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The Industrialization of the Northern United States Essays

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A Connecticut minister, Horace Bushnell, once said that the industrialization of the United States north produced a “complete revolution” in Americans’ “life and manners.” The complete revolution that Bushnell speaks of was an era of industrialization triggered by a population growth, an increase in literacy rates, and the development of labor-saving technologies in the northern region of the United States. This dramatic economic and social transformation instigated a series of outcomes, both positive and negative, for the United States during the early to mid nineteenth century. Many aspects of life for United States citizens were changing, such as the growing population in the north. In addition, women and people of color were finding …show more content…

Factories enabled a large number of people to be supervised together and replaced hand tools with power-driven machinery. The availability of factory jobs in the north caused a great influx of workers to the region during this era. One group of people, immigrants, particularly met the demand for labor in the north. Between 1840 and 1860, over 4 million people entered the United States. About 90 percent of these immigrants headed for the northern states where job opportunities were abundant. The new advancements in railroads and steamboats, the increase in commercial farming, and the development of large factories triggered the relocation of multitudes to northern cities. Each one building upon another, the events that took place in the north during the 1800s instigated an extreme growth of cities and urban societies, proving population growth to be a key effect of the industrialization in the United States north. With the center of production moving from households to mass-production, women in America had to alter their way of life. A great number of women followed labor opportunities to the mills, factories, and workshops. For the first time in history, large numbers of women left their homes to participate in the public world. “Mill Girls” were typically young, unmarried women who lived together in boarding houses provided by the factory for which they worked. Lucy Larcom recalls,

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