J. Kelly Robison


The Market Revolution


  1. Introduction
  2. The Transportation Revolution
    1. Roads
    2. Canals
    3. Steamships
    4. Railroads
  3. Economic Takeoff
    1. Agriculture and the New Market Economy
      1. Subsistence to Commercial Agriculture
      2. Expanding Markets
    2. Early Industrialization
      1. New Technologies
      2. From Crafthall to Factory
        1. The Lowell System
      3. Corporations and Finance
  4. People and the Early Industrial Revolution
    1. A People in Motion
      1. Westward Expansion
      2. Population growth
      3. The Second Great Wave of Immigration
      4. Urbanization
    2. Labor in Market America
      1. Artisan Culture
      2. The Mechanics
        1. Trade Unions
    3. Class
      1. The Working Class
      2. The New Middle Class
  5. Conclusions

Significant terms:

National Road Erie Canal Gallatin Plan
flatboats steamboats Robert Fulton
railroads National Market subsistence agriculture
commercial agriculture John Deere Cyrus McCormick
Samuel Slater Lowell , MA Eli Whitney
interchangeable parts population growth urbanization
Second Wave of Immigration nativism Irish Potato Famine
Chinese immigrants Know-Nothing Party "corporate family"
new middle class voluntary organization Cult of True Womanhood

Study Questions:

What new forms of transportation emerged from 1800 to the Civil War? How did these forms of transportation stimulate the development of a new national economy?

How did factories differ from earlier forms of production in the United States? Why did these factories develop? How did they change over time?

quiz - Transportation Revolution

quiz - Market Revolution

quiz - Early Industrialization

quiz - People and Early Industrialization


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