HIS 101 Chapter 8 Quiz

1. Which of the following is NOT true about the evolving Market Revolution in the US?

The National Road eventually stretched 600 miles, from Maryland to Illinois in 1838. It was the first federally funded interstate roadway in US history.

As the technology of paved roads improved, turnpikes were a cheaper form of transportation than steamboats (especially after the Clermont (1807), the first commercial steamboat, proved to be fast, but very expensive).

In the 18th century, most Americans lived on isolated farms that produced most of what the family needed (the rest often acquired by barter). In the 19th century, more and more Americans were transitioning from subsistence farming to commercial farming, where their products were sold for cash regionally, and even at times, internationally.

The enslaved, immigrants, and displaced Mexicans were central to the market-based economy. Infrastructure such as roads, canals, and bridges, were also essential. At that time, infrastructure was referred to as “internal improvements.”

Even for those who agreed on the importance of internal improvements, the question remained as to the source of financing. Some believed the federal government should pay, others said states, still others argued for private investment.

2. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

Thomas Jefferson called the Erie Canal project “little short of madness.” When the canal opened in 1825, the Great Lakes were connected to New York…Chicago was connected to New York City…and the American midwest was connected to the Atlantic Ocean.

By 1843, thanks in large part to steamboats, trade shipped through New Orleans was double that of New York City.

The Erie Canal was builty mostly by German and Irish immigrants, paid less than a dollar a day. The Canal proved so profitable, it paid for itself in just 7 years.

The Erie Canal brought the entire country, North, South, and West closer together and more united than ever before.

3. Which of the following is NOT true about transportation and communication?

Railroads united the country in a way canals could not (and in all seasons), and stimulated the economy by creating new industrial demands, as well.

In 1825, the same year the Erie Canal opened, the world’s first steam-powered railway began operating in England.

In the spirit of private enterprise and anti-socialism, the US government avoided funding infrastructure directly. Stephen Douglas, a senator from Illinois, successfully led a coalition to block a congressional land grant to help railroad construction in 1850, which set a precedent for future similar attempts on the part of government to interfere in capitalism.

As shown in the map of railroads, they connected northern cities to each other far more than connecting northern states to southern states.

Improved infrastructure, cheaper printing, an improved mail system, all helped improve national communication. But the telegraph system, beginning with the message “What hath God Wrought?” in 1844, was revolutionary.

The first clipper ship was built in 1845, a type of ship built for speed (they were twice as fast as older merchant ships). Although exciting for a couple of decades, they were soon eclipsed by new technology in the form of steamships.

4. Which of the following is NOT true about Industrial Development in the early 1800s?

Eli Whitney, a new Englander visiting Mulberry Grove on the Georgia coast in 1792, and began to think about what would become the Cotton Gin.

The cotton gin, domestic and international consumption (especially British), and the growing importance of slavery, all help explain how by 1860 cotton accounted for more than half of all US exports. Hence the expression “King Cotton.”

New technology and work methods produced more goods at lower cost which resulted in mass consumption.

Between 1790 and 1811, the US patent issued an average of 77 patents for new inventions each year. That average number was more than 28,000 each year by the 1850s. Some of the more important inventions included vulcanized rubber and the sewing machine.

Slaves increased in value because the labor-saving technology of the cotton gin reduced the number of slaves in the country (especially Virginia and Maryland, which had 56% of all slaves in the US in 1790, but only 15% in 1860). Fewer slaves meant higher value.

5. By 1860, more than half of the population of the US lived west of the Mississippi River.

True

False

6. The impact the McCormick Reaper had on agricultural production was so great by the 1840s that one could argue the Reaper was to the Midwest, Old Northwest, and Great Plains, what the Cotton Gin was to the South.

True

False

7. An early example of industrial lobbying for congressional tariff protect had to do with cotton imports to avoid British domination of American markets.  In addition, early tariffs (such as the Tariff Bill of 1816) encouraged competition, which in turn encouraged the innovation and efficiency that are the engines of a capitalist economy.

True

False

8. The Lowell system is an example of the factory system that emerged in Massachusetts from about 1813.  Initially, work in the mills was very attractive, but the Lowell girls and the factories they worked in were so productive, that prices fell and working conditions worsened.  Things became so bad that the workers did something in 1834 that was called “unfeminine” at that time…they went on strike.  Owners sometimes gave in to strikers, but increasing hired desperate Irish immigrants who rarely complained.

True

False

9. The success of mills using cotton produced in the south made northern factories increasing successful.  The slave-based agricultural economy and planter elite were obstacles to similar mills developing in the southern states.

True

False

10. Based on the maps showing population density, which of the following states had areas with at least 46 to 90 people per square mile in 1860 that did NOT have any area with that population density in 1820.

New York

Illinois

Kentucky

Ohio

Pennsylvania

11. In 1790, about 97% of Americans lived in rural areas.  By 1860, that number declined to about 84%.  New York City became the first city to surpass 1 million inhabitants (thanks in part to an excellent harbor, the and the Erie canal that connected the Hudson River to the Great Lakes).  New Orleans became the fifth largest city thanks to its location on the Mississippi.

True

False

12. Which of the following was NOT an example of popular culture?

Barn-raisings…shooting matches

Cockfighting…dog fighting.

Drinking…Boxing

Beauty Pageants…Fake wrestling

Theater…Shakespeare plays

13. Which of the following is NOT true about immigration?

Because neither group was offered a sense of equality in the US, the enslaved and Irish immigrants frequently expressed a sense of solidarity and friendship.

The period of US history that saw the greatest influx of immigrants in proportion to the overall population was 1845-1854 (14.5% of the total population in 1845).

Many Scandinavians moved to the midwest states of Illinois, Wisconsin, and the Minnesota Territory, while many Chinese immigrated to California.

The largest groups of immigrants in this period were the Germans and the Irish. The tragedy of the Potato Famine (almost half of the 8 million people in Ireland either immigrated or died). This was part of the reason why Irish workers were often hired to do the hardest and most dangerous jobs.

German immigrants frequently included skilled craftsmen and professionals, often refugees from the failed revolutions of 1848. One Jewish-German immigrant, Levi Strauss, made money making work pants, later called “Levi’s.”

14. Which of the following is NOT true about the “Know-Nothings”?

They allowed Native Americans (Indians) into their political organization, but they could not run for office.

They did extremely well in state and local elections during the period of heavy immigration in the late 1840s and early 1850s. Indeed, they swept the Massachusetts Legislature in 1854.

They were Nativists whose political party was called the American Party.

They pledged never to vote for a foreign-born or Catholic candidate.

15. When shoemakers in Chicago went on strike in 1806, a court found them guilty of a “conspiracy to raise wages.”

True

False

16. Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, the number of self-employed craftsmen declined while the number of factories and mills increased. Quality found it hard to compete against lower prices.

True

False

17. Before the 1820s labor organizations typically centered on one craft or skill, often confined to one area, such as a particular city.  In 1834 local trade unions organized a national association known as the National Trades’ Union.

True

False

18. In 1831, even a tailor’s union for children went on strike demanding a “just price for child labor.”

True

False

19. Horace Mann of Massachusetts promoted the idea that free public education was the best way to transform children into disciplined, judicious citizens.  He also helped create “normal schools” to train future teachers.

True

False

20. Elizabeth Blackwell of Ohio was the first woman to earn a medical degree.  However, she did so poorly at the Geneva Medical College in New York, that after she graduated in 1849 the medical school refused to admit more women.

True

False

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