During the 1850s Northern states of the United states began changing the way they worked, they started to work in manufacturing industries, people owned woolen mills, and produced flannel, blankets, clothing, furniture, as well as firearms. Its population increased by 39 percent during that decade and the North was mostly composed by middle-class people. Manufacturing industries and railroads had a boom, and banks and companies started investing in the North, the house prices began to rise, and people was interested in machinery and advanced technology to save costs, even those who still worked in agriculture.