Market Revolution 1793-1860

The Pre-Civil War Era (1825-1850)

Events

1793 Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin
1797 Whitney invents interchangeable parts for firearms
1807 Robert Fulton invents the steamboat
1823 Lowell Mills opens in Massachusetts
1825 Erie Canal is completed
1828 First U.S. railroad appears
1834 Cyrus McCormick invents the mechanical mower-reaper National Trades Union forms
1835 Samuel F. B. Morse invents the telegraph
1837 Cumberland road (National Road) is completed
1838 John Deere invents the steel plow
1842 Massachusetts legalizes labor unions in Commonwealth v. Hunt
1844 New England Female Labor Reform Association forms
1846 Elias Howe invents the sewing machine
1858 First transatlantic telegraph cable unites Europe and the Americas

"The antebellum era was a time not only of profound political change but also of great technological and economic innovation. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Europe in the 1700s, had produced new inventions and methods of production. American inventors transformed the U.S. economy with new innovations of their own. This rapid development of manufacturing and improved farming had such a profound effect on American society that historians often refer to it as the Market Revolution."