Cooper praises the ingenuity and technology of the American people. He thought that the construction of the Erie Canal showed how Americans advanced technologically and mechanically. When the country was still young (fifteen or twenty years before Cooper wrote "Notions of the American"), there was little need for a canal. The European engineers brought in for other work in this period were very competent, but only to the needs of Europeans. So when it came time for the Erie Canal to be built, American surveyors and engineers were called in. Their practicality and knowledge of the people's needs made American engineers equally, if not more, knowledgable then those from other countries.

Erie Canal and other structures built in America during the mid-nineteenth century displayed to the world what our it was capable of. According to Cooper, the Erie Canal was built with little cost, high profits, in bold estimates, and accurate results. Still, some Europeans criticized . While accomplishments like the Erie Canal were impressive, Europeans still regarded America as a "child" and thought that because it was a newer nation, it was less civilized.

The letters of John and Elizabeth Hodgdon coincide with historical information that tells us that when mechanized work became abundant during the Market Revolution, many women moved away to work and kept in touch with their families

According to the essay "Female Workers of Lowell" the girls working at the factories lived in