Conclusion

Abstract

America is often praised or criticized for its commitment to capitalism, but the roots of this commitment, what it means and where it came from, have rarely been examined in depth. This study has explored the cultures of capitalism that characterized the rise of American manufacturing, exemplified in the biographies of Samuel Colt, Horatio Nelson and John Fox Slater, Amos Adams Lawrence, and their extended families. Colt, the Slaters, and Lawrence were key figures in the emergence of American manufacturing and capitalism in the nineteenth century. They shaped the weapons and textile businesses, the two major manufacturing industries of antebellum America. These men shared many beliefs and practices, from a search for business practices that could result in a more efficient workplace to a belief in the sanctity of hard work as a key to economic success. All these men helped implement a new manufacturing society increasingly based on rational and contractual forms of power, which differed from the traditional types of social control prevalent in the agriculturally based world of antebellum America. Yet they pursued their economic activity in dramatically different ways, and they were far from entrepreneurs concerned solely with profit. The entrepreneurial and cultural values of Colt, the Slaters, and Lawrence both reflected and influenced the new capitalist economy and the very meaning of the nation. Their life experiences, beliefs, and different models of business demonstrate that American capitalism was economically and organizationally diverse from its inception. These men represented different visions of capitalist enterprise and promoted disparate conceptions of the type of society that the United States could become in the future.