Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
complemented by increased ability to deliver products faster and further. Shipping
along waterways became faster after the invention of the rst steamboat in 1807. By
the 1840s, however, this primary mode of shipping was rivaled by the exponential
growth of the railroad and its ability to reach places without navigable waterways.
In 1840, less than ten years after a functional steam locomotive had been built in
America, there was more than 3000 miles of railroad track; twenty years later,
there was ten times that number.
The increase in raw materials, the ability to process them, and the ability to
move them led to expanding markets that required a new form of labor. Previously,
fabrication of goods was done according to the outwork system: piecework was
done by individuals in their own homes and then sent to a central location for nal
assembly. The outwork system had low pay and uncertain workloads. With the
increased need for workers and the development of machinery beyond what could
be used in a home, the factory system replaced the outwork system. Under this
system, the workers came together at one central location to work and often to live
as well, as with the famous textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts. The improved
pay and the variety and independence oered by this new work system attracted
the daughters of New England farmers. This change also contributed to what
would become an ongoing shift of the American population from rural to urban
communities and of the American economy from an agricultural to an industrial
emphasis.
The population of America was also expanding during the nineteenth century.
As J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur’s titular farmer James observes, Americans
had been a “promiscuous breed” even before America was an independent nation.
Famines and warfare in Europe sent even more people to the United States looking
for a more congenial place to grow. From 1820 to 1870, over seven and a half
million immigrants came to America. The largest group within that period were
the Irish, and many contributed to the building of the railroad and canal systems
on the eastern seaboard. Germans made another large immigrant group, many
settling in Texas or in the Midwest and working in the meatpacking industry. The
Chinese, an immigrant group unknown to farmer James, also came to America,
particularly to California. Many were lured by news of the 1849 gold rush and
driven by roadblocks to prosperity at home. They ultimately became the primary
work force that extended the railroad system in the West Coast.
The extension of American territory and the division of the American population
between agricultural producers and those in trade had political repercussions as
well. The Federalist party of the previous century had dwindled away, leaving
Democratic-Republicans as the only major political party left during the socalled
Era of Good Feelings. However, there were developing divisions within the
party, particularly over banking and currency issues and Southern slavery. With
the banking issues, the tensions were between those in trade and farmers over
debt terms; paper money versus hard currency; and the banks’ role in the Panic
of 1819 and its following depression. With slavery, the conict was over whether
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