Presentation Transcript

1. U.S. History

2. Cotton Gin · It was difficult to make a profit from cotton because cottonseeds were removed by hand. It took one person an entire day to clean one pound of cotton.
3. Introducing Eli Whitney Eli Whitney Born in 1765 in Westborough, Massachusetts His father was a farmer, also owned a metal forge Prospered making nails during the American War of Independence
4. Introducing Eli Whitney 1792: Whitney graduated from Yale Collage Began private tutoring in Georgia At this time, the southern states were experiencing a severe economic depression Cotton was being produced but it could not be “ginned” Ginning techniques of the day were slow & expensive
5. Eli Whitney to the Rescue Southern plantation owners knew of Whitney’s reputation as a mechanical genius Asked him to design a new ginning machine Whitney had never seen cotton or cotton seeds, but he agreed to try Within a few days, Whitney had designed a prototype model which could clean cotton as fast as 50 workers Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793.
6. Whitney applied for a patenton the cotton gin.
7. Plantation owners began to earn a lot of money growing cotton. This caused farmers to increase their dependency on slave labor. “The First Cotton Gin" (image from 1869)
8. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin.
9. Southern States COTTON GROWING AREAS
10. Whitney’s Cotton Gin
11. Whitney’s Cotton Gin March 14, 1794: President George Washington signed Whitney’s first cotton gin patent Whitney could not make the machines fast enough to keep up with the demand
12. Whitney’s Cotton Gin When Whitney’s factory burned down, the cotton farmers of the South began building unlicensed copies Whitney took these farmers to court to protect his patent rights
13. Whitney’s Cotton Gin He won $90,000 from the court cases => most of it was used to pay for his legal expenses When the patent ran out, the U.S. Congress refused to grant a renewal Whitney had saved the cotton farmers of the south, but he received little profit
14. King Cotton
15. Native American tribes such as the Cherokees and Creeks were forced onto reservations so that farmers would have more land to grow cotton.
16. Whitney Moves On…To Guns Whitney got a contract from the U.S. government to manufacture 10,000 muskets At the time, muskets were made by skilled craftsmen – what were the problems with this? - - -
17. Eli Whitney & Mass Production Techniques Whitney made two decisions regarding the muskets: He would use machines to manufacture all parts of the muskets Machines for forging, for planning, for grinding, for boring, for polishing, etc Now semi-skilled machine operators could produce parts that had previously been limited to highly skilled craftsmen Now the same part on different guns would be identical & interchangeable => repair work easier & cheaper
18. Eli Whitney & Mass Production Techniques Break the manufacturing process into small steps & give workers responsibility for only one part of the process Workers responsible only for forging, for grinding, or for drilling => sped up production & ensured high standards of accuracy
19. Eli Whitney & Mass Production Techniques Whitney’s decisions were very different from the old methods of production where one skilled worker was responsible for making the musket from start to end
20. Eli Whitney & Mass Production Techniques, continued… Whitney’s two ideas were: Interchangeability of parts The production system based on parts made to such a high degree of accuracy and uniformity that they could be interchanged. Division of labor The division of manufacturing activities into a number of small steps. This was an important step in the development of mass production techniques. These laid the foundation for the techniques of mass production
21. Transportation National Road: Funded by Congress East-west highway (Potomac River at Cumberland, Maryland to Wheeling, Virginia) The only federally funded project of the time (States and private companies built most roads) Steamboats and Canals Erie Canal (1825) Steamboat Robert Fulton is credited with creating the first successful steamboat, the Clermont (along with Robert Livingston)
22. Clermont replica
23. Transportation The “Iron Horse” First built by Peter Cooper The Tom Thumb pulled the nation’s first load of train passengers (10 miles per hour) Trains traveled much faster than stagecoaches or wagons, and they were not limited to waterways Created national markets for goods by making transportation cheaper Most responsible for opening the West than any other type of transportation
24. Industrialization in the North Free enterprise system: encouraged industrialization Free enterprise: Conduct of business without direct government interference Individuals could acquire capital and make their own economic choices Companies competed with each other which encouraged competition and innovation Low taxes meant more money to invest General incorporation laws: allowed companies to raise money by selling stock; also limited personal liability
25. Industrialization in the North Francis C. Lowell opened textile mills in the northeast (Massachusetts) Eli Whitney: interchangeable parts and division of labor Samuel F.B. Morse: telegraph and Morse code Industrialization created large cities in the North
26. Agriculture in the South Cotton becomes king in the South with the invention of the cotton gin The South remained rural except for three large cities: Baltimore, Charleston, and New Orleans
27. Agriculture in the South Planters: top of the Southern hierarchy (owned large plantations and held 20 or more slaves) Yeoman farmers: ordinary famers (made up the vast majority of the white population, and held four or fewer slaves) Rural poor: near the bottom of the Southern hierarchy (less than 10 percent of the white population; hunted and farmed for self-support)