The Panic of 1837 in the North

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Hat Manufacturing, 1850 This 1850 lithograph advertises Charles Oakford’s hat factory in Philadelphia. Like many industries, hat making became increasingly mechanized in the 1840s. Here Oakford talks with a client in the center of the room, across from his steam-powered lathe, while workers stand at stations shaping and stacking hats. A boy packs the merchandise into a box ready for shipping. © Philadelphia History Museum at the Atwater Kent/The Bridgeman Art Library

The panic of 1837 began in the South, but it hit northern cotton merchants hard (see chapter 10). Textile factories drastically cut production, metal foundries that supplied their machinery were wiped out, workers lost their jobs, and merchants and investors went broke. Those who kept their jobs saw their wages cut in half. As with the panic of 1819, hunger plagued urban residents while crops rotted in the Midwest because farmers could not afford to harvest them. In Rochester, the Posts were among hundreds who lost their homes to foreclosure. Petty crime, prostitution, and violence also rose as men and women struggled to make ends meet.

In Lowell and other textile towns, hours increased and wages fell. Just as important, the process of deskilling intensified. Factory owners considered mechanization one way to improve their economic situation. In the 1830s and 1840s, the sewing machine was invented and improved. When it came into widespread use in the 1850s, factories began to mass-produce inexpensive clothing, employing women who worked for low wages. Mechanical reapers, steam boilers, and the steam press transformed other occupations as manufacturers invested more of their resources in machines. At the same time, the rising tide of immigrants provided a ready supply of relatively cheap labor. Artisans tried to maintain their traditional skills and status, but in many trades they were fighting a losing battle.

By the early 1840s, when the panic subsided, new technologies did spur new jobs. Factories demanded more workers to handle new machines that ran at a faster pace. The ease of harvesting wheat inspired changes in flour milling that required engineers to design machines and mechanics to build and repair them. The steam press allowed publication of more newspapers and magazines, creating positions for editors, publishers, printers, engravers, reporters, and sales agents. Advertising became an occupation unto itself.

Following the panic, new labor organizations also emerged to address workers’ changing circumstances. Many of these unions were made up of a particular trade or ethnic group, and almost all continued to address primarily the needs of skilled male workers. Textile operatives remained the one important group of organized female workers. In the 1840s, workingwomen joined with workingmen in New England to fight for a ten-hour day. Slowly, however, farmers’ daughters abandoned the fight and left the mills as Irish immigrants flooded the labor market and agreed to accept lower pay and longer hours.

For most women in need, charitable organizations offered more support than unions did. Organizations like Philadelphia’s Female Association for the Relief of Women and Children in Reduced Circumstances provided a critical safety net for many poor families since public monies for such purposes were limited. Although nearly every town and city provided some form of public assistance in this period, municipalities never had sufficient resources to meet the needs of growing populations, much less the extraordinary demands posed by hard times. Despite financial constraints, towns and cities continued to expand almshouses and workhouses, offer some financial assistance, and provide land and supplemental funds for private benevolent ventures like orphan asylums.