US History: Chapter 9
By the 1840s, how many Americans had moved to states and territories west of the Appalachians?
*5 million* In 1820, Congress had reduced the price of federal farmland from $2.00 an acre to just $1.25. Incentives such as these created a migration of about 5 million people to states and territories west of the Appalachians.
Why did manufacturers begin to abandon water power in the 1830s?
*A new coal economy began to emerge.* Manufacturers increasingly ran their machinery with coal-burning stationary steam engines rather than with water power.
In 1816, what did the federal government enact to protect American textile manufacturers from foreign competition in the early 1800s?
*A tariff* Textile manufacturers convinced the government to enact tariffs, which increased the price of cheap British textiles and made domestic products more competitive.
Why was the Erie Canal so successful?
*It linked the economies of the Midwest and the Northeast.* The Erie Canal connected midwestern and northeastern economies, serving as an avenue for the eastward movement of agricultural products and the westward movement of manufactured goods.
The Supreme Court case of Gibbons v. Ogden in 1824 struck down a New York law that created a monopoly on steamboat travel into New York City. Why was this decision important?
*It prevented state and local laws from interfering with interstate trade.* The Supreme Court's decision asserted federal authority over interstate trade and prevented state or local laws from interfering with the flow of commerce.
In 1832, evangelicals gained control of what group and achieved success using revivalist methods?
*American Temperance Society* Soon after Evangelical Protestants took over the American Temperance Society in 1832, the organization boasted 2,000 chapters and more than 200,000 members. The society employed the methods of the revivals—on one day in New York City in 1841, more than 4,000 people took the temperance "pledge."
What important hurdle did unions face in their organizing efforts in the antebellum years?
*American common law branded unions as illegal "combinations."* As a Philadelphia judge put it, unions were a "government unto themselves" and unlawfully interfered with a "master's" authority over his "servant."
In what way was the Waltham-Lowell System, pioneered by the Boston Manufacturing Company, a revolutionary change for American industry?
*By cutting labor costs through hiring female workers* The Waltham-Lowell System found a solution to competing with cheap British imports by hiring women and girls who could be paid less than men.
How did the rise of the business elite change the social order?
*By increasing the differences between manufacturers and their employees* The creation of a business elite with vast wealth who controlled the factories separated them from their workers, unlike the preindustrial era, when most Americans shared a common culture.
Who was the most influential Protestant revivalist in the 1830s?
*Charles Grandison Finney* Finney was a handsome and charismatic evangelist who led a series of enormously successful revivals in Rochester, New York, and other cities along the Erie Canal. In 1835, he established a theology department at newly founded Oberlin College in Ohio, where he trained a generation of ministers and served as president from 1851 to 1866.
Which disease killed thousands of poor immigrants in St. Louis and New York City in 1849?
*Cholera* Poor immigrants in American cities were susceptible to disease due to crowded living conditions, ineffective sanitation systems, and rampant poverty. In 1849, cholera broke out in several large cities, including St. Louis and New York City, killing thousands. Most were poor Irish immigrants.
What was the federal government's most important contribution to the transportation revolution?
*Control of interstate commerce* By protecting the flow of goods and money across state lines and blocking local and state monopolies from violating that interstate freedom, the federal government facilitated the transportation revolution in a significant way.
Which type of workers faced the worst working and living conditions in mid-nineteenth-century America?
*Day laborers* Unskilled day laborers were the lowest on the economic scale and had the most arduous work and least security. Mechanics were skilled artisans and made more money, while mill workers earned lower salaries than artisans but had more regular employment than the casual day laborer.
Why was the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851 in London so important for American companies?
*Displays at the exhibition catapulted some of them into multinational businesses.* After winning praise at the exhibition, Remington (which made rifles), Singer (which made sewing machines), and other American firms became multinational businesses, building factories in Great Britain and coming to dominate some European markets.
The early factories that rose in the 1830s relied on what approach to increase productivity?
*Division of labor* Division of labor means that each worker was given one job within the production process, which improved productivity.
Why did Congress reduce the tariff on imported cotton and woolen cloth in the 1830s?
*Farmers and city dwellers wanted cheaper imports.* Congress had passed tariff bills in 1816, 1824, and 1828 that taxed imported cotton and woolen cloth. But in the 1830s, Congress reduced these tariffs because southern planters, western farmers, and urban consumers demanded access to inexpensive imports.
Congress significantly encouraged western expansion by reducing the price of which of the following in 1820?
*Federal Land* By making the public domain more cheaply available, Congress allowed Americans to avoid wage labor dependencies in eastern cities by setting up farmsteads in the West.
Who formed the Boston Manufacturing Company in 1814 and built a textile factory at Waltham?
*Francis Cabot Lowell* Francis Cabot Lowell, a wealthy Boston merchant, joined with two other merchants to establish the Boston Manufacturing Company.
What helped American textile manufacturers outcompete British textile producers in the domestic market?
*Getting protective tariffs from the federal government* American textile manufacturers were given protection from British competition in 1816, 1824, and 1828 through tariff legislation.
How did the builders of steamboats used on the Mississippi change the design of these vessels?
*Giving them wider hulls and shallower drafts to travel on shallow rivers* To navigate shallow western rivers, engineers broadened steamboats' hulls to reduce their draft and enlarge their cargo capacity. These improved vessels halved the cost of upstream river transport along the Mississippi River and its tributaries and dramatically increased the flow of goods, people, and news.
For the American middle class and business elite of the antebellum era, what stood at the heart of social mobility and national prosperity?
*Hard work* American Protestants had long believed that hard work in an earthly "calling" was a duty owed to God. The business elite and the middle class gave this idea a secular twist by celebrating work as the key to individual social mobility and national prosperity.
Why did social reformers of the Benevolent Empire push for new penitentiaries?
*Instead of corporal punishment, they advocated rehabilitation.* Reformers of the Benevolent Empire campaigned to end corporal punishment of criminals and to rehabilitate them in new, specially designed penitentiaries.
Which statement defines the modern factory that rose in the 1830s?
*It concentrated manufacturing processes under one roof.* Previously, merchants had reaped the advantage of a division of labor through the outwork system. But only by bringing all production processes into one facility did they gain the advantage of a modern factory.
Based on this 1846 lithograph by N. Currier on the career of a drunkard, what did the artist see as the most devastating effect that men's drinking habits had on women?
*It pushed women and their children into poverty.* The grieving woman with her child shows that, in Currier's view, alcoholism left women and families poor, hopeless, and propertyless.
How did the federal government in early nineteenth-century America facilitate the accumulation of wealth?
*It raised revenues through tariffs on consumer goods.* The U.S. Treasury raised most of its revenue from tariffs—regressive taxes on textiles and other imported goods purchased mostly by ordinary citizens. That policy, combined with the lack of individual or corporate income taxes, promoted the accumulation of wealth.
What did Congress do in 1820 to meet the demand for cheap farmsteads?
*It reduced the price of federal land.* In 1820, to meet the demand for cheap farmsteads, Congress reduced the price of federal land from $2.00 an acre to $1.25—just enough to cover the cost of the survey and sale. For $100, a farmer could buy 80 acres, the minimum required under federal law. By 1840, this generous land-distribution policy had lured about 5 million people to states and territories west of the Appalachians.
Which of the following was a significant environmental consequence of the Erie Canal?
*Massive erosion caused by spring rains* Farming communities and market towns that sprang up along the waterway cut down millions of trees for construction material and to open the land for agriculture. These denuded landscapes quickly fell victim to erosion.
In 1835, Protestant minister Lyman Beecher warned the readers of his Plea for the West that a "tenth part of the suffrage of the nation, thus condensed and wielded by the Catholic powers of Europe, might decide our elections, perplex our policy, inflame and divide the nation, break the bond of our union, and throw down our free institutions." In other words, Beecher believed that Catholicism threatened what aspect of American life?
*National Sovereignty* Beecher warned that "the Catholic powers of Europe" threatened to "decide our elections, . . . break the bond of our union, and throw down our free institutions," posing a clear threat to national sovereignty.
Why did the large majority of textile factories of the early nineteenth century emerge in New England, as shown on the map?
*New England offered the energy resources necessary for factory production.* The new factories made use of the abundant water power that was available in states across New England. Factory owners also took advantage of the available surplus labor of young farm women.
Why did Quaker merchants establish their company, the Black Ball Line, in New York City in 1818?
*New York City offered easy access to the Atlantic world as well as to the Midwest.* New York had the best harbor in the United States and, thanks to the Erie Canal, was the best gateway to the Midwest and the best outlet for western grain.
The dramatic gain in productivity that occurred in American industry during the Industrial Revolution was due to what combination of factors?
*New organizational techniques and new technology* New technologies from the mechanical industries facilitated mass production techniques, and the concentration of production processes, such as the Waltham-Lowell System, created further efficiencies.
In a defense he wrote of Catholicism, Orestes Brownson argued that "The Roman Catholic religion assumes, as its point of departure, that it is instituted not to be taken care of by the people, but to take care of the people; not to be governed by them, but to govern them. . . . The Roman Catholic religion, then, is necessary to sustain popular liberty, because popular liberty can be sustained only by a religion free from popular control, above the people, speaking from above and able to command them." Which of the following accurately restates Brownson's argument?
*Popular liberty required the existence and rule of religious authority.* Brownson argued that Protestant religions were subject to popular control and that popular liberty was actually better protected by a more authoritative religion free from popular control.
What was one of the few cities in the South to develop industry in the first half of the nineteenth century?
*Richmond, Virginia* With the exception of Richmond, Virginia, and a few other places, southern planters did not invest their profits in manufacturing. Lacking cities, factories, and highly trained workers, the South remained tied to agriculture, even as the commerce in wheat, corn, and livestock promoted diversified economies in the Northeast and Midwest.
Who built the first American steamboat and navigated it up the Hudson River in 1807?
*Robert Fulton* Engineer-inventor Robert Fulton built the first American steamboat in 1807.
Benjamin Franklin's widely read Autobiography, published in 1818, extolled the values of industriousness and what else?
*Temperance* Heeding Franklin's suggestion that an industrious man would become a rich one, tens of thousands of young American men saved their money, adopted temperate habits, and aimed to rise in the world.
The Irish in America helped to invigorate which American church?
*The American Catholic Church* Many German and virtually all the Irish immigrants to the United States in the first half of the 1800s were Catholics, and they fueled the growth of the American Catholic Church. Catholics built an impressive network of institutions over time.
Governor De Witt Clinton of New York was a leading force behind the funding of which of the following projects?
*The Erie Canal* Governor De Witt Clinton of New York was a leading force behind the funding of the Erie Canal across the state from Albany to Buffalo.
What does the success of St. Louis craft workers in winning a ten-hour day reveal about the early labor movement in the United States?
*The ability of skilled workers to shape working conditions* Traditional crafts, such as carpentry, stonecutting, masonry, and cabinetmaking, required specialized skills, which enabled the workers in these industries to form unions and bargain with their master-artisan employers and sometimes gain success.
Which group most strongly embraced Charles Grandison Finney's revivalist preaching?
*The business elite* After preaching every day for six months in Rochester, New York, Finney won over the influential merchants and manufacturers of the town, who pledged to reform their lives and those of the workers.
The fastest-growing industrial towns were located east of the Appalachian Mountains along what feature?
*The fall line* The fastest-growing industrial towns were located east of the Appalachian Mountains along the fall line, where rivers began their rapid descent from the Appalachian Mountains to the coastal plain, which provided the water power used by factories.
What became a central theme in the American popular culture of the middle nineteenth century?
*The ideal of the self-made man* This gospel of personal achievement spread across the country through children's books, magazine stories, self-help manuals, and novels and linked the middle and business classes of the new industrializing society.
Why did the mill owners of the Boston Manufacturing Company enforce strict curfews on the women who lived in their boardinghouses?
*The owners wanted to reassure parents about their daughters' moral welfare.* It was unusual for these young women to live outside the parent household, and factory owners needed to offer some security for families to enter into these unconventional circumstances.
Examine the drawing by Alexander Downing from his The Architecture of Country Houses (1850). Why did this architecture become so influential for the American middle class in the middle of the nineteenth century?
*The publication of manuals like this spread the new architectural norm nationwide.* Downing's books and similar style manuals by other authors helped define the culture of the growing middle class and diffuse it across the nation.
How did the wage discrepancy between skilled and unskilled workers change between 1825 and 1845?
*The wage gap between skilled workers and unskilled laborers grew even larger.* In Massachusetts in 1825, an unskilled worker earned about two-thirds as much as a mechanic did; two decades later, it was less than half as much.
What common trait helped spur the growth of the fast-growing western cities of the early and middle 1800s?
*Their role as flourishing commercial centers* Western cities such as St. Louis, Buffalo, and Detroit were centers for commerce and trade. Some cities, such as Chicago, also developed industry.
How did British textile manufacturers try to prevent the rise of American competition in the late 1800s?
*They convinced Parliament to prohibit the emigration of mechanics.* The British government prohibited the export of textile machinery and the emigration of mechanics. Nevertheless, lured by the prospect of higher wages, thousands of British mechanics disguised themselves as ordinary laborers and sailed to the United States. By 1812, at least 300 British mechanics worked in the Philadelphia area alone.
What statement is true about American mechanics in the 1820s?
*They developed innovations in all fields of production.* Mechanics improved the waterwheel, developed locomotives, made advances in chemistry and mechanical design, and eventually received a good 4,000 patents a year on their developments.
How did the lives of affluent Americans change in the first half of the nineteenth century?
*They formed a separate culture and identity.* The Industrial Revolution shattered the old social order of an agrarian economy and fragmented society into distinct classes and cultures. The rich also formed their own separate culture and identity with different neighborhoods, social activities, dress, and habits.
Why did civic leaders in Philadelphia and Baltimore want to copy the Erie Canal?
*They hoped to compete for western trade.* Business leaders in Philadelphia and Baltimore wanted a share of the western trade that the Erie Canal allowed New York to dominate and pressured state governments to build their own canal systems.
Why did American manufacturers turn to women as a source of labor in the 1820s and 1830s?
*They hoped to pay lower wages.* With a relative small population, American workers could demand high wages, which made textile producers less competitive than their British counterparts. They began to hire women to cut costs.
How did the affluent families of merchants, manufacturers, and bankers respond to the expansive growth of cities in the middle of the nineteenth century?
*They moved into separate neighborhoods in exclusive parts of the city.* Increasingly, merchants, manufacturers, and bankers placed a premium on privacy and lived in separate neighborhoods, often in exclusive central areas or at the city's edge.
Why were the mechanical institutes important in the first half of the nineteenth century?
*They spread mechanical knowledge and skills.* Institutes like the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia promoted new inventions and spread technical knowledge to be used in industrial applications.
Why did many upwardly mobile men and women in the early nineteenth century embrace religious benevolence?
*They wanted to improve the world around them.* The disorder among wage earners alarmed the rising middle classes, who wanted safe cities and a disciplined workforce. To improve the world around them, many upwardly mobile men and women embraced religious benevolence.
What did the towns of Hartford, Connecticut; Trenton, New Jersey; and Wilmington, Delaware, have in common in the early 1800s?
*They were all mill towns that exploited the water power of their rivers.* The fastest urban growth occurred in industrial towns like these. They sprouted along the "fall line," where rivers began their rapid descent from the Appalachian Mountains to the coastal plain.
Why did western commercial cities such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and New Orleans grow rapidly in the 1830s?
*They were located where goods had to be transferred from one mode of transportation to another.* These three cities benefited from their positions at junctions where goods were transferred from such modes of transport as wagons or canal boats to steamboats or oceangoing ships.
Why did urban police in the early nineteenth century not contain the lawlessness that grew out of poverty and desperation among unskilled workers in the United States?
*They were untrained and poorly paid.* The urban police, mostly low-paid watchmen and untrained constables, were unable to contain the lawlessness.
Why was the development of machine tools in the early 1800s a significant innovation?
*They were used to make machines that produced standardized parts.* Machine tools produced standardized parts for other machines quickly and at relatively low cost, allowing the inexpensive mass production of high-quality, reliable products.
Why did many Irish immigrate to the United States between 1840 and 1860?
*To flee famine and overpopulation* The Irish peasants and laborers were fleeing famine caused by severe overpopulation and a devastating blight that destroyed much of the Irish potato crop. Arriving in dire poverty, the Irish settled mostly in the cities of New England and New York.
Why did the paymaster of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company, Ithamar A. Beard, conclude that the yeoman farmer and artisan-republican ideal was no longer possible in America?
*Too many Americans worked for others.* In 1840, about half of the nation's white workers and all the slaves labored for others.
Why did workers oppose the Benevolent Empire's efforts to impose Sabbath laws in the early nineteenth century?
*Workers wanted to spend their sole day off the way they wished.* The Benevolent Empire's efforts to impose its Sabbatarian values provoked opposition from workers who labored twelve to fourteen hours a day, six days a week, and wanted the freedom to spend their one day of leisure as they wished.
The market revolution that took place in America beginning in the 1820s was prompted by the construction of
*a system of canals and roads linking the Atlantic coast states and the trans- Appalachian west.* As American farms and factories employed new methods of labor, devised novel ways to organize production, and developed technological machinery, productivity increased significantly. The transportation of raw goods to supply the growing towns and factories and to move finished products to the emerging class of consumers became essential.
Union activists who embraced the labor theory of value called for a new revolution to demolish not the aristocracy of birth—as the American Revolution had done—but the aristocracy of
*capital.* Under the labor theory of value, the owners of capital robbed the workers of the share of the profits that they deserved.
An interconnected transportation network, the growth of industry along similar patterns, and a similar ethnic composition all were evidence of
*increasingly close regional ties between the Northeast and the Midwest.* The Midwest and the Northeast created close economic and cultural ties through their transportation network of canals and rails. Migration patterns meant that much of the Midwest was populated by northeasterners, leading to a similar ethnic composition.
The paternalistic system that provided boardinghouses and supervision for young women textile workers was known as
*the Waltham-Lowell System.* Under the Waltham-Lowell System, thousands of young women from farm families found employment in textile factories while living in the employer's boarding house and under his moral supervision.