The Pros And Cons Of The 19th Century Market Revolution

The 19th century market revolution was a period of dramatic socioeconomic development in the United States. According to Ronald Takaki, this “revolution” culminated in a boom of entreprenuership, ease of business, and an insatiable demand for labor that led to the racialization of minorities in the United States. After a stagnate economy in the late 1700s due to poor soil quality, the invention of the Cotton Gin by Elie Whitney jumpstarted the market by allowing tougher strains of cotton to be grown and processed. Suddenly, the “Cotton Kingdom” was immensely profitable. In addition, a decrease in shipping costs (76) and spreading use of banking and capital (76) made doing business in the US easier. The United States also had, in contrary to

Specifically, contradictions between policy and practice. Famously, America’s Founding Fathers stated that “all men are created equal.” However, this was not the case in practice: Indians were forced off their land because they were not capable to utilizing it correctly, black Americans were subjected to slavery for “their own good,” and after the aquisition of Mexican territory, Hispanics were looked over and excluded politically. According to Takaki we could qualify the statement to say “all white men are created equal.” This contradiction was felt not only in the Cotton Kingdom of the South. Among the drive for more land in the 1800s, more and more white Americans were populating Mexican territory. By 1848, a large tract of land now including California, New Mexico, and Colorado was ceded to the United States by Mexico. A significant number of Mexicans were now American simply due to the moved border. “They had become ‘foreigners in their own land,’” (165) as Pablo de la Guerra told the US Senate in the mid 1800s. As Takaki notes, the lack of English proficiency and a history of interbreeding with Indians left the Mexican-Americans with a “political vunurablility and powerlessness,” (165). As Mexican Americans slowly became a minority among the flocks of white Americans moving west, they lost political influence in their homeland. In turn, policies were put into action that included

With the Market Revolution came the increase in unions and a desire for worker’s rights across all races. The Japanese-Mexican Labor Association formed in 1903 in response to wage cuts. Not only did they succeed in obtaining a reasonable wage, this union illustrated how oppressed minorities could work together. Mexicans The Union fought unfair wages, as Mexicans were often paid significantly less than their Anglo counterparts (173). The Union also fought a contradiction in its attempt to be recognized by the American Federation of Labor. The JMLA was told that Chinese or Japanese were not allowed to be members of the AFL. In solidarity against this unequal policy, the JMLA passed on the membership. By recognizing the injustice in the contradiction between the American “belief” in “all men created equal,” this coalition of Mexican and Japanese workers proved that together, contradictions can be