the same economic direction, the “Cotton South” was not. The south soon later became the Cotton Kingdom. The rise of cotton production came with Eli Whitney's cotton gin. The cotton gin revolutionized American slavery which was discussed in another essay. The market revolution and westward expansion heightened the nation's sectional divisions and the American Society would never be the same again