Ch: 22 : Environment and Social Class
Environment Social Class
The United States • 1840s, 6,00 miles of track connected
Boston, NY, and Phily.
• 1850s 21,000 miles of new track were
laid across Appalachians to Chicago.
• NY to Chicago = 48hrs
• Amr. Gov seized land from Indians
◦ made it available @ low cost to
white farmers.
• In order to open up the west trees
were cut down.
• Planters cut down forests, grew cotton
for a few years until it depleted the
soil.
• Americans thought of nature as am
obstacle to overcome and dominate.
• Raw materials once grown on the land
were replaced by materials found
underground, ie iron and coal.
Europe • Roads were improved
• The lower countries of Europe were
laced w/ canals.
• The cotton plant was not grown in
Europe .
• Production of iron = deforestation.
• London: 1700 = 500,000 ppl. 1850 =
2,363,000 ppl.
• Towns merged together to form
megalopolies.
• Factory workers had no control over
jobs, tools, or hours.
• Women workers were concentrated in
textile mills.
◦ Requires less strength and
construction.
• On average women earned 1/3 as
much as men.
• Most women who sought paid
employment became domestic
servants.
• In the 1790s 700,00 slaves of African
decent lived in U.S.
• By 1850 3.2 million slaves in U.S
• 60% who grew cotton.
• Only prosperous land owners could
afford to try new methods.
• Tenants and Sharecroppers = landless
farm laborers.
• Aristocratic land owners used wealth
to gain political influence.
• Britain: members of upper class
sometimes married into merchant
families.
• Intermarriages of lower classes were
• Sanitation = bad, dirty water.
• Air pollution from burning coal.
• Railroad companies built stations in
the heart of the city.
• Disease thrived in cities, ie: smallpox.
• Practically no wilderness areas were
left in Britain.
• Land was altered to cater to human
activity.
• Most serious problem = deforestation
• France had many good roads
common.
• Ancestry remained important, but
wealth also commanded respect.
• Poor migrants came from the country
side.
• Epidemics struck poor
neighborhoods.
• Factory workers had no control over
tools, jobs or hours.
• Women workers were concentrated in
textile mills.
◦ Requires less strength and
construction.
• On average women earned 1/3 as
much as men.
• Most women who sought paid
employment became domestic
servants.
• Children as young as 5 or 6 worked in
factories and mines.
◦ No public school or daycare.
• Employers encouraged the practice
and even hired orphans.
• Children worked 14 – 16hr days and
were beaten if made mistake or fell
asleep.
• Wages of factory workers fluctuated
wildly.
• In Britain landowning gentry and
merchants had long shared wealth and
influence.
• A new group arose: entrepreneurs
whose money came from
manufacturing.
• Some newly rich industrialist bought
their way into high society.
• Middle class people believed: If some
people could succeed through hard
work, thrift, and temperance, then
those who did not succeed had no one
to blame but themselves.