The Industrial Revolution started in Great Britain during the mid 18th century. Before the Industrial Revolution started the majority of the people lived and worked on farms. Samuel Slater brought the Industrial Revolution from Great Britain to the United States in 1790. The Industrial Revolution and the inventions were a closely kept secret for Great Britain. Slater in order to bring the Industrial Revolution to the United States disguised himself as a farmer and left(McCormick). After the Industrial Revolution there was a great migration of workers towards the urban areas of New England. The textile industry was one of the first industry to be affected by the Industrial Revolution(McCormick).
There was an increase of inventions being made during this revolution. One major inventure during this time was Eli Whitney. Eli Whitney was born in 1765 and attended Yale in 1789(Corrick).Whitney established a gun factory in 1798 and produces around ten thousand needed muskets(Corrick). Whitney invented the cotton gin and interchangeable parts. Interchangeable parts helped increase the amount of goods produced in a short amount of time and parts could easily be replaced if broken. He invented the cotton gin in less than two weeks(Corrick). Cotton gin is a machine that picks out seeds and other plant materials that are not needed or wanted in the product from the plantations. The Cotton gin greatly affected the Southern areas where all the plantations and slaves were. The North changed from agricultural to industrial while the south stayed in the agricultural ways. The Cotton gin created a greater demand for slaves in order to pick and sell more cotton.Slave demand increased by five times in about fifty years(Miss. Walsh). The south had two thirds of the entire world’s cotton supply. The Industrial Revolution caused a rift between the south and the north which eventually lead up to the Civil war.
Another inventor that had a great effect during the Industrial Revolution was Samuel F.B. Morse. Morse invented the telegraph(People). Morse also went to Yale. The telegraph revolutionized communications. Instead of waiting days upon days people could get messages within minutes. This would also affect how information was received during future wars like the Civil war. After Morse received his patent he was put into a law battle over who invented the telegraph first(People). He didn’t recieve his recognition until later in his life.
Market Revolution was to create a more efficient way to transport people, raw materials, and finished goods(US History). Market Revolution connected western farms to eastern markets(Miss.Walsh). Transportation before the Industrial Revolution took along time from weeks to months. Roads and railroads and other sources of transportation were invented during the Industrial revolution. Before the Industrial Revolution the roads were in poor conditions. The first national road was the Cumberland road that connected Maryland to Virginia(weebly). A main railroad during the Industrial Revolution was the Baltimore and Ohio. This was a great accomplishment compared to the smaller railroads that were used beforehand(weebly). The railroads help distribution cost to decrease and industry to expand. Canals were another type of transportation that was commonly used during the Industrial Revolution. A main canal that was used was the Erie canal. The cost of inland goods went from one hundred dollars a ton to less than eight dollars a ton due to the cheap route of the canals. Steamboats were used for to carry passengers and goods.
During the Industrial Revolution there was two social classes added. The middle class were businessmen and were pretty well off with their jobs. The middle class had virtues and were called a self made man(Miss.Walsh).The middle class did not the upper classes due to them being born into that class and not earning their right to be there. Believed that the working class could move up classes by hard work.
While in the working class you were replaceable and were hired and fired on a drop of a dime.The working class had no political power(Miss.Walsh). An average adult worker worked for five to seven days with a half day or more shifts(Research). The working class lived in workhouses and others lived in tenements. Women and children were the prefered type of worker because they were not paid as much as the men for the same type of work and hours. Women between sixteen and thirty were paid roughly two dollars and forty cent to three dollars and forty cent per week(McCormick). Workhouses was a house near the workplace that women paid out of their wages to live there. Tenements was a building with apartment like rooms that were shared with families.Tenements were extremely unsanitary. The waste from the tenements would seep through the ground and contaminate the water supply(Infogr). Diseases spread quickly throughout the tenements.The most common disease that the tenement people had was cholera (Infogr). Cholera is a bacterial disease causing severe diarrhea and dehydration that was spreading through the water. The diseases were causing many deaths. The families were so packed together that hygiene wasn’t a main priority(Infogr). While the parents and older children were out working the younger children would stay home all alone.
Child labor was a common thing during the Industrial Revolution. The children had to work due to the wages for the working class were so low that the families needed another way to get that money. Injuries and mistreatment of the children were very prevalent. Some children put their hand in the wrong place or any other accident can result in a loss of limb or even death. The work overseer would beat and whip kids for doing the smallest thing wrong. In the 1900 around eighteen percent of all the American workers were under the age of sixteen and in the south twenty five percent were under fifteen working in cotton mills(History). Child labor was also used in the Boott Cotton Mill in Lowell, Massachusetts which was a famous textile mill in New England(nps).
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