Jefferson's View Of Industrialization

A great advantage that Americans had in industrialization was their ability to adapt to new technologies. This can be found through the cultural fact that Americans had escaped the Old World tradition of government and felt the benefits, so it would follow that doing the same for work and machinery would churn the same results. At first, the American public saw industrialization and the adoption of new technologies as they would help all aspects of life. This attitude aided in criticism of industrialization being delayed, but eventually it did happen and Americans started critiquing the effect it would have on the natural force of life. The response from Americans came in a variety of ways, the most negative view came from the idea that this would disrupt the natural
This came into direct conflict with Thomas Jefferson’s ideals of agrarianism, since he saw machinery as more a tool to enhance rural life, not replace it with industrialization and new cities. More specifically, Thomas Jefferson viewed machinery as a liberator, and it would free feudal Europe from aristocrats. To Jefferson, the escape from oppressive back-breaking labor was synonymous with political liberty. Jefferson saw technology optimistically and was sure that it would disrupt the natural order of American society. Puritan belief massively shaped how technological advancement was viewed, most importantly they viewed labor as their salvation, which heavily contrasted historical views of hard labor. Aristotle claimed that work of that nature was humiliating and meant only for slaves, but to Puritans all work was in service to God and any way of avoiding it, even through machinery, was frowned upon. To them, any idle time only leads you astray from God. Benjamin Franklin, a child of Puritans, championed hard work as a major factor to success, along with good