Digital History
Digital History: The Disruption of the Artisan System of Labor
A look at how goods were produced in the early 1800s in home-based businesses, only to be supplanted by factories with unskilled workers by mid-century.
Digital History
Digital History: The Introduction of the Factory System
The factory system revolutionized manufacturing and the employment of unskilled workers to man the factories. Read about the young children, women, and, later, immigrants who provided the labor to the textile mills and other...
Digital History
Digital History: Labor Protests
A sure sign that manufacturing was moving from the home to the factory was the organization of skilled workers to protest wage reductions and working conditions. Read about the tension between these skilled workers and their employers as...
Digital History
Digital History: The Movement for a Ten Hour Day
A brief look at the success the workers in several industries had in reducing their work day to ten hours.
Digital History
Digital History: Immigration Begins
The United States has always been a melting pot. Read about the vast increase in immigration from countries in northern Europe in the 1830s and 1840s due to famine, eviction from land, and political unrest. See where various immigrant...
Digital History
Digital History: Social Mobility in the North
Read about the ideal of social equality in the North in the early and mid-1800s and determine if upward mobility was really a possibility for even unskilled laborers.
Digital History
Digital History: Simple Truth in the Open Air
A very brief description of perhaps the first religious revival, a symbol of the Second Great Awakening, in Kentucky in 1801.
Digital History
Digital History: Evangelical Revivalism
A look at the culture of religious revivals and the part the revivals played in the revitalization of religious participation by many groups of people.
Digital History
Digital History: The Mormons
A short history of the Mormon Church and its founder, Joseph Smith. Read about the Mormon settlements in the Midwest, and Joseph Smith's demise.
Digital History
Digital History: American Catholics
The American Catholic church expanded rapidly due to the immigration of the Irish and Germans. Read about the prejudice against the church based mainly on the backlash to the immigration of "others." See also how the Catholic church took...
Digital History
Digital History: American Jews
An interesting look at the Jewish population and culture in America in the 1800s. See how many adapted religious orthodoxy to fit in with American life.
Digital History
Digital History: Religious Freedom and the Founders
Read the background for the Founding Fathers' support of freedom of religion and separation of church and state. Included are parts of letters in which George Washington and Thomas Jefferson celebrate the fact that the United States was...
Digital History
Digital History: Moral Reform
Early attempts at promoting total abstinence from hard liquor had some basis in a backlash against immigrants. Read about the reasons for moral reform.
Digital History
Digital History: The Struggle for Public Schools
The ideal of public education has been one in the United States from the very earliest settlements. Read two teachers' view of the state of education as they taught in the early 1800s. Find out who supported the idea of free schooling...
Digital History
Digital History: Utopian Socialism
A good look at the Utopian communities that were attempted in the first half of the 19th century. They had differing reasons for their development, but their common focus was trying a unique way of communal living. Read about the Oneida...
Digital History
Digital History: Creating a Distinctly American Culture
Truly American literature based on American legend, native scenes, and American culture began to find a place in the 1820s. Read about three of the American writers that introduced American literature to a reading public.
Digital History
Digital History: The American Renaissance
A description of American Romantic authors, their backgrounds and what they wrote. These writers made American literature truly American.
Digital History
Digital History: American Ethnic Literature
Educated white men weren't the only ones contributing to a truly American literature. Read about the literature written by Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Irish Americans. All added to the melting pot of...
Digital History
Digital History: The Artist in American Society
See how the creation of visual art in its many forms developed over the first half of the 19th century. In addition of the painters in the Hudson River School of Art, read about the beautification of natural spaces such as parks, and...
Digital History
Digital History: The Birth of American Popular Culture
A description of many different forms of popular culture in the first half of the 19th century ranging from sensationalized newspapers to dime novels to pseudoscience. Read about Stephen Foster's music, theatrical productions, and even...
Digital History
Digital History: The Texas Question in American Politics
A very interesting explanation of how Texas was annexed to the United States despite much opposition. Read about the false conspiracy put forth by pro-slavery Southerners concerning Great Britain's plan for Texas.
Digital History
Digital History: The Texas Revolution
Why would American citizens emigrate to Spanish-held, and later Mexican-held Texas? Read about the reasons, their grievances against their Mexican rulers, and the eventual revolution that brought independence to Texas.
Digital History
Digital History: "Go West and Grow Up With the Country"
When Horace Greeley gave his advice to go West, young man, he meant as far west as Iowa. See how the Midwest was settled by pioneers, lumberjacks, and miners. Read about squatters on the fine prairie land and how they were able to keep...
Digital History
Digital History: Donner Party
The gruesome story of the Donner Party is a cautionary tale of poor planning. Read about the survivors and those who did not live to see their dreams of California.