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25. The Rise of American Industry

Canals and railroads, the inventors, the first factories and the women who worked in them, and the Irish and German arrivals.

25. The Rise of American Industry

Some have called Sam Slater's mill the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. During the first 30 years of the 1800s, American Industry was truly bo…

25a. The Canal Era

Tourist boats like the Georgetown still run on sections of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Washington, D.C. Ever since the days of Jamestown and Plymouth, Ame…

25b. Early American Railroads

In 1869, a golden spike linked the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad at Promontory, Utah. The development of railroads was one of the mos…

25c. Inventors and Inventions

Charles Goodyear received a patent for developing a method of treating rubber, called vulcanization A nation becomes great because of great people. Often the p…

25d. The First American Factories

Slater Mill, founded in 1793 by Samuel Slater, is now used as a museum dedicated to textile manufacturing. There was more than one kind of frontier and one kin…

25e. The Emergence of "Women's Sphere"

Pilgrim Hall MuseumThe 19th century American woman was expected to cook, clean, and take care of other household duties. Chaos seemed to reign in the early 180…

25f. Irish and German Immigration

Illustrated London NewsSteamers carried Irish emigrants to Liverpool where their transatlantic voyage began In the middle half of the nineteenth century, more…