The Market Revolution

The Market Revolution brought about the emergence of “individualism,” or the belief that every successful man was not born that way or hereditarily predisposed to thrive, but rather achieved it through his own actions and hard work. If one was poor, it was believed that it was due to your own lack of effort – a sort of “social Darwinistic” thinking. New technologies in media (such as the telegraph) enabled immediate international communication, and vast canals brought river-bound trade to the forefront of the economy. Steamboats and other advances in transportation shortened travel times drastically, and factories exploded across the country. Textiles were produced fully by machine with young unmarried women working long days and living in separate communities with their fellow laborers. Men skilled in a trade found that many of their skills could oftentimes be reproduced in the factory, thus diminishing the demand for their services and driving many to work in factories for wages. Millions of Irish immigrants relocated to America during this period to escape starvation from the great potato famine in their home country, and “nativists” sought to restrict entry during this massive influx. The new entity of “corporation,” which by and large left large employers exempt from being punished for the financial, environmental, and personal offenses they committed in the name of their business, also came into existence.

Transcendentalists like Thoreau and Emerson believed that their own personal beliefs and intuitions were superior and transcended the organized beliefs dictated to be “right” by organized religion and societal norms. Rather than to conform to what the majority thought and believed, one should make their own judgments based on one’s own experiences and ideas. They believed that the tireless pursuit of materialistic gain would leave one hollow and dissatisfied and that people should begin to re-experience the peace of nature. Thoreau did just this when he took a leave of his fellow American to live near Walden Pond for a time. He sought to separate himself from the fast-paced world during the market revolution and the changes that marked it. The opinions of the individual were muted by the din of society pursuit of personal riches, and that people were becoming “tools of their tools,” gathering money in the place of striving for any other form of personal satisfaction and happiness. Thoreau came to Walden “to live deliberately … and see if I could not learn what [life] had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (Freedom 182).