In The Cradle of Industry and Liberty

up cotton manufacturing operations in various
places in Philadelphia, investing much of
his own limited resources in the effort.
Unfortunately, John Nicholson was involved
at this time with financier Robert Morris in
huge land speculation schemes that were
beginning to fail spectacularly; he could not
make good on his promises to Pollard. As
Pollard’s situation grew increasingly desperate
he wrote a series of heartbreaking letters to
Nicholson in the mid-1790s, telling Nicholson
that he was “quite out of money,” that he
could not even buy bread for his family, and
that they were being evicted from their home.
Pollard pleaded with Nicholson to make the
promised payments “to prevent destruction
from falling on me now.” His pleas were for
naught. Nicholson went bankrupt and eventually
ended up in debtors’ prison, where he
died in 1800. Pollard died in poverty the
following year, his dream of becoming one
of America’s first major cotton manufacturers
unfulfilled. Robert Morris also went to debtors’
prison for several years before being released
after Congress passed a new bankruptcy law
that was designed in part to free him.
THE INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION
All of these tangled ventures, sad and
unsuccessful as they were, presaged the eventual
emergence of a strong manufacturing
sector in Philadelphia. The roots of the
Industrial Revolution had been firmly planted
in America by the turn of the nineteenth
century and the ensuing years would witness
an ongoing expansion of mechanized manufacturing
activity in the city, what historian
Walter Licht describes as “a steady mushrooming
of enterprise.” The small-scale artisan
approach to making things never ceased—the
city would always have its traditional craftsmen,
seamstresses, and artisans—but their
type of work was gradually being superseded
by larger-scale, mechanized factory-based
production methods.
The transition was not without its detractors.
While prominent men such as Tench Coxe
and Alexander Hamilton eagerly promoted
industrialization, others such as future presidents
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison
(the former’s role in smuggling the cotton spinning
model out of England notwithstanding)
were adamantly opposed to it. They were not
against new technologies per se, but they
envisioned America as primarily a rural
agrarian nation, not an urban industrialized
one. They despaired of the numbing effects
of mechanized factory work and the wage
labor system on American society. Another
group fiercely opposed to industrialization
was Philadelphia’s many handloom operators,
craftsmen who generally worked out of their
homes and who viewed the emergence of
mechanized factories as a threat to their
livelihood. The Industrial Revolution could
not be stopped, however.
FEDERAL
FACILITIES
When the U.S. capital was removed from
Philadelphia in 1800, federal officials opted
to keep the government’s key manufacturing
@
The original and current U.S. Mint
buildings in Philadelphia.
Left: The nation’s first Mint building, on
Seventh Street near Arch. The Mint began
making coins in 1793 under the direction of
David Rittenhouse. It moved within the city
several times over the years.
PRINT COLLECTION, HISTORICAL SOCIETY
OF PENNSYLVANIA.
Right: The current mint building
opened in 1969 at Fifth and Arch Streets,
just 100 yards from the site of the original
1793 building.
PHOTO BY BEYOND MY KEN, 2013, WIKIPEDIA COMMONS.
CHAPTER THREE
35