Industrial Revolution
(1820s-1860s) transformed the US's economy into a market-base economy (the South exported cotton and the North exported manufactured goods), made easier by internal improvements
Eli Whitney
created the cotton gin (1793, in the South) which made growing cotton more profitable by reducing the amount of labor required to harvest cotton, transformed the South's main crops from indigo, rice, and tobacco to cotton, revived slavery which had been dying out
also created the idea of interchangeable parts (1798), allowed for mass production (via assembly line) in Northern factories
steel plow
(1837) in the West, made by John Deere, more efficient than difficult oxen drawn wooden plows
mechanical mower-reaper
(1834, in the West) created by Cyrus McCormick, considered the cotton gin of the West, allowed farmers to grow large quantities of wheat (instead of less profitable corn)
Cumberland Road
(1852) also called the National Road, most famous of the roads, went from Maryland to Illinois
Note: the North built roads and turnpikes to transport their goods while the South's road system was poor
Erie Canal
(1825) economically tied the East and the North, could also transport goods from the Great Lakes region to the Hudson River and Atlantic Ocean, land value around canals skyrocketed and cities developed around the waterways
steamboat
(1807) created by Robert Fulton, provided faster 2-way traffic on waterways
railroads
in the 1850s railroad construction expanded rapidly in new England and the Northwest
wage labor system from the 1830s-1860s
the South called it wage slaves and they felt slavery conditions were better than the conditions of wage slaves, workers moved to cities to work machines in unsanitary and poorly ventilated conditions at factories and mills for low wages and long hours so workers went on strike since the law prevented them from forming labor unions, children worked in these dangerous conditions, this...