Steamboat Economy In The 1800s

Between 1787 and 1808, 250,000 new slaves arrived in the U.S. because of the cotton boom (2). Plantation owners were involved in the slave trade which was the transporting and selling humans as slaves. When selling the slaves, prices varied depending on the person's skin color, sex, age and location (3). In 1834, a man named Joseph Ingraham wrote about the slave trade said that “to sell cotton in order to buy negroes—to make more cotton to buy more negroes, ‘ad infinitum,’ is the aim and direct tendency of all the operations of the thorough going cotton planter; his whole soul is wrapped up in the pursuit (3).” Families were separated because of the slave trade. Plantation owners would and could easily sell husbands from wives, parents from children, and brothers from sisters (12). A women named Mary Armstrong, who experienced slavery said this about her owner and the separating for families "so mean he never would sell the man and woman and (children) to the same one. He'd sell the man here and the woman there and if (there were children) he'd sell them someplace else

It was able to efficiently transport goods and products. Being able to harness the power of steam launched this. Steam-powered things replaced man-powered hand tools that resulted in more production. Before steam power, a water wheel was the main source of power in a factory. Robert Fulton invented his first steamboat in 1807. This boat was named The Clermont. It only took The Clermont 32 hours to travel from New York City to Albany, New York. Before this, people had to rely on wind-dependent boats, which took around five days. When the steamboat came in, people didn’t have to rely on favorable wind to travel. This allowed scheduled departures and arrivals. Steamboats also changed the type of goods that could be sold. Because transportation was now faster, farmers could sell surplus crops to remote locations without worrying about them spoiling while they are being delivered. In result, the selling of surplus crops boosted economic growth in local communities. Because of strong currents, older boats could only travel downstream on the Mississippi. However, the steamboat could travel up and down the Mississippi. It could travel from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to New Orleans,

Steamboats in the 1800s were very important in the United states. The development of steamboats, impact on the economy, and how they worked were important to the improvement of transportation.

In the 1700-1800’s, the use of African American slaves for backbreaking, unpaid work was at its prime. Despite the terrible conditions that slaves were forced to deal with, slave owners managed to convince themselves and others that it was not the abhorrent work it was thought to be. However, in the mid-1800’s, Northern and southern Americans were becoming more aware of the trauma that slaves were facing in the South. Soon, an abolitionist group began in protest, but still people doubted and questioned it. When Frederick Douglass published his self-written narrative, people finally got a fully comprehensive view of the life of a slave. To debunk the mythology of slavery, Douglass presents the cold, hard truth, displays slaves true intelligence,

In the late 19th century, railroads propelled America into an era of unprecedented growth, prosperity, and convenient transportation. Prior to the building of the railroads, America lacked the proper and rapid transportation to make traveling across the country economical or practical. Lengthy travel was often cumbersome, costly, and dangerous. With the advent of the railroad, many of these issues disappeared. Railroads had a major impact on advancing the American economy, transforming America into a modern society, and improving an antiquated transportation system.

The building of roads, canals and railroads played a large role in the United States during the 1800s. They served the purpose of connecting towns and settlements so that goods could be transported quickly and more efficiently. These goods could be transported fast, cheap and in safe way through the Erie Canal that was built to connect the Great Lakes to New York. Railroads were important during Civil War as well, because it helped in the transportation of goods, supplies and weapons when necessary. These new forms of transportation shaped the United States into the place that it is today.

After watching the movie, “The Return of Cuyahoga River” I was blown away by all of the history, facts, ignorance, and activism displayed in this film. There was so much information packed into this documentary. Information about this 100-mile long river that curves north and then south as it u’s along Lake Erie, and how in “1827 U.S. citizens changed the Cuyahoga River for the first time.” It was originally a swampy marsh infested with mosquitos and caused problems for the city of Cleveland Ohio. Cleveland was a small lazy town until the mouth of the river was widened by humans allowing for mercantile boats to pass by their town. These trade boats came from Europe and now passed through Cleveland on their way down to the Gulf of Mexico polluting at every point along the journey. “In 1862, Congress passed the first of several railroad acts that would eventually connect the continent, lessening the need for rivers as a major mode of transportation within the commercial, public, and military sectors. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Navigation Data Center reported declining commercial traffic on many of the nation's waterways.” (Harlow ) Despite the railroad acts, influential business men

The North and South were both different and similar in how they operated. They were mostly based on the categories of transportation, agriculture, geography/climate, labor/industry, and society during the early 1800’s. These categories decided how much the North and South would progress as the country continued to grow.

During the 1800’s, Slavery was an immense problem in the United States. Slaves were people who were harshly forced to work against their will and were often deprived of their basic human rights. Forced marriages, child soldiers, and servants were all considered part of enslaved workers. As a consequence to the abolition people found guilty were severely punished by the law. Slavery in the US was firstly introduced in 1619 when tobacco and crops had to be grown effectively. Such people were discriminated and forced to work under strict regulations after being insufficiently paid. This was carried out both in the 17th and 18th Century until America literally divided into two parts leading to a tremendous, violent war named the American Civil War, which

Before the Gilded Age, transportation of any sort was slow, unreliable, and unavailable. However, with the invention of the assembly line and some invention, mass produced automobiles, subterranean trains, elevated trains and basic airplanes were spread out. Therefore, during the late 19th century, transportation was allowing for extreme expanse of trade and economic capability.

The first of these two controversial themes, is what the best method was to manage and keep all of one's slaves under control. In the first summary, Stampp explains that slaves are very troublesome and will do anything to get their freedom; even violent revolt. Stampp reiterates that, “Slaves sought to limit the quantity of their services in many different ways”(263). Based on this information, Stampp would argue that the only way to counter this and keep these slaves under control is to keep them under a strict and watchful eye at all times. In doing so this would limit the amount of ways that slaves could retaliate and take revenge on their masters. The second analysis consists of how extremely meticulous and successful the organization and division of labor among the southern plantations were. The authors Fogel and Engerman also describe slaves possessing, “an extraordinary intensity of labor”(283). In order to successfully keep the plantation running smoothly, Fogel and Engerman would argue that the best way to maintain control of slaves would be to give them management positions. In doing so, slaves would be able to manage themselves and also have opportunities to progress up the chain of command; which would result in them feeling content while letting the owner maintain complete control. The third and final author would likely argue that the best way to maintain control of slaves would be to keep them happy. One successful way to do this would be to let the slaves work in groups. Genovese explains one of the ways to achieve this is to, “organize hoeing in a line, so that everyone works alongside someone else and yet has his own task”(312). If the slaves are happy and content, they are likely to do more

Traveling for trade’s or for visit was a lot more faster after the steamboat was invented. It was a lot more easier to travel upriver and going against its current. Before the steamboat was even invented, they took more time and a lot more energy when going up steam or against the current. The use of steam speed up the efficient transportation of perishable good and trades. Steamboat was extremely valuable during the civil war.

By the early 1800’s, the vastly growing cotton industry soared as cotton became the nation’s most important and valuable export. The development of the cotton gin only further propelled the cotton industry into economic success. The cotton gin took care of the hard tedious work that slaves used to have to undertake and increased the pace and the quantities in which cotton bales were produced. Working among the cotton fields, slaves adopted the gang system. The gang system was most commonly used in the cotton industry; to speed up production but also formally used among tobacco and sugar production. Under the gang system, slaves suffered long days of intense labor working from sunrise till sunset. The gang system was the most harsh of the two

After the war of 1812, a revolution took over transportation, leading to the Market Revolution. People in power realized that it was necessary to improve the country’s transportation network in order to keep up with the growing economy. The invention of the steamboat brought economic development to the trans-Appalachian west. The Erie Canal, which was the longest man-made waterway, linked the region around the Great Lakes to the Atlantic coast, through the Hudson River. Additionally, railroads were built to improve the speed of commerce. Abraham Lincoln embraced the revolution and personally represented the Illinois Central Railroad. In 1806, the Congress authorized the building of toll roads called turnpikes. However, they were far too expensive,

At the center of the entire institution of slavery, and central to its defense, was the economic domination it provided a young country in international markets. In the early 19th century, cotton was a popular commodity and overtook sugar as the main crop produced by slave labor. The production of cotton became the nation’s top priority; America supplied ¾ of the cotton supply to the entire world. At the expense of the freedom of an