| A | B |
|---|
| Samuel Slater | "Father of the Factory System," established the first factory in America after "borrowing" many of the industrial practices of the English factory system. |
| Cyrus McCormick | Inventor of the mechanical reaper, a device that could efficiently harvest wheat, thus turning wheat into a commodity and a cash crop. |
| Eli Whitney | Creator of interchangeable parts, cotton gin. His inventions helped to institutionalize slavery in the South as well as usher in the industrial age. The widespread use of interchangeable parts was one of the reasons the north was able to win the Civil War. |
| Car Schurz | German immigrant whose liberal political ideas contributed to the debate over slavery and underscored the political, social, and economic impact of immigration from Europe during the 19th Century. |
| Robert Fulton | Painter-Engineer whose installation of a steam engine on the ship Clermont was a first for American transportation, ushering in a new era in American commerce. |
| Samuel F.B. Morse | Inventor of "talking wires," or the telegraph. His quote, "What hath God wrought?" were the first words uttered over a forty mile telegraph line between Washington, DC and Baltimore. |
| Dewitt Clinton | Governor of New York whose leadership helped to buld the Erie Canal, linking the Great Lakes with the Hudson River . . . also known as "Clinton's Big Ditch" and the "Governors Gutter." |
| Catherine Beecher | Sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe, urged women to enter the teaching profession and helped to "feminize" the occupation. |
| Industrial Revolution | The movement from an agricultural-based economy to one driven by the mass production of textiles and finished products, using the power of steam and efficiency-driven inventions, and centering around the development of factories. |
| Limited Liability | A concept which permitted individual investors to risk no more than their own share of a corporations stock in the event of a bankruptcy or legal action, thus promoting investment of industry and freeing up capital for industrial ventures. |
| Transportation Revolution | Reference to the unprecedented growth of canals and railroads during the 19th Century which assisted to the industrial growth of America. |
| Nativism | The hostile reaction to increasing immigration levels, especially from Ireland and Germany in teh 1840s and 1850s. Intensely anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant. |
| Cult of Domesticity | A development in the perception of homebound women during the 19th Century. As the role of homemaker grew, women began to command a greater role in the moral direction an dcharacter of their families. |
| Cotton Gin | Machine that sped up the process of separating the sees from cotton, creating lower prices for cotton and further institutionalizing slavery in teh south. |
| Clermont | First steam powered boat in America, built by Robert Fulton. |
| Boston Associates | The earlies investment capital (known as venture capital) firm in America, they soon came to dominate textile, manufacturing and railroad capitalization plans in the 19th Century. |
| Clipper Ships | Large, narrow, and fast multi-mast ships that were popular in American commercial circles during the 1840s and 1850s. This has been called the golden age of American shipping. |
| Ancient Order of Hibernians | An old semisecret society in Ireland which fought for tenant rights, here in America assisted new Irish immigrants, helping their downtrodden compatriots in a new and hostile America. |
| "Molly Maguires" | A union of Irish coal miners who demanded better pay and working conditions in the Pennsylvania coal mines during the 1860s and 1870s. |
| General Incorporation Laws | Allowed businessmen to create corporations and business entities without a written charter from state legislatures. Also known and free incorporation laws. |
| Pony Express | Only in existence for eighteen months, this legendary transportation service ferried mail from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, CA in only ten days. |
| Commonwealth v. Hunt | Supreme Court decision, 1842, which ruled that labor unions and union activity was constitutional and not, as some charged, an "illegal conspiracy." This allowed labor unions to grow throughout the 19th century. |
| Tammany Hall | The powerful poitical machine in New York which was eventually taken over by Irish immigrants, underscoring their political aggressiveness. |
| Order of the Star Spangled Banner | Precursor to the "Know-Nothing Pary," a political action group that sought to spread nativist ideas throughout the country. |
| Sewing Machine | Invented by Elias Howe and perfected by Isaac Singer, this machine was a boon to the ready made clothing industry and was a strong boost to Northern industrialization. |
