1. In the 1790s, as America was still forging its identity, global events such as the French Revolution and the fight between Britain and France led America to reconsider the ways it would conduct itself as a free nation – Jefferson believed it would lead to populist government, while Washington and Hamilton feared it “raised the specter of anarchy” (Foner 297). Political divisions in America included the argument between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, who had differing ideas of how to economically expand the country’s power (Hamilton through England, Jefferson through westward expansion).
2. Thomas Jefferson accomplished a great deal during his presidency. One of the most significant achievements was the Louisiana Purchase, in which he purchased a great deal of the central part of the North American continent from France that would eventually become a large swath of the United States. However, the Embargo of 1807 dramatically reduced his popularity, as well as the market performance of American port cities. Furthermore, the Barbary Wars complicated “the new nation’s first encounter with the Islamic world” (Foner 316). In that regard, Jefferson’s legacy paled in comparison with Washington’s, who managed to cultivate a sense of national unity that was not found in Jefferson’s lack of popularity and controversial economic decisions.
3. The Market Revolution was an astounding economic milestone for America, irrevocably changing the way it conducted business and the way it also framed the idea of ‘American freedom.’ At the beginning of this era, American freedom was thought to be the central component of their nation, the reason Americans were so unique among the world. However, his evolved with the advent of manifest destiny, in which “the United States had a divinely appointed mission to occupy all of North America” (Foner 352). Rather than focus on Americans as a group being free, American freedom soon meant the freedom for individuals to forge their own destiny (e.g. Transcendentalism).
4. The Market Revolution led to a number of technological achievements that would become influential in America. These included roads and steamboats, the Erie Canal, railroads, the telegraph, the cotton gin, commercial farming, and the factory system. For me, the factory system was the single most important achievement among them, for its single-handed transformation of American goods and services from seasonal into the strict hours of city life – “work time and leisure time came to be clearly marked off from one another” (Foner 347). The factory system irrevocably changed not only what we made, but how we made it.
5. The central legs upon which political democracy stood in the mid-1800s were the Market Revolution and territorial expansion. As industry expanded and commercial agriculture increased the number of people who earned wages, it became more necessary to include these people in the political process, since they now had buying and spending power never before seen in the working classes of a nation. As such, Jackson’s election was the sign that political and economic elites were no longer in charge of the American political system, but the “common man” (Foner 372). His election demonstrated that the ordinary citizen – albeit just white male citizens – now had a powerful voice in American political life, with their right to vote. The Information Revolution aided in this, as citizens were now comparatively more informed in their votes, and could be counted on to make educated decisions about their leaders.
Works Cited
“Eric Foner on the Market Revolution.” Norton History, 2011.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUrLjs4IRcc&t=21s>.
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty (3rd ed.). W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. Print.
