Chapter 10 Study Questions: America’s Economic Revolution

1. List reasons why the Us. population increased from 1820-1840. (260-261)

2. Explain the rise in immigration from 1840-1860. (260-261)

3. Define Nativism and explain its significance. (263)

4. Describe the membership and platform (political ideas) of the Native-American and Know Nothings political parties. (264-265)

5. How are canals constructed and how do they function? (266-267)

6. Understand the when, where, how, why of the Erie Canal? (267)

7. Describe the features of early railroads. (268-269)

8. What factors enabled railroads to become the preferred mode of transportation. (269-270)

9. Explain the invention of the telegraph. Understand why this was significant. (270)

10. Define the concepts of “market economy” and “corporation.” (271-270)

11. When and where did the first major factories emerge in the United States? What is the significance of their locations? (272-273)

12. What is merchant capitalism and why did it decline in the middle of the 1800s? (274)

13. Explain how early factories found workers. (275-276)

• (1820s-1830s) factory labor from native population
• (1840s) Immigrant population = new source of labor/workers
• 2 Systems of Recruitment
• 1) Brought whole families to mill (Mid-Atlantic)
• 2) Lowell/Waltham system: enlisted young women (Massachusetts)
• Relied on young unmarried women

14. What was the Lowell System and what happened to it? (276-277)

• Lowell System: enlisted primarily young unmarried women to work in factories
• Lived in clean boardinghouses and dormitories
• Fed and carefully supervised
• Strict curfews & regular church attendance; dismissed women w/ immoral conduct
• Wages low but generous by standards of the time
• Decline: difficult to maintain high living standards & working conditions
• Wages declined, hours lengthened, conditions worse, overcrowding ^
• Mill girls moving to other jobs: teaching, domestic, marriage
• Manufactures turning to immigrant labor
• Factory Girls Association (1834): strikes
• Female Labor Reform Association (Sarah Bagley)

14. Describe the emergence of trade unions. (277-278)

• (19th century) craftsmen form organizations against competition of industrial capitalists
• Philly, Baltimore, Boston, NY: skilled workers of each craft formed societies for mutual aid
• (1820s-1830s) Craft societies combine to from trade union
• National Trades’ Union (1834)- founded by delegates from 6 cities
• Early unions fared poorly; Panic of 1837 > weakened movement
• Early failure did not end workers efforts to gain control over productive lives
• Commonwealth v. Hunt: unions were lawful organizations and that strike = lawful weapon

15. Explain how the industrialization of the United States led to the formation of a “rich get richer and the poor get poorer” society. (279-280)

• Industrial Revolution -> ^ $, making society more unequal, changing social relationships
• Increasing Inequality in Wealth
• Ave. Amer. Income increase; unequally distributed
• Slaves, Indians, landless farmers, unskilled workers did not share $$ increase
• More pronounced wealthy vs. poor class
• Urban Poor
• Significant population of destitute people emerging in urban centers
• W/O resources, homeless, depended on charity/crime
• Immigrants (Irish), widows, orphans, alcoholics, mentally ill, Free Blacks

16. Describe the emergence of an American middle class. (281)

• Result of the growth of the industrial economy and increasing commercial life
• Economic development > own/work in business/shops, engage in trade, enter professions, administer organizations
• Commerce and Industry = source of $$; people = prosperous w/o owning land
• Growing class distinctions btw workers/artisans and middle class

17. What was the “Cult of Domesticity”? (283-284)

• Women as guardians of the “domestic virtues”
• Occupied their own separate sphere
• Home shaped by women
• Duty to provide religious and moral instruction
• Benefits
• Live in greater material comfort
• Higher value on “female virtues”
• High vale on role as wife and mother

• Costs
• Detached from public world
• Fewer outlets for interests and energies

18. Who was P.T. Barnum? (288)

• P.T. Barnum: unscrupulous showman who opened the American Museum in New York (1842)
• Great freak show (midgets, Siamese twins, magicians, ventriloquists)
• Drew people to museum through engaging lectures (appealed to young women)
• Pioneer in exploiting public taste for wild & exotic
• (1870s) Launched Circus

19. An important theme in how the United States grew and developed as a nation is the differences between industrial and agricultural life in the north and the primarily agricultural south. Read the end of chapter 10 (288-290) to understand the agriculture and industry of the north as well as the characteristics of urban and rural life in the north. (Chapter 11 is more about life in the south)

• Industrialization boosted agriculture
• Domestic market for farm goods ^
• North W. sold most of products to North E. (vice versa)
• Strengthened ties btw N.E. and N.W.
• Isolation of the South within the Union
• Gap between the North and South