Jacksonian Democracy and the Industrialization of America

Summary

In this video, Dr. Livie from Ohlone dives into the transformational era of Jacksonian Democracy and its impact on America's industrialization in the 19th century. This period marked significant political, economic, and social changes driven by Andrew Jackson's presidency, the market revolution, and westward expansion. Industrialization fueled by new infrastructures, innovations, and capital investment took flight predominantly in the northern states. These profound changes sparked a shift towards a national economy, characterized by regional specialization and increased political partisanship. The intertwining of economic expansion with political ideologies like manifest destiny led to territorial expansion through events like the Mexican-American War. Simultaneously, the era saw cultural shifts with religious movements and social reforms led by women, aimed at improving American society. This crucial period laid the foundations for America's growth into a modern nation.

Highlights

• Andrew Jackson's era was a pivot in American Democratic politics. 🇺🇸
• The Market Revolution set the stage for industrial advancements. 🔄
• Infrastructure like canals and railroads enabled economic growth. 🚂
• Jackson's policies on Indian Removal remain controversial. 👥
• The concept of Manifest Destiny intensified territorial ambitions. ⚔️
• Religious revivals sparked cultural shifts and social reforms. ✝️

Key Takeaways

• Jacksonian Democracy marked a peak of populist political change in the U.S. 🇺🇸
• The Market Revolution fueled industrial growth, connecting and transforming American economies. 🔄
• Innovations and infrastructure paved the way for a booming industrial economy. 🚂
• Andrew Jackson's presidency left a controversial legacy of Indian Removal and political restructuring. 👥
• Manifest Destiny spurred westward expansion, leading to conflicts like the Mexican-American War. ⚔️
• Social reforms and religious movements ignited cultural transformations. ✝️

Overview

The video by Dr. Livie vividly portrays the era characterized by Jacksonian Democracy, highlighting Andrew Jackson's role as a transformational yet controversial leader. His presidency saw the Democratic Party's restructuring and controversial policies like Indian Removal, which have left lasting impacts. This era marked a shift from elite politics to a more populist approach, making politics more inclusive in some ways but also rife with new challenges.

The 19th century bore witness to the Market Revolution, which fundamentally altered America's economic landscape. Driven by the construction of canals, roads, and railroads, America transitioned into an industrial powerhouse. This growth was not without struggles, as early factories posed harsh working conditions, albeit offering economic opportunities through burgeoning industries. Innovations and capital investments accelerated this transformation, contributing to a robust national economy.

Westward expansion became a defining characteristic as beliefs in Manifest Destiny motivated America’s territorial acquisitions. The annexation of Texas and the subsequent Mexican-American War were manifestations of this ideology, expanding America’s territory and influence significantly. At the same time, cultural shifts driven by religious and social movements fostered new societal norms and reforms, laying the groundwork for future progress and conflicts in American society.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Overview The chapter begins with a discussion on the transformation of the American Republic during the period known as Jacksonian Democracy. This era is notable for the significant changes it brought to the nation's political landscape, largely associated with Andrew Jackson, a prominent figure whose influence is evident even today, as seen with his face on the $20 bill.
• 00:30 - 03:30: The Market Revolution and Infrastructure This chapter delves into the significant transformations during the Jacksonian era in United States history, focusing on both political and economic shifts. It explores the Market Revolution, a pivotal development in the American economy in the early to mid-19th century, marked by increased industrialization, infrastructure expansion, and economic integration. Additionally, the chapter touches on the cultural changes accompanying these economic and political transformations, framing them as part of a broader series of changes defining the era.
• 03:30 - 07:00: Industrialization in the Northeast The chapter discusses the significant cultural and social changes occurring in the United States during the period of industrialization in the Northeast. These changes revolve around the evolving roles of family, community, and religion. They were instrumental in galvanizing reform movements, influencing Westward Expansion in the 1830s and 1840s. This expansionist sentiment spurred events such as the Mexican-American War and the annexation of large areas of the American West, including California.
• 07:00 - 13:00: Jacksonian Democracy and Political Changes The chapter discusses the evolution of capitalism in America, which had its roots in a mercantilist system even before the Early Republic. It highlights the emergence of the market revolution, where individuals began to realize the potential of creating and growing businesses independently, moving away from a strictly mercantile system. Jacksonian Democracy and political changes during this era are also examined in relation to these economic developments.
• 13:00 - 18:00: Cultural Reforms and Religious Movements The chapter discusses the economic and societal transformations in early 19th century America, focusing on the rapid industrialization known as the Market Revolution. This period was characterized by the development of new infrastructure to enhance trade networks both within the United States and internationally, although the internal trade network development was emphasized as more significant. State governments played a key role in this transformation.
• 18:00 - 22:00: Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion During the period of Manifest Destiny and Westward Expansion, there was significant development in infrastructure, including the construction of bridges, roads, canals, and railroads. These developments helped link people and goods, transitioning the economy from local and regional to a more national scale. This era also saw American regions become more specialized: the South focused on agrarian production and raw materials for industry, the West on food production, and the North likely on industrial development.
• 22:00 - 23:00: Conclusion and Summary The chapter discusses America's transition to an industrial center, highlighting its impact on making the economy more inward-looking while maximizing trade opportunities. Key elements of industrialization are outlined, including the necessity of cheap labor, capital, innovation, and ingenuity, which emerge from within factories.

Jacksonian Democracy and the Industrialization of America Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 hello everyone I hope you're doing well um today I'm going to be talking about a lot of incredible stuff that takes place um in a very short period of time the American Republic is going to transform and become a very different kind of place and this is oftentimes called the era of Jacksonian Democracy it's named for a man named Andrew Jackson you might recognize him from such things as our money you actually see him on our $20 bill um Andrew Jackson pretty important
• 00:30 - 01:00 figure in the history of the United States um a very controversial figure then and today um and I want to talk to you a little bit about this idea of the Jacksonian era um a revolution that takes place in American politics during the early to Middle 19th century and we're going to talk about it as part of a series of changes changes that take place in the American economy the rise of the so-called Market Revolution that you're reading about um in this chapter and then also cultural change that takes
• 01:00 - 01:30 place in the United States cultural and social change around the role of family and community and religion that actually helps to fuel um reform movements in the United States these are all factors that will shape a movement of Westward Expansion that comes into its own in the 1830s and 1840s um that really leaves the United States um in a mood to grow um a mood that will ultimately Inspire things like the Mexican-American War the annexation of a huge portion of the American West incl including California
• 01:30 - 02:00 coming out of that war as well so let's start with this idea of the market Revolution America had roots in capitalism um even before the beginnings of The Early Republic that America was involved in a mercantilist system that had capitalist leanings but the idea that someone could come up with an idea or found a business and make it their own and grow that business without being linked to that mercantilist system was not yet around yet available it's during
• 02:00 - 02:30 the beginning of the 19th century that we see a revolution in the American economy take place America will rapidly industrialize now there are a few ingredients that go into this so-called Market Revolution and you'll read a little bit about this but I want to talk about them and explain it one okay is the building of new infrastructure to help establish deeper trade networks within and the United States and then between other countries it's especially within that's important the United States stes um state governments as well
• 02:30 - 03:00 as private entities will work to build Bridges and roads but also canals and eventually railroads that will link people together and Link Goods on the passage of goods together we're essentially moving out of a local and a regional economy to becoming more of a national economy it's during this time period that American regions are going to become more specialized the South almost entirely agrarian bit focused on producing raw materials for industry the West producing food stuffs and the north
• 03:00 - 03:30 um as an industrial center this allows America to become more inward looking and insolar as an economy as well as to potentially maximize trade Pursuits now this can only happen through industrialization industrialization begins when you have Labor so cheap supply of labor you have Capital you have Innovation and Ingenuity and of course that comes from Innovation that happens within factories right the idea
• 03:30 - 04:00 that you could produce something in a cheaper way in a better way through new technology um as it turns out we're going to borrow almost all this technology from abroad we're actually going to send people um to infiltrate British factories to find out how the best way to do this okay um and you need really Capital you need investment you need money to to put into this and all of these things are going to come to bear um throughout the beginning of the 19th century as our infrastructure becomes more comp licated okay and more
• 04:00 - 04:30 complex is We are Becoming much more Adept at moving things around and we have a growing population a growing labor Supply um it means that we can start to build these factories and start producing industrial goods for ourselves now industrialization primarily takes place in the Northeast in these more urban more densely populated regions particularly in around cities like New York Philadelphia and Boston early industry was confined to specific kinds of Pursuits like textiles um these were
• 04:30 - 05:00 areas where America could compete they could produce their our own clothes in a mass marketed way and then sell them to our own people we'd have this Market in place and this idea of Market is really important we call it the market Revolution for a reason right it's the idea that there are people who have Capital who have money to spend on these new Goods that will come in and make this this whole situation work okay now the people who worked in these factories tended to be pretty pretty low on the
• 05:00 - 05:30 economic totem pole early Factory workers in the Northeast around Boston these early textile mills tended to employ young workingclass women okay they would be gathered from small towns and Villages um in wagons that were called slavers and I want you to think about that name right um and brought to live and work at the factory now you can imagine there's a lot of potential for abuse and there certainly was quite a bit of it um this was not a pleasant place to be a pleasant place to live
• 05:30 - 06:00 um but these are the people that help to make industry possible okay as you have more and more of these factories opening up there's also more and more desire to make money off of them okay through investment um side by side with these factories we start to see new Financial Industries new Banks starting to pop up through out the United States now when we think about Banks today they're strictly controlled by a lot of Regulation we are protected by the activities of banks in ways that we certainly weren't in the early 19 Century many of these early banks that
• 06:00 - 06:30 sprouted up and your book talks about these early Banks were were companies that were kind of Fly by Night which means that they were here one day and gone the next um sometimes in the west these were called wildcat banks there was nothing that regulated them they were able to print their own paper currency think of it like a pre-printed check um maybe more like that than the kinds of currency paper currency that we use today okay but they helped to create really a lot of capital and a lot of
• 06:30 - 07:00 potential for investment it also created a cycle we call this the business cycle I was making a little gesture here okay um this up and downward swing and a dramatic growth in economic um outcomes and then collapses depressions and panics and this would happen on a cycle of about every 20 years with some depressions and smaller depressions and recessions in between this business cycle will come to typify the National economy in the United States States
• 07:00 - 07:30 until well into the early 20th century we're going to start seeing that change a little bit the last of these major collapses will come with the Great Depression um that's part of the sort of um typical business cycle okay so this is all happening we can think about this like we see growing investment in infrastructure the federal government is not involved they're not regulating any of this they're not building really any infrastructure either that doesn't come until much later in the 19th century it's all state and local government governments but also a lot of private
• 07:30 - 08:00 folks who are involved in doing this um and these are people who are building canals and Roads and factories and eventually starting in the 1820s and 1830s railroads we'll come back to that politically America was starting to go through a transformation at the end of the 1820s that we call the so-called Jacksonian Revolution this is um linked to the election of Andrew Jackson as president of the United States he had run in 1824 unsuccessfully for the presidency um he had been essentially pushed out he probably should have won
• 08:00 - 08:30 um the popular vote um but he was unsuccessful in gaining office so in 1828 he runs again and he wins Jackson was a different kind of politician he was a military veteran and really capitalized on his sort of plain folks sort of appearance um and manner he was not a member of an elite class he was coming from a background that was a lot like a lot of Americans particularly those Americans that had started to settle more and more Out West Jackson
• 08:30 - 09:00 appealed to people who um identified with Jackson this kind of commonality the sense of of shared vision and shared um shared desire this idea that he was out to protect them Jackson revolutionizes American politics even today when we think about politicians Americans tend to be more attracted to people who they'd feel comfortable hanging out with and spending time with maybe more so than people who have Elite preparation to do that kind of job
• 09:00 - 09:30 now when Jeff Jackson takes office he's also going to change the party structure as well the Democratic party had really functioned as part of a political system where people were not just rewarded for their support but you also had people who were you know part of the government Machinery a lot of politicians before Jackson actually appointed members of the opposing party because he wanted they wanted to create like a sort of consensus a common space that could be held Jackson was really different he believed in what we call the spoil
• 09:30 - 10:00 system that if you win you bring your followers alone with you and put them into office and and this is going to Mark a real huge transition in American politics there's a desire then to reward the people who support for you for for really the people who stand up for you in in um political campaigns Jackson's time in the presidency was typified by a lot of different changes not just within the party apparatus but also in American policy RIT large um Jackson was a strong
• 10:00 - 10:30 advocate of Indian Removal a policy that meant the forced relocation of indigenous people away from desirable lands that were claimed by the federal government um relocation further out west this policy of Indian Removal um is oftentimes best described through a single incident the so-called Trail of Tears um that was the sort of path that was that took the forced relocation of the Cherokee People from parts of Georgia and move them into what is today
• 10:30 - 11:00 Oklahoma Oklahoma was called Indian Country at that point now when we think about the trail of teers you're actually going to read about um in primary documents in this module you're going to actually read a little bit about this this is a map that's loading ever so slowly um of the actual path and you can see some of the important um places where people relocated from from Georgia and Alabama here and parts of Tennessee um this Cherokee Nation okay and then of course being relocated to um the Indian
• 11:00 - 11:30 Territory a place that um under Jackson it was believed would never be developed or occupied by white Settlers of course they changed that a little bit now Jackson's policy of of Indian Removal was not um a consensus policy it was very controversial at the time um certainly today of course we look back on the many hundreds and hundreds of people who were killed as a result of of removal um he's not looked upon fondly he wasn't always looked upon fondly then certainly isn't now as
• 11:30 - 12:00 well Jackson also faced other kinds of challenges the American South was becoming increasingly resistant to the policies of the federal government that they thought were cited against them one of those policies was a policy of tariffs tariffs are taxes against Imports and they tended to support when you would pass a higher and higher tax against imported goods it supported industry the idea was of course if you tax an imported good like someone making shoes or a sweater right you were
• 12:00 - 12:30 essentially raising the cost of that good in the United States making it more competitive for American companies to produce that good and be profitable now the people that tff hurt were people that were producing raw goods and raw materials right so people in the South who were producing cotton for example it reduced the demand for that cotton abroad right there were less and less companies that were able to buy it and they were getting more money in that way so the South was actually very stonly opposed to these increasing tariffs in 1820 8 Congress will pass what the South
• 12:30 - 13:00 notes as the Tariff of Abominations it's such a high tariff that it crosses a line for a number of Southern States particularly the state of South Carolina and I'll tell this joke again so watch out South Carolina um it was said was too small for an insane asylum or too small for a republic too large for an insane asylum see I even ruined the joke I'll tell it right next time um they're going to push for a policy in 1833 um called nullification where they say as a
• 13:00 - 13:30 state they can nullify a federal law say it just doesn't exist they won't enforce it now Jackson will essentially um put pressure using federal troops to put pressure on South Carolina to a SE to essentially say okay we'll let this go through but this is a glimmer this is sort of a hint of what's coming in just a few decades that the South will will want to leave they're going to pull out of the union or at least attempt to pull out of the Union so in the midst of this sort of reol evolutionary culture of Jacksonian Democracy not one of
• 13:30 - 14:00 bipartisanship but one of strict Partners partisanship in a spoil system and a real cult of personality around the president we see a change in American culture as well and it's driven by an idea of reform in the 18s and 20s there was a great deal of writing about the importance and centrality of family and particularly around caring for youth we've talked about this idea of Republican Motherhood right being the Republican wife and the Republican mother um in the 1820s this kind of
• 14:00 - 14:30 spills forward with a religious revival actually a set of movements um we call the Second Great Awakening okay the Second Great Awakening sweeps across much of the United States but it's centered in its intensity in this region here this is called this is Upstate New York but this is called the burned over District a lot of people who had come from other parts of the Northeast right here right um had come to settle here and had engaged a lot of religious experimentation it's in the burnover District during the 1820s that we see
• 14:30 - 15:00 this religious experimentation really start to bear fruit we see religious movements that are not necessarily closely tied to Protestant Christianity but are exploring things like the afterlife this is where the first seances are held um there are a lot of people who have very distinct and and clear spiritual views um it's in this region in Upstate New York that we see the founding of what may be the first truly anglo-american faith and that is the Church of Latter-day Saints it's found in in the 1820s um by this guy
• 15:00 - 15:30 this is Joseph Smith a portrait of Joseph Smith um and Smith um claims to have found a set of tablets buried in a hillside that tell a story sort of a third Testament um we can almost say a story of of what happened when Jesus arrived um in the Americas and this religion really starts to take off a lot of people follow Smith they're intensely persecuted and trly chased from state to state ultimately um Smith um will die and and his followers most of them at
• 15:30 - 16:00 least will be relocated will relocate themselves deep into the American West in a place called Utah these kinds of new religious movements were inspired in part by trying to make America a better place okay they wanted to improve American life and American culture and this is going to happen in a few different ways we start to see women in particular who had been empowered to educate their children and to help those children to create a clean moral upstanding American culture American political sphere as well to become more involved they're becoming increasingly
• 16:00 - 16:30 educated as they become educated they want to change America some of these women get involved in moral reform that's focused on specific issues like the issue of temperance Temperance is a movement to ban the sale and distribution of alcohol alcohol of course being closely tied to immoral behavior during this time period but these kinds of moral reforms weren't enough for a lot of women okay these upper middle class women who had gone um many of whom were starting to go to college these sort of wealthy women who
• 16:30 - 17:00 had opportunity to go to college to become educated to educate their children wanted to to to Really Advocate not just for on issues that they thought were immoral but also issues that affected a really broad population it's many of these these women who are who are really becoming activists who are going to become um deeply involved in the anti-slavery movement in the 1830s and 1840s being against slavery in the north even in the 1830s and 1840s meant that you were on the sort of radical left you are a far far left-wing kind of
• 17:00 - 17:30 person it was a very marginal point of view and that doesn't change until the 1850s it's both women and men who become deeply involved in this this movement and help to inspire it a lot of these women are also going to become involved in a movement for women's rights um and that's really going to start taking off in the 1840s 1848 is that the meeting at senica Falls where this becomes truly crystallized and centered so it's the 1830s and 1840s an American industry has taken off okay and
• 17:30 - 18:00 the the government that we see this idea of a Jacksonian system a spoil system has helped to inspire and empower the growth of manufacturing um in the Northeast and a lot of this manufacturing is further in sort of grown and further um inspired by the growth of a particular kind of infrastructure and that are that is the railroad now railroads first started getting developed these steam powerered locomotives first start moving in America in the 1820s by the 1840s the Northeast is crisscrossed by number of
• 18:00 - 18:30 different railroad lines that help to carry Freight and people across fairly long distances most of these lines are what we call short lines they're limited scope in terms of of where they can go and actually it required a lot of work because each company would build their own line they' use their own gauge or width of track made meant that every time you would switch to a different line you'd have to get on a different train it was pretty laborious okay but the expansion of railroads allowed for really the movement of all this stuff
• 18:30 - 19:00 that was being produced it made the American industrial economy start to hum it meant that there was a greater demand for labor and it helps to encourage starting at the end of the 1830s more and more migrants to come to the United States from other parts of the world okay not just from England and Northern Europe but also from other places including Ireland of course Ireland is a Catholic country this raises the ey of a lot of people a lot of concern amongst folks because there's certain people Protestant um Americans who are very
• 19:00 - 19:30 concerned about Catholics coming in there's an anti-irish movement that um comes to be known as a nativist movement or an anti-immigrant movement that really takes shape in the 1840s and 1850s as a result of this but in the North in this industry what comes to be valued more than anything is this ideal of Free Labor that you work for your wage you work for your living and you have control of that wage and of your own future it is all of this economic growth that's also going to inspire people to to want to expand further out
• 19:30 - 20:00 west to take advantage of this land that is now claimed by the United States by the end of the 1830s there's a common feeling that's being expressed a sort of zeitgeist of this period that means feeling of the era in German okay this Zeitgeist was that America was given the right by God to settle and occupy this land out west this notion is called Manifest Destiny okay and it's during this time period that more and more americ Americans are going to want to go out west and that there's a real
• 20:00 - 20:30 political pressure to elect officials who believe it's the role of the government to seize this territory in the 1840s this really leads to a huge political shift in 1844 we see the election of President pulk um who gains election by calling for the seizing of all of the Oregon Territory not just the part we'd agree to as well as the annexing of a place called Texas in 1835 Texas had been a province of a newly established Republic Mexico but in 1835 a group of Americans who had
• 20:30 - 21:00 been invited and welcomed to live there declared its independence became in their eyes an independent republic something Mexico never recognized okay with the election of pulk there's going to be a push to Annex Texas and we'll do just that in 1845 Okay the annexing of Texas is an attempt to try to trigger a war which will eventually do the Mexican-American war in 1846 a war with Mexico that was designed to seize territory out west particularly a very important territory
• 21:00 - 21:30 to a lot of Americans or an increasingly important one place called California okay California will become part of the United States as a result of the Mexican-American War officially with a treaty in 1848 okay in that same year gold will be discovered in the Sierra Foothills and you know how that went so you can see there's so much going on there's so much change there's so much transition happening and a lot of it is economy politics and culture are all driving each other all interfacing and driving
• 21:30 - 22:00 each other I look forward to seeing what you have to say and what you think about the readings that you're doing this week um and let me know if you have any questions as you go through those materials