Sam Patch, the Famous Jumper

The landscape of the American Northeast changed dramatically in the 19th century as a result of both industrialization and cultural change. The development of mill factories and factory cities required deforestation and changes to the natural flow of rivers, a process Johnson describes as “the conquest of nature under the aegis of democratic capitalism” (2). Because he worked and lived in mill towns, Sam Patch had first-hand experience with this.

Landscape changes were generally celebrated as evidence of American capitalist dominance of the landscape. Examples included Paterson, which “owed its growth to the technological conquest” of the Passaic Falls (36). A visitor noted that “this rude spot […] [has] now become the brilliant scene of science” as a result of the town’s mills and bridges (43). Similarly, the construction of the Erie Canal was celebrated as “a magnificent icon of the triumph of American civilization over wilderness” (45), while Rochester was widely known as “the best place to view the rapid and ongoing domestication of the American wilderness” (131). The landscapes surrounding Paterson, Niagara, and Rochester all changed dramatically in the 19th century as a result of industrialization and expansion. For industrialists and upper-class visitors to the Northeast, landscape changes in the 19th century were celebrated as a reflection of American capitalist progress.