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A Changing World in North and South in class In the time period form 1820 until 1860, many advances and inventions dramatically changed life in the United States. Complete the following chart and then answer the questions that follow from information in text and class discussions.
1. How did steam power help the factory system to spread? 2. Describe working conditions in factories of the 1840s. 3. Why were unskilled workers unable to bargain for better wages? 4. Why did nativists dislike immigrants? Give at least three specific reasons. 5. Why did southern planters move west after the War of 1812? 6. Why did the South lag behind the North in industry? 7. What were slave codes and why did southerners pass them? 8. The telegraph boosted communication and helped business in the 1840s. What advances in communication have helped business today? Be specific and explain (short paragraph). Charting Railroad Growth homework Use the statistics in the chart below to draw a line graph that represents the miles of railroad track in use between 1840 and 1860. Plot the figures on the graph and connect the dots, then answer the questions that follow. 1. How many miles of track were in use in 1848? 2. How many more miles of track were in use in 1850 than in 1840? 3. How many more miles of track were in use in 1860 than in 1840? 4. How would you describe the development of railroads between 1850 and 1860? Rail Travel homework Directions: Compare early railroad travel with railroads today after reading a firsthand account of an 1842 train ride from Boston to Lowell, Massachusetts. The famous English novelist Charles Dickens toured the United States in 1842. Below are his impressions of a train ride at that time. After you have finished reading them, answer the questions at the end of the worksheet. There are not first- and second-class carriages as with us; but there is a gentlemen’s bar and a ladies’ car; the main distinction between which is that in the first, everybody smokes; and in the second, nobody does. As a black man never travels with a white one, there is also a negro car, which is a great blundering clumsy chest. There is a great deal of jolting and noise. The cars are like shabby omnibusses, but larger: holding thirty, forty, fifty people. The seats, instead of stretching from end to end, are placed crosswise. Each seat holds two persons. There is a long row of them on each side of the caravan, a narrow passage up the middle, and a door at both ends. In the centre of the carriage there is usually a stove, fed with charcoal or anthracite coal; which is for the most part red-hot. It is insufferably close; and you see the hot air fluttering between yourself and any other object you may happen to look at, like the ghost of smoke. In the ladies’ car, there are a great many gentlemen who have ladies with them. There are also a great many ladies who have nobody with them: for any lady may travel alone, from one end of the U.S. to the other, and be certain of the most courteous and considerate treatment everywhere. The conductor wears no uniform. He walks up and down the car, and in and out of it, as his fancy dictates. A great many newspapers are pulled out, and a few of them are read. Everybody talks to you, or to anybody else who hits his fancy. If a lady takes a fancy to any male passenger’s seat, the gentleman who accompanies her gives him notice of the fact, and he immediately vacates it with great politeness. Except when a branch road joins the main one, there is seldom more than one track of rails, so that the road is very narrow. The train calls at stations in the woods. It rushes across the turnpike road, where there is no gate, no policeman, no signal; nothing but a rought wooden arch, on which is painted “WHEN THE BELL RINGS, LOOK OUT FOR THE LOCOMOTIVE.” On it whirls headlong, dives through the woods again, emerges in the light, clatters over frail arches, rumbles upon the heavy ground, and suddenly awakens all the slumbering echoes in the main street of a large town, and dashes on haphazardly down the middle of the road. On and on tears the mad dragon of an engine with its train of cars; scattering in all directions a shower of burning sparks from its wood fire; screeching, hissing, yelling, panting; until at last the thirsty monster stops beneath a covered way to drink, the people cluster round, and you have time to breathe again. 1. What customs did Dickens observe that are no longer practiced today? 2. How have the interiors of railroad cars changed since Dickens’s day? 3. How was heat provided in the cars? How is it provided today? 4. According to the text, why was there just one track? 5. Why did the train go through the center of town? 6. What role did the train play in the life of the town? How do you think this has changed in the present day? 7. According to Dickens, what is the most noticeable distinction between the men’s and ladies’ cars? Railroad Growth In 1831 the first railroad company in America completed a 17-mile line between Albany and Schenectady, NY. It allowed passengers to cut as much as eight hours from the day-long, 40-mile trip through the locks in the last section of the Erie Canal. The railroad boom had begun. Within six months, 25 groups were applying to the New York legislature for permission to build their own lines. By 1840 track had been laid in all but four of the other states. How was a railroad built? Clearly no individual could personally afford average costs that had risen as high as $40,000 a mile. Several persons could form a partnership and raise the funds, but feew individuals had that much money or the boldness to make such a risky long-term investment. The most common method of building a railroad, therefore, was for a group of men to request that the state legislature vote a charter of incorporation for them. This established a corporation, a lasting business organization with the right to carry on business and accumulate funds through the sale of stocks and bonds to people interested in sharing the profits. Purchasers of stock would be reassured by the fact that, in case the railroad went bankrupt, they would have limited liability – they would lose only the cost of their shares instead of having all their personal property put up to pay the debts of the business. Beyond putting up money, these shareholders generally had no voice in the running of the railroad. Control of the railroad’s policy rested in the hands of the managers named by the few individuals who owned a majority of the stock. (Often the two groups were the same.) The managers decided, within the limits of their charter, where and how far to build the line, and what rates to set. By the 1850s railways were also turning with increasing frequency to a second source of money – banks. The big banking houses of the East, many of which were connected in turn to wealthy European banks, regarded railways as a good risk. More and more they consented to make loans to railroads or handle the bonds by which the railroad corporations borrowed from private investors. A third source of help was government – federal, state, and local. State and local legislatures were eager to offer every privilege to railroads. After all, a town with a train passing through it would almost surely receive more business. Travelers would buy food at its restaurants and sleep at its hotels. Settlers would favor it over an isolated town. Farmers would come to town with crops to be stored and shipped. The growth of population and business meant more tax proceeds for the states. State and town officials wooed railroad managers with attractive terms. Many states bought railroad stocks, granted huge loans, gave public lands for the railroad to build on or sell, granted a monopoly of traffic between the terminals (promising that the railroad would have no competitors), or allowed the road to issue bank notes for financing the construction. In order to obtain these privileges, railroad managers formed lobbies to persuade or sometimes bribe legislators. Most early lines served coastal cities in the East. There the population was most dense and the volume of goods shipped between the ports and the interior was greatest. In 1840 Pennsylvania had the largest railroad mileage of any state (754), with New York second (374). It was an impressive growth from almost nothing ten years earlier. Yet it was hardly a “network” Railroad Growth cont’d. homework of transportation. A rail trip from Boston to Georgia, broken by transfers to steamers and stagecoaches, took a week. In 1840 track mileage totaled almost 3,000 miles. By 1850 it had more than tripled. By 1860 it had more than tripled again, reaching beyond 30,000 miles. This boom was taking place primarily in the wide-open spaces of the mid-western states, where the farmers sought to move their crops to the big urban markets in the East. By the mid-1850s the United States, with five percent of the world population, had almost as much rail mileage as the rest of the world. Most of the new track was laid in Indiana, Illinois, and particularly Ohio, which in 1860 had become the state with the most rail mileage. By then, New York and Pennsylvania were third and fourth. (Since it had financed the Erie Canal, New York’s state government did not seem anxious to jeopardize the investment by encouraging railroad construction.) By the early 1850s four rival lines had succeeded in crossing the Appalachian Mountains, thus connecting the coast and the interior. The race between Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston to tap the rich western trade had ended in a virtual tie. What were the effects of this railway expansion – labeled by historians as the “transportation revolution” – on Americans at the time? Consider a farmer living outside Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1817 if he had wanted to bring his crops to the largest market, New York City, he would have had to be a very patient farmer. Having reached Cincinnati, he would have loaded his goods on a keelboat to Pittsburgh, then transferred them to a wagon to Philadelphia, then got alternately by wagon and river to New York City. At last he would have arrived – 50 days after he had set out. Merchants in Atlantic ports beneftted just as much from the railroads. In 1815 they paid 70 cents per ton per mile to transport goods overland to customers in the interior. Although these wagon rates did drop – to 20 cents a ton-mile in the 1820s and to 15 cents in the 1850s – even this was high in comparison to what railroads charged. The Boston and Worcester Railroad in 1833, for example, had an average ton-mile rate of 6 cents. In 1860 it was only 2 1/4 cents. The growth of railroads changed much of the economic organization of the United States. The growth of large textile factories like those in Lowell and Lawrence, Massachusetts, employing 100 to 1,000 people, was quickened. The railroads could deliver the goods at a price that was cheaper than the buyers own homespun. Railroads encouraged the growth of businesses, business employed workers, workers needed housing and food. Not only did railroads promote economic development by moving people and goods quickly and more cheaply, they also helped by buying rails, engines, and other items needed to operate. New businesses emerged to address these demands. The workers in these factories as well as the railroad workers needed food and shelter that encouraged even faster economic growth. Cities sprang up where a few years before only woods and farms had existed. And through it all cut the shining iron rails. If you read this entire reading, sign your name here for credit: Financing Railroad Growth homework State and local governments employed five methods to help the growth and development of railroads: purchase of stock, grants of land, grants of monopoly, and permission for railroads to issue bank notes. For each of these approaches, consider the benefits and disadvantages from the perspective of the government, the railroad owners, and citizens.
Based on your analysis, which approach do you think best served the public interest? Explain in a brief body paragraph. (topic sentence, support and explanation sentences, concluding sentence) Songs of the Working Class In addition to producing a whole new range of consumer goods, factories altered the way in which many people earned a living. Factory work meant new opportunities, especially for women; but it also introduced a new set of challenges to working people, who often toiled fourteen to sixteen hours a day in dismal and often dangerous conditions. Notice how these songs, the first from 1850 and the second from 1878, differ in their description of working conditions. Song of the Factory Girls Eight Hours We mean to make things over, we are tired of toil for naught, Northern and Southern Lifestyles: Making Comparisons In the first half of the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution led to the growth of cities in the North. The South remained overwhelmingly agricultural, with the plantation remaining the focal point of many communities. Below, the living conditions of slum dwellers in New York City and slaves on a southern plantation are described. Read the two selections and answer the questions that follow. Report on Sanitary Conditions in New York City, by Dr. John H. Griscom. December 30, 1844. The tenements, in order to admit a greater number of families, are divided into small apartments. Regard to comfort, convenience, and health, is the last motive. These closets, for they deserve no other name, are then rented to the poor, from week to week, or month to month. The families moving in first find it clean. Families, after occupying rooms a few weeks, will change their location, leaving behind all the dirt which their residence prompted; every corner of the room, of the cupboards, of the entries and stairways, is piled up with dirt. And by the way in which the rooms are laid out, ventilation is entirely prevented. A description of slave quarters on a Georgia plantation, by Frances Kemble, 1839. These cabins consist of one room, about twelve feet by fifteen, with a couple of closets ... divided off from the main room and each other by rough wooden partitions, in which the inhabitants sleep. They have almost all of them a rude bedstead, with the gray moss of the forests for a mattress, and filthy pestilential-looking blankets for a covering. Two families (sometimes eight and ten in number) reside in one of these huts, which are mere wooden frames pinned, as it were, to the earth by a brick chimney outside.... A wide ditch runs immediately at the back of these dwellings, which is filled and emptied daily by the tide. Attached to each hovel is a small scrap of ground for a garden, which, however, is for the most part untended and uncultivated. Such of these dwellings I visited today were filthy and wretched in the extreme.... 1. Use a dictionary to find the meanings (based on the context above) of the following words: tenement ventilation partitions pestilential hovel 2. According to the report, why were tenements in New York City divided into small apartments? 3. What name does Griscom give to the apartments? Why is this appropriate? 4. Who was most likely to be found living in New York City tenements? 5. How long did families usually reside in tenements? 6. How many slaves lived in each cabin that Kemble describes? 7. What served as a mattress in the slave quarters? 8. From the readings, can you infer how garbage was handled in tenements and on plantations? Explain. 9. Based on the readings, what were the similarities in living conditions between the urban poor and the southern slaves? 10. Based on the readings, what were the differences in living conditions between the urban poor and the southern slaves? 11. Southerners often claimed that slaves lived better than northern workers because slave owners felt responsible for their well-being, whereas factory owners had not responsibility for their workers. Does the evidence in the two readings support or contradict this argument? Explain. Slavery in the United States From your readings in the text and class discussions, define or describe the following: triangular trade middle passage slave codes abolitionist literature “necessary evil” versus a “positive good” “peculiar institution” Underground Railroad Answer the following questions: 1. Why did African slavery become the preferred source of labor in the colonies (as opposed to indentured servants or Native Americans)? Explain the growth of slavery in the South compared to the North as the country became independent and grew. 2. Describe the life of a slave. Use complete sentences. 3. How did most white owners treat their slaves? Why? 4. Why did some blacks in the South also own slaves? 5. Aside from the Civil War, what were some of the disadvantages to the South from the institution of slavery? 6. Why do you think some slaves actually liked being slaves and didn’t leave after the Civil War was over? Come Along to Freedom As long as slavery existed in North America, the struggle of the enslaved to be free also existed. Early colonial records include many instances of slave revolts and of slaves fleeing from their owners. By the late 1700s, the phenomenon of runaway slaves was serious enough for Congress to pass the first Fugitive Slave Law in 1793. But laws could not stifle the desire for freedom in the souls of the suffering slaves. Thousands of slaves eventually fled the plantations and farms of the South. Their means of escape came to be known as the Underground Railroad (UGRR) – not a railroad at all, but a loose, largely unorganized network of safe houses and shelters through which the runaways passed on their way to freedom. The UGRR of safe houses and trusted helpers developed slowly. Its success depended on the dedication and sacrifice of hundreds of ordinary people sympathetic to the plight of enslaved African-Americans. In this excerpt from his autobiography, Levi Coffin reminisces about his experiences as a key supporter and active member of the UGRR. Notice as you read how fleeing slaves depended on the generosity and goodwill of total strangers committed to a righteous cause. In the year 1836, I built an oil mill and manufactured linseed oil. Notwithstanding all this multiplicity of business, I was never too busy to engage in Underground Railroad affairs. Soon after we located at Newport, I found that we were on a line of the UGRR. Fugitives often passed through that place, and generally stopped among the colored people. There was in that neighborhood a number of families of free colored people, mostly from North Carolina, who were the descendants of slaves who had been liberated by Friends many years before, and sent to free states at the expense of North Carolina Yearly Meeting. I learned that the fugitive slaves who took refuge with these people were often pursued and captured.... I was pained to hear of the capture of these fugitives, and inquired of some of the Friends in our village why they did not take them in and secret them, when they were pursued, and then aid them on their way to Canada? I found that they were afraid of penalty of the law. I told them that I read in the Bible when I was a boy that it was always safe to do right. The Bible, in bidding us to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, said nothing about color, and I should try to follow out the teachings of that good book. I was willing to receive and aid as many fugitives as were disposed to come to my house. I know that my wife’s feelings and sympathies regarding this matter were the same as mine, and that she was willing to do her part. It soon become known to the colored people in our neighborhood and others, that our house was a depot where the hunted and harassed fugitive journeying northward, on the UGRR, could find succor and sympathy. It also became known at other depots on the various lines that converged at Newport. In the winter of 1826-27, fugitives began to come to our house, and as it became more widely known on different routes that the slaves fleeing from bondage would find a welcome and shelter at our house, and be forwarded safely on their journey, the number increased. Friends in the neighborhood, who had formerly stood aloof from the work, fearful of the penalty of the law, were encouraged to engage in it.... Three principal lines from the South converged at my house; one from Cincinnati, one from Madison, and one from Jeffersonville, Indiana. The roads were always in running order, the connections were good, the conductors active and zealous, and there was no lack of passengers. Seldom a week passed without our receiving passengers by this mysterious road. We found it necessary to be always prepared to receive such company and properly care for them. We know not what night or what hour of the night we would be roused from slumber by a gentle rap at the door. That was the signal announcing the arrival of a train of the UGRR, for the locomotive did not whistle, nor make any unnecessary noise. I have often been awakened by this signal, and sprang out of bed in the dark and opened the door. Outside in the cold or rain, there would be a two-horse wagon loaded with fugitives, perhaps the greater part of them women and children. I would invite them, in a low tone, to come in, and they would follow me into the darkened house without a word, for we know not who might be watching and listening. When they were all safely inside and the door fastened, I would cover the windows, strike a light and build a good fire. By this time my wife would be up and preparing victuals for them, and in ashort time the cold and hungry fugitives would be made comfortable. I would accompany the conductor of the train to the stable, and care for the horses, that had, perhaps, been driven twenty-five or thirty miles that night, through the cold and rain. The fugitives would rest on pallets before the fire the rest of the night.... In several instances fugitives came to our house sick from exhaustion and exposure, and lay several weeks. One case was that of a woman and her two children – little girls. Hearing that her children were to be sold away from her, she determined to take them with her and attempt to reach Canada. She had heard that Canada was a place where all were free, and that by traveling toward the north star she could reach it. She managed to get over the Ohio River with her two little girls and then commenced her long and toilsome journey northward. Fearing to travel on the road, even at night, lest she should meet somebody, she made her way though the woods and across fields, living on fruits and green corn, when she could procure them, and sometimes suffering severely for lack of food. Thus she wandered on, and at last reached our neighborhood. Seeing a cabin where some colored people lived she made her way to it. The people received her kindly, and at once conducted her to our house. She was so exhausted by the hardships of her long journey, and so weakened by hunger, having denied herself to feed her children, that she soon became quite sick. Her children were very tired, but soon recovered their strength and were in good health. They had no shoes nor clothing except what they had on, and that was in tatters. Dr. Henry H. Way was called in, and faithfully attended the sick woman, until her health was restored. Then the little party were provided with good clothing and other comforts, and were sent on their way to Canada. 1. What set Levi Coffin apart from many other people in his town? What motivated him to risk imprisonment to help fugitive slaves? 2. Often the courage of one person inspires others to be brave. What was the effect on others of Levi Coffin’s actions? 3. What do you think protected Levi Coffin from being arrested? What resources did he have to offer besides food and shelter? 4. Levi Coffin was often threatened by slave hunters. He responded to them by stating honestly that he was helping fugitives. How does this response fit in with Coffin’s beliefs? 5. Levi Coffin is known as the “Reputed President of the Underground Railroad.” What in this account indicates that he deserves this title? A Land of Idealism Many efforts were made during this “reforming age” to improve different aspects of life. Americans were proud of the achievements of their country, but they also believed that there was still much to do. During the years between 1820 and 1860, countless reform movements sprang up to cure the nation’s ills. For each major area of reform below and as identified in chapter 14, explain the goals fo the movement and identify the major leaders and concepts. Liberty for All – Abolishing Slavery Goals of the movement: Defining Terms: Abolitionism Emancipation Second Great Awakening American Colonization Society Liberia The Liberator Underground Railroad Identifying Leaders: Charles Grandison Finney Frederick Douglass William Lloyd Garrison Theodore Dwight Weld Angelina and Sarah Grimke Harriet Tubman Women’s Rights – Struggle for Equality Goals of the movement: Defining Terms: Franchise Seneca Falls Convention Declaration of Sentiments Education for Women Identifying Leaders: Lucretia Mott Elizabeth Cady Stanton Angelina and Sarah Grimke Sojourner Truth Susan B. Anthony Emma Willard Mary Lyon Elizabeth Blackwell Elizabeth Smith Miller and Amelia Bloomer Helping the Helpless Goals of the movement: Defining Terms: Mentally Ill Prison Treatment Lincoln University Identifying Leaders: Dorothea Dix Horace Mann Thomas Gallaudet Samuel Gridley Howe Demon Rum Goals of the movement: Defining Terms: Alcohol Consumption Temperance Maine Laws Ten Nights in a Barroom and What I Saw There The Labor of Women homework From the 1820s on, reformers tried to improve many aspects of American life. The movement for women’s rights also took root during this period. One of its most ardent spokespersons was Susan B. Anthony. Read the excerpt below, taken from a speech Anthony wrote in about 1848, and answer the questions which follow. Although woman has performed much of the labor of the world, her industry and economy have been the very means of increasing her degradation. Not being free, the results of her labor have gone to build up and sustain the very class that has perpetuated this injustice. Even in the family, where we should naturally look for the truest conditions, woman has always been robbed of the fruits of her own toil.... Taught that the fruits of her industry belonged to others, she has seen man enter into every avocation most suitable to her, while she, the uncomplaining drudge of the household, condemned to the severest labor, has been systematically robbed of her earnings, which have gone to build up her master’s power, and she has found herself in the condition of the slave, deprived of the results of her own labor.... Taught that a low voice is an excellent thing in a woman, she has been trained to a subjugation of the vocal organs.... Woman has been the great unpaid laborer of the world, and although within the last two decades a vast number of new employments have been opened to her, statistics prove that in the great majority of these, she is not paid according to the value of the work done, but according to sex. The opening of all industries to mean, and the wage question as connected with her, are most subtle and profound questions of political economy, closely interwoven with the rights of self-government. 1. Does Anthony believe that woman’s labor and industry have helped her win new rights? 2. How does Anthony feel women are being paid for the work they do? 3. Does Anthony feel that the family setting is the only place where women are treated fairly? Explain. 4. In your own words, what does Anthony mean when she writes the woman “has been systematically robbed of her earnings, which have gone to build up her master’s power”? 5. Many women in the mid-1800s (think of Lyddie) and today would disagree with Anthony’s analysis. How might these women refute Anthony’s statement that: “woman has always been robbed of the fruits of her own toil”? 6. If Susan B. Anthony were alive today, how would she view woman’s opportunities and role in society? Answer in 3-4 complete sentences. |