USI.28

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=Explain the emergence and impact of the textile industry in New England and industrial growth generally throughout antebellum America.=

A. technological improvements and inventions that contributed to industrial growth

 * ** American System of Manufacturing **
 * ** The Springfield Armory and the Connecticut River Valley of Western Massachusetts **

B. the causes and impact of the wave of immigration from Northern Europe to America in the 1840s and 1850s

 * **Link to Dramatic Event Pages**
 * **European Immigration Before the Civil War**
 * **The Irish Potato Famine and Other Famines in World History**

D. the roles of women in New England textile factories

 * ===Link to Historical Biography page on the Lowell Mill Girls===
 * **Early Labor Protests**
 * **10 Hour Workday for Federal Employees (1840)**

//[[image:Map_of_USA_MA.svg.png width="54" height="34"]]For more, see AP United States History 6.//
Click here to learn about [|Seneca Village][|k]the first significant African American community established in New York City between 1827 and 1857, in this website from the New York Historical Society and Columbia University. Seneca village was torn down after 1857 to create Central Park.



Whole Cloth: Discovering Science and Technology Through Textile History

A timeline of the antebellum period to provide context.

Watch this video on the Market Revolution and how work changed in the United States.

**A. Technological improvements and inventions that contributed to industrial growth**

 * **Factories**: Oliver Evans invented steam engines which uses the heat energy from the steam resulting in mechanical labor.


 * **Steamboats**: Steamboats decreased the travel time between coastal ports and cities by week’s time.
 * Their speed gave rise to the transportation of goods.
 * Click here to see a map of steamboats on the Mississippi River.

Biography of Samuel Slater from PBS Who Made America?
 * **Mills**: Samuel Slater created the first U.S. textile factory in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
 * Samuel Slater created housing, shops, and churches for the factory workers that were neighboring to the mill; these were called mill villages.

Biography of Francis Cabot Lowell from PBS Who Made America?
 * **Power Looms**: Francis Cabot Lowell created power looms which combined spinning and weaving which were mostly run by unmarried young women.

Read this article on how slave trade grew and migrated after the invention of the cotton gin.

**The American System of Manufacturing and the Connecticut River Valley of western Massachusetts**

 * Featured precision manufacturing with interchangeable parts and transformed how industry developed in the United States and around the world.
 * Started in the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts with the production of guns at the Springfield Armory.
 * Click here for more at the website Forge of Innovation from the National Park Service.
 * "This type of precision manufacturing, originally developed to produce firearms for the government, spun off the bicycle business, the typewriter business, the automobile business, and the sewing machine business" (Tim Blagg, The Recorder, January 16, 2010, p. C2).

Was There an Industrial Revolution? Americans at Work Before the Civil War.is a lesson plan for teaching about this time period.


 * Springfield Armory: Technology in Transition lesson plan**
 * This lesson explores the change in American manufacturing systems from individual production to mass production, made possible by the introduction of interchangeable and precision part

Click here for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Poem, "The Arsenal at Springfield," published in 1845.

**B. The causes and impact of the wave of immigration from Northern Europe to America in the 1840s and 1850s**

 * The three main nationalities that immigrated to the United States during this period were the Germans, Irish, and Scandinavians.**
 * All of these groups were unskilled workers.
 * Jobs in factories and mills needed unskilled workers because they would work for low wages.
 * **The California gold rush: about 300,000 people migrated to California from other parts of the U.S. and abroad.**

German Immigration
Germans: Increase in population in Europe pushed the Germans out to look for more job opportunities and profit.
 * Click here to read more about German immigration.

The Irish Potato Famine
Irish: Potato famine pushed the Irish out of Ireland. The British persecution of the Irish whipped out more than 15% of their nation. Click here to view a ten minute video about Irish immigration.


 * See Dramatic Event Page on the Irish Potato Famine**

The greatest influx of immigrants to the United States occurred between the 1840s and the 1920s. During this era, approximately 37 million immigrants arrived in the United States.

The Irish Brigade

 * Read this article on Irish immigrants and their involvement in the American Civil War
 * The Irish Brigade Monument at Gettysburg
 * The Fighting 69th

Scandinavian Immigration
**See Immigration Before the Civil War for more specific information about the wave of European immigration.**
 * Scandinavians: Increase in population caused them to migrate for job opportunities. The Scandinavians were also suffering from drought and famine.
 * The U.S. also had new land in the Midwest that would be ideal for farming, and this group was known for their farming skills. Click here to read more about Scandinavian immigration.

**C. The rise of business class of merchants and manufacturers**
Thomas Blanchard: Created a lathe which cut irregular shapes needed for arms (gun) manufacturing at the Springfield, Massachusetts Armory. Read more about him here. Read about how the Northern and Southern colonies each needed and relied upon slave labor.
 * Simeon North: suggested division of labor which would increase the speed in which products, like the pistol, could be manufactured.
 * The Lowell System (see below)
 * Click here for a guide to the Lowell System from Boundless, a study website.
 * Immigrants to the U.S. were unskilled workers that fulfilled the jobs that were backed by cheap wages.

**Roles of Women in Factories**
Today, you can still visit the Lowell factories and learn a great deal about textiles and the many details surrounding the industry.
 * To visit Lowell Mills visit The American Textile History Museum.

Click here for primary sources from UMass Lowell on factory life for women
 * Women's History during the Antebellum Period of Industrialization.
 * Click here for the National Women's History Museum website "A History of Women in Industry". This site contains information from the Industrial Revolution through WWII.


 * Link here for 2017 data on women's share of male-dominated U.S. industries**
 * **Includes 5 most male-dominated and 5 most female-dominated occupations**

**Labor Protests Against Working Conditions**
1834 Lowell Mill Girls Turnout to Protest Wage Cuts from the Massachusetts AFL-CIO

Women, Work and Protest in Early Lowell Mills from //Labor History// (1975)

Lowell Mill Women Create First Union of Working Women.

New Hampshire Became the first state to enact a 10 hour workday.
 * See The Movement for a Ten-Hour Day from Digital History.

President Martin Van Buren Executive Order establishing a 10 hour day for federal employees (1840)