Engineering in the New Nation

Abstract

One of the central facts about the early years of the United States is that the so-called industrial revolution was occurring in Britain at about the same time the thirteen colonies revolted against British rule and declared their independence. When the American Revolution ended in 1783, the new nation was, at it had been in the colonial period, overwhelmingly agrarian. Britain, meanwhile, was rapidly evolving into an industrial society. Many prominent figures in the new nation feared that while America had achieved political independence, it would become economically dependent on its former colonial master. It was in this context that early American mechanical innovators labored.