How did the American economy change during the Era of Good Feelings? What advantages and disadvantages came with the rise of industrial production? Who benefited? Who did not benefit? How did these changes simultaneously unite and divide the North and the South?

The Era of Good Feelings lasted from approximately 1816 to 1824 with the tumultuous election between Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson. Thanks to the steam engine, the American economy would grow immensely. Steam power helped to power steamboats that could easily move against river currents. This would lead to the growth of river cities such as St. Louis and Memphis. Steam power would also lead to the growth of New England textile mills, such as those found in Lowell, Massachusetts. These textile factories employed women and children because factory owners looked for the cheapest laborers available. Also, the delicate hands of women and children could better manipulate some of the machinery of the mills. Factories also looked for immigrants from Ireland and Germany because these people could be employed cheaply as well. This would ultimately lead to anti-Irish xenophobia and the rise of the Know Nothing Party. The United States also benefited from the creation of interchangeable parts, something pioneered by Eli Whitney, who was also responsible for the cotton gin. Samuel Colt made interchangeable parts popular with his firearm factory. While this made goods cheaper to produce and also cheaper to buy, it also put many individual craftsmen out of work, as they could only produce a limited number of goods a day and could not compete with the lower prices. The rise of industry would also lead to the growth of the American cities. While this led to greater prosperity for industrialists, it also led to increased poverty for factory workers who had to constantly compete with new arrivals for their jobs. This led to a constant push for lower wages and worsening conditions in cities, which soon had slum districts for the urban working poor. These soon became centers of crime and government corruption as city bosses looked to take advantage of worker votes that could be easily bought.
The rise in industrial output during this period had a big influence on American history going forward. The demand for cotton by New England textile mills and factories abroad meant that there was a great need for slave labor in the Southern cotton fields. Abolitionists began to claim that the United States was being controlled by a minority slave interest, and they demanded that slavery be abolished or at least limited to where it was already in place. Southerners feared losing their source of cheap labor, and they feared that if more free states joined the Union, they would lose their slaves. There was also the concern of what would happen to the newly freed slaves, and Southern slave owners feared violent slave insurrections. The South also claimed bias because most of the infrastructure improvements, such as the construction of railroads and the creation of canals, happened in the North. The North claimed that this was because a lot of the workers needed for these projects immigrated to the North and that Southern slaveowners would not part with their workers to create things like the Erie Canal, which was largely built by Irish immigrants. While the industrial output helped make the United States more prosperous, it also further heightened the differences between the North and the South that had existed since the country's birth.