CFHS AP US History

Notes for October 24, 2006
Causes for the Market Revolution: belief that importing goods from other countries was risky
(1800-1830) Impact of the Market Revolution: - size of families goes down
- New England farmers become customers: produce specialized crops for market and buy other goods at market
- sharper distinction between men and women's work; men's job to earn money, women's work not part of the cash economy (i.e. men would milk cows and grow crops while women would raise kids and focus on the family)
- larger variety in clothing ( could buy materials instead of making them)
- houses become more decorated, seperate kitchens, more privacy (seperate rooms)
Samuel Slater's Mill: spun cottin yarn and thread
Difference between Slater's mill and the Waltham System: the Waltham company produced finished cloth products unlike Slater's mill which makes the materials
The Workers of the Waltham System were mostly young, single women from farms (a BIG decision for families to let children go off to work and leave home); status of women: sober, went to church, lived in boardinghouses supervised carefully by chaperoines
People near seaports [coastal area] easy access to canals and rivers -->encouraged entrepeneurs and markets
People in inland areas cut off from the coast, not encouraged to move products overland because on land transportation was bad --> subsistence farmers
Inland Subsistence Economy (1800-1830's) encourages family and community cooporation, demanded a lot of labor-->bigger family, more children(6 -8), marriages delayed (till couples had enough money to support family), romance put off instead concentrated on hard rigorous work to support the farm
Implications of Subsistent farming
-- need for cheap land to survive and support children
-- Division of Powers: sons worked with fathers(held power, controlled labor divisions)
daughters worked with mothers(housework)
--As children and parents get old, children need to grow surplus to support parents(also trying to get own land)-->kids working for their parents a long time
--Father holds title to family property(can delay children's hold to property until married)
--Daughters neede to look for husbands with land(oldest and youngest son's usually inherited parent's land) led to area being dominated by clan-like households
--farms not completely self-sufficient- provided services to neighbors not to markets(neighbors cooporated when raising houses, corn husking ect...)
--Migration: settlement growth-->led to more expensive land, surplus not big enough to buy land for children-->solution:either parents or children could move West where cheaper land was, Problem: land eventually will run out