American Economic Growth

American Economic Growth

Erie Canal

http://www.bethpagecommunity.com/Schools/socialst/k5/eri edbq.htm

B&O Railroad

http://www.american-rails.com/baltimore-andohio.html

New mentality • Agriculture for SALE rather than for sustenance • “Every man seems born with some steam engine within him, driving him into an incessant and restless activity of body and mind… every head and every hand busy, with a thousand projects, and only one holiday—the 4th of July—working from morning till night with the most intense industry.”

Mechanization • Labor shortages lead to machinery • Rapid spread/democratization of education; innovation and production – Literacy in white population – 38.4% of white kids in school!

Education • Moving toward public education • Economic value; social value – Good habits—discipline and concentration

Industry • Centralization of labor – Family based – “putting out” – Factories

• Transportation brings about reorganization • Textile mills as leading industry – Lowell Mills

Immigration, 1840-1860