Themes in American History

Boston had the oldest traditions. In 1790, it ranked third by population, and fell to fourth place by 1820.
Moreover, while Philadelphia and New York led the nation in population, and New York surpassed other cities in commerce and finance; Boston was the national leader of culture. In addition to leading musical and other artistic pursuits, Boston was the center of the nation’s literary culture, with the best bookshops and an advanced book publishing industry. Many people trained in the Boston area traveled to other parts of the country for the better opportunities. The cultured and cultivated of Boston maintained their identities, however, even when they lived in other cities. Bostonians in New York even formed a New England Society, with one of its stated intentions being the establishment and maintenance of a library.

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When the Dutch arrived in Manhattan in the early 1600s, they had envisioned it to be one of the more popular and prominent ports in America. This was always the case thru the 17th and 18th century, but with the completion of the Eerie Canal, the ports in NYC was taken into a completely different level. Trade was such an integral  and wide spreading part of NYC at that moment, that it could not restrict itself to Manhattan and soon started spreading out into Brooklyn. Merchants started building warehouses and counting houses in Brooklyn along the East River. Building of the Erie Canal reduced the prices of transportation of goods from places like Chicago by 90 percent and reduced the time by 50 percent.

Almost around this same period the Erie Canal was completed , there were a couple of canals build in Pennsylvania  as well. Canals extending the use of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers were chartered before 1815, and the Lehigh Canal was completed in 1838. But these canals did not do the same wonders that Erie Canal did for NYC. Although this system linked the east to the west, its expense made the state nearly bankrupt.

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New York City had a population of 515,547 in 1850 -- a 65% increase in just 10 years

I will compare and contrast Boston vs. New York in the 19^th century. To begin with, both cities were considered as one of the most established cities in the mid –nineteenth century. In this time period, both cities experienced massive migration. According to Chudacoff, “By 1850, there were 135.6 persons per acre in New York, 82.7 in Boston.” (Page 66) Boston’s population grew from 61,392 in 1830s to 177,840 in 1860s. New York’s population grew from 202,589 in 1830s to 813,600 in 1860s (Chudacoff page 61). This data shows us that, Boston grew 3 times and New York 4 times larger in population between 1830s-1860s.Both cities were the financial centers of the United States in the 19th century, and were especially important in funding railroads nationwide. Although, Boston was growing at the fast speed, it wasn’t not nearly as developed as New York. In the 19^th century New York was bigger, economically stronger and faster at innovating and applying new technologies. As Chudacoff stated, “By 1833, some eight omnibuses operated on the streets of New York.”(Page85)On the other hand, it took Boston another decade to implement this type of transportation to accommodate growing population. This example shows us how these two cities differ in development aspect.

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The similarity that New York and St. Louis had is that they were both cities that were fast growing. Both cities had merchants that sought to obtain as much business as they can and they both benefited with the ports that they had around them. New York was one of the biggest port city during the 1840s and 1850s and St. Louis was benefited with the great midwestern water network. However, this benefit that St. Louis had soon with the civil war and the building of the railroad, this city soon failed. This is the difference, as for New York the civil war did not harm them as much as it did for St. Louis. While the civil war was occurring the lower Mississippi river was closed to commercial traffic by the Union army and caused for a downfall in St. Louis business. All of the business that St. Louis conducted was shifted to Chicago. As for New York, they did go through economic problems during the civil war, but their business did not shift to another city and they did not go to a downfall to completely paralyze New York.

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According to Chudacoff, during the civil war, contrary to New York, Philadelphia, relative unity prevailed. Industries there met needs for war materiel, and workers adjusted to inflation and succeeded in getting some wage increases. Philadelphia residents responded relatively calmly to government quotas requiring that the city furnish a certain number of recruits for the Union army, and a strong police force deterred potential social upheaval. (81) Instead, in New York, there had riots which caused by unfair Draft Laws. The whites laborers were attacking black people and republicans and it lasted for four days and resulting in more than four hundred deaths. Most of all, it was a race riot. Through the image, we can see rioters subjected black men to the most brutal violence: torture, hanging, and burning.

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There were still farms in both cities, but they started to die out. Farms moved to more rural cities since the big cities needed that land to build buildings and other more useful things. Insurance had expanded to cover fire, marine, and wool manufacturing damages. After the Connecticut compromise, States were equally represented in congress. Even though slavery was abolished in NY in 1801 there were still slaves in both cities up until the 1870’s. 

New York had developed much quicker and in a more organized way than Connecticut. The main reason for that in my opinion is NY’s geographical location advantage over Connecticut. New York’s port gave it a great boost economically since they were able to ship and trade goods and later on sell it to other cities, making the most profit because the products reach their hands first. Also more immigrants moved into NY than Connecticut, causing NY to expand quicker because of the cheap labor of the new immigrants. New York started to develop earlier than Connecticut so it also had a time advantage. Connecticut was bigger on slaves at the time, because of the farms they still had while New York already got rid of them.

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One thing that was very important to New York City in the mid 1800s was that the city need a source of water for its growing inhabitance. Likewise Boston and other major cities faced a simular situation. Chudacoff wrote on page 50 “In 1835, New York voters solidly approved a project to bring water to the city through an aqueduct form the Croton River.” And then later “In 1845, an act passed by the Massachusetts General Assembly enable Boston to construct it’s own water system.” I believe that New York set the standard for the growth of most large cities with its implmentation of a necessitiy such as running water. This increase the standards of public health and contrubute considerably to the population growth in both New York and Boston.

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In the 1800’s, much like New York City, many developing states began to become increasingly populated. Because of the westward expansion, areas such as the Midwest; Chicago in particular attracted many immigrants to the area during this period. Their main water supply was lake Michigan. They got their drinking water here. As the city grew, the garbage did as well and factories began to throw their waste into the Chicago river. The city felt that it was absolutely necessary to built a proper sewerage system. The dirty water had taken a toll on the rising population in the mid 1800’s, killing hundreds of people. A disease called Cholera decimated the population and many blamed the Irish immigrants. This project was the biggest construction project of this era. It required the city to be elevated 10-15 feet vertically to allow the sewers to drain into the river. ( http://www.sewerhistory.org/chronos/new_amer_roots.htm )

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Slavery in NYC and New Orleans shared many similarities but had significant differences.The shared in common the methods of punishment to slaves that rebelled such as hanging as well as methods of control . ” By The early 1700s most towns North and south had passed ordinances limiting the liberties of all nonwhites, slaves and free. These included curfews, regulations of movement on city streets and prohibition on certain purchases.”( Chudacoff  pg19).

Nevertheless These two cities differed in the development of these control methods as the mid 1700s approached. There was a larger ratio of slaves to the white population of  in New Orleans than in New York (Chudacoff pg 18). Consequently, to control the slave population New Orleans created a formalized system whereby which slaves could buy there freedom, this along with tighter regulations on the lives of all blacks New Orleans officials hope would cause division in the black communities and ultimately provide systematic control. “They expected that the chance of liberation would give stake in the system to a small but growing number of slaves who made money from gardening, working, hunting or nursing the sick”.(Chudacoff pg 19) While this method of control was not needed in NYC because of the small ratio of blacks to whites.

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Richmond, Virginia, like New York, was a fast growing city between 1800 and 1860. Of course it didn’t grow as quick as New York. There are a variety of things that the two cities had in common even though New York was more business-related, whereas Richmond was more of a plantation/farm-based city. Richmond was following the same path as New York, having their first City Hall built in 1816, says visitrichmondva.com. In the 19th century, slavery was common in both of these cities. It’s obvious that a city as large as New York would need slaves to help regulate the flow of business and in Virginia, there were over a hundred slaves per plantation. Fortunately, slavery was abolished in New York in 1827. On the other hand, in the South, farming was a big part of daily life and they needed slaves and it was impossible for them to free a slave. “Only in Richmond, where slave manpower was essential to iron and tobacco provessiong, did a large proportion of slaves still persist in 1860” (Chudacoff 64). Due to their selfishness to keep slaves, Virginia joined the Confederacy, the states that supported slavery. Havoc broke loose in the mid 19th-century when the slave-free North, also known as the Union, and pro-slavery South clashed in a war known as the Civil War. The outcome of this war shaped the way for slavery for years to come. According to visitrichmondva.com, Richmond actually became the capital of the Confederate States. As common as Richmond was, it’s population didn’t burst until the mid to late 19th century, whereas New York experienced a sudden population growth starting from the 1820s, onward. “The establishment and expansion of the COnfederate government’s bureaucracy helped to triple the population of Richmond” (Chudacoff 74).

Slave auction in Richmond, Virginia on September 27th, 1856.

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During the 1840’s, New York City and Cincinnati experienced a major exponential increase in their population growth due to the migration of Germans and Irish.  German culture continued throughout the decade influencing churches, newspapers, and many other institutions.  Cincinnati’s economic growth and development was made possible by-thousands of immigrants to the area.  The addition of the Erie Canal lead greater economic growth as merchants sought out new investments in the Western expansion.

During the 1830’s, Cincinnati became an important city for the national debate of slavery.  Ohio utilized the city to promote anti-slave movements due to it’s position; west from the Ohio River from Kentucky.  Many who opposed against the end of slavery were the Irish because they feared the growing competition between freed African Americans.   Similar to New York City during the 1830’s, as the Irish and African Americans competed for land and jobs.

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Boston and NYC’s histories have been different from their founding. Boston was founded among the first Puritan colonies. These people were escaping religious persecution in England. NYC, on the other hand, was founded by a massive corporation for the sake of profit. John Winthrop had a vision for Boston to be as “a city upon a hill,” where the members were exclusive and had special favor from god (Chudacoff 59). In fact, many non-puritan leaders were persecuted for their beliefs. His vision failed, as the cities population nearly doubled around the time of the revolutionary war, and exploded in the 19th century. Boston was also a hub for anti-British ideals. The events that lead to the revolution like the Tea Party and the massacre happened in Boston. New Yorkers seemed primarily concerned with making money, and until the British began taxing unfairly, didn’t mind who ruled. After the war had ended, the differences in ideals became apparent in slavery. Boston almost immediately banned slavery whereas NYC took a few decades as the practice was still profitable.

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Slavery existed in both cities -New York and South Carolina. During 19th century, cities are growing in the North. The slaves in northern cities like New York worked primarily as domestic servants, while the slaves in the South Carolina were working in the plantations. In 1810 African American had constituted over 10 percent of the population in New York City. (Chudacoff p66) Agriculture was very important to the South’s economy. In South Carolina, most of the plantations grew cotton and those plantations required large numbers of slaves. Compared to the South Carolina, the North’s economy was based on trade and merchandising. The households in New York City were wealthier so they could hire one or two slaves as servants. In New York City there was more numbers of slave-owners but in South Carolina there was more numbers of slaves working there. Slavery was officially abolished in New York in 1827. On the other hand it became nearly impossible to free a slave in South Carolina after 1820. The state had one of the most stringent slave codes in the country. The slavery even kept expanding in South Carolina in 1840s. (Lesesne p457) Slavery existed in America for more than 200 years, until the thirteenth amendment to the U.S. constitution was passed in 1865. After that, slavery was definitely abolished throughout the country.

The photograph was taken on Smith's Plantation, Beaufort, South Carolina.

Lesesne, H. (2003). South Carolina. In S. I. Kutler (Ed.)Dictionary of American History, (Vol. 7). (3rd ed., pp. 453-457) New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons Retrieved June 16, 2011,
from Gale Virtual Reference History Collection

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Similarity:  1. The success of transportantion in NYC and Philadephia made other imitators to follow: For the transportation,  the first turnpike–Philadelphia-Lancaster Turnpike was built by private stock companies and financed by private investments and toll revenues, opened in 1794 between Lancaster and Philadelphia. Due to successof the turnpike, it caused many imitators to follow. In New York alone, privately operated turnpike companies had completed 4,000 miles of toll roads by 1820. (Chudacoff p.36). Similarly, Eirc Canal was under construction from 1817 to 1825 and officially opened on October 26, 1825.  It proved an enormous success upon its completion in 1825. Shipping costs from Lake Erie to New York dropped by more than  90%. The success of Erie Canal  spawned may imitators to follow as well as the turnpike. Two thousand miles of canals were built during the 1830s, include a ridiculously expensive Main Line from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.

2. In New York, the upper 4 percent owned 49 percentof the wealth in 1828 and 66 percent in 1845. SImilar concentrations of wealth could be found in Philadephia. (Chudacoff p.44).

3.  The proportion of  African Americans diminished in NYC and Philadelphia: African Americans had contributed over 10 percent of the population in New York City in 1810; by 1860, they represented only 1.5 percent of all New Yorker. In Philadelphia, more than 12 percent of the population was black in 1830; by 1860, that proportion had dropped to less than 4 percent.  (Chudacoff p.66)

Differnence: Under pressures reulting from the yellow fever epidemics, Philadelphia constructed the country’s first major PUBLIC waterworks. while other cities included NYC which purchased water from PRIVATE companies. and the quality of the water system was low because few private corporations were willing to commit huge amounts of captial to the construction and mainltenance of an elaborate water system.

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By the 1850s, more than half the residents of Boston and New York City were foreign born, and Philadelphia 30 percent of household heads were born in Europe. Major concentration of Irish immigrants cound be found in New York, Boston Philadelphia and San Francisco, and strong German communities emerged in Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis and Milwaukee (P.65)

New York and Boston are both city of seaside, they are the fastest growing cities during 18^th century, and attract new immigrant from European country, like Irish, German. By 1850s, more than half of the residents of Boston and New York City were born in Europe.  The huge number of European immigration makes changes to society, like religion.  One of the differences between New York City and Boston is the density in urban side. The Populations of New York grow from 202,589 to 515,500 and Boston growth from 61392 to 136880 in 1830 to 1850. By 1850, there were 135.6 persons per acre in New York, 82.7 in Boston.  New York has much higher immigration population and density in urban area than Boston.

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Throughout the  19th century, the primary occupation of people living in Kentucky was farming whereas for New Yorkers was manufacturing and constructing. All the dirty and hard works like producing hemp, and processing tobacco were attended to by slaves. The number of slaves appeared  to relate to the production of market-oriented crops and not to the amount of land owned and farmed. Also the small farming tasks were performed by slaves.Although  slaves were free and not owned, they had been given the most difficult tasks than any others. In contrast to kentucky, New York was one of the developed city where prominent Americans used to live there. As there were  many renowned individual living in the city, they  were able to import and own the slaves even just to make their standard in the society.

The demand for slaves were mainly for manufacturing, construction, and other household works. In contrast to New York, between 1850-1860 Kentucky used to export more slaves than did any other states (wikipedia ,”Slaves in Kentucky”). African American slaves used to be exported through Tennessee and Mississippi river from kentucky to New York and other states. During 19th century as all people living there were engaged to farming and crop production, there were no people owning any slaves. There was no demand for slaves whereas in New York, the demand was higher for the purpose of manufacturing, construction etc. The business was mostly depending on the slavery trade.

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The difference between New York City and Cincinnati is that while NYC is a trend setter, Cincinnati is not. Cincinnati sought out council for plans to construct a sewer system from NYC to improve their city (Chudacoff 47).  Although it would be wise to seek out advice from other developed cities, it denies Cincinnati to be considered as a truly independent city. In some circumstances, certain ideas may only work for certain areas which could also lead to many drawbacks because it may hinder more than help the city.

What could be considered a similarity between New York City and Cincinnati is that both cities heavily rely on water transportation for their commercial success. While New York City had the transatlantic connection and the Erie Canal, Cincinnati had the Ohio River and Mississippi River to conduct majority of its business. Both cities found great success through their ports, which also helped them boom in both population and wealth. Just as New York City is considered to be the best city of the east coast, Cincinnati was coined the “Queen of the West” (Chudacoff 37-38).

Cincinnati

New York City

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As more immigrants started coming Philadelphia and New York, the population of African Americans started decreasing. Before coming to US, Irish immigrants were unaware of racial discrimination against African Americans.  After learning that fact Irish people refused to work with African Americans. As a result African Americans started losing their jobs and employment rate of Irish people increased. More European immigrants started moving in these cities due to development and job opportunities population of African American decreased. “African Americans had constituted over 10 percent of the population in New York City in 1810; by 1860, they represented only 1.5 % of all New Yorkers. In Philadelphia, more than 12 % of the population was black in 1830; by 1860, that proportion had dropped to less than 4 percent.” (Chudacoff, pg66).Between 1820 and 1830, ferries and bridges helped in developing cities, lands across Manhattan and Philadelphia get accessible and that increased the population of these areas doubled and tripled in just single decade. That was another reason of decrease in population of African Americans in these cities. Such a Large scale immigration of Irish people took place main due to potato blight. “The potato blight that struck Ireland in 1845-1847 destroyed the food supply for countless families “(CHUDACOFF, Pg 64). As a result 1.7 million Irish fled to US. By the 1850’s, more than half the residents of Boston and New York city were foreign born, and Philadelphia 30 percent of household heads were born in Europe.” (CHUDACOFF, Pg 64).

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A characterization of a dichotomy between an urban-industrial North and a rural-plantation South before civil war would exaggerate actual conditions. But the southern city like Savannah was neither nonurban nor antiurban, which resembled northern city, especially, New York City in their commercial functions and social complexity . Savannah businesspeople did, however, depend on northern cities, especially New York City’s capital and markets. (Chudacoff, pg78, 6th Ed)

Comparing with New York City, Savannah suffered more damage from the civil war. The union army’s blockade ports, the breakdown of transportation system as a result of military activity, and wartime inflation exacerbated patterns of urban hardship, especially food shortages. All of these slowed down the development of economic in Savannah. But New York City’s economic was rapid develop in the 1850s (Chudacoff, pg80, 6th Ed).

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Immigrants had an important impact on many cities of the Untied State. For example, New York is a diversity city

which accepted many immigrants from over the world; especially people from Europe, Germany and Ireland, and so on

in 1820-1860. Immigrants contributed labor force for the development of New York City. They were used to work at

factory and port for delivering goods.

The first purpose was getting rich fast for people ,who went to  California in 1845-1863. Because of gold rush, many

immigrants moved into California, therefore it became a bigger and wealth city gradually. At the time, most immigrants

were from China. They were in order to get rich and have a better life, most people abandoned their families and moved

to California. However, later on, they became a particular force which built railroad from west to central of the

Untied State with gold rushed up.

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