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Cotton Gin
While visiting a plamtation in 1793, a New Englander named Eli Whitney observed how slaves spent hours cleaning the seeds from cotton. Within days, he had invented the Cotton Gin, a machine that could clean 50 pomds of cotton in the time it took to clean one pound by hand. -
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The Market Revolution
Market Revolution WikiThe Market Revolution (1793–1909) in the United States was a drastic change in the manual labor system originating in south (but was soon moved to the north) and later spread to the entire world. Traditional commerce was made obsolete by improvements in transportation and communication. -
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Increase In Population
In the Northeast, between 1800 and 1860, the percentage of the population living in the cities grew from 9 to 35 percent. -
Louisiana Purchase
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, which was a large sum of money at the time. The Louisiana Purchase Treaty pushed the western boundary of the United States from the Mississippi River to the distant Rocky Mountains, at a cost of about four cents an acre. Critics of of Jefferson questioned his authority to purchase the land. -
Steam Boats
in 1807, Robert Fulton attatched a steam engine to two huge paddle wheels mounted on a raft. This sream-powered riverboat, the Clermont, chuggedup the Hudson River form New York to Albany, launching a new steamboat craze. -
The Cotton Mill
Boston merchant Francis Cabot Lowell, father of the factory system, opened his first cotton mill in 1814. Lowell's factory used a series of machines, housed in one building, that turned raw cotton into finished cloth. He hired young women from local farms to tend his machines. Many of these "mill girls" were happy to leave their unpaid farm work for a factory with job wages. -
Balanced States
By 1819, the number of slave states and free states was balanced at 11 each. -
Missouri Compromise
In 1820, Maine was asking to join the Union as a free state. This opened the way for a deal known as the Missouri Compromise, which was sponsored by Speaker of the House Henry Clay. Under the terms of compromise, Missouri would enter the Union as a free state, preserving the balance of power in the senate. In addition, the law drew a line across the Lousiana Territory at lattitude 36* 30'. North of that line, slavery would be banned. South of the line, it would be permitted. -
Jacksonian Democracy
As voting rights expanded, the United States became more democratic. In 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected president as the champion of the common man. -
Indian Removal Act
In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act to clear Indians from lands east of the Mississippi River. The plan was to move the tribes west to Indian Territory, which later became the state of Oklahoma. -
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Mexican/American War
Texas had one its independence from Mexico and America wanted Texas to enter the union. Mexico didn’t want Texas to become part of the union because Mexico was mainly anti slavery and the Texas area was pro slavery. In the end, Texas became part of the union and America won the war. -
Seneca Falls Convention
At an 1848 meeting in Seneca Falls, New York, a women's movement was launched that would last for decades. Its goal was equality under the law for both men and women. -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
The north did not know let alone care how harsh slavery in the south was. That is why a housewife by the name of Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a book called “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, based on similar experienced she witnessed, which was about a slave who was harshly treated by his owner. Uncle Tom’s Cabin opened the eyes of many people in the north, which played a role in bringing on the Civil War. -
The Attack on the Senate Floor
On May 22, 1856, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts was savagelt beaten on the floor of the Senate. The attack followed a speech Sumner had given entitled "The Crime Against Kansas." Sumner was an ardent abolitionist, and in his speech he had blasted fellow senators for passing a law that would allow slavery in Kansas Territory. -
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Civil War
The Civil War divided the country into the Union and the Confederacy (north and south). The Confederacy supported slavery while the Union were abolitionists. April 12th 1861, Fort Sumter, in Charleston, SC, the first shots of the Civil War were fired. Richmond, April 3rd, 1865, the Union captures confederate capital forcing the south to surrender. Appomattox Court House: April 9th 1865 official surrender by the confederacy.