More handpicked essays just for you.
Effects of the market revolution in usa society
Gender roles in the 19th and 20th
Gender role of the 19th century
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Women and the Market Revolution
During the nineteenth century, America went through a number of social, economic and political changes. Revolutions in manufacturing and commerce led to substantial economic growth. Several cultural movements reformed American society. Mary Paul, once just a normal girl from Vermont, led a life that was shaped by the changes of the 1800's. The information gathered from Mary Paul's letters to her father make it clear that Mary's life experiences turned her into anything but an average woman. However, in the scope of the economic and cultural reforms of the nineteenth century, Mary Paul represents the average American.
Before the Marketing Revolution, women had a very limited role in society. They were in charge of child raising and housekeeping. They were financially dependent on their husbands because it was simply not their place to earn their own wage. At this point in history, Mary Paul would have fit the mold of a typical American woman. It is safe to assume that although Mary may have dreamed of economic independence and the ability to buy what she wanted, she would have followed in the footsteps of women before her getting married, raising children and keeping a home. When factories and new machines begin revolutionize the American economy, some women like Mary Paul are changed forever. In a letter asking her father's permission to work at Lowell Mills, Mary writes, "I think [working at Lowell] would be much better for me than to stay about here. I could earn more to begin with than I can any where about here. I am in need of clothes which I cannot get..." The Marketing Revolution creates opportunity for women to earn their own wages and buy things, like clothes, which they may not have been able to buy at their respective homes. In her first letter from Lowell, Mary writes, "I like very well have 50 cts first payment increasing every payment as I get along in work..." Mary is very excited to be earning her own money. These payments represent a liberation for women from the economic constraints of American society. Mary Paul was just one of many women who experienced these historic changes.
Eventually, Mary Paul's pursuit of success and happiness takes her in a different direction. She begins to show dissatisfaction with Lowell after working there for only a month. She describes the dangers of working at the mill, "one girl fell down and broke her neck.
In The Kingdom of Matthias by Johnson and Wilentz, the authors clearly show the significance that the historical events had on the larger economic, social, and religious changes occurring in the United States during the 1820s and 1830s. Both social hierarchy and gender played a large role in the changes during that time period. The effect of the large differences in gender roles exhibited in the The Kingdom of Matthias is still visible and relevant in America’s society today.
Women of the nineteenth century had very set expectations. There were only two types of women: upper class bourgeoisie and lower class farmer’s wives or daughters. Women were considered physically weaker to men, which meant that they were best suited to the domestic sphere while the men workers and made the money. The mill girls defied all of this, and created their own class of women: wage earning middle class women. These women were not like farmers’ wives that were typically uneducated, nor like the bourgeoisie women that were educated, by mostly in domestic and “womanly” skills. The mill girls went to college if they so desired, most of the time doing that in the stead of getting married and becoming a housewife. The mill girls were a
The time of the Industrial Revolution was one of immense change for both men and women. The new advancements of British machinery that sparked the Industrial Revolution transformed the economy and way of life in the United States, specifically New England and neighboring states. The recent developments lead to children and women, most of whom were immigrants, to work in factories to produce textiles and ready-made clothing. The factory owners of Lowell exploited the girls’ safety and time, yet the occupation provides opportunities that were not even imaginable before.
Caroline Phelps provides an insightful look into the changing face of America including: The changing American economy, the prominence of the American Fur Company, and a shift in white and Indian relations. The years of Caroline Phelps’ life are some of the most significant years of our countries existence. There were many revolutionary modifications to our country and through this journal we can get a clear perspective of life in the mid 1800’s.
There were many key elements of the market revolution. During the early nineteenth century, large economic changes known as the market revolution forever changed America.What triggered these massive changes was new innovations in communication and transportation. During the colonial times, technology was not very advanced, there were not any canals, ships were not very fast and all manufactured goods were created by hand. Many farm families in the 1800s were not bound to the marketplace and just made most of what they needed to live on at home. With the lack of canals or other means of transportation, it was almost impossible for many farmers to reach distant cities or waterways to get their goods to market. The serious demand for quick
In the early 19th century, America was experiencing an increase in economic, political, and social changes. One of the mass changes happened during the Market Revolution. What this revolution did for Americans that lived in a more rural environment was basically make things and traded them themselves. They would raise crops and animals to be traded or sold for food, clothing, etc. Factories in the North flourished and the US became more industrialized as people trade money for necessities or wants. The Market Revolution gave women the role of importance in their family life. Women became the new leading member of their family because they were the ones who kept the family together and raised the children and prepare them for adulthood in America. Although the Industrial Revolution brought positive changes to America it also shifted the lifestyles of people and their family.
Shortly after the War of 1812, the nation’s ideals of community began to shift to a more individualized approach, which led to numerous reforms and movements. Individualism allows one to act or think outside of what is culturally or socially accepted. This period of time became known as the antebellum period, where social and moral reforms were popularized through political reform, abolition and women’s suffrage movements. Individualism and reform impulses were interdependent upon each other, without one the other could not be as strong; therefore, the desire for individualism established the basis for numerous reforms and movements during the antebellum period of the United States.
The market revolution was a time of change, liberation, growth, and of course American ingenuity. This new kind of revolution brought about many changes in the lives of Americans everywhere. New technology from the steamboat to the telegraph connected the country in a new way. The emergence of factories (and the factory system) brought the growth of commerce, specialization of products, and many jobs to a rapidly growing nation. The market revolution benefited our country by impacting the social groups of the slaves and the middle class, generating a change in laws of the economy and warranting the redefining of freedom.
One of the most significant sociological changes in the nation's history began in the last decade of the nineteenth century and the ramifications are still being felt today. This change consisted of the large numbers of women who entered the work force. This dramatic change in American society was accompanied by a great deal of controversy and prejudice directed towards women. It was predicted that female employment would bring about the downfall of society and the change of the American family.
A huge part of the economical grow of the United States was the wealth being produced by the factories in New England. Women up until the factories started booming were seen as the child-bearer and were not allowed to have any kind of career. They were valued for factories because of their ability to do intricate work requiring dexterity and nimble fingers. "The Industrial Revolution has on the whole proved beneficial to women. It has resulted in greater leisure for women in the home and has relieved them from the drudgery and monotony that characterized much of the hand labour previously performed in connection with industrial work under the domestic system. For the woman workers outside the home it has resulted in better conditions, a greater variety of openings and an improved status" (Ivy Pinchbeck, Women Workers and the Industrial Revolution, 1750-1850, pg.4) The women could now make their own money and they didn’t have to live completely off their husbands. This allowed women to start thinking more freely and become a little bit more independent.
The women in the mills found independence, earned money and experienced freedoms unavailable in their home communities. They helped their families during the changing market in America. Seller describes “with the agrarian crisis and capitalist transformation delaying marriages, skewing sex ratios and reducing textile production, straitened Yankee farm families needed mill wages
The oppression and discrimination the women felt in this era launched the women into create the women’s right movement. The economic growth in the market economy women opportunity to work was very low Lucy Stone explained that the same society that pushes men forward keeps woman at home (Doc. H). Only low paying jobs were available such as factories, seamstress, or a teacher and in most states women had no control over their wages. Charlotte Woodward explained how she would sew gloves for a terrible wage but it was under rebellion she wished to choose her own job and the pay (Doc.E). The chart on Doc F explained how women between 1837-1844 dominated men as teachers in the Massachusetts Public School. The idea of the “cult of true womanhood” was that most respectable middle class women should stay at home and take care of the family and be the moral of the home. The advancement in the market economy gave women a chance to make their own money to be able to support themselves and work outside of the home. The nineteenth century was a ferment of reform such as the Second...
The United States was only a country for about 15 years before the basic way of life for people in the country changed drastically. We developed politically and economically, expanded westward and divided along sectional borders. However, these are not the only characteristics that define this time. 1790-1860 was a period of rapid industrialization, market revolution and changing social order. This was largely due to advanced methods of transportation, mechanization and the changes in women’s roles.
The Market Revolution transformed various aspects of American society because of the development of new inventions, ideologies, and lifestyles. From 1790 to 1840, the improvement of national transportation methods, the commercialization of the American market system, and the beginning of industrialization fostered the Market Revolution and affected the country economically, socially, and even religiously. The Industrial Revolution occurred in Western European countries such as France, England and Germany beginning in 1760 and completely altered the European market, workplace, and society by the time the inventions and technological ideas diffused into the United States. In 1791, Alexander Hamilton expressed “the necessity of enlarging the sphere of our domestic commerce”1 and therefore supported and funded American industries. With the help of the government, the Market Revolution initiated the expansion of the marketplace due to the connection of distant communities, such as western cities with seaboard cities, for the first time due to the advances in infrastructure. This would cause the shift away from local and regional markets to national and international markets abroad. The Market Revolution changed aspects of American life such as labor, transportation, commercialization, family life, new values produced by evangelical religion, sentimentalism, and transcendentalism, and the birth of the new middle class from 1790 to 1840.
The market today has become so important that society takes it as completely natural. From “The Economic Problem” Heilbroner describes three main solutions, with the market being one. Furthermore into the market, Polanyis book “The great Transformation” gives insight on how much society actually allows the market to dominate. To Polanyi a market society is seen as social relations embedded in the economy instead of the economy being embedded in social relations. Examining both of these books gives a great understanding on how life was without the market and how it came to be. Taking note of Rineharts work as well on how the workplace has drastically been changed by the market is key to analyzing the transformation as a whole. As a result of the transformation, not only has human labour been altered, but another author known as Weber states that certain peoples view on the world have also be affected. This essay will establish how “the great transformation” (Polanyi) from a traditional society to one based on a market economy has vastly impacted societal workplaces, and societal beliefs around faith of idealogical conditions.