Chapter 12

The Market Revolution and Social Reform 1815–1850

Chapter Summary

Chapter 12 offers an overview of the transformation of the American North during the period from 1815 to 1850. Topics discussed in this chapter include the growth in American industry, transportation, and urbanization; German and Irish immigration during the 1840s; and the rise of nineteenth century reform movements. These movements include educational reform; the development of institutions for the poor, criminal, and insane; and the rise in experimental utopian communities. The women’s rights movement and the role of women in other reform movements are also examined, with a particular focus on the interconnections between women’s rights and opposition to slavery.

I.Industrial Change and Urbanization

  1. The Transportation Revolution
  2. Steamboats and canals
  3. Railroads
  4. Government and the transportation revolution
  5. Cities and Immigrants
  6. The port cities
  7. Inland cities
  8. New industrial cities
  9. Immigration
  10. The Industrial Revolution
  11. Sources of labor
  12. Technological gains
  13. Growing Inequality and New Classes
  14. The new middle class
  15. Women and the cult of domesticity
  16. The working classes
  17. Early trade unions

II.Reform and Moral Order

A.The Benevolent Empire

B.The Temperance Movement

C.Women’s Role in Reform

D.Backlash Against Benevolence

III.Institutions and Social Improvement

A.School Reform

  1. Prisons, Workhouses, and Asylums
  2. Workhouses
  3. Asylums for the mentally ill

C.Utopian Alternatives

1.A distinctly national literature

IV.Abolitionism and Women’s Rights

A.Rejecting Colonization

B.Abolitionism

C.The Women’s Rights Movement

D.Political Antislavery

V.Conclusion

Learning Objectives

After a careful examination of Chapter 12, students should be able to answer the following:

1.How did industrialization contribute to growing inequality and the creation of new social classes?

2.What role did women play in the reform movements that followed the War of 1812?

3.How did Enlightenment ideas shaped the reform of institutions for the poor, criminals, and the mentally ill?

4.What was the relationship between abolitionism and the women’s rights movement?

Chapter 12: The Market Revolution and Social Reform, 1815–1850

Multiple Choice

Industrial Change and Innovation

  1. An effect of the practical use of steamboats was:
  1. Which of the following transportation systems was developed last?
  1. During the 1840s:
  1. During the 1840s, American railroads:
  1. Half of all capital for early railroads:
  1. In Gibbons v. Ogden, the Supreme Court ruled that:
  1. Which city was not among America’s largest in 1820?
  1. The enormous growth of New York City was fueled by all of the following factors EXCEPT:
  1. The most notorious slum in New York City during the 1800s was:
  1. Inland cities included all of the following EXCEPT:
  1. Pittsburgh complemented its function as an exchange center by:
  1. St. Louis was ideally located for urban growth because:
  1. Which city is NOT located on the Great Lakes?
  1. In 1860, the two most populous cities were:
  1. America’s first large-scale, planned city for the sole purpose of manufacturing was:
  1. During the 1840s and 1850s, the highest number of immigrants came from:
  1. Why did many Irish people come to America in the 1840s and 50s?
  1. All of the following statements about immigration from 1840–1860 are true EXCEPT:
  1. Up to 1815 in cities and larger towns, most manufacturing was done by:
  1. In Jeffersonian America, manufacturing was centered in:
  1. The putting-out system:
  1. What is the best description of an artisan?
  1. Which nation pioneered most of the technological methods and advances of industrialization?
  1. The Rhode Island system of employment was based on:
  1. Lowell, Massachusetts represented an example of:
  1. Conditions in towns that used the Waltham system included all of the following EXCEPT:
  1. Other than in New England’s textile factories, the largest group of earliest manufacturing workers were:
  1. Samuel Slater:
  1. Which statement about the American system of manufacturing is NOT true?
  1. Which statement about Eli Whitney is NOT true?
  1. Western manufacturers improved their business conditions by:
  1. When the Boston Associates built dams and canals:
  1. Which statement best summarizes the distribution of wealth in the period 1800–1850?
  1. The growing middle class was most likely to find jobs in:
  1. An aspect of the new middle class was:
  1. A supporter of temperance believed:
  1. The “cult of domesticity” emphasized that:
  1. The first national union was:
  1. Working-class activists of the 1830s promoted all of the following ideas EXCEPT:
  1. In Commonwealth v. Hunt, the Supreme Court ruled that:
  1. All of the following groups were disliked by nativists EXCEPT:
  1. In 1842, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled in this case that a trade union was not necessarily subject to laws against criminal conspiracies and that a strike could be used to force employers to hire only union members.

REFORM AND MORAL ORDER

  1. Eastern elitemen, with the support of their wives and daughters, formed a group of church-affiliated reform organizations known as the:
  1. The Sabbatarian movement:
  1. The American Temperance Society concerned itself mainly with:
  1. This man is considered to be the father of the Mormon Church.
  1. The Mormons believed strongly in:

INSTITUTIONS AND SOCIAL IMPROVEMENT

  1. The first political demands for free tax-supported schools originated with the:
  1. How did the American approach to dealing with social problems change in the early to mid-1800s?
  1. School reform succeeded in large part because it appealed to the:
  1. This religious group was at its height in the 1830s and attracted over 6,000 followers.
  1. This place was considered a showcase for the transcendentalist philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
  1. The author of Walden was:

ABOLITIONISM AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS

  1. In 1817, antislavery reformers founded this society.
  1. An example of an immediatist would be:
  1. Women’s treatment within the ______movement was the final impetus for forming a separate women’s
  1. This document, issued at the Seneca Falls Convention, called for full female equality.

Chronology

  1. Which of the following happened first?

a.completion of the Erie Canal

b.American Temperance Society crusade

c.initial publication of TheLiberator

d.first journey of Robert Fulton’s steamboat Clermont

  1. Which of the following happened last?

a.establishment of Brook Farm

b.Seneca Falls Convention

c.first strike at Lowell Mills

d.emancipation of slaves in the British Empire

Short Essays

  1. What are the characteristics of the Rhode Island system and the Waltham system?
  1. What were the most important improvements in transportation during the first half of the nineteenth century?
  1. What are some examples of the growth of American cities in the 1800s?
  1. How were the economic interests of the West linked with those of the Northeast?
  1. According to nativists, what problems plagued America?

Extended Essays

  1. In what ways can it be said that new divisions between a “North” and “South” were developing in America during the period of 1800–1850?
  1. Why did economic growth widen the gap between rich and poor?
  1. How did class structure change in the first half of the 1800s? What examples reveal the emergence of new tensions between the classes?
  1. How can the rapid surge of American industrialism in the period of 1815–1850 be explained?
  1. Address the following statement: “The rapid growth of industrialism spurred both progress and conflict.”
  1. Describe the events that led to more of the citizens of the United States becoming abolitionists. Which religious groups were involved in decrying slavery and why? What political organizations grew out of the abolitionist movement?

1

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.