Chapter 11 Practice Test

Multiple Choice

Identify the choice that best completes the statement or answers the question.

____ 1. Why were changes to manufacturing needed in the mid-1700s?

a. / Factory owners were not satisfied with the size of their profits.
b. / Demand was greater than the available supply of goods.
c. / Workers were not satisfied with the level of their daily wages.
d. / Traders faced higher shipping prices for smaller amounts of goods.

____ 2. Which small, inexpensive machine revolutionized the manufacture of cloth?

a. / the cotton gin / c. / the water frame
b. / the spinning jenny / d. / the Pawtucket loom

____ 3. Who was Richard Arkwright?

a. / Inventor of the water frame, he lowered the cost of cotton thread and increased the speed of production.
b. / British mechanic and entrepreneur, he brought his skills to New England and the Industrial Revolution to the U.S.
c. / Inventor of the spinning jenny, he introduced the ability to produce numerous threads to homes across England.
d. / American manufacturer, he would come to own all or part of 13 textile mills between 1790 and his death in 1835.

____ 4. Why were more American textile mills built in the North than in the South?

a. / The South charged higher taxes on industry.
b. / The North had more rivers to provide power.
c. / The North attracted skilled English immigrants.
d. / The South was devoted to the farming of cotton.

____ 5. What was Eli Whitney’s greatest contribution to American manufacturing?

a. / He designed a way to produce inexpensive clocks.
b. / He mass-produced muskets for American soldiers.
c. / He came up with the idea of interchangeable parts.
d. / He argued that factories deserved better technology.

____ 6. How did the War of 1812 help American manufacturing?

a. / The government built factories to produce needed uniforms and weapons.
b. / Tariffs on foreign goods encouraged Americans to buy domestic goods.
c. / Foreign goods were stolen by the Barbary Pirates
d. / The government boycotted Spanish products that Americans also produced.

____ 7. How did textile manufacturers successfully keep the costs of running a mill low?

a. / They bought cheap cotton and cut back on maintenance of machinery.
b. / They hired children to perform simple tasks and paid them very little.
c. / They trained apprentices in exchange for many years of their labor.
d. / They fed workers three meals a day rather than paying wages in cash.

____ 8. What happened to workers in the textile industry as a result of Francis Cabot Lowell’s introduction of a new system?

a. / Many mill workers were laid off because Lowell’s power loom did the work of two different types of machine.
b. / Women opened their own mills.
c. / Male mill workers came to resent female mill workers because Lowell paid women more than he paid men.
d. / More mill workers were hired because Lowell’s power loom excited investors, who helped his operation expand.

____ 9. Which statement best describes working conditions at the mills?

a. / Workers were fired after a single absence, forcing untrained replacements to operate machinery they were not properly trained to use.
b. / Each worker was free to choose the time at which the workday began so long as 12 to 14 hours of work a day were completed.
c. / The equipment was set at increasingly higher speeds, causing the worker to appear in its control, rather than the other way around.
d. / Workers were fed twice a day to keep them strong and their health was a top priority of caring managers and investors.

____ 10. What was a trade union?

a. / an organization of workers with a specific skill or from a single factory who tried to improve pay and working conditions for members
b. / a combination of skilled and unskilled workers who appealed to the courts and police for assistance against employers
c. / a group of angry workers who staged protests and shouted at their employers until their demands were met
d. / an alliance of workers who wanted to prevent their employers from competing with other manufacturers

____ 11. Who was Sarah G. Bagley?

a. / She set the record for time spent by a Lowell girl in the original Waltham textile mill.
b. / She fought to bring the 10-hour working day of public employees to private business employees.
c. / She banned from the labor movement any worker who contracted to work longer hours.
d. / She presented a case against child labor to textile mill owners throughout New England.

____ 12. Why was the steamboat well suited to river travel?

a. / It traveled well upstream. / c. / It relied on wind power.
b. / It was helped by the current. / d. / It was meant to serve as a ferry.

____ 13. What did the Supreme Court decide in the case of Gibbons v. Ogden?

a. / Aaron Ogden could monopolize the steamboat business in New York.
b. / Thomas Gibbons’ federal license had priority over Aaron Ogden’s state license.
c. / Travel licenses had to be granted by the federal government to be legitimate.
d. / Thomas Gibbons had to share use of the New York waterway with Aaron Ogden.

____ 14. What first drove the pace of railroad construction in the United States?

a. / government funding for industry efforts to aid western expansion
b. / growing demand for faster travel and more rail connections
c. / the steel industry’s desire for railroad companies to lay more track
d. / the public’s awe at the sight of the fastest machines in the world

____ 15. Railroad companies changed the environment in all of the following ways, except which?

a. / They blasted through rock to level the land and lay tracks.
b. / They caused towns to spring up around train stops.
c. / They began using wood rather than coal for fuel.
d. / They helped the logging industry perform deforestation.

____ 16. No place’s stature rose more as a result of the American Transportation Revolution than that of the

a. / urban hub. / c. / mill town.
b. / train stop. / d. / port city.

____ 17. Why was coal a more appealing fuel source than wood?

a. / It burned more cleanly. / c. / It was easier to obtain.
b. / It produced more energy. / d. / It was lighter to carry.

____ 18. The most important thing about the telegraph was

a. / enabled people to send news quickly from coast to coast.
b. / helped the railroads to expand more quickly to the West.
c. / benefited from the work of international scientists.
d. / made its inventor a very wealthy and famous man.

____ 19. What effect, if any, did technological advancements have on the distribution of industry throughout America in the 1800s?

a. / Technological advancements did not change the fact that the majority of American industry was based in New England.
b. / Technological advancements did cause factories to set up closer to the sources of raw materials in order to reduce shipping costs.
c. / Technological advancements did lure industry to rural areas where young and unskilled farmhands were willing to work for low wages.
d. / Technological advancements did not bring Northern labor reforms to the South, causing newer steam-powered textile mills to set up there.

____ 20. To promote their products, inventors of labor-saving devices did all of the following except

a. / hold free giveaways. / c. / provide free repairs.
b. / let customers buy on credit. / d. / give public demonstrations.

____ 21. Which of the following explanations of American manufacturers’ disadvantage against the British would not have been given by Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin?

a. / “The high availability of land keeps Americans on farms rather than in factories.”
b. / “Urban areas are too unappealing to attract American workers from rural areas.”
c. / “Because they have more workers the British can charge lower prices for goods.”
d. / “The scarcity of workers discourages American investment in new factories.”

____ 22. Most American textile mills were located in the Northeast because this region had

a. / lower business taxes. / c. / many cotton fields.
b. / many rivers and streams. / d. / more women workers.

____ 23. The United States had a shortage of manufactured goods in 1812 because

a. / the government limited manufacturing.
b. / the country was at war with France.
c. / British ships blockaded eastern seaports.
d. / factory workers went on strike.

Completion

Complete each statement.

24. Growth in manufacturing and transportation caused a growth in ______. (cities/farms)

25. The Transportation Revolution created a boom in business across the United States, particularly by reducing shipping time and ______. (distances/costs)

26. To meet the lumber needs of New Englanders, Midwestern settlers harvested so many trees that they caused ______. (inflation/deforestation)

27. U.S. farmers used the inventions of Cyrus McCormick and ______to plant and harvest their crops. (Elias Howe/John Deere)

Matching

In the space provided, write the letter of the term or place that matches each description. Some answers will not be used.

a. / coal / g. / Sarah G. Bagley
b. / craftspeople / h. / strike
c. / Francis Cabot Lowell / i. / telegraph
d. / Industrial Revolution / j. / Thomas Gibbons
e. / Rhode Island system / k. / trade unions
f. / Robert Fulton / l. / water

____ 28. Slater’s strategy of hiring families and dividing factory work into simple tasks

____ 29. New England businessman whose ideas completely changed the textile industry

____ 30. A refusal to work until employers meet demands

____ 31. Millworker who led the campaign for a 10-hour workday

____ 32. A period of rapid growth in using machines for manufacturing and production