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Theme Nine Technology and Markets |
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Theme Nine Technology and Markets |
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Reading Assignments:
Flyover History, Chapters 20, 21, 22, 23.
The Man Who Invented the Newspaper
Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin
Internet Required: (A), (B), (C) & (E).
Instructor's Introduction:
Point: Henry Ford's impact on the twentieth century cannot be underestimated.
He changed the way we worked, where we lived, recreation, and most of all, our economy. The car was
to the twentieth century what the cotton gin was to the nineteenth, especially for the South. It changed everything - but especially the spread of the plantation agriculture system, including slavery. Without
the spread of the cotton kingdom, would slavery have spread? And if slavery had not spread, would the Civil
War have happened at all? In reading Chapter 15 of your Myers Text, draw parallels between what Ford
did for (to?) us in our time, and what Eli Whitney did for (to?) the South in theirs.
(A) Read Chapter 21 of the Flyover Text, When Our Ancestors Become Us
Historians often debate this simple question: what is more important, the political issues and leaders
who debate them, or the economic and technological forces that caused them. It is the opinion of this instructor
that rapidly changing technologies of the nineteenth century transformed the way in which Americans
worked and lived. The scope of these changes cannot be underestimated: railroads brought
farm and city closer together; the cotton gin made possible the spread of the plantation agricultural system and
the entrenchment of the slave-labor system; telegraph wires made instant communication over long distances a reality;
factories that produced cheap, high quality clothing changed the lives of many poor women.
With this theme, I want to students to look at the economic and social impact these technologies had.
My intent is not to look at the business applications of these changes; rather, it is to examine
the dramatic shifts in people's day-to-day lives.
In ONE Essay:
(B) Read Eli Whitney's importance to slavery.
What was the cotton gin? Explain its economic impact on the South. How did the "gin" change the South? How did Eli Whitney finally get rich? How did this invention finally defeat the South?
Check out the graphic on how the cotton gin worked.
The Cotton Gin in Operation
How did it work?
Historian Margaret Washington offers another view of the
Cotton Gin. What is her opinion?
Explain the importance of the Missouri Compromise to the spread of slavery in the United States. Why was this compromise seen as politically expedient?
(C) Flyover History, Chapter 22:
How did cotton change women's lives? 
Answer the following in ONE essay:
* Why did young women choose mill work over other available jobs?
* What were their work schedules and living conditions like?
* Why did the "associates" (owners) turn away from the idea of an "industrial utopia"?
* Who finally ended, once and for all, the Lowell experiment?
(D) Pick an Invention: The steamboat, the railroad, the camera, the telegraph, the repeating rifle. Each of these technological innovations changed lives during the nineteenth century. Choose ONE of these innovations. Why was this technological innovation important? How did it change things? How did this invention impact people's lives? Research the web (do a Google Search.) Find three web sites that do a good job of discussing the innovation of your choice. List the sites. Then create future exercises for future students to complete. Essay questions, fill-ins, be creative.
(E) Quiz: Theme 9
Additional Resources:
The Erie Canal.
The technological marvel that changed the country - for good...
Listen to the song, "Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal."
Bruce Springteen's Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal
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