Social Environments

	Susan B. Anthony

Laborers

• The colonists had to import most of the manufactured goods they wanted because there weren't many craftsmen in the colonies.
• The population of the Northeast increased because of the arrival of new immigrants.
• Laborers in Europe:
  There were too many laborers.
  The people had few choices for jobs.
  If they were lucky enough to have a job they had to keep it.
• Laborers in United States:
  There weren't enough laborers.
  People could choose which job they wanted.
  They could also choose to move west to farm.
• The shortage of laborers caused problems for business owners in the Northeastern United States because they had a hard time finding and keeping workers.
• The problems that caused workers to form trade unions: working long hours and being paid low wages.
• The apprenticeship system did not continue to prepare boys for a job because the new industry only required unskilled laborers so there was no need to spend money to train young boys.
• The primary cause of the creation of high schools was the need to train young people for new office jobs.

Manufacturing Increased

• One cause for the increase in the number of textile factories in the Northeast was that, for the most part, trade with Europe stopped, because of England's war with France and also the war of 1812.
• The one reason that manufacturing grew more in the Northeast than in other parts of the country was because most of the banks were there so the businesses could get money and credit.
• Some reasons that there was a demand for more products:
  a. More people were living in cities and not relying on farming.
  b. American industry could manufacture products that weren't as expensive and were just as good as the ones imported from Europe.

Women enter the workplace

• Francis Lowell hired teenage girls to work in his mills because he could pay them low wages.
• Working in a textile mill benefited young women because it allowed them to become self-sufficient and gave them new social experiences.
• Employers replaced their young female workers in the 1840's because they could get young immigrant men who were stronger to do the same jobs for lower pay.
• The work women did to help solve people's rights problems was to become missionaries:
  a. to western communities
  b. to Native tribes in the West
  c. to slaves
• Other women helped by working with poor families or single women who lived in the cities.
• One thing women were angry about at the Seneca Falls Convention was that women didn't have the right to vote.
• Women's Suffrage: Woman's right to vote.

The West

• The meaning of the West changed as the West became more populated.
• The boundary of what was considered the West kept moving further and further west.
• Number of white people who lived west of the Appalachians in 1850: About 5 million.
• When farmers' land no longer produced good crops farmers would move to new land.
• Two factors that began creating problems for the people in the West were
  a. not being able to get enough credit
  b. the cost of transportation

The South

• Population growth of the South: Mainly due to babies being born to people already living in the South.
• Population growth of the West and Northeast: Mainly due to immigrants.
• White labor forces in South were free to move to better paying jobs.
• African-American labor forces had to stay where they were.
• The South based its economy on good farmland and growing cotton.