Between the 1820s and the 1850s, the American economy experiences the beginnings of the industrial revolution—a change so profound that in the United States, as in Europe, it transformed almost every area of life in fundamental ways. Why did the industrial revolution have such a profound affect on the American economy? Explain the major implications.

Industrialization came to the United States between 1790 and 1820 as merchants and manufacturers increased output of goods by reorganizing work and building factories. The Industrial Revolution changed the nature of work and workers’ lives. Many American craft workers had developed an“artisan republican ideology,” a collective identity based on the principles of liberty and equality. They saw themselves as small-scale producers, equal to one another and free to work for themselves. But as the outwork and factory systems spread, more and more workers took jobs as dependent wage earners.

The “outwork system” was a more efficient division of labor and lowered the price of goods, but it eroded workers’ control over the pace and conditions of work. For tasks not suited to outwork, factories were created where work was concentrated under one roof and divided into specialized tasks.

Manufacturers used newly improved stationary steam engines to power their mills and used power-driven machines and assembly lines to produce new types of products.

The new industrial system divided the traditional artisan class into two groups: selfemployed craftsmen and wage-earning craftsmen. Americans developed a water-borne transportation system of unprecedented size, beginning with the government subsidized Erie Canal.

Because of the expansion of industry and trade, the urban population grew fourfold between 1820 and 1840