American History: Beginnings to 1877: 7. Society and Culture Before the Civil War, Lessons 1–3

The new revolution—the Industrial Revolution—was a long, slow process that completely changed the way goods were produced and where many people worked and lived.

To set up and operate a spinning mill required large amounts of capital, or invested money.

A capitalist is a person who invests in a business to make a profit.

A capitalist is a person who invests in a business to make a profit.

The supply, or amount of goods available to sell, depended in part on the natural resources factories could get.

This scarcity, or limited supply, resulted in high prices.

Interchangeable parts would save time and money.

New access to credit, or borrowed money, allowed people to start mills and factories in cities and in rural places where swift streams provided power.

This movement of the population from rural areas to cities is called urbanization.

Before the growth of factories, skilled workers, or artisans, were proud of the goods they made.

In the 1820s and 1830s, artisans in each trade united to form trade unions.

In a strike, union workers refuse to do their jobs until managers agree to address their concerns.

The success of trade unions encouraged other workers to organize.

By the late 1840s, many factory workers in the North were immigrants. An immigrant is a person who enters a new country in order to settle there.

There was little left for the Irish to eat. This situation caused a famine, or severe food shortage. Thousands of people died of starvation.

Discrimination is a policy or an attitude that denies equal rights to certain groups of people.

The cotton gin led to a boom, or swift growth, in cotton production.

Cotton farmers needed new land to cultivate, or prepare for planting.

Cotton was the South's most profitable cash crop.