Overview Of The American Industrial Revolution

The vast growth of American economics during the period between 1790s-1890s can be attributed to the American industrial revolution, this had a monumental impact on how we Americans live today; whether it would be if one were to go to the grocery store to buy commodities or if a person were to work a job that requires leaving ones house, the American industrial revolution definitely affected the way people in America live today.

Starting around the mid18th century, the American industrial revolution was a time of invention, innovation, and enlightenment into a new, more modern America. One of the supposed people behind the spark of technology in America is Samuel slater, who built a mill after an older design he had plagiarized. According to ushistory.org, the mill in question spun cotton into yarn, whilst he also opened America to the newer technology in the works of creating a better future.

The industrial revolution may have been the most enlightening event in the United States history aside from the American revolution itself, and most definitely the push that American technology and machinery alike to advance and become better and better throughout time as all technology does, and as technology advances so along comes society and economics.

Due to the change to come with the effect of the industrial revolution in America, many people lost their business at home such as sewing, leathercraft, and blacksmithing, granted most of these professions may have made business, it wasn’t the average customer anymore due to factory-made products being cheaper and better-made products with less error and readily available stocks.

As some jobs became harder to accrue business, other jobs were enhanced by the technology made during this period. One of these professions would be farming due to the invention of the seed drill and the mass production of the horse plow, making farming equipment cheaper and more readily available, a farmer could tend more land in less time than ever before, earning them more profit and a new kind of farming in which the crop goes to the consumer instead of the farmers’ personal feed, according to foundations.uwgb.org farming became one of, if not the biggest profession due to the money In selling crops such as wheat, sorghum, and barley. Due to this way of life, sharecropping became an average income wage join America; therefore, profiting millions of Americans during this time period.

Once the American Revolution kicked off there were new rules, therefore new ideals of the American dream, many thought at the time the American dream was to own property and have a family, along with food etc., but there was a shift in economics when wage jobs came around and factories were built, this meant a new social class as well, the middle class was the working man, the non-poor but not the wealthy landowners, most likely sharecroppers who would have lived on their bosses farms, or factory workers that may have lived in an apartment building built in the city.

The rich on one hand were profiting off the people working in their factories or on their farms, most likely workers were the Irish, who came over to America, this would mean the immigrants had a chance of a new life due to the rich landowners of the time. The rich were getting richer, but the poor were getting no money flow, they would live in the shanty towns and slums of the cities, and children would be put into factories at ages as low as eight years old, for just a sliver of hope that their contribution would push their families into the working class, and their was a strong hope among the poor of their middle-class dreams due to wage jobs.

Having that said, id digresses the American industrial revolution was in any way negative for the American people, due to the incredible impact it had on our nation for centuries to come.

Facts provided by:

1. www.ushistory.org
2. www.exploros.com
3. www.industrialrevolution.sea.ca
4. www.foundations.uwgb.org/agriculture