AP History - Chapter 12 Study Guide

Chapter 12

The Dynamics of Growth

During the middle of the nineteenth century, where did most immigrants enter the United States and during which decade did the majority of immigrants arrive?

(pg. 364-365) The largest groups among the immigrants were the 1.6 million Irish immigrants. The years from 1845-1854 saw the greatest proportionate influx of immigrants in American history, 2.4 million, or about 14.5 percent of the total population in 1845.

What was life like for most nineteenth-century Irish immigrants, where did they live, and what did they do for a living?

(pg. 365-367) The Irish fled their homeland due to a prolonged depression leading to immense social hardship and an epidemic of potato famine. Most of the Irish had been tenant farmers, but their rural sufferings left them little taste for farm work and little money to buy land in America. Many Irish men hired on with construction gangs building the canals and railways... Others worked in iron foundries, steel mills, warehouses, and shipyards. Many Irish women found jobs as domestic servants, laundresses, or textile mill workers in New England. Although there were substantial Irish communities in New Orleans, Vicksburg, and Memphis, relatively few immigrants during the Jacksonian era found their way into the South, where land was expensive and industries scarce. Too poor to move inland, most of the destitute Irish congregated in the eastern cities. By the 1850's the Irish made up over half the populations of Boston and of New York City, and they were almost as prominent in Philadelphia. Irish newcomers crowded into filthy, poorly ventilated buildings plagued by high rates of crime, infectious disease, prostitution, alcoholism, and infant mortality.

Why were Americans hostile to mid-nineteenth-century immigrants?

(pg. 369-370) Many native-born Americans resented newcomers with unknown languages, mysterious customs, and perhaps worst, feared religions. The flood of Irish and German Catholics aroused Protestant hostility to “popery.” There were also fears of political radicalism among the Germans and of voting blocs among the Irish, but above all hovered the menace of unfamiliar religious practices. This nativism eventually led to the formation of the “Know-Nothing” Party, who promised never to vote for any foreign-born or Catholic candidate.

What was life like for most nineteenth-century German immigrants, where did they live, and what did they do for a living?

(pg. 368) During the eighteenth century, Germans had responded to William Penn’s offer of religious freedom and cheap, fertile land by coming in large numbers to America. As a consequence, when a new wave of German migration formed in the 1830’s, there were still large German enclaves in Pennsylvania and Ohio who had preserved their language and rural culture. More so than the Irish, they migrated in families and groups rather than as individuals, sustaining elements of German language and culture. These immigrants included a large number of learned, cultured professional people- doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers- some of them refugees from the failed German revolutions of 1830 and 1848. Unlike the Irish, the Germans included many independent farmers, skilled workers, and shopkeepers who arrived with enough money to get themselves established in skilled labor or on the land. Major centers of German settlement developed in Missouri and southwestern Illinois (around St. Louis), in Texas (near San Antonio), in Ohio, and in Wisconsin. The larger German communities developed traditions of bounteous food, beer, and music with a wide range of activities (sharpshooter clubs, fire engine companies, kindergartens, etc.)

Which group comprised the largest group of immigrants living in America in 1860?

(pg. 364) In 1860, America's population was 31 million, with more than one of every eight foreign born. The largest groups among the immigrants were 1.6 million Irish.

What was “The Know-Nothing party”?

(pg. 370) It was a natavist party formed in 1854 when delegates from the thirteen states gathered to form the American party, which ahd the trappings of a secret fraternal order. They pledged never to vote for any foreign-born or Catholic candidates, and when asked about the organization, they were to say, "I know nothing." They seemed to be taking control, electing more than 40 candidates that fall. The movement subsided when slavery became the focal issue of the 1850's, and the party never gathered the political strength to achieve exclusion of immigrants to public office.

What impact did immigrants have on labor by 1860?

(pg. 370) By meeting the need for cheap, unskilled labor, immigrants made a twofold contribution to American economic growth: they moved into jobs vacated or bypassed by those who went into the factories, and they themselves made up a pool of labor from which factory workers were eventually drawn.

What was the opinion of the Massachusetts Supreme Court in Commonwealth v. Hunt?

(pg. 372-373) In 1824, the court ruled that forming a trade union was not in itself illegal, nor was a demand that employers hire only members of the union. This decision was unprecedented.

Who or what were the "Locofocos"?

(pg. 373) Once the labor parties had faded, many of their supporters found their way into a radical wing of the Jacksonian Democrats, which became the Equal Rights party. In 1835, party members acquired the name "Locofocos" when their opponents from New York City's regular Democratic organization, Tammany Hall, turned off the gas lights at one of their meetings, and the party lit candles with matches of the same name. The Locofocos soon faded as a separate group but endured as a radical faction within the Democratic party.

Why did the various Working Men's parties fail?

(pg. 373) These labor parties faded quickly for a variety of reasons: the inexperience of labor politicians that left the parties prey to manipulation by political professionals; the fact that some of their issues were also espoused by the major parties; and their vulnerable ability to attack on grounds of extreme radicalism. In addition, they often splintered in to warring factions, which limited their effectiveness.

What was the shoemakers' strike at Lynn and Natick, Massachusetts called?

(pg. 374) The greatest single labor dispute before the Civil War came on February 22, 1860, when shoemakers at Lynn and Natick, Massachusetts, walked out for higher wages. Before the strike ended, it had spread through New England, involving perhaps twenty-five towns and 20,000 workers. The strike stood out also because the workers won. Most of the employers agreed to wage increases, and some also agreed to recognize the union as a bargaining agent.

What were the trade unions of the 1840’s and 1850’s like?
(pg. 374) By the mid-nineteenth century, the labor movement was maturing. Workers sought union recognition and regular collective bargaining agreements. They also shared a growing sense of solidarity. In 1852 the National Typographical Union revived the effort to organize skilled crafts on a national scale. Others followed, and by 1860, about twenty such organizations had appeared, although none was strong enough as yet to do much more than hold national conventions and pass resolutions.

Describe social mobility in the United States by the mid-nineteenth century.

(pg. 378) Years before, in the late eighteenth century, slavery aside, American society probably approached equality more closely than any other population of its size anywhere else in the world. during the last half of the 1700s, social mobility was higher than either before or since. By the time popular egalitarianism caught up with reality, reality was moving back toward greater inequality.

Where did much of the U.S population live by 1860?

(pg. 346) By 1860, more than half of the nation's expanded population resided in Trans-Appalachia, and the restless movement had long since spilled across the Mississippi River and touched the shores of the Pacific.

What accounts for most of the growth of the Catholic church in the mid-nineteenth century?

(pg. 368) The flood of Irish and German Catholic immigrants led to the growth of the Church.

What was the primary source of fuel on early American railroads?

(pg. 351) Travel on the early railroads tested the courage of passengers. Wood was used for fuel, and the sparks often caused fires along the way or damaged passengers' clothing.

What did the Lowell enforce upon its workers?

(pg. 358) The women workers lived in dormitories staffed by matronly supervisors, church attendance was mandatory, and temperance regulations and curfews were rigidly enforced.

What distinct advantage did New England manufacturing enjoy?

(pg. 355) New England, it happened, had one distinct advantage in that its ample rivers were near the coast, where water transportation was also readily available.

What role did Chinese immigrants play in the growth of the nation?
(pg. 369) Chinese immigrants were willing to fill many positions that other people would not; coming from a troubled province of China, they were illiterate men desperate for work. As such, they could work in a railroad for a mine and make six times as much as they could have in China.

Did the immigrants favor any one political party over another?

(pg. 367) Drawn mainly to the party of Andrew Jackson, they set a crucial pattern of identification with the Democrats that other ethnic groups by and large followed.

What political philosophy was the American party was based upon?

(pg. 370) Nativism

Who was widely considered to be the wealthiest man in America in the 1840’s?

(pg. 377) John Jacob Astor, the wealthiest man in America, worth more than $20 million at his death in 1848, came of humble if not exactly destitute origins.

Who “blazed the Wilderness Road”?

(pg. 348) In 1795, the Wilderness Road, which followed the trail blazed by Daniel Boone twenty years before, was open to wagon and stage coach traffic.

Who improved the steel plow and what was the impact on farming?

(pg. 347) North of the expanding cotton belt in the Gulf states, the fertile woodland soils riverside bottomlands and black loam of the prairies drew farmers from the rocky land of New England and the exhausted soils of the Southeast. The development of effective iron plows greatly eased the grueling job of breaking the soil.

What is vulcanized rubber and who is credited with patenting process? (pg. 356) In 1844, Charles Goodyear patented a process for vulcanized rubber, which made it stronger and more elastic, and in the process, created the fabric for rainproof coats.

Who invented the grain reaper and what impact did it have on farming?

(pg. 355) Among the other outstanding American originals was Cyrus Hall McCormick of Viriginia. McCormick invented a primitive grain reaper in 1834, a development as significant to the agricultural economy of the Old Northwest as the cotton gin was to the South. A farmer could now harvest half an acre of wheat a day, a tremendous improvement.

Who invented the telegraph?

(pg. 356) Samuel F. Morse

Who invented the sewing machine?
(pg. 356) Elias Howe, improved by Allen B. Wilson and Isaac Merritt Singer

Who “smuggled” textile manufacturing technology from England?
(pg. 355) Samuel Slater

Which German immigrant became famous for making work pants?
(pg. 368) Levi Strauss

What is the importance of the invention of the cotton gin on farming? (when and by whom)

(pg. 345) In 1793 Eli Whitney, devised a mechanism for removing the sticky seeds. The cotton gin enabled a person to separate fifty times as much cotton as could be done by hand.

What was the impact of widespread use of the cotton gin on cultivation, cotton as a cash crop and slavery?

(pg. 345) Eli Whitney spurred a revolution. Cotton production soared during the first half of the nineteenth century, and planters found a profitable new use for slavery. Planters and their slaves migrated westward into Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and the cotton culture became a way of life that tied the Old Southwest to the coastal Southeast in a common interest.

What was the economic and social importance of development of the first commercially successful steamboat? (by whom, when and where)?

(pg. 348) They carried bulk commodities far more cheaply than did Conestoga wagons on the National Road. The first commercially successful steamboat appeared when Robert Fulton and Robert R. Livingston sent the Clermont up the Hudson River to Albany in 1807. After that the use of steamboats spread rapidly to other eastern and western rivers. By 1836, 361 steamboats navigated the western waters. During the next decade, the shallow-draft, steam-powered ships ventured into far reaches of the Mississippi River Valley.

What was the purpose and importance of the Preemption Act of 1830?

(pg. 347) Under the Preemption Act of 1830, squatters could stake out claims ahead of the land surveys and later get 160 acres at the minimum price of $1.25 per acre. In effect, the law recognized a practice enforced more often than not by frontier vigilantes. It was to stop problems concerning land prices.

Where were most of the nation's important roads located in 1820 and what were they like? (physical and geographic location)

(pg. 348) By 1821 there were some 4000 miles of turnpikes, mainly connecting eastern cities, but western traffic could move along the Frederick Turnpike to Cumberland and thence along the National Road to Wheeling on the Ohio River in 1818, then to Columbus in the Northwest Territory, and to Vandalia, Illinois, by about mid-century.

What were the early steamboats like and what was their main function and where were they used? (design and function)?

What was the location, purpose and importance of Erie Canal?

(pg. 350) The Erie Canal was an engineering marvel. The longest canal in the world, it traversed rivers and valleys, forests and marshes. It reduced travel time from New York City to Buffalo from twenty days to six, and the cost of moving a ton of freight plummeted from $100 to $5. It rendered the entire Great Lakes region an economic tributary to New York City, and had major economic and political consequences trying together the West and East while further isolating the Deep South.

In which decade did the most growth in American railroads (in terms of mileage constructed) occur?

(pg. 351) 1850's

What were the advantages of water travel over railroads in 1860?

(pg. 351) Water travel, where available, offered far more comfort, and it did not disturb the peace of small towns.

What were Clipper ships and what were they used for?

(pg. 353) Built for speed, the sleek clippers doubled the speed of the older merchant vessels, and trading companies rushed to purchase them. Long and lean, with taller masts and more sails, they cut dashing figures during their brief but colorful career, which lasted less than two decades.

How were internal improvements in the first half of the nineteenth century financed?

(pg. 353) The massive internal improvements of the antebellum era were the product of both state government and private initiatives, sometimes undertaken jointly and sometimes separately. After the Panic of 1837, however, the states left railroad development mainly to private corporations, the source of most investment capital. Still, several southern and western states built their own lines, and most states granted generous tax concessions.

What was the impact of Jefferson's embargo in 1807 and the War of 1812 on American manufacturing?

(pg. 355) The progress of textile production was slow and faltering until Thomas Jefferson’s embargo in 1807 and the War of 1812 restricted imports and encouraged New England merchant capitalists to switch their resources into manufacturing. New England, it happened, had one distinct advantage in that its ample rivers were near the coast, where water transportation was also readily available. By 1815, New England textile mills numbered in the hundreds. The foundations of textile manufacture were laid, and they spurred the growth of garment trades and a machine-tool industry to build and service the mills.

What product/commodity did the first American factories produce?

(pg. 355) In 1790, cotton yarn was produced from a water powered textile mile by Samuel Slater.

Discuss the factory system, in which all the manufacturing processes were brought under one roof.

(pg. 357) The chief features of the "Lowell System" were a large capital investment, the concentration of all production processes in one plant under unified management, and specialization in a relatively coarse cloth requiring minium skill by the workers. In the public mind, however, the system was associated above all with the conscious attempt by the founders to establish an industrial center compatible with the republican virtues. Jefferson and others had early on characterized urban-industrial development as being incompatible with a repiblican form of government rooted in self-relian agrarianism, and early industrrial developers were quite sensitive to such concerns.

What was the factory system and conditions like for factory workers at Lowell?

(pg. 357) Single girls began flocking toward Lowell. To reassure concerned parents, the mills owners promised to provide the "Lowell girls" with good wages, tolerable work, confortable housing, moral discipline, and a variety of educational and cultural opportunities, such as lectures and evening classes. Such a carefully planned and supervised factory system would thereby bring together the benefits of both industrial capitalism and republican simplicity.

What was the Rhode Island system?

(pg. 359) An increasingly common pattern for industry was the family system, sometimes called the Rhode Island or Fall River system, which prevailed in textile companies outside of northern New England. Factories that relied on waterpower often rose in unpopulated areas, and part of their construction included tenements or mill villages that increasingly housed newly foreign immigrants. Whole families might be hired, the men for heave labor, the women and children for lighter work. This system also promoted paternalism. Employers dominated the life of mill villages. The employees worked form sunup to sunset, and longer in winter. Such long hours were common on the farms of the time, but in factories the work was more intense and offered no seasonal letup.

Which American city was the first to have a population of more than one million?

(pg. 360) New York outpaced all its competitors- by 1860, it was the first American city to boast a population of more than one million.