Overshadowing the Negative: The American Industrial Revolution

By: Patrick Murphy

Industrialization changed the face of America when it first made it’s impression in the 19^th century, namely the 1850s and later. The Industrial Revolution had already swept across Europe and then made it across the Atlantic to the United States. Industrialization had many long reaching effects on the United States, including the economic difference between the Northern and Southern states, one of the causes of the Civil War. The advent of factories and mass production kicked the Northern states into high gear, but also led to bad relations with the South, where the economy was based solely on agriculture. Industrialization also linked the states together with railroads, allowed goods to be made quicker and sold at a more rapid pace through manufacturing, and improved the economy of the nation. The beneficial effects of industrialization have longer lasting and more important impacts than the disadvantageous effects.

The period of American industrialization served as a mark of independence for the young nation. By being able to produce its own goods, America no longer had to rely on foreign nations to acquire manufactured materials. Andrew Carnegie was an entrepreneur who used the new business practices to improve America’s railroads without the help of England. Instead of importing the steel, Carnegie bought the mines that produced it. He had direct access to the resources he needed, so the government did not have to rely on a European nation. In his memoirs, Thomas Jefferson wrote “He, therefore, who is now against domestic manufacture must be for reducing us either to dependence on that foreign nation, or to be clothed in skins and to live like wild beasts in dens and caverns”.[i] Jefferson also hints on the advancement in society that industrialization brings. Once America is heavily manufacturing goods, they will be above the pack of countries with agricultural-based economies. This idea of American superiority began to rise in the works of Phillip Schaff[ii] and James Fenimore Cooper,[iii] and it started with industrialization. This began another social revolution in the United States.

Mechanization also allowed the states to be connected as they never had before: through railroads. An intricate railroad system was constructed between 1820 and 1850. The effects of this network touched upon economical and social factors. The connection between the industrial North and the agricultural South helped trade between business owners and plantation owners, and the connection allowed the states to feel more united with their neighbors and beyond. In a report to Congress, the economic effects of railroads were described in detail.[iv] This report analyzed the cost of railroads, as well as how shipping costs are calculated. The report tracks the cost of wheat transportation, which was $22.27 per ton. It also recorded the cost of land needed to build the railroads on. This report marked the beginning of inter-state shipping costs. The railroad network was a huge step in American progress, and was one of the more influential aspects of industrialization in the United States.

The economy is what was most affected by industrialization, more so in the North than the South. In the North, factories were the main source of jobs and economical growth. People worked at machines that sped up the process of making good. Instead of products being hand made, they were now mass-produced in factories. In his book Recent Economic Changes and their Effect on the Production and Distribution of Wealth and the Well-Being of Society, David Wells wrote “Machinery is now recognized as essential to cheap production. Nobody can produce effectively and economically without it, and what was formerly known as domestic manufacture is now almost obsolete.” This statement summed up the idea the every factory owner had in his head at the time. Machines were the open door to success in the industrialized economy. Wells also writes on the subject of employment in these factories. Later on in his book, he writes “The whole number of employees in the cotton mills of the United States, according to the census of 1880, was 172,544; of this number, 59,685 were men and 112,859 women and children. In Massachusetts, out of 61,246 employees in the cotton mills, 22,180 are males; 31,496, women; and 7,570, children.” Factories created a shocking amount of jobs in American, allowing people to buy houses and consume because of a regular salary. The factories needed all the workers they could get to ship more products out. This mass-production fueled the economy because it allowed more to be sold and traded internationally. Although the quality of these products went down, the quaintly skyrocketed. That did not seem to matter, as profit was the highest of priorities.

Industrialization was all about success and profit. The workers in the factories suffered from long hours, safety hazards, and low wages. Writer Carroll D. Wright studied the effects on the mentalities of the individual worker in her writings.[v] This kind of neglect of the individual provoked the drastic decrease in product quality, as well an increase in workers discontent.[vi] The safety hazards cost many workers their limbs, and on some occasions, their lives. Records prove that thousands of workers died in the factories, more so than in Britain. Miners also died by the thousands. In a British study, researchers found that over five thousand American miners died between the years of 1890 and 1894, while just over one thousand died in Britain. The machines were economical, but they were also enormously unsafe. The increasingly low wages also forced a decline in motivation for the individual to do a good job on his or her part. The work was hard and sometimes immoral, but it was needed. Without industrialization, employment and crime would have increased tenfold. Although industrialization had negative effects on individual men, women, and children, the nation as a whole benefited.

Industry shaped the way the United States would function economically as well as socially and politically. It was a new world in America, and it effected each individual in any way, from the low level worker to the factory owner, to the soldier fighting for the North or South over differences that could not be solved any other way. America underwent an immense change in the 19^th century, more than any other it endured since its birth in 1776. This time period changed America in a way that had never been experienced before. Both good and bad, the country was molded into what it would later become and be able to achieve. Industrialization cause much pain and poverty, but the nation as a whole benefited deeply.

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[i] Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1829

[ii] America, A Sketch of the Political, Social, and Religious Character of the United States of North America, 1855

[iii] The American Democrat, 1838

[iv] 32 Congress, 1 Session, Senate Executive Document No. 112, 1852

[v] Journal of Social Science “The Factory System as an Element in Civilization,” 1882

[vi] The New Era, or The Coming Kingdom, Josiah Strong, 1893