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He sought and achieved Congressional authority to create the First Bank of the United States in 1791; the charter lasted until 1811.[17]

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison opposed a strong central government (and, consequently, most of Hamilton's economic policies), but they could not stop Hamilton,

As president in 1811 Madison let the bank charter expire, but the War of 1812 proved the need for a national bank and Madison reversed positions. The Second Bank of the United States was established in 1816, with a 20 year charter.[18]

Cotton, at first a small-scale crop in the South, boomed following Eli Whitney's invention in 1793 of the cotton gin,

Millions moved to the more fertile farmland of the Midwest. States built roads and waterways, such as the Cumberland Pike (1818) and the Erie Canal (1825), opening up markets for western farm products.

The Whig Party supported Clay's American System, which proposed to build internal improvements (e.g. roads, canals and harbors), protect industry, and create a strong national bank

President Andrew Jackson (1829–1837), leader of the new Democratic Party, opposed the Second Bank of the United States, which he believed favored the entrenched interests of rich. When he was elected for a second term, Jackson blocked the renewal of the bank's charter. Jackson opposed paper money and demanded the government be paid in gold and silver coins. The Panic of 1837 stopped business growth for three years

Railroads made a decisive impact on the U.S. economy especially in the 1850-1873 era, making possible the transition to an urban industrial nation with high finance and advanced managerial skills. Railroads opened up remote areas, drastically cut the cost of moving freight as well as passenger travel, and stimulated new industries such as steel and telegraphy, as well as the profession of civil engineering.

Atlanta, Billings, Chicago, and Dallas

the railroad became the first large-scale business enterprise and the model for most large corporations.[24]

Panics did not curtail rapid U.S. economic growth during the 19th century. Long term demographic growth, expansion into new farmlands, and creation of new factories continued. New inventions and capital investment led to the creation of new industries and economic growth. As transportation improved, new markets continuously opened.

By 1860, on the eve of Civil War, 16% of the people lived in cities with 2500 or more people; a third of the nation's income came from manufacturing. Urbanized industry was limited primarily to the Northeast; cotton cloth production was the leading industry, with the manufacture of shoes, woolen clothing, and machinery also expanding. Most of the workers in the new factories were immigrants or their children. Between 1845 and 1855, some 300,000 European immigrants arrived annually. Many remained in eastern cities, especially mill towns and mining camps, while those with farm experience and some savings bought farms in the West.[26]

The industrial advantages of the North over the South helped secure a Northern victory in the American Civil War

Industrialists came to dominate many aspects of the nation's life, including social and political affairs.[26]

the region maintained its dependence on cotton

An explosion of new discoveries and inventions took place, a process called the "Second Industrial Revolution."

By 1890, the USA leaped ahead of Britain for first place in manufacturing output.[2

The rapid economic development following the Civil War laid the groundwork for the modern U.S. industrial economy.

Parallel to these achievements was the development of the nation's industrial infrastructure

infant mortality, where the United States ranks worse than 48 other countries and territories,

America is indeed No. 1, he might declare — in locking its citizens up, with an incarceration rate far higher than that of the likes of Russia, Cuba, Iran or China

the self-censorship it produces in politicians is bipartisan, even if it is more pronounced on the left for some issues and the right for others.

An American politician who speaks too candidly about the country’s faults, she went on to say, risks being labeled with that most devastating of epithets: un-American.

60 percent of the nation's families earned less than $2,000 a year

Prosperity bypassed specific groups of Americans entirely.

The farm sector had been mired in depression since 1921

The decline in farm income reverberated throughout the economy.

Between 1920 and 1929, more than 5,000 of the country's 30,000 banks failed.

small businesspeople failed because they could not secure loans.

consumer debt also weakened the economy

poor distribution of income

During the 1920s, there was a pronounced shift in wealth and income toward the very rich

poorest 93 percent of the non-farm population actually saw its disposable income fall.

business investment had begun to decline.

housing starts

1924 immigration law

Soaring inventories

reduce investment and production

stock market speculation

The Federal Reserve, the nation's central bank, played a critical, if inadvertent, role in weakening the economy.

allowed the money supply to fall dramatically

"liquidity crisis."

the Federal Reserve allowed the country's money supply to decline by 27 percent between 1929 and 1933.

tariff policies damaged the economy by depressing foreign trade

Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922

Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930

By 1933, international trade had plunged 30 percent.

the United States had no federal system of unemployment insurance.

Community Ches

Red Cross

1860 the North had approximately 1.3 million industrial workers, whereas the South had 110,000, and northern factories manufactured nine-tenths of the industrial goods produced in the United States.

1850, 20 percent of all southern white adults could not read or write, while the illiteracy rate in New England was less than half of 1 percent.

1850, 17 percent of the farming population held two-thirds of all acres in the rich cotton-growing regions of the South.

Louisiana, for example, nearly half of all rural white families owned no land. During the 1850s, the percentage of the total white population owning slaves declined significantly. By 1860, the proportion of whites holding slaves had fallen from about one-third to one-fourth.

The Plantation Legend

the South was, in reality, a diverse and complex region

large parts of the South were unsuitable for plantation life

Unlike the slave societies of the Caribbean, which produced crops exclusively for export, the South devoted much of its energy to raising food and livestoc

Piedmont, Tidewater, coastal plain, piney woods, Delta, Appalachian Mountains, upcountry, and a fertile black belt--regions that clashed repeatedly over such political questions as debt relief, taxes, apportionment of representation, and internal improvements.

Large slaveholders were extremely rare. In 1860 only 11,000 Southerners, three-quarters of one percent of the white population owned more than 50 slaves; a mere 2,358 owned as many as 100 slaves. However, although large slaveholders were few in number, they owned most of the South’s slaves. Over half of all slaves lived on plantations with 20 or more slaves and a quarter lived on plantations with more than 50 slaves.

These slaveowners were a diverse lot. A few were African American, mulatto, or Native American; one-tenth were women; and more than one in ten worked as artisans, businesspeople, or merchants rather than as farmers or planters. Few led lives of leisure or refinement.

The average slaveowner lived in a log cabin rather than a mansion and was a farmer rather than a planter. The average holding varied between four and six slaves, and most slaveholders possessed no more than five.

The southern economy generated enormous wealth and was critical to the economic growth of the entire United States. Well over half of the richest 1 percent of Americans in 1860 lived in the South. Even more important, southern agriculture helped finance early 19th century American economic growth. Before the Civil War, the South grew 60 percent of the world’s cotton, provided over half of all U.S. export earnings, and furnished 70 percent of the cotton consumed by the British textile industry. Cotton exports paid for a substantial share of the capital and technology that laid the basis for America’s industrial revolution.