The Market Revolution In Early Nineteenth-Century America

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The market revolution was a term used to describe the expansion of the marketplace that occurred in early nineteenth-century America, prompted mainly by the construction of new roads and canals to connect distant communities together for the first time. This market revolution effected all Americans, just not all received benefits from it. Before the market revolution, women were not allowed to work outside their homes. Their responsibility was to take care of the house duties and the family. They barely had any rights because the male was the dominating presence in the house or family and made all the decisions. Only males were allowed to become educated, making women unable to make any political decision or hold any power. However, most of this changed because of the market revolution. Women were allowed to obtain some low-paying jobs, such as sewing and fitters in the new large-scale shoe and clothing operations owned by merchant capitalists. They became part of the decentralized manufacturing plants that replaced the small shops owned by master shoemakers and tailors. Women who were still married could not sign independent contracts or sue in their own name, and not until after the Civil War did they control the wages they earned (Foner 350). …show more content…

Even though some women did work, it was more commonly thought of only men who did labor. Labor rarely mentioned housewives, domestic servants, and female outworkers. The idea that the men were the head of the house meant that he, not the wife, should bring in income to support his family (Foner 351). According to the newspaper Workingman’s Advocate, “Capitalism tore women from their role as ‘happy and independent mistresses’ of the domestic sphere and forced them into the labor market, thereby undermining the natural order of the household and the authority of its male