1820 - 1869 Expansions and Inequalities Industry and Immigration

Key Ideas

  1. The Industrial Revolution transformed every facet of American life.
  2. Women made significant contributions to the Industrial Revolution.
  3. Americans did not welcome early waves of immigrants to the U.S.

Introduction

Unknown Artist, The Five Points, ca. 1827? The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Mrs. Screven Lorillard (Alice Whitney), from the collection of Mrs. J. Insley Blair, 2016.

The inventions and innovations of the Industrial Revolution transformed every aspect of American life, from the food people ate, to the places they lived and the games they played. For the first time, women were encouraged to leave their family homes and work for wages, and inventors sought ways to ease the burden of caring for home and family. Of course, these advancements came at a high cost. The rise of the cotton mill, which offered new opportunities for liberation to white women in the North, exacerbated the tragedy of enslavement for Black women in the South. Women workers were tightly controlled by their employers to maintain the social subordination of women. Cities were overwhelmed with the rapid influx of job seekers, resulting in the formation of slums. And the unprecedented use of fossil fuels started a climate crisis that continues to this day. 

In the midst of this moment of upheaval, large groups of immigrants began to arrive in the U.S. for the first time. They gladly took jobs that most Americans found demeaning but were viewed with suspicion and largely treated as culturally inferior objects of disdain. In spite of these challenges, some immigrant women led important movements for equality and justice, and others achieved wild success, demonstrating for aspiring immigrants that the U.S. was a land of endless possibility.

Section Essential Questions

  1. How were women’s lives impacted by the changes of the Industrial Revolution?
  2. What were the experiences of early immigrants to the U.S.?
  3. How did the Industrial Revolution give rise to the labor and women’s suffrage movements?

Resources

Note: You can find additional resources about the experiences of Black women during this period of industrialization in A Nation Divided.

A board game that demonstrates how the Industrial Revolution impacted every part of American life.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Industrialization, entertainment, home and family, technological innovation, American values
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The rules that all women employed by Boott Mills were expected to follow to keep their jobs.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Industrialization, mills, mill girls, American values, Massachusetts
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An account of the single largest slave auction in U.S. history.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Industrialization, slavery, cotton trade, abolition, family life, childhood, Georgia
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Two conflicting accounts of life as a mill worker written by women.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Industrialization, mills, mill girls, labor activism, propaganda, Massachusetts
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An engraving that shows the different jobs in a cotton mill.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Industrialization, mills, mill girls, labor activism, childhood, work
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An inventor harnesses the principles of thermodynamics to bring a beloved dessert to the masses.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Industrialization, inventors, innovations, STEM, patent, coverture
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An illustration of life in one of the United States’ most notorious slums.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Industrialization, urbanization, daily life, city live, urban planning, working class, poor, slums, New York
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An advertisement for the first home washing machine reveals how the Industrial Revolution touched all parts of American life.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Industrialization, daily life, home and family, social class, domestic servants, inventions, gender roles
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Two images illustrate the conflicting attitudes toward Irish domestic servants.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Immigration, Irish immigrants, daily life, home and family, social class, domestic servants, inventions, gender roles
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An amateur scientist warns that carbon dioxide is bad for the environment in 1856.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Industrialization, chemistry, science history, climate change, factories, gender roles, coverture
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Excerpts from the book that laid the foundation for the Nativist movement in the U.S.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Immigration, literature, nativism, Know Nothings
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Life Stories

The story of a telegrapher for the Pennsylvania Railroad.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Industrialization, invention, innovations, telegraph, childhood, railroad, gender roles, work, Civil War, Pennsylvania
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The story of an Irish immigrant who becomes a beloved pillar of New Orleans society.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Immigration, Irish immigrants, childhood, yellow fever, westward migration, New Orleans, nativism, work, charity, Civil War, Louisiana, Maryland
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The story of the first-recorded Chinese woman to travel to the United States.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Immigration, Chinese immigrants, trade, American culture, market revolution, race and racism
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The story of a Polish immigrant who became a famous activist in the U.S.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS:
Immigration, Polish immigrants, women’s rights, free thought, abolition
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