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Major Events
Chapter 14 · 1790–1860
Samuel Slater launches the factory system
1791
Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin
1793
Robert Fulton's steamboat succeeds
1807
The Lowell textile mills open
1814–1820s
The Erie Canal is completed
1825
The railroad era begins
1830s
Irish immigration surges
1840s
German immigration surges
1840s–1850s
The Know-Nothing party rises
1850s
McCormick's reaper spreads
1850s
Early labor unions organize
1830s–1850s
A national market takes shape
by 1860