Chapter 8: The Emergence of a Market Economy, 1815-1850 ME
Put in chronological order the following events that led to significant changes in the way people lived and worked in New England factories.
- The Boston Associates combine mechanical yarn spinning and cloth weaving in one factory. - The Lowell system becomes the standard model in New England textile factories. - Mill owners' overproduction of cotton leads to a decrease in the price of cotton. - Mill owners cut workers wages. - Women go on strike over living and working conditions.
The Industrial Revolution had significant impacts on environmental and living conditions.
- True - The textile system alone not only transformed lives, but reshaped nature as well. As industry expanded, towns sprouted across New England, displacing forests and filling the air with smoke, noise, and stench. Rivers were polluted, and farmers even attempted to destroy a dam to protect the water quality.
teaching
Pay was low, and few stayed for an entire career.
railroad
stagecoach
Identify all of the policy objectives of the American party.
- Extend the waiting period for naturalization from five to twenty-one years (This policy goal was never achieved.) - Exclude Roman Catholics and immigrants from ever holding public office (Naturalized immigrants and Roman Catholics were not barred from public office as a matter of law exclusively because of their immigration status or religious beliefs.)
Analyze the quotation below. "If you could reconcile it to yourself to bring your negroes to the Mississippi Territory, they would certainly make you a handsome fortune in ten years by the cultivation of Cotton." Which of the statements does it accurately support?
- Following the invention of the cotton gin, the demand for cotton increased. - The Industrial Revolution contributed to the expansion of slavery into new territories. - Planters relocated to the cotton-growing regions of Alabama and Mississippi.
Identify the ways in which German immigrants differed from the Irish immigrants who arrived a few years before them.
- Germans tended to settle in rural areas, while the Irish generally settled in cities. - The majority of German immigrants were members of various Protestant denominations, as opposed to Catholic. - A large number of German immigrants were professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, teachers, and engineers, while the Irish were poor, unskilled laborers.
One of the most significant changes to the economic landscape during the first half of the nineteenth century was the transition from a "household economy" to a market economy. Identify the impact this new market economy had on the United States.
- Households began producing surplus crops and livestock to be sold. - The standard of living rose. - There were more opportunities for economic gain.
Nativist policy
- Nativist policy did not address the rights of women - Nativist policy was founded on xenophobia, and as such was not supportive of civil rights for African Americans.
Identify the ways import tariffs impacted the lives of Americans.
- Reduced foreign competition in the national marketplace led to the growth of industry in America. - Businesses took advantage of increased costs of foreign products by also increasing the price of domestic-made goods - Adam Smith explained in his book on capitalism that businesses would take advantage of the higher foreign-goods prices by also increasing the price of domestic-made goods.
Advances in water transportation were a catalyst for economic change in the first half of the nineteenth century. Place the developments that contributed to this change in chronological order.
- Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston send the Clermont up the Hudson River from New York City. - The completion of the Erie Canal connects the regional economies of the Midwest and East, creating a national economy. - A total of 750 steamboats are in operation on rivers throughout the United States. - The first clipper ship, the Rainbow, is completed, allowing goods to be shipped to the vastly expanding West Coast in a record eighty-nine days.
Identify the impact the new array of professions of the nineteenth century had on American society.
- The concept of "women's work" evolved, as nursing and teaching became opportunities for women. - Teaching provided an opportunity for young adults to relocate from rural areas to more populous cities and towns. - Apprenticeships provided valuable training and opportunities in the medical and legal fields. - While the first half of the century brought the idea that all individuals should have equal opportunities to better themselves, this did not mean that all workers were treated equally or had equal opportunities to succeed.
Analyze the image below, Lackawanna Valley (1855). (https://ncia.wwnorton.com/media/532229110a58df520802fc3a/Inq_AELE_8.1-4_93587_08_CO.jpg?nc=1476909906388) Identify the elements you see that contributed to the transformation of the economic landscape in the first half of the nineteenth century.
- construction of railroads - steam-powered industries
Identify the changes that occurred as a result of the expansion of railroads.
-Railroads helped create a national market and stimulated western settlement by connecting the West to the East. -Towns and cities that didn't have turnpikes or canals were able to compete economically. -Goods could be moved quickly from one region to another.
Identify the ways in which early labor unions sought to protect workers through political activity.
-instating tariffs to protect markets from foreign competition -giving workers access to insurance benefits -improving working conditions
During the first half of the nineteenth century, a number of advancements in communication technology helped the United States develop an interconnected market economy. Identify the following innovations and their impacts.
-steam-powered printing press • reduced the price of newspapers from six cents to a penny each • made newspapers affordable to the majority of the population -telegraph system • connected most major cities by 1850 • improved railroad safety and reliability -relay horse riders allowed a transcript of Andrew Jackson's inaugural address to reach New York from Washington, D.C., in slightly less than twenty hours -United States Post Office rose in number between 1790 and 1860, from seventy-five to 28,498 nationwide
stagecoach
A system of exchanges roughly every forty miles, coupled with new infrastructure, increased the speed and efficiency of this form of travel.
Identify the invention that sparked an economic revolution by transforming southern agriculture.
Cotton Gin
Nativists were individuals who organized politically to defend the rights of Native Americans, as the United States expanded westward into their lands to accommodate the increasing immigrant population.
False
The first half of the nineteenth century saw a dramatic increase in the number of law schools available for the purpose of training former teachers.
False -No law schools existed at this time as training was done through apprenticeships. The absence of formal standards explains why there were so many attorneys in the pre-Civil War period.
The landmark ruling in the Massachusetts Supreme Court case Commonwealth v. Hunt codified a legal definition of unions as unlawful conspiracies.
False -The ruling actually stated that forming a trade union was not illegal, nor was the demand that employers only hire union members. It allowed unions to strike if laborers were hired who refused to join the union.
Identify the idea promoted by Horace Mann that prompted an explosion in the number of schools during the second quarter of the nineteenth century.
Free public education was the best way to discipline youths and train them for citizenship.
Complete the passage below describing the role of trade unions in the early nineteenth century.
From the time of their formation until the 1820s, trade unions functioned as local organizations, each limited to one city and one craft or skill. A decade later, unions on a much larger scale began to take hold, and the National Trades' Union was formed. It sought to organize all the citywide trade unions into a stronger national association. National craft unions also formed during this period, though all national groups formed during during this period, and women formed their own trade unions to protect their rights..
law
Teaching was a common stepping-stone for men who entered this profession.
Complete the passage below describing the impact of Nativists in the United States during the nineteenth century.
The original organization formed by Nativists was known as the *Order of the Star-Spangled Banner. During the waves of large-scale immigration in the mid-nineteenth century, Nativists created a political party called the *American party. Yet, due to the party's secretive nature, it gained the nickname the *Know-Nothing party. During the elections of 1854, the party swept state and local races in numerous states, but its influence subsided shortly thereafter as *slavery became the central issue of the time.
engineering
This field would become the nation's largest professional occupation for men.
clipper ship
This form of transport could make the journey from New York to San Francisco in eighty-nine days.
steamboat
This method of transport brought two-way traffic to the Mississippi and Ohio River systems, which spanned almost half the continent.
medicine
This profession lost public confidence due to many frauds.
Americans earned a reputation as being "inventive" because of all of the patents that were approved and led to significant improvements in the quality of life in the United States.
True
Many people who were native-born Americans feared that dangerous political ideas like socialism and communism would take hold if they continued to allow European immigrants to enter the United States.
True
During the first half of the nineteenth century, a number of advancements in transportation helped accelerate the movement of goods throughout the country and connect America to foreign markets. Identify the effects each of these modes of transportation had on the economy.
steamboat clipper ship railroad stagecoach