Unit 8

During Unit 8 

Industrialization, we will describe the technological innovations of the period and how they changed life in the United States by moving away from skilled craftsmen and the Cottage System to factories using mass production. Students will analyze America's first factory by Samuel Slater and the creation of the modern factory system by Francis Lowell. 

We will analyze the impact of various inventions in this era beginning with the cotton gin, interchangeable parts, steam engine, steamboat, railroads, and advancements in communication with the Telegraph. 

We will identify the roles of various immigrant groups played in the Industrial Revolution such as push pull factors regarding the Irish being pushed out by the Potato Famine and being pulled to America to work in factories and the Germans pushed out for Political Reasons. 

The Chinese came to America for economic reasons and found work building the Transcontinental Railroad. We will evaluate the impact of humans on the environment, adaptation and modification through the building of roads, bridges and the Erie Canal which now enabled makers to get goods delivered faster and cheaper. 

We will debate the negative impact of urbanization with people moving from rural to urban areas to work in city factories and the increase of pollution, overcrowding and poverty. The roles of individuals such as Francis Lowell hiring young women to work in his factories coining the term Mill girls or Lowell girls. Eli Whitney created the Cotton Gin which made growing cotton profitable but also negatively impacted by causing the need for more slaves than ever before. Whitney's Interchangeable Parts which led to mass production in factories. 

The impact on transportation by Peter Cooper and Robert Fulton. Samuel Morse changed the way people communicated through the Telegraph and his Morse Code. The impact on agriculture production by Cyrus McCormick's invention the mechanical reaper and John Deere ''steel plow”. 

Finally, we will compare and contrast the economies of the North and South as a growing example of Sectionalism in The United States.