ABSTRACT
The years after 1815 presented ambitious American mechanics and artisans with steadily increasing opportunities. The rapid growth of population — it quadrupled between 1815 and 1860 — created an ever larger market for manufactures. Much of this market remained accessible (as it had been in the colonial period) to ships that plied the coastal waters and the navigable rivers of the seaboard. As territorial expansion drew more and more people farther inland, proliferating transportation networks — turnpikes, canals, and then railroads — tied the new interior settlements to the nation’s commerce.
