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Spinning Wheels
Homes had spinning wheels and a hand loom before the mid 1700s. The hand-operated wheel made a single thread at a time. The loom was for weaving cloth. In 1760, James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny. It could spin eight threads at a time unlike a spinning wheel. A few years later, Edmund Cartwright created a power loom, run by water power. -
Textile Industry
The blooming of manufacturing in Amerca owed to some Britain events. They used machines on a large scale to produce handmade goods. The primary industry to be affected was the textile industry. (The large-scale production of woven fabric.) -
The Industrial Revolution Comes to Amerca
Britain desired to keep the textile industry a secret because it was infinitely important to their economy. A man named Samuel Slater wished for fortune and did not obey. He traveled to America and built a spinning mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. There, the spring of the American Industrial Revolution began. -
The Cotton Gin
In April of 1793, the Cotton Gin was in operation thanks to inventor Eli Whitney. New English mills created demand for cotton in the south, a discovered profitable crop. Cotton played a relevant role in the economy. It also made slavery more important than ever after it was just dying out. -
Interchangeable Parts
By 1800, inventor Eli Whitney developed interchangeable parts that sped up production and made repairs easier. Primarily, his task was to make 10,000 muskets in two years. It was dificult because each gun was slightly differed, meaning if a part broke, a new one had to be custom-made to replace it. Now using an assembly line, Eli could create hundreds of guns in the time it took a gunsmith to make one. -
Era of the Steam Boat
The steam engine was the symbol of the early Industrial Revolution. The first was invented in the early 1700s and carried America into a more modern society. It made possible a revolution in transportation. A man named Robert Fulton invented the steam boat Clermont and launched it into the Hudson River in 1807. Another design was by Henry Miller Shreve. His boat had a more powerful engine. His design opened a new era of trade and transportation on the Mississippi River. -
Encouraging Factories
A Boston merchant named Francis Cabot Lowell collaborated with a gifted mechanic to create the first America power looms. He then built a factory in Massachusetts which combined all the steps of textile production. The factory would be a model for other textile operations and later for other industries. -
Lowell Girls of the Industrial Revolution
Francis Cabot Lowell gathered young women to work in his factories. The "Lowell Girls" were 90 percent of the factory workforce. They were the first to experience the burden of the Industrial Revolution considering the malicious working conditions. -
Rising Women
By 1830, male workers at Lowell earned twice as much as the women. The women would be among the first in New England to organize into labor unions and demand better working conditions and wages. -
Railroads Take Over
Inventors refined the steam-powered locomotive. It provided a new means of transportation. -
No Hope for Slaves
Owing to the invention of the Cotton Gin, nearly 4 million African American southerners were laboring as slaves. Fortunately for them, some families treated them with respect. Otherwise, they had no freedom. Slaves had no rights. Although it was useless, they could be tried in court but only by whites. It was also legal to kill a slave who tried to escape. -
Urbanization...
By this year, nearly a quarter of Americans lived in cities instead of small towns. -
Immigrating Into a New World
After this year, millions of Catholics and Jews from Europe immigrated to America to find jobs in factories. They gave their labor and inventions to the nation's economy. -
Opening Up New Industries
The discovery of a way to make cheaper steal made it possible to build long-distance railroads, skyscrapers, and big bridges. Also, the invention of the light bulb and telephone opened up whole new industries. -
Corporations
Corporations played a major role in the economy. They were businesses chartered by states and owned by shareholding investors. They sold stock in order to raise capital to run the business. -
Rural towns to Modern Cities
By 1900, bantam towns bloomed into urban cities. Communities included factories, new neighborhoods with electric lights, and homes with plumbing.
