Summary
Highlights
The Market Revolution led to significant urbanization, particularly in northern cities like New York and Philadelphia, and western cities like Cincinnati and Rochester, which thrived due to their locations on major trade routes and new transportation infrastructure. Despite this growth, the US remained largely rural until the 20th century, though rural areas became more connected to cities through trade networks.
Immigration, especially from Ireland and Germany, also fueled city growth. Irish immigrants, driven by the potato famine and British policies, and German immigrants, due to poor harvests and failed revolutions, settled in northern cities, providing cheap labor for factories. This influx led to increased ethnic and religious diversity but also sparked nativist backlash, particularly against Irish Catholics, exemplified by attacks on Catholic convents and the rise of the anti-Catholic Know Nothing Party.
The Market Revolution created a more defined social hierarchy. The shift from subsistence farming to a wage-based economy led to the formation of the working class, the largest and lowest-rung social group. These urban workers, often immigrants and young women, labored in factories for low wages under harsh conditions. Young women in factory towns like Lowell, Massachusetts initially found adventure but later experienced deteriorating conditions, leading to strikes and the formation of the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association, advocating for a 10-hour workday.
Industrialization also gave rise to a new social designation: the middle class. Positioned between the wealthy business elite (factory and shipping owners) and the working class, the middle class consisted of professionals like lawyers, teachers, and doctors, who engaged in 'knowledge work' and managed the working class. This class developed distinct values, including education, religious affiliation, and sobriety, along with unique gender roles and family structures.
The middle class saw a significant shift in gender roles and family structures. Middle-class men were expected to be sole providers, allowing women to focus on domestic responsibilities. This led to the concept of 'separate spheres' – men in the public sphere of work, women in the private sphere of the home. This dynamic, not present in the working class where both genders had to work, was further reinforced by the 'Cult of Domesticity.' Publications defined women's roles as raising virtuous children, maintaining the home, and being purchasers in the consumer economy, extending the ideal of Republican Motherhood.