SECTION 1: Industry and Transportation
▲ Lowell girl weaving in textile mill
Lowell girl lunch pail ►
WITNESS HISTORY 
AUDIO
Dawn of the Industrial Age
The United States experienced a revolution in the early 1800s—a revolution in the way many people lived and worked. This revolution introduced factory methods of production from Great Britain. Here, a Lowell mill girl writes to her father about her work schedule at the textile mill:
“Dear Father, I am well which is one comfort…. At half past six [the bell] rings for the girls to get up and at seven they are called into the mill. At half past 12 we have dinner and are called back again at one and stay till half past seven. I get along very well with my work.”
—Mary Paul, December 21, 1845
Objectives
- Summarize the key developments in the transportation revolution of the early 1800s.
- Analyze the rise of industry in the United States in the early 1800s.
- Describe some of the leading inventions and industrial developments in the early 1800s.
Terms and People
- turnpike
- National Road
- Erie Canal
- Industrial Revolution
- Samuel Slater
- Francis Cabot Lowell
- Lowell girl
- interchangeable parts
- Eli Whitney
- Samuel F.B. Morse
NoteTaking
Reading Skill: Identify Causes and Effects Fill in a table with the causes and effects of the transportation revolution and industrialization.
| Causes | Effects |
|---|---|
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Why It Matters Developments in technology began to transform life in the United States in the early 1800s. New methods of transporting and manufacturing goods changed the way people lived and worked. The United States was set on a course of industrialization that would shape life in the nation for decades. Section Focus Question: How did transportation developments and industrialization affect the nation’s economy?
The Transportation Revolution
The original 13 states hugged the Atlantic Coast, and all major settlements in the United States sprang up near a harbor or river because water provided the most efficient way to move people and goods. At the start of the nineteenth century, overland transportation consisted of carts, wagons, sleighs, and stagecoaches pulled by horses or oxen over dirt roads. Moving goods just a few dozen miles by road could cost as much as shipping the same cargo across the ocean.
Improving the Roads
In an effort to improve overland transportation, some states chartered companies to operate turnpikes—roads for which users had to pay a toll. The term came from the turnpikes, or gates, that guarded entrances to the roads. Turnpike operators were supposed to use toll income to improve the roads and ease travel. But only a few turnpikes made a profit, and most failed to lower transportation costs or increase the speed of travel. The country’s lone decent route, which was made of crushed rock, was the National Road. Funded by the federal government, this roadway
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