The North (1800-1845)A. The Industrial Revolution

Learning Target: I can explain the opportunities and challenges that the

Industrial Revolution brought to American life in the North.

A. What was the Industrial Revolution?Began in the 1700s in Britain in the textile (cloth-making) industry

Instead of the time-consuming

spinning wheels and hand looms used to

make thread and cloth, new machines

were invented to help speed up this

process

Machines gradually took the place of hand tools

Power once provided by people and horses were replaced by running water and then by steam engines

Spinning jenny → invented in 1760s

It took one person almost two weeks to make one pound of cotton thread

this way!

1764 – Richard Arkwright invents the

water frame: a spinning machine

powered by running water rather than

human energy

this led to the factory system, where workers and machines were brought together in one place

O Now workers had go to the factory to

work O Had specific begin

and end times for work

O Had to keep up with machines instead of keeping own pace

The water frame required textile mills to be built on the banks of rivers

$MONEY$$ New systems

required lots of money to build, so mill owners

turned to capitalists (people who invest capital, or money, in businesses to earn a

profit)$ Factories were a

good investment: by 1784, British workers

were producing 24 times as much thread

as in 1765

1790 – Arkwright built the first

steam-powered textile plant

• More reliable because do not have to built on a river

so are not subject to droughts

• Now the factories can be built in cities, where young

women and children can provide cheap labor

Samuel Slater

O Instant Success! Slater’s factory began

producing cotton thread at rate never before seen in the

U.S.

• In 1789 Slater decided to immigrate to the U.S.

• He had been an apprentice in one of Arkwright’s factories in England,

and knew the machine would be worth a lot of $ in U.S.

• At the time, it was forbidden for anyone to take machine

plans out of Britain, so he memorized them

• When he arrived in NYC, he joined with a wealthy merchant who

owned a textile mill in RI

• There, he constructed Arkwright’s spinning machine completely from

memory

AMERICAN INDUSTRIALIZAION

Began in the Northeast, where merchants there had the capital to build factories and buy

raw materialsO Industry did not take off in the U.S. until the

War of 1812 – WHY do you think this was?

Lowell’s factory system

O After a trip to England before the war, Lowell returned to MA & built

an improved version of the weaving

machines he had seen:O instead of obtaining

thread from separate spinning mills,

Lowell’s factory brought together

spinning and weaving in one

building

Lowell used the labor of girls in the mill town. The

girls lived in a mill boardinghouse under strict

supervision. They also gained an education while there.

Child Labor

O Not all factory owners treated their workers like Lowell’s mill girls

Factory conditions were harsh:

O Poorly lightedO Little fresh airO No compensation

for injuries on the job

O Worked 12-14 hours

Many children were working before the Industrial Revolution,

however they were generally working on family farms.

Working in factories created unsafe conditions and no

opportunities for education.

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN!A. After completing the questions

and chart of inventions from the start of the Industrial Revolution,

it’s time to create your own invention!

B. Then, answer the exit questions:

1. Decide which of the inventions listed was most

important to the industrialization of our

nation. 2. Explain how the industrial

revolution changed the way people lived and worked in

America

➢ What would you invent to impact our world

today?