Broadly speaking, in the North, the Market Revolution led to increased urbanization and economic integration. A major part of both of these trends was industrialization, of which the textile industry was the most prominent example. The market revolution also saw rapid growth of infrastructure in the North, including state and federally-subsidized roads, canals, and eventually railroads. Additionally, the Market Revolution, as well as other external forces (especially famine in Ireland) led to massive immigration during the 1830 and especially the 1840s.

In the South, the Market Revolution, particularly in the deep South, was characterized by the expansion of cotton agriculture, famously facilitated by the invention of the cotton gin. Far from the idyllic plantations romanticized in historical memory, hunger for new lands to cultivate cotton led to rampant speculation and aggressive land-grabs in the fertile black belts of western Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi (and later Texas.) This not only led to the deportation of Southeastern Indians, but created a insatiable demand for slave labor. Because the foreign slave trade was banned, southern planters turned to the border South, particularly Virginia, where there was a labor surplus. This led to one of the other defining characteristics of the Market Revolution, namely the internal slave trade. Thousands of slaves were taken in coffles to the Deep South, where they labored on the new plantations.

On the other hand, the rise of Jacksonian democracy, with its emphasis on extending the franchise to all white men, was also a legacy of the Market Revolution in the South as well as the North. And the Market Revolution also led to increased economic integration of the North and South, as well as the West. This took place even as the regions began to experience sectional tensions over the expansion of slavery and other issues related to slavery.

How did the Market Revolution impact the North and South differently?

The Market Revolution had a significant impact on the North. As more machinery was introduced to the United States, many changes occurred in the North. Northern farms became big business operations. Prior to the introduction of machinery, most northern farmers practiced subsistence farming.  After the introduction of machinery, these farmers began to produce many crops to be sold to people living throughout the region.

The introduction of new machines led to the growth of factories in the North. These factories produced a variety of products including clothes, tools, and furniture. Many of these products were sold to many people in the United States.

The Market Revolution also impacted the North because there were improvements in transportation. With the development of the steam engine, it was easier and quicker to ship products. River transportation improved as did travel by road. The building of the National Road, the Erie Canal, and the use of the steam engine in boats and trains helped get products and people from one place to another quicker than in the past.

The South was impacted by the Market Revolution. As the use of the cotton gin expanded, the South turned more and more to the growing of cotton. Cotton eventually became the leading export of the South. The growth of cotton plantations also led to an expansion of slavery in the South. The Southern economy relied more and more on the use of slaves. Thus, the invention of the cotton gin greatly impacted Southern life and the Southern economy.

The Market Revolution impacted both the North and the South.

The Market Revolution truly transformed the economy of the North.  By contrast, its impact on the South was less pervasive.  It is said to have brought about the boom in cotton, but it did not fundamentally change the way the economy worked.

In the North, the Market Revolution brought about a decline in subsistence agriculture.  Instead of working on family farms that were self-sufficient (or nearly so) people started to work on farms that grew crops to sell.  Many people even left farms to work in the factories that were springing up around the North.  This created a situation where the North developed a diverse economy that was based on the market system where it had previously had an economy that depended on small practitioners of subsistence farming.

By contrast, the South’s economy was not so drastically changed.  The South’s economy had never been dominated by small subsistence farmers.  Its dominant power was the plantations.  The Market Revolution, in the form of Whitney’s cotton gin, did change the dominant crop in the South.  It also ensured that slavery would boom as cotton was able to spread across the South.  However, it did not create a diverse economy as in the North.  The South was dominated by plantations before the Market Revolution and continued to be dominated by plantations after the revolution.

The Market Revolution, therefore, helped the North become modernized and industrialized but did not do the same for the South.