TIMELINE

1782

  • Oliver Evans builds automated flour mill

1790

  • Samuel Slater opens spinning mill in Providence, Rhode Island

1792

  • Congress passes Post Office Act

1793

  • Eli Whitney devises cotton gin

1814

  • Boston Manufacturing Company opens factory in Waltham, Massachusetts

1816–1828

  • Congress levies protective tariffs

1817

  • Erie Canal begun (completed in 1825)

1820–1840

  • Urban population surges in Northeast and Midwest; shoe entrepreneurs adopt division of labor

1820s

  • New England women take textile jobs

  • Rise of Benevolent Empire spurs conservative social reforms

1824

  • Gibbons v. Ogden promotes interstate trade

1830s

  • Emergence of western commercial cities

  • Labor movement gains strength

  • Middle-class culture emerges

  • Growth of temperance movement

1830

  • Charles G. Finney begins Rochester revivals

1840s

  • Irish and German immigration sparks ethnic riots

  • Maturation of machine-tool industry

1842

  • Commonwealth v. Hunt legitimizes trade unions

1850s

  • Expansion of railroads in Northeast and Midwest

1857

  • Overproduction and speculation trigger a business recession