Chapter 12: Industry and the North
Lowell
Patriarchy
Yeoman Farmers
National Road
Erie Canal
DeWitt Clinton
Steamboat
Robert Fulton
Railroads
Iron
Standard Gauge
Cholera
Market Revolution
John Jacob Astor
Capital
Moses Brown
Lynn
Waltham
Boston Associates
Putting-Out System
Workshop System
Commercialization
John Deere
Cyrus McCormick
Samuel Slater
American System
Eli Whitney
Springfield Rifle
Isaac Singer
Mechanization
Brooks Brothers
Cash Economy
Free Labor
Strikes
Social Mobility
Class
Second Great Awakening
Charles Grandison Finney
Middle Class
Treatise on Domestic Economy
Transcendentalism
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Transparent Eyeball
“Self Reliance”
Henry David Thoreau
Walden
Margaret Fuller
1) Women Factory Workers from a Community in Lowell, Massachusetts
a) What was life like in Lowell and why was it considered a model factory town?
b) Why was it unusual to hire young women to work in the factory?
c) What were the advantages and disadvantages of working at the Lowell mills?
d) Why did the Lowell girls protest and with what measure of success?
e) Why is the experience of the Lowell mills important to the development of the region?
2) Pre-Industrial Ways of Working
a) How did the production of goods and services work on the farm?
b) What were early urban production systems like?
c) How was early society patriarchal in terms of organization?
d) What rights did women lack in this society?
e) How did the social order change after universal white manhood suffrage?
3) The Transportation Revolution
a) How did the government try to improve roads in the 1800s, cite specific examples?
b) What were the problems that roads had in relation to the shipment of goods?
c) Why was the Erie Canal built and what problem did it overcome?
d) Describe the construction of the Erie Canal.
e) What were the benefits to the country once the Erie Canal opened?
f) What were the benefits of the introduction of the steamboats?
g) When were railroads first introduced in the country and what was the first?
h) What were some of the technological and supply problems that early railroads had to overcome to
operate effectively?
i) How did the transportation revolution change America?
j) How did disease spread because of the changes in transportation?
4) The Market Revolution
a) What three factors caused the market revolution?
b) How did people accumulate capital in the new US industrial society?
c) How did American nationalism influence the growth of the economy?
d) What was the putting-out system?
e) What was the importance of the introduction of specialization?
f) Why did people like the putting-out system?
g) What replaced the barter system?
h) How did improvements in agricultural equipment and transportation change the life of farmers?
i) How did the government encourage westward expansion?
j) How was industrialization different than the putting-out system?
k) How did the secrets of the industrial revolution arrive in the States?
l) Where were new mills built and why?
m) How did the American industries fare against the British?
n) How did Lowell learn about the British system?
o) What improvements did Lowell make on the textile mill?
p) What eventually happened to the mills created by Lowell?
q) How did most mills operate in contrast to Lowell?
r) What problems would occur in mill communities between workers and locals?
s) What was the American system and why was it important?
t) What items were some of the first produced with interchangeable parts?
5) From Artisan to Worker
a) How did division of labor and specialization destroy artisan production and apprenticeship?
b) How did the new mill towns change the personal dynamic and opportunities for women?
c) Why did southerners feel the wage earners were treated more harshly than the slaves?
d) How did industrialization pose a danger to skilled workers?
e) How did industrialization change the work of women?
f) What were some of the problems that women encountered in the garment business?
g) What problems did factory owners encounter in trying to make former farmers adapt to life under
the time clock?
h)
i)
j)
k)
l)
m)
n)
What leisure activities grew as the home lost the focus of activities?
How did industrialization change America from a barter system to cash economy?
What was an option for artisans and craftsmen who wanted to maintain their traditional lifestyle?
What did “free” labor original refer to?
What attitudes did “free” labor come to represent?
Where and regarding who and what was the first labor strike in the US?
What were some of the reasons women and Lowell went on strike and what method of striking did
they use?
o) What were the positions of owners in relation to the strikes?
6) A New Social Order
a) What were the early classes found in the US?
b) How did the market revolution change the social order of America?
c) Which group’s life was most greatly changed by the market revolution and how so?
d) How were beliefs of the Second Great Awakening different from Puritan religious concepts?
e) Who was Charles G. Finney and what was his effect on people through his sermons?
f) How did businessmen apply the message of the Second Great Awakening?
g) How did the market revolution reshape family life?
h) How did women’s responsibilities for the home change?
i) How did all of these changes alter the expectations for men and women?
j) How did the rise of the middle class contribute to birthrate and why was this the case?
k) Who assumed the responsibility of educating and training children and why was this the case?
l) How did women obtain advice on child rearing?
m) What other breaks were made with traditional child rearing at this time?
n) What was sentimentalism?
o) What was the sentimental novel and to whom did it appeal?
p) What were some of the codes of ethics that sentimentalism imposed?
q) Who was Ralph Waldo Emerson and what view did he promote?
r) How did Henry David Thoreau take these concepts and push them further?
s) Who was Margaret Fuller?