Teaching Packet

Industrial Revolution

Part of Uncovering America

This sepia-toned photograph depicts a young girl standing next to a piece of machinery in an industrial setting. The girl has pale skin and dark hair that is tied up behind her head, and she looks out at us with large eyes and a neutral expression. She is wearing a plaid apron over a patterned dress with rolled-up sleeves, and her feet are bare and dirty. She has one of her arms bent behind her, resting casually on the large machine, which is full of spindles and spools loaded with white thread. Debris is scattered on the dark wooden floor.
Lewis Wickes Hine, Addie Card, 12 years old. Spinner in cotton mill, North Pownal, Vermont, 1910, gelatin silver print, Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 2014.164.1

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On this page:

  1. Overview
  2. Selected Works
  3. Activity: Multiple Viewpoints
  4. Activity: Capitalism Illustrated
  5. Activity: Industry Then and Now
  6. Additional Resources
This photograph shows the interior of a large industrial building filled with piles of raw cotton and large machinery. Wooden support beams stretch up to a tall, planked ceiling, all covered in fluffy white cotton. There are several large machines with cotton accumulating around them, including one close to us at the bottom left. A burlap sack is clamped into a mechanical press in the large machine, appearing full of white cotton. Around and on top of this machine are five men, all working on different areas. One turns a wheel, one holds a hammer, two push a large wooden beam, and one stands behind a long plank. All of these men have dark brown skin and wear shirts and trousers with suspenders. They are all covered in white cotton. In the background are more men, standing in different areas of the building and looking towards the machine in the bottom left. These men wear jackets and wide-brimmed hats. Two appear to have dark skin, and two appear to have light skin, although the photograph is faded and details are indistinct.
American 19th Century, Detroit Photographic Company, Mississippi Cotton Gin at Dahomey, published 1899, photo-chromolithograph, Gift of Mary and Dan Solomon and Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2006.133.130

Overview

How did the Industrial Revolution change the United States?

What makes industrialization possible?

How does art reflect the varying experiences within a capitalist economy?

In 1899 an unknown photographer documented the interior of a cotton gin operation in Dahomey, Mississippi. The image reveals the challenging and stifling work of processing raw cotton in the humidity of the southern United States. In the foreground, African Americans pack and press cotton into a massive bale. Others stand in the background next to cotton gins, machines that separated sticky seeds from plant fibers. Cotton clings to the walls and rafters of the room.

By 1860, 61 percent of the world’s raw cotton originated in the southern United States. Nearly all of this cotton was grown and processed by enslaved African Americans on lands seized from Native Americans. The cotton was shipped to industrial giant Great Britain, which imported 75 percent of its raw cotton from the United States, as well as to factories in the northern United States, where the fiber was spun, dyed, woven, and printed. Cotton was key to the United States becoming a global economic powerhouse.

The start of the US Industrial Revolution is often dated to 1793, when the first water-powered, roller-spinning textile mill opened in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. It was developed in part by Samuel Slater, an English textile apprentice who memorized British mill designs—in defiance of British laws banning their export—and then immigrated to the United States.This origin story introduces two themes that frequently feature in the larger narrative of industrialization: entrepreneurship and mechanization. It centers the Industrial Revolution in New England, where textile mills proliferated due to fast-running rivers and where workers left farms for factories over the second half of the 19th century. It also celebrates the United States as a champion of opportunity for immigrants who moved to the young country by the millions.

However, the story of the Industrial Revolution in the United States is also the story of slave labor, land exploitation, and Indian Removal. Mississippi Cotton Gin at Dahomey documents mechanized labor at what was once the world’s largest cotton plantation. Situated in the soil-rich area known as the Mississippi delta, Dahomey Plantation was named after the homeland of its enslaved workers, the Kingdom of Dahomey in present-day Benin.

The drive to industrialize, compete, and rapidly increase wealth in the United States impacted people and lands unevenly. Artists, especially photographers, were hired to celebrate industrial achievements, particularly the construction of railroads. These same works of art often reflect the unease, tension, and loss that resulted from such development. By looking at artwork from this period, how might we gain a fuller picture of the innovations and sacrifices that led to the growth of the United States?

Selected Works

  • This painting shows the upper body of a man seated at a table. He is holding a quill over a sheet of paper, and his body is turned slightly to the right as he looks out at us. He has a fair complexion, large green eyes, a straight nose, and a neutral expression. He has dark, wavy hair, and is dressed in a formal black jacket with a white shirt underneath, a black bow tie, and a yellow waistcoat adorned with a gold-colored chain and a pin. On the brown table he sits behind, there is an ink pot with another quill in it, and a thick brown book partially covered by the paper he writes on. Behind his head are rolls of patterned fabric on shelves, along with several blue boxes. The walls are a dark green color, and on the right is a bright red curtain with a black pattern on the gold-fringed edges.
  • Printed with black ink on off-white paper, twelve scenes are laid out in a grid of three rows and four columns. The sheet is titled “THE HOUSE THAT JEFF BUILT,” and most scenes show Black and white people or tools used in enforcing slavery. Each entry also has text below. They appear as follows. At the top left, the first image is of a wooden door in a wooden building with a barred window. Writing over the door lintel reads, “SLAVE PEN” and a sheet hung to the left of the door reads, “SLAVE SALE, AUCTION, Prime Lot, COTTON.” Text below the image reads, “This is the House that Jeff built.” The next scene is of three tied bales in front of the wooden wall of the house. The poster is visible on the wall, and text below reads, “This is the cotton by rebels call’d king, (Tho’ call’d by loyalists no such thing), That lay in the house that Jeff built.” Next are three Black adults and one Black child harvesting cotton. One adult holds a sack open and another carries a sack slung over one shoulder while the child picks the cotton. Text below reads, “These are field-chattels that made cotton kin, (Tho’ call’d by loyalists no such thing,) That lay in the house that Jeff built.” The final image on the top line shows two Black men sitting on a bench and two women and two children standing in front of the sale poster. Text below reads, “These are the chattels, babes, mothers, and men, To be sold by the head, in the slave pen: A part of the house that Jeff built.” Next is a white man wearing a suit and holding a gavel while standing behind a podium. The poster is laid on the surface in front of him, and text below reads, “This is the thing by some call’d a man, Whose trade is to sell all the chattels he can, From yearlings to adults of life’s longest span: In and out of the house that Jeff built.” The next illustration shows a ball and chain with an open padlock at the base of a post with shackles hanging from a nail. Text reads, “These are the shackles, for slaves who suppose, Their limbs are their own from fingers to toes; And are prone to believe say all that can, That they shouldn’t be sold by that thing call’d a man: Whose trade is to sell all the chattels he can, From yearlings to adults of life’s longest span: In and out of the house that Jeff built.” Next, four white men stand in line and one has a hand on the upper arm of a Black woman. Three of the men wear top hats and suits, and the fourth has a bulging belly, a floppy hat, and a slip of paper hanging from his jacket pocket. “These buy the slaves both make and female, And sell their own souls to a boss with a tail, Who owns the small soul of that thing call’d a man, Whose trade is to sell all the chattels he can, From yearlings to adults of life’s longest span: In and out of the house that Jeff built.” Next, two white man wear suits and stand next to a table in front of a portrait labeled J. Davis and Gen. Beauregard. One standing man gestures at a Black man who stands to one side. “Here the slave breeder parts with his own flesh, To a trader down south, in the heart of secesh., Thus trader and breeder secure without fail, The lasting attachment of him with a tail, Who owns the small soul of that thing call’d a man, Whose trade is to sell all the chattels he can, From yearlings to adults of life’s longest span, In and out of the house that Jeff built.” The final row begins with a whip and the text, “This is the scourge by some call’d the cat, Stout in the handle, and nine tails to that: Tis joyous to think that the time’s drawing near, When the cat will no longer cause chattels to fear, Nor the going, going, gone of that thing call’d a man, Whose trade is to sell all the chattels he can, From yearlings to adults of life’s longest span, In and out of the house that Jeff built.” Next, a bare-chested black woman is tied to a post and a white man holds out a cat-o-nine-tails. Her back is sliced with gashes. “Here the slave driver in transport applies, Nine tails to his victim, nor heeds her shrill cries. Alas! that a driver with nine tails his own; Should be a slave to a driver who owns only one: Albeit he owns that thing call’d a man, Whose trade is to sell all the chattels he can, From yearlings to adults of lifes longest span, In and out of the house that Jeff built.” Next is the head and shoulders of a white man who looks down and to our left under gathered, thunderous brows. He has a beaked nose, a long upper lip, downturned lips, and hollow cheekbones. “Here’s the arch rebel Jeff whose infamous course, Has bro’t rest to the plow, and made active the hearse, And invoked on his head every patriots curse, Spread ruin, and famine, to stock the slave pen, And furnish employment to that thing among men, Whose trade is to sell all the chattels he can, From yearlings to adults of life’s longest span: In and out of the house that Jeff built.” The final image is of the iron ball among broken shackles, chains, a broken gavel, and torn up sale posters. One intact poster reads, “Execution of JEFF DAVIS the TRAITOR, Dying speech and CONFESSION” under an image of a person hanging from a gallows. Text reads, “But Jeff’s infamous house, is doom’d to come down. So says uncle Sam, and so said John Brown. With slave pen, and auction, shackles, driver, and cat, Together with seller, and buyer, and breeder, and that, Most loathsome of bipeds by some call’d a man, Whose trade is to sell all the chattels he can, From yearlings to adults of lifes longest span, In and out of the house that Jeff built.”
  • We look across and down into a valley with a person sitting near a tall tree and a train puffing smoke beyond, all enclosed by a band of mountains in the distance in this horizontal landscape painting. Closest to us, several broken, jagged tree stumps are spaced across the painting’s width. A little distance away and to our left, the person wears a yellow, broad-brimmed hat, red vest, and gray pants. He reclines propped on his left elbow near a walking path beside a tall, slender tree with golden leaves. The green meadow stretching in front of him is dotted with tree stumps cut close to the ground. Beyond the meadow, puffs of white smoke trail behind a long steam locomotive that crosses a bridge spanning a tree-filled ravine, headed to our left. The ravine creates a diagonal line across the canvas, moving subtly away from us to our left. The train has climbed out of the valley, away from a cluster of brick-red buildings. The most prominent structure is a train roundhouse, a large building with a high, domed roof to the right of the tracks. Smoke rises from chimneys on long, warehouse-like buildings, and a steeple and smaller structures suggest a church and homes to our left. Hazy in the distance, a row of mountains lines the horizon, which comes about halfway up the composition. The sky above deepens from pale, shell pink over the mountains to watery, pale blue above. The artist signed the work in tiny letters in the lower left corner: “G. Inness.”
  • This sepia-toned photograph depicts a rural landscape littered with tree stumps and debris. Two people stand among the stumps, their backs to us. The person on the right wears a long light coat and a dark hat, and the person on the left wears a white shirt with a dark waistcoat and a pale gray hat and trousers. Two trees with dark leaves are visible, one on the left side and one to the right of center. In the distance is a low hill covered with white buildings. A dirt pathway winds through the landscape in the distance, and wooden fences cut through wide fields. The horizon is visible above the hills, which appear slightly obscured by light mist or fog. The sky is off-white.
  • This photograph displays a landscape scene from an elevated viewpoint. Closest to us is a field with a slightly patchy texture, bordered by a horizontal wooden fence. A person dressed in black stands near the fence on the left, their back to us. A large, wooden building with a mix of vertical and angular lines is to the left of center, behind the fence. The building has an asymmetrical shape and seems to be connected to some smaller sheds or other structures. In the background, a small town is surrounded by gently rolling hills. The low horizon reveals faint outlines of more distant hills or mountains. The sky is clear, although smoke or fog seems to cover some of the distant mountains. Below the photograph are two lines of text.
  • This print shows a nighttime scene on a large river. In the center is a steamboat named "PRINCESS" that is being loaded with wood by several people gathered around a fire. Smokestacks on the ship emit orange smoke into the dark sky. In the distance on the left, another steamboat is visible under a full moon, and clouds drift across the night sky. A bright moon lines the edges of the clouds in white. The color scheme includes deep blues and blacks with bright whites and warm oranges from the steamboat's lights and smoke. There is a line of text below the print.
  • This is a painting of a dockside scene with workers and cargo. The painting portrays a group of laborers taking a break, gathering around various goods and supplies near docked ships. The dock is bustling with items like a horse-drawn cart, baskets, and crates scattered around. The men wear simple trousers, shirts, and jackets in shades of brown, red, white, and light blue. Some wear hats and smoke pipes. Most have pale skin, although one man on the left appears to have dark brown skin. In the background are sailing vessels and a steamboat with smoke rising from a chimney against a pale-blue sky.
  • This photograph shows the interior of a large industrial building filled with piles of raw cotton and large machinery. Wooden support beams stretch up to a tall, planked ceiling, all covered in fluffy white cotton. There are several large machines with cotton accumulating around them, including one close to us at the bottom left. A burlap sack is clamped into a mechanical press in the large machine, appearing full of white cotton. Around and on top of this machine are five men, all working on different areas. One turns a wheel, one holds a hammer, two push a large wooden beam, and one stands behind a long plank. All of these men have dark brown skin and wear shirts and trousers with suspenders. They are all covered in white cotton. In the background are more men, standing in different areas of the building and looking towards the machine in the bottom left. These men wear jackets and wide-brimmed hats. Two appear to have dark skin, and two appear to have light skin, although the photograph is faded and details are indistinct.
  • This sepia-toned photograph depicts a young girl standing next to a piece of machinery in an industrial setting. The girl has pale skin and dark hair that is tied up behind her head, and she looks out at us with large eyes and a neutral expression. She is wearing a plaid apron over a patterned dress with rolled-up sleeves, and her feet are bare and dirty. She has one of her arms bent behind her, resting casually on the large machine, which is full of spindles and spools loaded with white thread. Debris is scattered on the dark wooden floor.
  • In this print, a large web sprawls across the top right, with a factory labeled "Standard Cotton Mills" at its center. Other objects are tangled on the edges of the web, such as a house and three human figures. Behind the web, we can see across a bleak, empty landscape with a small, smoking factory on the horizon. In front of the web, in the bottom right corner of the image, is a large spinning wheel on top of a circular rug, and next to it we see two figures from behind. One of the figures appears to be an adult wearing a dress, and they hold the hand of a small child in overalls. The adult figure appears translucent, and the horizon beneath the web is visible through her body. To the left of the spinning wheel is a large industrial machine with spools of thread on it. The machine stretches far into the background, all the way to the factory at the center of the web. Behind this machine, a tall plant rises out of a small grassy area. There is also some grass in the bottom right corner of the image, in front of the two figures. The print is entirely in black, white, and shades of gray.
  • This print features the outlines of several buildings and tall smokestacks which are surrounded by the arms of a giant man wearing a suit and top hat, his hands grabbing two of the buildings. The giant man has pale skin and a neutral expression, his thin mouth set in a straight line. His eyes are looking downward. Closer to us, in front of the buildings, a smaller man stands with his back to us, facing the buildings. He appears to be wearing overalls or trousers with suspenders. His skin is light gray, and he has short dark hair. Muscles are visible under his clothing. Outside of the two men and the buildings, the background is blank white paper.
  • This print consists of thin vertical columns and horizontal lines, creating a complex pattern. Large dark shapes resemble industrial structures like chimneys or smokestacks, with the space above them mostly light, like a pale gray sky. The overlapping lines create a texture vaguely similar to that of woven fabric.

Activity: Multiple Viewpoints

This sepia-toned photograph depicts a young girl standing next to a piece of machinery in an industrial setting. The girl has pale skin and dark hair that is tied up behind her head, and she looks out at us with large eyes and a neutral expression. She is wearing a plaid apron over a patterned dress with rolled-up sleeves, and her feet are bare and dirty. She has one of her arms bent behind her, resting casually on the large machine, which is full of spindles and spools loaded with white thread. Debris is scattered on the dark wooden floor.
Lewis Wickes Hine, Addie Card, 12 years old. Spinner in cotton mill, North Pownal, Vermont, 1910, gelatin silver print, Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund, 2014.164.1

Invite students to select a work of art from the image set that features people, such as Textile Merchant, “Wooding Up” on the Mississippi, or Addie Card, 12 years old. Spinner in cotton mill, North Pownal, Vermont. Encourage them to consider the multiple viewpoints or stakeholders, both seen and unseen, in the work. Next, ask them to identify a single individual and imagine that person’s point of view. Students might consider questions such as:

  • What does this person gain from participating in this industry? What does this person lose?
  • What does this person value or care about?
  • What actions does this person engage in? How might those actions affect his or her body, mind, and emotions?

Students may use evidence that can be seen in the work of art, as well as primary and secondary sources about the industry. Ask students to contemplate the individual’s opinion of the industry. For a greater challenge, try this activity using the environment as the stakeholder.

Activity: Capitalism Illustrated

This print features the outlines of several buildings and tall smokestacks which are surrounded by the arms of a giant man wearing a suit and top hat, his hands grabbing two of the buildings. The giant man has pale skin and a neutral expression, his thin mouth set in a straight line. His eyes are looking downward. Closer to us, in front of the buildings, a smaller man stands with his back to us, facing the buildings. He appears to be wearing overalls or trousers with suspenders. His skin is light gray, and he has short dark hair. Muscles are visible under his clothing. Outside of the two men and the buildings, the background is blank white paper.
Hugo Gellert, Primary Accumulation 3, 1933, lithograph, Reba and Dave Williams Collection, Gift of Reba and Dave Williams, 2008.115.2026

The New Oxford American Dictionary defines capitalism as “an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.” The United States is a capitalist country. People from a variety of fields and backgrounds argue about the pros and cons of capitalism, and whether it is a sustainable system. (For more background, see “What ‘Capitalism’ Is and How It Affects People” in Teen Vogue.)

Distribute images from this unit to your students and ask them to identify which work of art they think best illustrates capitalism and why. Then, invite them to conduct more research into arguments for and against capitalism and ask them to take a position on the system.

Activity: Industry Then and Now

In this print, a large web sprawls across the top right, with a factory labeled "Standard Cotton Mills" at its center. Other objects are tangled on the edges of the web, such as a house and three human figures. Behind the web, we can see across a bleak, empty landscape with a small, smoking factory on the horizon. In front of the web, in the bottom right corner of the image, is a large spinning wheel on top of a circular rug, and next to it we see two figures from behind. One of the figures appears to be an adult wearing a dress, and they hold the hand of a small child in overalls. The adult figure appears translucent, and the horizon beneath the web is visible through her body. To the left of the spinning wheel is a large industrial machine with spools of thread on it. The machine stretches far into the background, all the way to the factory at the center of the web. Behind this machine, a tall plant rises out of a small grassy area. There is also some grass in the bottom right corner of the image, in front of the two figures. The print is entirely in black, white, and shades of gray.
Lamar Baker, Walk Into My Parlor, 1940, lithograph, Reba and Dave Williams Collection, Gift of Reba and Dave Williams, 2008.115.731

Industries developed across the United States in the 19th century as settlers spread across the country and claimed lands. New industries continue to emerge today. Ask students to investigate their community: What was its primary economic driver in the past? What is its leading business today? Consider what made these industries possible, such as geography, immigration or migration, climate, and education. Invite students to reflect on the benefits and downfalls of today’s industry, consulting with friends, family members, and neighbors in order to gain multiple perspectives on the local industry. Students should then create a portrait of industry in their community. They might try the following:

  • Create a portrait of an industry worker
  • Photograph a physical site or building
  • Tell a visual or graphic story of the industry

What colors, lines, shapes, patterns, or symbols can be employed to make the works of art more meaningful? Offer examples of symbols from the image set, such as a broken tree stump (George Inness’s The Lackawanna Valley) or a spiderweb (Lamar Baker’s Walk Into My Parlor), as well as Soledad Salamé’s use of distortion to create meaning in Gulf Distortion XII.

Additional Resources

The Industrial Revolution in the United States, teacher’s guide, Library of Congress

Caitlin Rosenthal, “Plantations Practiced Modern Management,” Harvard Business Review, September 2013

Sven Beckert, Empire of Cotton: A Global History (New York: Vintage, 2015)

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