Deck 8: Currents of Change in the Northeast and the Old Northwest

Question 1

Susan Warner responded to financial adversity by

A) giving piano lessons in her home.
B) opening a school for girls.
C) writing a novel for publication.
D) taking a job in a Lowell textile mill.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

During the 1820s and 1830s, canal building projects

A) provided cheap and reliable access to distant markets and goods.
B) increased freight rates to cover project expenses.
C) fostered strong ties between the North and South.
D) revitalized eastern cities and hindered western settlement.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

The early mechanization of the cloth industry

A) increased both the volume and price of its goods.
B) supplemented rather than replaced home manufacturing.
C) occurred primarily in the South.
D) seldom saw women or children employed as laborers.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Horace Mann championed which of the following educational reforms?

A) uniform curricula and teacher training
B) gradeless, open-concept schools
C) local curricular decisions
D) private funding and control

Question 5

Manufacturers primarily valued education for their workers because it

A) removed child laborers from the workforce.
B) promoted feelings of self-worth.
C) encouraged habits of discipline and productivity.
D) improved intellectual skills.

Question 6

The women who came to Lowell for mill jobs were

A) recruited only after owners failed to locate sufficient immigrant workers.
B) eager for permanent work and opportunities for advancement.
C) the first women to labor outside their homes in large numbers.
D) attempting to escape conditions of desperate poverty at home.

Question 7

Intangible factors contributing to America's antebellum economic growth included the

A) steady issue of government patents for new tools and machines.
B) rapid expansion of and improvement in transportation networks.
C) entrepreneurial mentality and mechanical nature of most Americans.
D) need to compensate for the continual shortage of labor and goods.

Question 8

Women workers at the Lowell mills

A) occupied operative, as well as managerial, positions.
B) seldom formed close ties with one another.
C) lived in closely supervised company boardinghouses.
D) faced challenging and varied routines.

Question 9

Between 1819 and 1824, a series of Supreme Court decisions established the basic principle that

A) debtors could repudiate unfair debts.
B) contracts were binding legal instruments.
C) land was intended for subsistence, not exploitation.
D) states could modify their charters.

Question 10

For outworkers, the invention of the sewing machine in the 1850s

A) reduced the pool of potential workers.
B) led bosses to expect a greater volume of work.
C) allowed workers to labor at home for the first time.
D) ensured easier and more pleasant tasks.

Question 11

The federal government encouraged economic expansion by

A) providing financial stability through the Second Bank of the United States.
B) cooperating with state governments on internal improvements.
C) shielding American products with tariffs.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 12

From 1820 to 1860, the American economy witnessed a

A) consistent increase in available jobs and goods.
B) doubling of per capita income.
C) trend toward regional isolation.
D) decline in worker productivity.

Question 13

State governments promoted economic growth by

A) underwriting bonds for improvement projects.
B) repealing laws of incorporation.
C) guarding against special privileges.
D) taxing interstate commerce.

Question 14

By the 1850s, all of the following factors undermined the united action of women mill workers EXCEPT the

A) long tenure of women workers.
B) arrival of Irish immigrants.
C) use of segregated living quarters.
D) hiring of more male workers.

Question 15

All of the following factors contributed to American economic growth from 1820 to 1860 EXCEPT the

A) maintenance of low tariff rates.
B) abundance of natural resources.
C) influx of European capital.
D) increasing population.

Question 16

Antebellum advocates of public education hoped that the schools would

A) challenge the dominance of middle-class values.
B) demonstrate the benefits of economic progress.
C) teach students to think and act independently.
D) counter unsettling effects of economic change.

Question 17

A short-lived strike by Lowell's women workers in February 1834 occurred in protest of

A) wage cuts.
B) poor sales.
C) rising inventories.
D) falling prices.

Question 18

The most important innovation of Francis Cabot Lowell's Waltham operation was to

A) divide the tasks of spinning and weaving into separate operations.
B) accumulate the capital of a wide-ranging group of associates.
C) use New England's swift-flowing streams to power his mills.
D) combine the steps of cotton production under one roof.

Question 19

The dramatic improvement in transportation networks between 1810 and 1860 contributed to the

A) intervention of governmental controls.
B) trend toward regional specialization.
C) higher costs of transportation.
D) demise of American agriculture.

Question 20

For most Cincinnati workers before the Civil War, a manufacturing job

A) imposed a form of "wage slavery."
B) encouraged the "manly virtues."
C) depended upon worker skills.
D) guaranteed a decent livelihood.

Question 21

Which of the following were new inventions of the early transportation and industrialization era?

A) electric light bulb
B) steam ship
C) nuclear power
D) airplane

Question 22

By 1830, which of the following regions was still considered to be "frontier"?

A) Michigan
B) Wisconsin
C) Iowa
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 23

Why did the number of European immigrants increase during the 1840s and 1850s? Analyze the impact of these immigrants upon the American economy and society.

Question 24

Which of the following nations remained a model of industrial growth for the United States during the 1800s?

A) Spain
B) Portugal
C) Great Britain
D) China

Question 25

Between 1790 and 1861, how much money did Europeans invest in the United States?

A) $10 million
B) $100 million
C) $500 million
D) $750 million

Question 26

The role of the ideal woman in antebellum America was to

A) perform complementary tasks in the family's struggle to get ahead.
B) pursue a rewarding and professional career.
C) create a clean and wholesome home for family life.
D) produce vital goods or earn money necessary for the family's subsistence.

Question 27

Which of the following values did self-help books emphasize in the early 1800s?

A) diligence
B) punctuality
C) thrift
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 28

In 1805, in the case of Palmer v. Mulligan, the Court determined that

A) private property could be developed for business purposes.
B) Native Americans were domestic dependent nations.
C) the Supreme Court had final rule over state courts.
D) immigrants could not come to the United States in large numbers.

Question 29

A dramatic rise in the concentration of wealth in the United States from 1820 to 1860

A) eased social tensions.
B) hardened class lines.
C) resulted in mass suffering.
D) calmed labor protests.

Question 30

In the decades before the Civil War, Cincinnati workers

A) viewed their bosses as a separate and hostile class.
B) refused to join unions or participate in strikes.
C) struck for fair wages.
D) steadily improved their standard of living.

Question 31

The concept of domesticity

A) confined women to home and family activities.
B) implied the moral superiority of women.
C) elevated women's economic and political status.
D) helped working-class women make psychological sense of their lives.

Question 32

Which of the following Founding Fathers was popularized in the 1830s as a model for hard work and education?

A) Alexander Hamilton
B) Thomas Jefferson
C) Benjamin Franklin
D) John Hancock

Question 33

The continuing urban growth of New York City from 1820 to 1860 resulted primarily from its

A) access to waterpower.
B) manufacturing of textiles.
C) being an intersection of natural transportation routes.
D) role in domestic and foreign trade.

Question 34

Of the following economic indicators describing conditions in Philadelphia, which one DECREASED from 1820 to 1860?

A) downward occupational mobility
B) proportion of craftsmen in the laboring class
C) residential mobility
D) percentage of unskilled wage earners in or near poverty

Question 35

Discuss efforts to improve and expand public education in antebellum America. Were schools supported as an agent for or as a defense against change?

Question 36

Urban growth in many antebellum cities

A) outpaced the government's provision of public services.
B) led to healthier and more comfortable living conditions.
C) followed an attractive and orderly plan.
D) made it the nation's largest city by 1860.

Question 37

All of the following are true regarding the political rights of free blacks in the United States in the 1800s EXCEPT

A) black women could vote.
B) the Northwest Territory banned slavery.
C) in the 1830s, voting rights for black men were slowly eroded.
D) in most states, segregation in public facilities prevailed.

Question 38

How did the character of the free black community shape the Philadelphia riot?

A) The black community was large and visible, angering whites.
B) It had its own institutions and elite, which challenged white supremacy.
C) It had its own wealth, which frustrated jobless whites.
D) All of these answers are correct.

Question 39

Identify and discuss the components that contributed to American economic growth from 1820 to 1860.

Question 40

All of the following are true about free black women EXCEPT

A) most worked as domestics.
B) many headed their own households.
C) many owned a large amount of property.
D) some took in boarders.

Question 41

You are a newspaper reporter assigned to cover the riots of August 1834 in Philadelphia. Write an article explaining the causes and events of the riots as well as offering suggestions as to how such future trouble might be avoided.

Question 42

Analyze the "costs" of industrialization for the United States from 1820 to 1860.

Question 43

Discuss the economic changes that transformed the rural communities of the East and the frontier of the Old Northwest and increasingly knit the two regions together in the two decades preceding the Civil War.

Question 44

Analyze the reasons for the limited success achieved by organized labor in antebellum America.

Question 45

It is 1834 and, as a single woman of 18, you have decided to work for one year in the textile mills at Lowell, Massachusetts. Write a letter home to your parents, explaining your decision, your working and living conditions, and your plans for the future.

Question 46

Discuss the extent of opportunities available for northern free blacks in antebellum America.

Question 47

Analyze the antebellum concept of domesticity. Did this outlook advance or restrict women's rights and "liberation"?