Explain How The Market Revolution Developments Caused A Wave Of Change Throughout The United States

Talia Saulsberry Eric McDonald HIST1301 31 March 2024 Lecture Reflection 10.2 The “Market Revolution” developments caused a wave of change throughout the United States, some of which were big and some small but all historically significant. Each development is interconnected to cause a universal shift in the country towards a new way of life. Throughout the reading of Chapter 10, particular advancements seemed more impactful than others. These advancements include Eli Whitney’s cotton gin, the expansion of transportation and communication, industrialization, and Western imperialism. The Market Revolution and its surrounding developments had huge impacts on America, one of which I feel catapulted America into the early 1800s was the invention

Short-staple cotton is an extremely hardy crop so before the invention of the cotton gin, it was very difficult to make efficient money via its growth; but since fast money could be made, cotton gin usage and its economy grew rapidly. While the cotton gin could separate the fibers and the seeds, the cotton itself still had to be harvested and this led to a massive increase in slave labor and domestic slave trading between the North and the South. The slave population grew 4 times its previous size due to things like the cotton gin and the domestic slave trade; slaves were a part of Southern culture now. This plus the prior Negro Fort incident and how the government was willing to back slavery with militias, made it to where slavery was experiencing a massive boom with no regulation or end in sight. The invention of the cotton gin also increased westward expansion and industrialization in the north. Unlike long-staple cotton, short-staple cotton could be grown inland and since cotton was so profitable, it motivated plantation owners to expand west for more

This lower pay for the working class actually increased the gap between the rich and the poor, which greatly reduced mobility. Not only that, but this shift didn’t really help women or children in terms of exploitation. Because women and children weren’t sought after in terms of labor, they were very susceptible to exploitation. Cotton gin was just one of the infrastructure machinery that took the United States by storm. The transportation and communication revolution were immense developments of the time that drastically affected the state of America. If we zoom into the revolutions separately, we see that the transportation revolution has vast developments like steamboats, canals (Erie Canal and Hudson River), and railroads. Before these inventions, the main mode of transportation was horse and wagon. Because of how much time it took and how limiting the horse and buggy were, transportation was slow and ineffective. It made trade and expansion difficult and deterring, so subsistence farming seemed correct. But with federal funding, new modes of transportation such as roads and canals are being