Social+Changes+Analysis

Gender and racial constructions of people changed dramatically in the Market revolution due to change in the country due to a growing economy. The constructions of women formed in the market revolution were changed due to changing economic structure. Constructions of immigrants formed during this time were based on the very large inflation of immigrants and work. Constructions of race in the market revolution were further deepened due to a changing economy and laws made during this growth. The constructions of women formed in the market revolution were changed due to changing economic structure. These constructions formed due to women’s role as workers being taken by immigrants, which was seen in the Lowell mill. The role that Lowell mill gave women was that they had to be kept on a very strict schedule and that they had to be in submission to someone in order to work. This was formed from the women being on a strict schedule in order for them to do work in the mills. The cult of domesticity was formed once women were confined to the house because they had no work. They were confined under strict rule because that is what life was like for women in the mills. Since there were no longer jobs for women in the mills, middle class women fell into the construction of being not physically able to work. The women in the middle class now stayed home with children and did domestic duties because of this new constructed role. Women not being educated and not performing tasks that men would shows that women were seen as purely domestic creatures. Evidence that women were now seen in submission to their husbands as opposed to submission to a job or work was that women wore articles of clothing such as corsets that made it hard to move. The corsets showed women in a cultural hostage because they were being literally constricted from moving. Constructions of immigrants formed during this time were based on the very large inflation of immigrants and work. At first America was a place for immigrants to have an opportunity for a new start. This construction of life in America as an immigrant changed dramatically as many jobs in factories were taken quickly. Due to many immigrants coming into America during the Market Revolution searching for jobs, Americans working in factories lost their jobs. This is seen in the Lowell mills when women lost their jobs because Irish immigrants came in. Immigrants tended to not leave the job in the mills as the women did, which led to less jobs being available for all. The construction that was formed from this was that all immigrants are in America to steal jobs from the Americans. They were seen as foreigners because they were immigrating for jobs, not to settle land as many ‘Native Americans’ had. Many immigrants were also paid at low wages after working very long hours, which shows that immigrants were seen as only in America for work, which meant that factories could take advantage of them. Immigrants seen solely as workers in need of money was also constructed from the fact that many immigrants lived together in housing projects or in very poor areas. This formed the construction that since they had no money too buy land they were less of people that Americans who owned land and had jobs. Constructions of race in the market revolution were further deepened due to a changing economy and laws made during this growth. Constructions of black Americans, whether they were slaves, freemen, or born to freedom were based off of the slavery in the United States at this time and the time before it. These constructions were further deepened during this time. Blacks were seen as less of people than whites solely because of their skin color. This came from many years of Africans being slaves. Slavery was now associated with race. This was seen when laws segregating even free blacks from whites were formed. These laws gave blacks fewer rights than white people. The deepening of these constructions was formed from a new need for slaves in the south. This need from slaves came from inventions for factories such as the cotton gin. With this invention slavery was rooted even deeper in the community. This allowed slavery to become further associated with being black. Another advancement in American that furthered blacks being seen as less that whites was that railroads became a new invention. The expansion that railroads allowed also allowed the expansion of constructions of race because slaves were working on constructing these railroads. Because slave labor was moving, as railroads moved, it showed that slavery was still an institution based on race in America.

MS