From: Anonymous Seven
Date: 3/1/00
Time: 8:08:03 PM
Remote Name: 155.247.175.38
Anonymous Seven History 67 Week Seven Text Question : What was the role of technology in the new republic? Did it have implications for American freedom? Before 1820 America was prospering mainly from agriculture and trade. But with Eli Whitney's cotton gin separating fibers, Samuel Slater's textile machinery spinning out cotton at a new pace in New England, and the first steamships sailing up the Hudson River, the American work place was beginning to take on a new look. With new independence there were Americans such as Washington and Hamilton who were in favor of technological advancement. Improving American productivity would call for less foreign transaction, therefore "promoting genuine independence." But others such as Jefferson, skeptical about the new technology, called for the workshops to stay in Europe. Soon skilled artisans found that the trade that they had mastered was no longer as necessary as was the need to meet the demands of a new market place in an efficient manner. The concerns of these workers were inevitable. They feared that the technology would leave them unemployed or turn them into wage laborers. As productivity was moving from the house to the factory tensions between craftspeople and industry thickened. No longer able to work as they wish many workers had to follow industrial discipline gradually losing their freedom. And to make it worse, employers found that hiring unskilled workers to perform tasks that were then made simple reduced wages. While attempts were made to retain the old work ways, the mechanization and division of labor were in full effect. Even Jefferson, who once appealed to the Americans to not sacrifice personal independence for independence from foreign manufactures, now found himself a advocate of the new production methods.