Chapter 12 Review Questions

Question 1

What were the most important improvements in transportation during the first half of the nineteenth century? How were these improvements essential to the growth of the economy after 1815?

Answer 1

steamboat, railroads, monopoly removal. reduced costs of shipping by up to 90%. got stuff to the cities easier and grew the economy by enabling urban growth.

Question 2

What is an industrial revolution? Why did manufacturing surge in the United States from 1815 to 1850? What are some examples that personify the growth of American cities in the 1800s? What problems did urbanization bring? How were the economic interests of the West linked with those of the Northeast? Address the following statement: “The rapid growth of industrialism spurred both progress and conflict.”

Answer 2

• manufacturing surged thanks to technological innovations, growth in population, women & children entering workforce.
• New York, Lowell.
• Urbanization poor hygiene, overcrowding, pollution
• West linked with northeast because the west supplied the northeast with cotton and food for the every growing workforce.
• Industrialization gave women a place in the workforce and gave minorities jobs but also increasingly split the upper and lower classes.

Question 3

What drew women into reform? Why was abolitionism the most radical reform of all?

Answer 3

inequality and moral reform. Women at first formed organizations that backed their stereotypical qualities and later began to challenge male superiority. Sarah Josepha Hale tried to coach other women out of poverty but discovered that she couldn’t because males were driving down woman wages.
-As Christian wives and mothers they felt the plight of black families for freedom.

Question 4

Describe the events that led to more of the citizens of the US becoming abolitionists. Which religious groups were involved in decrying slavery and why? What political organizations grew out of the abolitionist movement? Why was Angelina Grimke’s journey from social privilege to social activism so exceptional?

Answer 4

• American Colonization Society (President Monroe and whatnot), American Anti-Slavery Society, evangelicals were the most involved in abolitionism
• Feminism grew out of abolitionism.
• Grimke sisters’ situation is interesting because they came from wealthy southern plantation life, converted to Quakers and adopted anti-slavery and women’s rights ideals.

Question 5

In what ways can it be said that new divisions between a “North” and “South” were developing in America during the period 1800–1850? Why did economic growth widen the gap between the rich and the poor? How did class structure change in the first half of the 1800s? What examples reveal the emergence of new tensions between the classes? How can the rapid surge of American industrialism in the period 1815–1850 be explained?

Answer 5

• The North was becoming more and more convinced that slavery was immoral while the South stood firmly opposed to abolitionism.
• The rich who owned land urbanized it and got richer and bought up more land which made the rich richer and gave the poor less ability to climb out of poverty.
• New middle class emerged and the working class grew. The distance between the classes also expanded. Women also entered the workforce and became part of the working class.
• trade unions and women’s rights were tensions
• the surge in industrialism was brought about largely by the increase in transportation options and lower costs of transportation