PHILADELPHIA INDUSTRIAL GROWTH
The Pennsylvania state government left Philadelphia in 1799 and at the time the United States government left Philadelphia in 1800, the city had become one of the United States' busiest ports and the country's largest city with 67,787 people living in Philadelphia and its contiguous suburbs. Philadelphia's maritime trade was interrupted by the Embargo Act of 1807 and then the War of 1812. After the war, Philadelphia's shipping industry never returned to its pre-embargo status and New York City would soon become the United States' busiest port and largest city.
The embargo and lack of foreign trade helped establish factories in and around Philadelphia to make goods that were no longer available from foreign markets. Manufacturing plants and foundries were built and Philadelphia became an important center of paper-related industries and the leather, shoe, and boot industries. Coal and iron mines, and the construction of new roads, canals, and railroads helped Philadelphia's manufacturing power grow and the city became the United States' first major industrial city. Major industrial projects included the Waterworks, iron water pipes, a gasworks, and the U.S. Naval Yard. Along with its industrial power, Philadelphia was also the financial center of the country. Along with chartered and private banks, the city was the home of the First and Second Banks of the United States, Mechanics National Bank and the first U.S. Mint. Cultural institutions such as the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Athenaeum and the Franklin Institute also developed. Public education became available after the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed the Free School Law of 1834.
Immigrants, mostly from Germany and Ireland, streamed into the city, swelling the population of Philadelphia and its suburbs. In Philadelphia, as the rich moved west of 7th Street, the poor moved into the upper class' former homes, now converted into tenements and boarding houses. Many small row houses crowded alleyways and small streets, and these areas were filthy, filled with garbage and the smell of manure from animal pens. During the 1840s and 1850s, hundreds died each year in Philadelphia and the surrounding districts from diseases like malaria, smallpox, tuberculosis, and cholera, with the poor being affected the worst.
A nativist riot in Southwark, July 7, 1844.
Along with sanitation, violence was a serious problem. Gangs like the Moyamensing Killers and the Blood Tubs controlled various neighborhoods. During the 1840s and early 1850s when volunteer fire companies, some of which were infiltrated by gangs, responded to a fire, fights with other fire companies would usually break out. The lawlessness among fire companies virtually ended in 1853 and 1854 when the city took more control over their operations. The 1840s and 50s also saw a lot of violence directed against immigrants. Nativists had a strong presence in the city and often held mostly anti-Catholic, anti-Irish meetings. Violence against immigrants also occurred, the worst being the nativist riots in 1844. Violence against African Americans was also common during the 1830s, 40s, and 50s. Deadly race riots led to African American homes and churches being burned. In 1841, Joseph Sturge commented "...there is probably no city in the known world where dislike, amounting to the hatred of the coloured population, prevails more than in the city of brotherly love!" Despite the formation of several anti-slavery societies, and being a major stop on the Underground Railroad, much of Philadelphia was against the abolitionist movement. Abolitionists were also the target of violence which included several of their meetinghouses being burned.
The lawlessness and the difficulty in controlling it, along with a large population shift just north of Philadelphia, led to the Act of Consolidation in 1854. The act passed on February 2, made Philadelphia's borders coterminous with Philadelphia County, incorporating various districts, boroughs, townships, and any other unincorporated communities within the county.
Once the American Civil War began in 1861, Philadelphia's southern leanings changed and hostility moved from abolitionists to southern sympathizers. Mobs threatened a secessionist newspaper and the homes of suspected sympathizers and were only turned away by the police and Mayor Alexander Henry. Philadelphia supported the war with soldiers, ammunition, war ships and was a main source of army uniforms. Philadelphia was also a major receiving place of the wounded, with more than 157,000 soldiers and sailors treated within the city. Philadelphia began preparing for invasion in 1863, but the southern army was repelled at Gettysburg.
|
