Market Driven Democracy The first fifty years of the 19th century set the terms of the United States' economic and democratic systems. The interweaving of politics, commerce, trade, and society began in this time and those first bonds formed still effect United States life today. This connection between economics and life is rooted in the emergence of the market economy, which served to establish the ideals of American “democracy” that we connect with now. This divergence from the former moral economy served to make the United States actually less democratic, forever establishing an upper class of owners and forming social roles about race, class, gender and family that encouraged inequality and persist today. This establishment of inequality is exemplified in the images of work attached to the prompt, and show how these roles were seen and formed within the culture. The image of the Erie Canal Workers shows the change from an earlier ideal of American life and labor, where ones labor was to be used to work and cultivate your own land to sustain your own living. This image of the Erie Canal workers shows the exact opposite of this self owned concept for labor. All of these men are essentially being used as machines, good for nothing but labor, to work and make use of the land owned by someone else, for someone else's profit. The fruits of their labor would not be actual fruits as they might previously have been, but a monetary amount, to be budgeted as best as possible to buy things from other people. This dependence on others and this early establishment of a working class. Tocqueville connects with this idea when he discusses the tyranny of the majority, “within a democracy organized as the United States, only one power is encountered, only one source of strength and success, with nothing outside them[1].” This describes the amount of power in the hands of the majority, which depended on and took cues from the class of owners. They were seen as the only source of strength and potential for success, which explains why they were so influential. The society had changed from being one where man could make his own name, of individualism and self made success, to one where the only opportunity to make it in life came from one place, virtually outside of your control. The image of the slave woman at the market shows the development of gender and race roles within the developing market economy. Shopping was seen as necessary, but often portrayed as frivolous social event. One of the major social critiques of shopping at the time was that it was a woman's job,[2] and it was mostly done by those with less political clout, such as a woman or a slave. This is shown in the image of the woman shopping. As a female slave, she has basically no influence or impact in the world. It further establishes those who have to shop and run errands as a lower class, and makes shopping a lesser activity. This further established inequality, and elevated a separate majority, seen as a greater tyrant than a monarch by Tocqueville. The idea that the work of shopping was common work for slaves served to further demean the work of service workers within the cities, such as clerks. Clerks often performed work that would otherwise have been completed by a slave or African American laborer, as did seamstress, and multitudes of other workers. This helped establish these trades and the people within them as a part of the minority, and further elevate the power of the market controllers as the majority within the democracy and society. The idea of inequality between the sexes is also shown in the image of the textile workers. The woman are seen being worked almost to weakness, and overseen by a man, who looks rather unforgiving. The women are below men, seen as set there to serve the men and expand their profit and fortunes. This is shown by the dilemma of the Lowell girls. A “fair wage” for work was seen as a wage that supported a family, something a man would earn. This allowed the single, family free Lowell girls to be treated as lesser workers and undermine their efforts for a higher wage. Zakim claims that the example of women in the textile business like the Lowell girls, “underlined how capitalism intruded into all realms of home life, eventually subverting woman’s very domesticity,[3]” and that “the seamstress' suffering personified the vulnerability of all women in the market driven, fraternal democracy.[4]” This subversion of woman’s domesticity took them from vital members of the home life, providers and caretakers to a lower class of laborer, morally condemned for straying from their natural place in the home, but socioeconomically prevented from staying there. The image of the clerks at work shows the separation of classes, the importance of the distance between the clerks and rest of the labor force to those who commanded their labor and controlled the majority. Clerks emerged as the icon of the labor force of service workers, who provided not a good but a service, measurable by their labor. Clerks were typically seen as a lower class. Many were rural people looking to come to the idealized city and make it big, and about 40% were immigrants.[5] This image shows the ironies of the clerk, and the critiques associated with their position. They were involved in the lower, frivolous activity of shopping and retail, a new aspect of the market economy that strongly diverged from the previous business equality of the moral economy. Clerks served to fluctuate from labor seen as that of a lesser class, like organizing, cleaning and stocking, and labor of a more professional nature, bookkeeping and correspondence. This element of physical labor made it hard for them to distinguish themselves as a white collar working class, and highlights the race, gender, and class conflicts of this new niche in the labor force. Clerks were men doing the work of women or slaves, but a lesser class empowered to seduce and speak to the upper class in order to service and sell to them. This threat of a minority gaining majority powers mirrors an argument by Tocqueville of the United States new democracy, who claims “if ever freedom is lost in America, blame will have to be laid at the door of the omnipotence of the majority, which will have driven minorities to despair and will have forced them to appeal to a physical force.”[6] The final image of the prostitutes serves as a final reminder of the gender separation and remaining ideals created by the economic structure of the United States. Females who earned money and worked for their independence, who were able to fraternize and speak to men on a friendly level were often prostitutes. This icon of what a woman who worked for herself was stood out as the ultimate threat to the ideal female role in the home and the society. It remained as a major stigma and threat to female independence. This image shows the gender ideals associated with female and male interaction and the place of women in society. The Female Marine serves as an outlet and expression of many of these issues in society. Lucy Brewer portrays the women she encountered in the prostitution business as immoral and lewd. She believes they seduced and tricked an innocent girl into their bad world. This could even be seen as an ultimate allegory for the United States' place as an emerging democracy at the time. It was innocent and new as a country and a republic, and threatened by external dangers, it needs a strong moral core, enforced by the majority to keep it afloat.[7] This image of prostitution shows how women were viewed in society at the time, and as a minority that needed to be controlled. The democracy that emerged in the United States in the 19th century was greatly shaped by the roles and ideas that existed in culture and society at the time, many of which were directly influenced by the emergence of the market economy. The United States had transitioned from a nation of trust and community, keeping their neighbor in line and contributing for the preservation of the whole, owning land and not much as far as profit, to a nation run by the for profit business of the market economy. It created the urban lifestyle that so many were attracted to, including the service worker and industry laborers that went indside and supported the cities. This developed a separation of classes, genders and races that function more as an agent of the majority, which is controlled by the affluent property owners and manufacturers who control their labor hours, much as their father might have controlled their hours on the family farm. Women were limited and looked down upon when they strove for anything other than continuing the norm, associated with prostitution and radicals. Slavery and racial inequality also served as an agent of establishing a market driven economy, where they served as the lowest form of labor, and as a measuring stick for what was socially acceptable for work. The combination of all of these elements coming out of the emergence of the market economy is what shaped and formed the United States' democratic belief and system. The tyranny of the majority as described by Tocqueville, is fueled and supported by the market economy and the emergence and solidification of social and cultural roles concerning labor and work. The images discussed above serve as icons for what was expected of different labor forces and what their life and labor was worth to society as whole. This established an upper business class that persists today as a majority force within the government and introduced the idea of the self made man as the ideal of American culture. The importance of profit and working for a wage as opposed to a good or to sustain your lifestyle placed all the power in the market place, which gave the economy and those who controlled it central control in the American democracy, and therefore its culture and society and the roles within them.
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[1] Alexis deTocqueville, Democracy in America, (New York: Penquin Books, 2003). 298.

[2] Ellen Hartigan-O'Connor, “Is Making Money Virtuous?” Hist 176A, UC Davis. April 11 2013.
[3] Michael Zakim, Ready-Made Democracy. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003) 167

[4] Michael Zakim, Ready-Made Democracy. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003) 198
[5] Ellen Hartigan-O'Connor, “Service Workers” Hist 176A, UC Davis. April 18 2013

[6] Alexis deTocqueville, Democracy in America, (New York: Penquin Books, 2003). 304.
[7] Ellen Hartigan-O'Connor, “Early Republic Instability” Hist 176A, UC Davis. April 4 2013