Module 13

The North
Essential Question
How did the Industrial Revolution help shape life in the North?

About the Photo: New machinery like In this module you will read about the changes that occurred in the lives
this textile mill helped fuel the Industrial of Americans in the North as the result of rapid industrialization. You will
Revolution. also learn about some of the new inventions of the period.

What You Will Learn …

Lesson 1: The Industrial Revolution in America. . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
Explore ONLINE! The Big Idea The Industrial Revolution transformed the way goods
VIDEOS, including... were produced in the United States.
• Industrial Revolution Lesson 2: Changes in Working Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
The Big Idea The introduction of factories changed working life for
• Train Technology
many Americans.
Lesson 3: The Transportation Revolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
The Big Idea New forms of transportation improved business, travel,
and communication in the United States.
Lesson 4: More Technological Advances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
The Big Idea Advances in technology led to new inventions that
Document-Based Investigations continued to change daily life and work.

Graphic Organizers
Interactive Games
Image Carousel: Elements of Mass
Production
Image with Hotspots: Life of a Mill
Girl
Image with Hotspots: The Steam
Train

420 Module 13
Timeline of Events 1785–1860 Explore ONLINE!

United States 1785

World

1790 The first steam-powered

mill opens in Great Britain.

1800

1807 Robert Fulton’s

Clermont becomes
the first commercially
successful steamboat.

1815

1830 The Tom Thumb becomes the 1830

first locomotive in the United States
to carry passengers.

1838 The Sirius becomes the first ship to cross

the Atlantic Ocean entirely on steam power.

1840 Federal government employees

receive a 10-hour workday.
1846 German astronomer
1845 Sarah G. Bagley is appointed 1845 Johann Galle observes that
secretary of the New England Working Neptune is a planet.
Men’s Association.

1851 London’s
Great Exhibition
1856 Gail Borden displays
patents a method inventions from
of condensing milk around the
so that it can safely world in the
be stored in cans. Crystal Palace.
1860

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Reading Social Studies
THEME FOCUS:
Science and Technology, Economics
As you read this module, you will learn about how developments in science and
technology brought about what is called the Industrial Revolution. As a result of
the Industrial Revolution, you will see how American economic patterns changed.
Next, you will read about how family life changed as more and more people went
to work in factories. Finally, you will see how new methods of transportation
changed where people lived and how new inventions affected daily life and work.

READING FOCUS:
Understand Causes and Effects in History
Have you heard the saying, “We have to understand the past to avoid
repeating it.”? That is one reason we look for causes and effects in history.
Cause and Effect Chains You might say that all of history is one long chain of
causes and effects. It may help you to understand the course of history better if
you draw out such a chain as you read.

Since the 1790s, wars between European powers had

interfered with U.S. trade. American customers were
no longer able to get all the manufactured goods
they were used to buying from British and European Wars in Europe
manufacturers . . . Americans began to buy the items
they needed from American manufacturers instead
of from foreign suppliers. As profits for American
factories grew, manufacturers began to spend more Americans couldn’t get
money expanding their factories. . . . European goods.
At the same time, many Americans began to realize
that the United States had been relying too heavily on Americans bought
foreign goods. from American
manufacturers.

Americans began
American profits rose. to think they had relied
too much on Europe.

American factories expanded.

422 Module 13
You Try It! Key Terms and People
Lesson 1
Industrial Revolution
The following passage is from the module you are about textiles
to read. As you read each paragraph, ask yourself what Richard Arkwright
Samuel Slater
is the cause and what is the effect of what is being technology
discussed. Eli Whitney
interchangeable parts
mass production
Workers Organize Factories continued to spread in Lesson 2
the 1800s. Craftspeople, who made goods by hand, Rhode Island system
felt threatened. Factories quickly produced low-priced Francis Cabot Lowell
Lowell system
goods. To compete with factories, shop owners had to
trade unions
hire more workers and pay them less. . . . strikes
The wages of factory workers also went down as Sarah G. Bagley
people competed for jobs. A wave of immigration in Lesson 3
the 1840s brought people from other, poorer coun- Transportation Revolution
tries. They were willing to work for low pay. More Robert Fulton
Clermont
immigrants came to the Northeast, where the mills Gibbons v. Ogden
were located, than to the South. Competition for jobs Peter Cooper
also came from people unemployed during the finan- Lesson 4
cial Panic of 1837. Samuel F. B. Morse
telegraph
Morse code
John Deere
After you have read the passage, answer the following Cyrus McCormick
Isaac Singer
questions.
1. What cause is being discussed in the first paragraph?
What were its effects?
2. Draw a cause and effect chain that shows the events
described in the first paragraph.
3. What main effect is discussed in the second para-
graph? How many causes are given for it?
4. Draw a cause and effect chain that shows the events
described in the second paragraph.

As you read Module 13, look for words that signal

causes or effects. Picture these causes and effects as
the links in a cause and effect chain.

The North 423

 Lesson 1

The Industrial Revolution

in America
If YOU were there . . .
The Big Idea You live in a small Pennsylvania town in the 1780s. You
The Industrial Revolution
earn money for your family by raising sheep and spin-
­transformed the way goods were ning their wool into yarn. Your sisters knit the yarn into
produced in the United States. gloves and mittens that you sell to city merchants. But
now you hear that someone has invented machines that
Main Ideas
can spin thread and make cloth.
■■ The invention of new machines
in Great Britain led to the Would you still be able to earn the same amount
beginning of the Industrial of money for your family? Why?
Revolution.
■■ The development of new
machines and processes
The Industrial Revolution
brought the Industrial At the start of the 1700s, the majority of people in Europe and
­Revolution to the United the United States were farmers. They made most of what they
States. needed by hand. For example, female family members usually
■■ Despite a slow start in manu- made clothing. First, they used a spinning wheel to spin raw
facturing, the United States materials, such as cotton or wool, into thread. Then they used a
made rapid improvements hand loom to weave the thread into cloth.
during the War of 1812. Some families produced extra cloth to sell to merchants, who
Key Terms and People sold it for a profit. In towns, a few skilled craftspeople made
Industrial Revolution
goods by hand in their own shops. Workers including black-
textiles smiths, carpenters, and shoemakers specialized in their work
Richard Arkwright and the goods that they produced. Their ways of life had stayed
Samuel Slater the same for generations.
technology
Eli Whitney A Need for Change By the mid-1700s, however, changes in
interchangeable parts Great Britain led to a greater demand for manufactured goods.
mass production As agriculture and roads improved, cities and populations
grew. Overseas trade also expanded. Traditional manufactur-
ing methods did not produce enough goods to meet everyone’s
needs.
People began using machines to create processes that made
Academic goods in more efficient ways. They also discovered new power
Vocabulary resources to fuel the machines. These developments led to
efficient productive
and not wasteful
the Industrial Revolution, a period of rapid growth in using
machines for manufacturing and production that began in the
mid-1700s.

424 Module 13
 Women workers
in a textile mill

Textile Industry The first important breakthrough of the Industrial Revo-

lution took place in how textiles, or cloth items, were made. Before the
Industrial Revolution, spinning thread took much more time than making
cloth. Several skilled workers were needed to spin enough thread to supply
a single weaver.
In 1769 British entrepreneur Richard Arkwright invented a large spin-
ning machine called a water frame. The water frame could produce dozens
of cotton threads at the same time. It lowered the cost of cotton cloth and
increased the speed of textile production.
The water frame used flowing water as its source of power. Merchants
began to build large textile mills, or factories, near rivers and streams. The
Reading Check mills were filled with spinning machines. Merchants began hiring people
Draw Conclusions to work in the mills.
How did machines
speed up textile Additional improvements also speeded up the spinning process. Britain
manufacturing? soon had the world’s most productive textile manufacturing industry.

New Machines and Processes

New machines encouraged the rise of new processes in business and manu-
facturing. As the machines used to make products became more efficient,
the processes involved changed dramatically.
Slater and His Secrets The new textile machines allowed Great Britain
to produce cloth more quickly and inexpensively than other countries
could. To protect British industry, the British Parliament had made it
illegal for skilled mechanics or machine plans to leave the country. Dis-
guised as a farmer, Samuel Slater, a skilled British mechanic, immigrated
to the United States after carefully memorizing the designs of textile
mill machines. Soon after arriving, he sent a letter to Moses Brown, who
owned a textile business in New England. Slater claimed he could improve
the way textiles were manufactured in the United States.
Brown had one of his workers test Slater’s knowledge of machinery.
Slater passed. Brown’s son, Smith Brown, and son-in-law, William Almy,
formed a partnership with Slater. Economic freedom in the United States
allowed entrepreneurs such as Slater, Brown, and Almy to take risks
by using their money and talents to launch new ventures. In 1793 they
opened their first mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The production of

The North 425

 cotton thread by American machines had begun. Slater ran the mill and
the machinery. He was confident that his new machines would work well.

“If I do not make as good yarn as they do in England, I will have

nothing for my services, but will throw the whole of what I have
attempted over the bridge.”
—Samuel Slater, from Memoir of Samuel Slater

Slater could have lost all of his investment, but his machines worked
and the Pawtucket mill became a success. Slater’s wife also invented a new
cotton thread for sewing. In 1798 Slater formed his own company to build
a mill. By the time he died in 1835, he owned all or part of 13 textile mills.
Other Americans began building textile mills. Most were located in the
Northeast. In New England, in particular, merchants had the money to
invest in new mills. More importantly, the physical environment in this
region was made up of many rivers and streams that provided a reliable
supply of power. Fewer mills were built in the South, partly because inves-
tors in the South concentrated on expanding agriculture. There, agriculture
was seen as an easier way to make money. The expansion of industrializa-
tion in the North and the South’s concentration on agriculture caused the
two regions to develop significant economic and cultural differences.
A Manufacturing Breakthrough Despite these great changes in machines
and processes, most manufacturing was still done by hand. In the late
1790s the U.S. government worried about a possible war with France, so
it wanted more muskets for the army. Skilled workers made the parts for
each weapon by hand. No two parts were exactly alike, and ­carefully fit-
ting all the pieces together took much time and skill.
As a result, American gunmakers could not produce the muskets quickly
enough to satisfy the government’s demand. Factories needed ­better
technology, the tools used to produce items or to do work.
In 1798 inventor Eli Whitney tried to address some of these
problems. Whitney gave officials a proposal for mass-producing guns
for the U.S. government using water-powered machinery. Whitney
explained the benefits of his ideas.

“I am persuaded that machinery moved by water [and] adapted

to this business would greatly reduce the labor and facilitate
[ease] the manufacture of this article.”
—Eli Whitney to Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott

Whitney also came up with the idea of using interchangeable

parts—parts of a machine that are identical. Interchangeable
parts became important because each part does not have to be
custom-made by hand, so it saves production time. Using inter-
changeable parts made machines easier to assemble and broken
Eli Whitney developed the idea of parts easier to replace. Whitney promised to build 10,000 muskets
using interchangeable parts.
Interchangeable, or identical, parts
in two years. The federal government gave him money to build his
are needed so each part does not factory, and in 1801 he was called to Washington, DC, to give a
have to be custom-made by hand. demonstration.

426 Module 13
Elements of Mass Production
Mass production requires the use of interchangeable parts, machine tools, and the division of labor.
Machine tools like the one at bottom left make parts that are identical and therefore interchangeable.
Mass production uses a division of labor in which the work is divided among several people. Each
worker performs a specific task, like the workers below who change the spools of wire. The end result is
goods that have been mass-produced. These techniques were used to build items such as the firearms
at bottom right.

Why are interchangeable parts important?

Mass-Produced Goods
Division of Labor
Machine Tools

Whitney stood before President John Adams and his secretary of war.
He had an assortment of parts for ten guns. He then randomly chose parts
and quickly assembled them into muskets. To the audience’s amazement,
he repeated the process several times.
Whitney’s ideas helped businesses in the manufacturing industry deter-
mine the best way to produce the goods that consumers in the American
market needed. He had proven that American inventors could improve
upon the new British technology. Machines that produced matching parts
Reading Check soon became the standard in industry. Interchangeable parts sped up mass
Summarize How production, the efficient production of large numbers of identical goods.
did Eli Whitney
influence American Mass-production techniques allowed manufacturers to efficiently create
manufacturing? more goods for the marketplace.

Manufacturing Grows Slowly

Despite the hard work of people such as Samuel Slater and Eli Whitney,
manufacturing in the United States grew slowly. In 1810 Secretary of the
Treasury Albert Gallatin described some of the obstacles faced by potential
factory owners in the United States.

“[The reasons include] . . . the superior attractions of agricultural

pursuits [farming], . . . the abundance of land compared with the
population, the high price of labor, and the want [lack] of sufficient
capital [investment].”
—Albert Gallatin, from The Writings of Albert Gallatin

Gallatin and others believed that few people would choose to work in a
factory if they could own their own farm instead. In Great Britain, on the
other hand, land was more scarce and more expensive than in the United

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 Link to Today

Modern Manufacturing
The word manufacture comes from Latin
words that mean “to make by hand.” Yet in
modern manufacturing, machines—not
human hands—do most of the work.
A key feature of modern manufacturing is
the assembly line. An assembly line is a long
conveyer belt. As the product moves along
the belt, or “down the line,” workers assemble
it. Often, the workers use machines to help
them. On a growing number of assembly
lines, there are no workers at all: the product
is assembled by computer-controlled robots.
Although a far cry from Eli Whitney’s factory,
modern factories use the same elements
of mass production that Whitney did more
than 200 years ago.

Analyze Information
How do interchangeable parts help the modern
assembly line work?

States. As a result, fewer people were able to own farms. British factory
workers generally were willing to work for lower wages than factory
workers in the United States were.
Because British manufacturers had plenty of factory workers with
technical skills, they could produce large amounts of goods less expen-
sively than most American businesses could. As a result, they could charge
lower prices for the goods. Lower British prices made it difficult for many
American manufacturers to compete with British companies. This situ-
ation in turn discouraged American investors from spending the money
needed to build new factories and machinery. As a result, only a few indus-
tries had found a place to compete in the American market economy. These
included cotton goods, flour milling, weapons, and iron production.
These circumstances began to change around the time of the War of
1812. Since the 1790s, conflict and wars between European powers had
interfered with U.S. trade. Some goods became scarce, as American con-
sumers were no longer able to get all the manufactured goods they were
used to buying from British and European manufacturers. Then, during
the War of 1812, British ships blockaded eastern seaports, preventing
foreign ships from delivering goods. Americans began to buy the items
they needed from American manufacturers instead of from foreign suppli-
ers. As profits for American factories grew, manufacturers began to spend

428 Module 13
 more money expanding their factories. State banks and private investors
began to lend money to manufacturers for their businesses.
At the same time, many Americans began to realize that the United
States had been relying too heavily on foreign goods. If the United States
could not meet its own needs, it might be weak and open to attack. For-
mer president Thomas Jefferson, who had once opposed manufacturing,
changed his mind. He, too, realized that the United States was too
dependent on imports.

“To be independent for the comforts of life we must fabricate [make]

them ourselves. We must now place the manufacturer by the side of
the agriculturalist [farmer].”
—Thomas Jefferson, from Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies
from the Papers of Thomas Jefferson

In February 1815, New Yorkers celebrated the end of the War of 1812
and the return of free trade. The streets were decorated and filled with
Reading Check merchants whose ships were loaded with goods. “With Peace and
Analyze Information Commerce, America Prospers,” declared one display. Eager businesspeople
How did the War prepared to lead the United States into a period of industrial and economic
of 1812 aid the
growth of American growth. These merchants and industrialists urged northern politicians to
manufacturing? pass higher tariffs on foreign goods to protect American companies.
Summary and Preview The Industrial Revolution started with the
textile industry in England but soon spread to the United States. In the
next lesson you will learn about how the spread of factories changed the
working lives of many Americans.

Lesson 1 Assessment
Review Ideas, Terms, and People b. Contrast Why was manufacturing in Great Britain in
the early years more successful than that in the United
1. a. Identify What was the first industry to begin to use
States?
machines to manufacture goods?
b. Analyze What were some causes of the Industrial Critical Thinking
Revolution, and what effect did it have on the way
products were made? 4. Draw Conclusions In this lesson you learned about
the changes in manufacturing and the effect those
c. Predict In what ways might life for workers change
changes had in the early 1800s. Create a chart similar
as a result of the Industrial Revolution?
to the one below and use it to show how each contri-
2. a. Recall In what part of the United States were most bution affected manufacturing.
mills located? Why?
Invention/ Effect on
b. Draw Conclusions How did the ideas of Samuel Improvement Manufacturing
Slater and Eli Whitney affect manufacturing in the
United States?
c. Evaluate Whose contributions do you think
were more important—Slater’s textile machines or
Whitney’s interchangeable parts? Why?
3. a. Explain How did conflict in Europe influence
economic growth in America?

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 Lesson 2

Changes in Working Life

If YOU were there . . .

The Big Idea You live on a dairy farm in Massachusetts in about 1820.
The introduction of factories
On the farm, you get up at dawn to milk the cows, and
changed working life for many your work goes on until nighttime. But now you have a
Americans. chance at a different life. A nearby textile mill is hiring
young people. You would leave the farm and live with
Main Ideas
other workers. You could go to classes. Most importantly,
■■ The spread of mills in the
you could earn money of your own.
Northeast changed workers’
lives. Would you go to work in
■■ The Lowell system revolution-
the textile mill? Why?
ized the textile industry in the
Northeast.
Mills Change Workers’ Lives
■■ Workers organized to reform
Workers no longer needed the specific skills of craftspeople
working conditions.
to run the machines of the new mills. The lives of workers
Key Terms and People changed along with their jobs. Resistance to these changes
Rhode Island system sometimes sparked protests.
Francis Cabot Lowell Many mill owners in the United States could not find enough
Lowell system
people to work in factories because other jobs were available.
trade unions
At first, Samuel Slater and his two partners used apprentices—
strikes
Sarah G. Bagley young men who worked for several years to learn the trade.
However, they often were given only simple work. For example,
their jobs might include feeding ­cotton into the machines and
cleaning the mill equipment. They grew tired of this work and
frequently left. Apprentice James Horton, for example, ran
away from Slater’s mill. “Mr. Slater . . . keep me always at one
thing . . . ,” Horton complained. “I might have stayed there until
this time and never knew nothing.”
Eventually, Slater began to hire entire families who moved
to Pawtucket to work in the mills. This practice allowed Slater
to fill his labor needs at a low cost. Children as well as adults
worked in the mills.
On most farms children worked to help their ­families.
Therefore, few people complained about the hiring of ­
children to work in factories. H. Humphrey, an author of
books on raising children, told parents that children needed

430 Module 13
 to be useful. Humphrey wrote, “If he [a child] will not study, put him on
to a farm, or send him into the shop, or in some other way provide regular
employment for him.” The machines made many tasks in the mill simple
enough for children to do. Mill owners profited because they paid children
low wages. Adults usually earned as much in a day as most children did in
a week.
To attract families to his mill, Slater built housing for the workers. He
also provided them with a company store where they could buy necessi-
ties. In addition, he started the practice of paying workers with credit at
the company store. Instead of paying the full price for an item all
at once, small payments could be made over a period of time. This
practice allowed Slater to reinvest his money in his business.
Slater’s strategy of hiring families and dividing factory work
into simple tasks became known as the Rhode Island system. Mill
owners throughout the Northeast copied Slater’s methods. Own-
ers advertised with “Men with growing families wanted.” They also
sent recruiters to poor communities to find new workers. For many
people, the chance to work in a factory was a welcome opportunity
Entire families worked at to earn money and to learn a new skill.
Slater’s mill in Pawtucket,
Rhode Island. The mill’s One of the earliest of the mill towns, Slatersville, was named after
machinery was powered Samuel Slater. The town was built by Slater and his brother John. It
by the Blackstone River. included two houses for workers and their families, the owner’s house, the
company store, and the Slatersville Mill. The mill was the largest and most
modern industrial building of its time.
The mills employed not only the textile workers who operated the
machinery but also machine part makers and dam builders. Although
Reading Check the company store sold food and necessary items to workers, mill towns
Summarize What supported the same variety of businesses any other town needed to
problem did Slater
have in his mills, and thrive. These included tailors and dressmakers, butchers, and other small
how did he solve it? workshops.

The Lowell System

Not all mill owners followed this system. Francis Cabot Lowell, an entre-
preneur from New England, developed a very different approach. His ideas
completely changed the textile industry in the Northeast.
The Lowell system was based on water-powered textile mills that
employed young, unmarried women from local farms. The system
included a loom that could both spin thread and weave cloth in the same
mill. ­Lowell constructed boardinghouses for the women. Boardinghouse
­residents were given a room and meals along with their jobs.
With financial support from investors of the Boston Manufacturing
Company, Lowell’s first textile mill opened in Waltham, Massachusetts,
in 1814. “From the first starting of the first power loom there was not . . .
doubt about the success,” wrote one investor. In 1822 the company built a
larger mill in a Massachusetts town later named Lowell. Visitors to Lowell
were amazed by the clean factories and neatly kept boardinghouses as well
as the new machinery.

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Life of a Mill Girl
No record exists today of the name of this girl, who
worked in a mill around 1850. Judging from the
photograph, if she were in school today, she would
probably be in the seventh or eighth grade. Although
hard to see in this photograph, her hands and arms
are scratched and swollen—telltale signs of the hard
labor required of young girls who worked up to 14
hours a day.

Time Table of the Lowell Mills

Morning Bells
First bell...............4:30 am
Second bell...........5:30 am
Third bell.............6:20 am
Dinner (Lunch) Bells
Ring out...............12:00 pm
Ring in................. 12:35 pm
Evening Bells
Ring out ...............6:30 pm
Except on Saturday Evenings
—The Table of the Lowell Mills,
October 21, 1851

The young women working in the mills soon became known as Lowell
girls. The mills paid them between $2 and $4 each week. The workers were
required to pay $1.25 for room and board. These wages were much better
than the wages women could earn per week in other available jobs, such as
domestic work.
Many young women came to Lowell from different parts of New Eng-
land. They wanted the chance to earn money instead of working on the
family farm. Working in the Lowell mills gave young women the opportu-
nity to achieve economic independence. “I must of course have something
of my own before many more years have passed over my head,” wrote
one young woman. The typical Lowell girl worked at the mills for about
four years.
The Lowell system aimed to overcome the perception that factory
­workers had a lower social status. Unlike other factory workers, the Low-
ell girls were encouraged to use their free time to take classes and form
women’s clubs. They even wrote their own magazine, the Lowell Offer-
ing. Lucy Larcom, who started working in the Lowell mills at age 11, later
praised her fellow workers:

432 Module 13
 “I regard it as one of the privileges [advantages] of my youth that I
. . . [grew] up among those active, interesting girls, whose lives . . .
had principle [ideals] and purpose distinctly their own.”
—Lucy Larcom, from A New England Girlhood

Mill life was hard, however. The workday was between 12 and 14 hours
Reading Check long, and daily life was carefully controlled. Ringing bells ordered work-
Contrast How was ers to breakfast or lunch. Employees had to work harder and faster to keep
the Lowell system
­different from the up with new equipment. Cotton dust also began to cause health problems,
Rhode Island system? such as chronic cough, for workers.

Workers Organize
Factories continued to spread in the 1800s. Craftspeople, who made goods
by hand, felt threatened because factories were able to produce low-priced
goods more quickly. To compete with factories, shop owners had to hire
more workers and pay them less. Shoemaker William Frazier complained
about the situation in the mid-1840s. “We have to sit on our seats from
twelve to sixteen hours per day, to earn one dollar.”
The wages of factory workers also went down as people competed for
jobs. A wave of immigration in the 1840s brought people from other,
poorer countries. They were willing to work for low pay. More immigrants
came to the Northeast, where the mills were located, than to the South.
Competition for jobs also came from people unemployed during the
financial Panic of 1837. For example, about 50,000 workers in New York
City alone lost their jobs.
The Beginning of Trade Unions Facing low wages and the fear of losing
their jobs, skilled workers formed trade unions, groups that tried to
improve pay and working conditions. Eventually, unskilled ­factory work-
ers also formed trade unions, seeking economic equity. Most employ-
ers did not want to hire union workers. Employers believed that the
higher cost of union employees prevented competition with other
manufacturers.
Sometimes, labor unions staged protests called strikes. Workers on
strike refuse to work until employers meet their demands. Most early
strikes were not successful, however. Courts and police usually supported
companies, not striking union members.
Labor Reform Efforts A strong voice in the union movement was that
of millworker Sarah G. Bagley. She wrote magazine articles and made
speeches about working in the mills. She organized workers to help change
conditions. Bagley founded the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association
in 1844 and publicized the struggles of factory laborers. The association’s
two main goals were to influence an investigation of working conditions
by the Massachusetts state legislature and to obtain a ten-hour workday.
Members of the association passed out pamphlets and circulated petitions.
President Martin Van Buren had granted a ten-hour workday in 1840
for many federal employees. Bagley wanted this rule to apply to employees

The North 433

 of private businesses. These men and women often worked 12 to 14 hours
per day, six days per week.
Many working men and women supported the ten-hour-workday
­campaign, despite the opposition of business owners. In 1845 Sarah G.
Bagley was elected vice president of the New England Working Men’s
­Association. She was the first woman to hold such a high-ranking position
in the American labor movement.
Academic Over time, the unions achieved some concrete legal victories. Connecti-
Vocabulary cut, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and a few other states
concrete specific, real
passed ten-hour-workday laws.
For factory workers in other states, long hours remained common.
Reading Check One witness described how children were “summoned by the factory bell
Find Main Ideas before daylight” and worked until eight o’clock at night “with nothing
Why did workers but [a] recess of forty-five minutes to get their dinner.” Union ­supporters
form unions, and what
were the main goals ­continued to fight for work reforms such as an end to child labor in
of union reformers? ­factories during the 1800s.
Summary and Preview With the growth of factories, workers faced new
opportunities and challenges. In the next lesson you will learn about how
the Transportation Revolution brought changes to commerce and the daily
lives of Americans.

Lesson 2 Assessment

Review Ideas, Terms, and People Critical Thinking

1. a. Identify What problems did many mill owners have 4. Draw Conclusions In this lesson you learned about
in finding workers? mill life and the effect conditions had on workers.
b. Analyze How did Samuel Slater’s Rhode Island Create a chart similar to the one below to show how
system change employment practices in mills? Samuel Slater, Francis Cabot Lowell, and Sarah G.
2. a. Describe What was life like for mill workers in the Bagley affected workers’ lives.
Lowell system?
Samuel Effect on
b. Make Inferences Why would young women have Slater Workers
wanted to go to work in the Lowell mills?
3. a. Recall Why did workers form trade unions?
Francis Cabot
b. Predict What are some possible problems that Lowell
might arise between factory owners and trade unions?
Sarah G.
Bagley

434 Module 13
 Lesson 3

The Transportation Revolution

If YOU were there . . .

The Big Idea You live in a small town in Iowa in the 1860s. You’ve
New forms of transportation
never been more than 30 miles from home and have
improved business, travel, and always traveled by wagon or on horseback. Now there
communication in the United are plans to build a railroad westward from Chicago,
States. 200 miles to the east. The tracks will come through your
Main Ideas town! Twice a week, trains will bring goods from the city
and take people farther west.
■■ The Transportation Revolution
affected trade and daily life. How would the coming of the
■■ The steamboat was one of
railroad change your life?
the first developments of the
Transportation Revolution. Trade and Daily Life
■■ Railroads were a vital part of During the 1800s the United States was transformed by a
the Transportation Revolution. Transportation Revolution—a period of rapid growth in the
■■ The Transportation Revolu- speed and convenience of travel because of new methods of
tion brought many changes to transportation. The Transportation Revolution created a boom
American life and industry. in business across the country, particularly by reducing ship-
Key Terms and People ping time and costs. As one foreign observer declared in 1835,
“The Americans . . . have joined the Hudson to the Mississippi,
Transportation Revolution
Robert Fulton and made the Atlantic Ocean communicate with the Gulf of
Clermont Mexico.”
Gibbons v. Ogden These improvements were made possible largely by the
Peter Cooper invention of two new forms of transportation: steamboats and
steam-powered trains. They enabled goods, people, and infor-
mation to travel rapidly and efficiently across the
Reading Check United States.
Find Main Ideas
What benefits did
the Transportation Steamboats
Revolution bring to
trade and daily life? American and European inventors had developed steam-
powered boats in the late 1700s. However, they were not in
wide use until the early 1800s.
Steamboat Era In 1803 American Robert Fulton tested
his first steamboat design in France. Several years later,
he tested the first full-sized commercial steamboat, called
the Clermont, in the United States. On August 9, 1807,

The North 435

 Mississippi River Upstream River Rates
10
Steamboats

Dollars (per 100 pounds)

Deckhands load a Mississippi 8
River steamboat in Memphis,
6
Tennessee. By the mid-1800s,
hundreds of steamboats traveled 4
up and down American rivers.
Steamboats enabled Americans 2
to ship more goods farther,
0
faster, and for less money than 1800 1810 1820 1830
ever before. Year

the Clermont traveled against the current up the Hudson River without
trouble. Demand for steamboat ferry service soon arose.
The steamboat was well suited for river travel. It could move upriver
and did not rely on wind power. Steamboats and the location of rivers in
the United States created new economic opportunities during the 1800s.
Steamboats increased trade and profits because goods could be moved
quickly and thus more cheaply. More than 500 steamboats were in use in
the United States by 1840. By the 1850s steamboats were also being used
to carry people and goods across the Atlantic Ocean, creating more oppor-
tunities for international trade.
Gibbons v. Ogden Increased steamboat shipping led to conflict over
waterway rights. In 1819 Aaron Ogden sued Thomas Gibbons for operat-
ing steamboats in New York waters that Ogden said he owned. Gibbons
did not have a license to operate in New York, but argued that his federal
license gave him the right to use New York waterways.

436 Module 13
 In the case of Gibbons v. Ogden, which reached the Supreme Court in
1824, Chief Justice John Marshall reinforced the federal government’s
authority to regulate trade between the states by ending monopolistic
Reading Check ­control over waterways in several states. At the same time, it strength-
Summarize Explain ened the idea that national interests should be placed ahead of regional
the effects of the
Gibbons v. Ogden ­concerns. The ruling freed up waters to even greater trade and competition
ruling. within the shipping industry.

American Railroads
What the steamboat did for water travel, the train did for overland
travel. Steam-powered trains had first been developed in Great Britain
in the early 1800s. However, they did not become popular in the United
States until the 1830s. In 1830 Peter Cooper built a small but powerful
­locomotive called the Tom Thumb. He raced the locomotive against a horse-
drawn railcar.
Eyewitness John Latrobe later described the race, in which Tom
Thumb had a slow start and fell behind. Latrobe wrote, “The pace
increased, the passengers shouted, the engine gained on the horse
. . . then the engine passes the horse, and a great hurrah hailed the
victory.” Unfortunately for Cooper, victory was spoiled when Tom
Thumb broke down and lost the race near the end.
Despite the defeat, the contest showed the power and speed
of even a small locomotive. Railroad fever soon spread. By 1840
railroad companies had laid about 2,800 miles of tracks—more
The Tom Thumb was made famous in a than existed in all of Europe. French economist Michel Chevalier
race against a horse-drawn carriage. The described Americans as having “a ­perfect passion for railroads.”
locomotive was small, but powerful for its
day. As more railroads were built, engineers and mechanics over-
came many tough challenges. Most British railroads, for example,
ran on straight tracks across flat ground. In the United States, however,
many railroads had to run up and down steep mountains, around tight
curves, and over swift rivers. Railroad companies also built the tracks
quickly and often with the least expensive materials available. As time
went on, engineers and mechanics built heavier, faster, and more power-
ful steam locomotives.
By 1860 about 30,000 miles of tracks linked almost every major city in
the eastern United States. As a result, the economy surged forward. For
example, American locomotives hauled more freight than those in any
other country. The railroad companies quickly became some of the most
powerful businesses in the nation. As the railroad system grew, manufac-
turers and farmers could send their goods to distant markets.
In addition to their tremendous economic impact, the railroads made
a powerful impression on the senses of many passengers and observers.
Trains were the fastest form of transportation that most people had ever
experienced. While wagons often traveled less than 2 miles per hour,
locomotives averaged about 20 miles per hour. Writer George Templeton
Strong of New York City described the thrill of a steam train passing by in
the night:

The North 437

 “Whizzing and rattling and panting, with its fiery furnace gleaming
in front, its chimney vomiting fiery smoke above, and its long train
of cars rushing along behind like the body and tail of a gigantic
dragon— . . . and all darting forward at the rate of twenty miles an
hour. Whew!”
—George Templeton Strong, from The Diary of George Templeton Strong

Riding on the early trains was often an adventure, but it could also be
quite dangerous. Engineers trying to stay on time sometimes traveled too
fast. English citizen Charles Richard Weld was on a railroad car that flew
off the tracks. To his amazement, the other passengers did not complain
about the accident. Instead, they praised the engineer for trying to keep on
schedule!
Passengers accepted such risks because the railroads reduced travel time
dramatically. The development of the railroads changed people’s percep-
Reading Check tions of distance. What was once considered to be a long distance to travel
Make Inferences suddenly became just a short train ride away. Railroads also helped tie
In what ways did communities together. In 1847 Senator Daniel Webster spoke for many
railroads affect the
economy of the people in the United States when he declared that the railroad “towers
United States? above all other inventions of this or the preceding age.”

Transportation Revolution Brings Changes

The Transportation Revolution brought many changes to America. Steam-
boats and railroads made getting goods to distant markets much easier
and less costly. People in all areas of the nation now had access to products
made and grown far away. More than ever before, there was a national
economy. The wealth, however, was centered in the North.
Railroads contributed to the expansion of the borders of the nation and
guided population growth. Towns sprang up at railroad junctions as people
migrated from rural areas. Those towns that did not have railroads nearby
suffered and began to decline. Cities grew as trains brought new residents
and raw materials for industry and construction. By linking previously
isolated cities, towns, and settlements, the railroads promoted trade and
interdependence. The growing prosperity of the nation, especially in the
North, encouraged Americans to take pride in their country.
A New Fuel The Transportation Revolution also increased the use of cer-
tain natural resources that had not been important until then. Throughout
the early Transportation Revolution, wood was the primary source of fuel
for trains and steamboats, as well as for cooking, light, and heat. As faster
locomotives were built, new power resources were used to fuel them. Coal
replaced wood as the main source of power. A half ton of coal produced as
much energy as two tons of wood but at half the cost. Coal also became
popular for heating homes. Railroads transported the coal from mines to
towns and cities.
As the demand for coal increased, a coal-mining industry developed in
many states, including Pennsylvania, western Virginia, and Illinois. Coal
mining changed the landscape in a number of ways. New towns, such as

438 Module 13
 Explore ONLINE!
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Interpret Maps
1. Region Where were most railroads located in 1850?

Gulf of Mexico
2. Human-Environment Interaction How does this
map suggest that people modified the landscape?

Coal City and Carbondale in Illinois, sprang up in places where coal deposits
could be mined. Miners made deep gashes in the earth removing the coal.
Later, in the 1870s, the demand for coal increased as the demand for
steel grew. Many steel mills were built where there was an abundance of
coal and iron ore. Steel is made through a smelting process—heating iron
ore to very high temperatures. Coal was used to fire the furnaces. Steel,
which is much stronger than iron, was increasingly used to build factories
and the machines they produced.
Cooperation among the steel and railroad industries helped the econ-
omy grow. Steel was used to make the rails that trains ride on and the
growing market for steel helped fuel the need for more railroads. Railroads
transported steel to places where new factories were being built. Railroads
also brought new steel farming tools and machines to farmers in the Mid-
west. Using the new equipment, farmers produced more crops. Railroads
then transported their harvests to markets.

The North 439

 Effects of Railroads The development of railroads helped establish new
markets and offered more opportunities for entrepreneurs to start their
own businesses. The railroads also played a role in the growth of ­existing
businesses. The logging industry expanded as people in the growing
towns and cities needed wood for houses and furniture. As newspaper
­publishing increased, demand for paper grew. Lumber items became the
primary product of New England. Sometimes there were unintended
­environmental consequences. Settlers spreading out across the Midwest
cut down trees and plowed up prairies to make farmland. Deforestation,
Reading Check or cutting down and removing trees, took place on a large scale.
Analyze Information Railroads also caused cities to grow. Some cities became transportation
What role did railroads
play in the growth of hubs. Chicago was one such city. Its location on Lake Michigan made it an
the coal industry? ideal transportation hub, linking the Midwest to the East and South.
Summary and Preview The Transportation Revolution changed the way
business was done. In the next lesson you will learn about more techno-
logical advances.

Lesson 3 Assessment
Review Ideas, Terms, and People Critical Thinking
1. a. Identify What forms of transportation were 5. Identify Effects In this lesson you learned about the
improved or invented at this time? steamboat and the locomotive. Create a chart similar
b. Analyze What effect did the Transportation to the one below and use it to show how they affected
Revolution have on the United States? business, travel, and communication in the United
2. a. Describe What were the benefits of steamboat States.
travel?
Steamboat Effects
b. Analyze What effect did the ruling in the Gibbons v.
Ogden case have on federal government?
3. a. Describe What event showed the power and speed
of locomotives? Locomotive
b. Draw Conclusions How did railroads affect trade
and business in the United States?
c. Elaborate Why do you think Americans were
fascinated by railroads?
4. a. Describe What physical obstacles did railroad
construction in the United States face?
b. Analyze What effects did the Transportation
Revolution have on the U.S. economy?
c. Identify What kind of changes did humans make
to the environment during the Transportation
Revolution?

440 Module 13
 Lesson 4

More Technological
Advances
If YOU were there . . .
The Big Idea You own a small shop in Chicago, Illinois, in the 1850s.
Advances in technology led to
You sell ladies’ hats and gowns. When you need more
new inventions that continued hats, you send a letter to the manufacturer in New York.
to change daily life and work. Sometimes it takes weeks for the letter to get there. One
day, the owner of the shop next door tells you about a
Main Ideas
wonderful new machine. It can send orders from Chi-
■■ The telegraph made swift
cago to New York in just minutes!
communication possible from
coast to coast. How would a machine like
■■ With the shift to steam power,
this change your business?
businesses built new factories
closer to cities and transporta-
tion centers.
Telegraph Speeds Communication
In 1832 Samuel F. B. Morse perfected the telegraph—a device
■■ Improved farm equipment
and other labor-saving devices that could send information over wires across great distances.
made life easier for many To develop the telegraph, Morse studied electricity and
Americans. magnetism. In time, Morse put the work of other ­scientists
■■ New inventions changed lives
together in a practical machine.
in American homes. The telegraph sent pulses, or surges, of electric current
through a wire. The telegraph operator tapped a bar, called a
Key Terms and People
telegraph key, that controlled the length of each pulse. At the
Samuel F. B. Morse other end of the wire, these pulses were changed into clicking
telegraph
sounds. A short click was called a dot. A long click was called a
Morse code
John Deere
dash. Morse’s partner, Alfred Lewis Vail, developed a system
Cyrus McCormick known as Morse code—different combinations of dots and
Isaac Singer dashes that represent each letter of the alphabet. For example,
dot dot dot, dash dash dash, dot dot dot is the distress signal
called SOS. Skilled telegraph operators could send and receive
many words per minute.
Several years passed before Morse was able to connect two
locations with telegraph wires. Despite that achievement,
people doubted his machine. Some people did not think that he
was reading messages sent from miles away. They claimed that
he was making lucky guesses.
Morse’s break came during the 1844 Democratic National
Convention in Baltimore, Maryland. A telegraph wired news
of the presidential candidate’s nomination to politicians

The North 441

 Biography

Samuel F. B. Morse 1791–1872

Like steamboat creator Robert Fulton, Samuel F. B. Morse began his
career as a painter rather than as an inventor. In 1832 Morse was
a widower struggling to raise his three children alone. He became
interested in the idea of sending messages electrically. Morse hoped
he could invent a device that would earn him enough money to
support his family. Eventually, earnings from the telegraph made
Morse extremely wealthy.
Draw Conclusions
What motivated Morse to invent the telegraph?

in Washington. The waiting politicians responded, “Three cheers for the

telegraph!” Telegraphs were soon sending and receiving information for
businesses, the government, and newspapers. This new tool helped
Reading Check businesses become more efficient by speeding up their communication.
Identify Cause Private citizens also began using the telegraph to communicate socially.
and Effect
What event led to
The telegraph grew with the railroad. Telegraph companies strung their
the widespread use wires on poles along railroads across the country. They established tele-
of the telegraph, graph offices in many train stations. Thousands of miles of telegraph line
and what effect did
were added every year in the 1850s. The first transcontinental line was
the telegraph have
on cross-country finished in 1861. By the time he died in 1872, Morse was famous across
communications? the United States.

Steam Power and New Factories

At the start of the Industrial Revolution, most factories ran on water-
power. In time, however, factory owners began using steam power. This
shift brought major changes to the nation’s industries. Water-powered
factories had to be built near streams or waterfalls. In contrast, steam
power allowed business owners to build factories almost anywhere. Yet the
Northeast was still home to most of the nation’s industries. By 1860 New
England alone had as many factories as the entire South did.
Some companies decided to build their factories closer to cities and
transportation centers. This provided easier access to workers, allowing
businesses to lower wages. Being closer to cities also reduced shipping
costs. Cities soon became the center of industrial growth. People from
rural areas as well as foreign countries flocked to the cities for factory jobs.
Factory workers improved the designs of many kinds of machines.
Reading Check Mechanics invented tools that could cut and shape metal, stone, and wood
Find Main Ideas with great precision. By the 1840s this new machinery was able to pro-
What changes
resulted from the shift duce interchangeable parts. Within a short period of time, the growing
to steam power? machine-tool industry was even making customized equipment.

442 Module 13
Timeline:
American Inventions
1830 1855

1831 1832 1837 1849 1851

Cyrus McCormick Samuel Morse John Deere invents the Walter Hunt Isaac Singer improves
invents the invents the telegraph steel plow that makes invents the the sewing machine.
mechanical reaper making long-distance plowing the tough safety pin. The production and repair
and harvesting grain communication prairie soil easier. of clothing becomes much
becomes much more almost instantaneous. easier.
efficient.

Improved Farm Equipment

During the 1830s technology began transforming the farm as well as the
factory. In 1837 blacksmith John Deere saw that friends in Illinois had
difficulty plowing thick soil with iron plows. He thought a steel blade
might work better. His design for a steel plow was a success. By 1846 Deere
was selling 1,000 plows per year.
In 1831 Cyrus McCormick developed a new harvesting machine, the
mechanical reaper, which quickly and efficiently cut down wheat. He
began mass-producing his reapers in a Chicago factory. McCormick used
new methods to encourage sales. His company advertised, gave demon-
strations, and provided a repair and spare parts department. He also let
customers buy on credit.
The combination of Deere’s plow and McCormick’s reaper allowed Mid-
western farmers to plant and harvest huge crop fields. By 1860 U.S. farm-
Reading Check
Summarize
ers were producing more than 170 million bushels of wheat and more than
What marketing 800 million bushels of corn per year.
methods did Improvements in farming technology made farming more efficient, but
McCormick use to
help sell his farm it also meant fewer laborers were needed to work the land. As a result,
equipment? many people moved from rural areas to cities to find work.

Changing Life at Home

Many inventions of the Industrial Revolution simply made life easier.
When Alexis de Tocqueville of France visited the United States in the early
1830s, he identified what he called a very American quality.

“[Americans want] to be always making life more comfortable and

convenient, to avoid trouble, and to satisfy the smallest wants
[desires] without effort and almost without cost.”
—Alexis de Tocqueville, from Democracy in America

The North 443

 The sewing machine was one of these conveniences. It was first invented
by Elias Howe, a factory apprentice in Lowell, Massachusetts. Isaac Singer
then made improvements to Howe’s design. Like McCormick, Singer
allowed customers to buy his machines on credit and provided a repair
service. By 1860 Singer’s company was the world’s largest maker of sewing
machines.
Other advances improved on everyday items. In the 1830s iceboxes
cooled by large blocks of ice became available. Iceboxes stored fresh food
safely for longer periods. Iron cookstoves began replacing cooking fires and
stone hearths.
Companies also began to mass-produce earlier inventions. This allowed
many families to buy household items, such as clocks, that they could not
afford in the past. For example, a clock that cost $50 in 1800 was sell-
Reading Check ing for only $1.50 by the 1850s. Additional useful items created during
Analyze How this period include matches, introduced in the 1830s, and the safety pin,
did labor-saving
inventions affect invented in 1849. All of these inventions helped make life at home more
daily life? convenient for an increasing number of Americans.
Summary and Preview New machines and inventions changed the way
Americans lived and did business in the early 1800s. A market economy
developed as people began to buy and sell goods rather than making goods
for their own use. In the next module you will learn how agricultural
changes affected the South.

Lesson 4 Assessment
Review Ideas, Terms, and People b. Evaluate Which invention do you think had the
greatest effect on the daily lives of Americans? Why?
1. a. Describe How did the telegraph work?
b. Predict What impact might the telegraph have on Critical Thinking
the future of the United States?
5. Support a Point of View In this lesson you learned
2. a. Describe How did water-powered factories differ
about more technological advances and their effects.
from steam-powered factories?
Create a table like the one below that shows the three
b. Explain How did the shift to steam power lead to advances you think are most important and why.
the growth of cities?
3. a. Identify What contributions did John Deere and
Most Important Why
Cyrus McCormick make to farming?
b. Analyze What effect did new inventions have on
agriculture in the United States?
4. a. Identify What inventions improved life at home?

444 Module 13
Social Studies Skills
Personal Conviction and Bias
Define the Skill evidence proves wrong. This is why bias is
Everyone has convictions, or firmly held beliefs. defined as a “fixed” idea or opinion. One of
However, when we let our beliefs automatically the most damaging effects of bias, and a
slant or shape our point of view on topics, we good reason for trying to avoid it, is that it can
may be showing bias. Bias is a fixed idea or prevent us from learning new things.
opinion about someone or something. Some The following precautions can help you
bias is based on a set of ideas about a group to reduce the amount of bias you express.
which the person or thing belongs. This type 1. When discussing a topic, keep in mind beliefs
of bias is called a stereotype. If the group is and experiences in your own background
defined by race, religion, age, gender, or similar that might affect how you feel about the
characteristics, the bias is known as prejudice. topic.
Bias, stereotypes, and prejudice are not 2. Try to not mix statements of fact with
always negative in nature. They include statements of opinion. Clearly separate and
favorable opinions, too. For example, the indicate what you know to be true from what
belief that a student is good at math because you believe to be true.
that person is male is a bias that shows both
stereotyping and prejudice. 3. Avoid using emotional, positive, or
negative words when communicating factual
We should always be on guard for the information.
presence of personal bias. Eliminating
stereotyping and prejudice is particularly
important. However, even “good” biases can Practice the Skill
slant how we view, judge, and communicate In 1834 Tennessee congressman Davy Crockett
information. Honest and accurate visited the textile mills at Lowell, Massachusetts.
communication requires that the information Read his account of the “Lowell girls” who
and ideas we express be as free of bias as worked in the factory and complete the activity
possible. below.
“Here are thousands [of young women], useful
Learn the Skill to others, . . . with the prospect before them
of future comfort and respectability. . . .
Not all beliefs are biases, even if those beliefs
There are more than five thousand females
are strongly held. Biases are beliefs that have employed in Lowell; and when you come to
little or no evidence to support them. The more see the amount of labour performed by them,
unreasonable a person’s view is in light of facts in superintending [operating] the different
and evidence, the more likely it is that the belief machinery, you will be astonished.”
is a bias.
Suppose that you were a “Lowell girl” who
Another characteristic of bias is the person’s has just read this account of Crockett’s visit.
reluctance to question his or her belief if it is Write a letter to the editor of the Lowell Offering
challenged by evidence. Sometimes people reacting to the biases and stereotypes about
stubbornly cling to views that overwhelming women that Crockett shows in his account.

The North 445

Module 13 Assessment
Review Vocabulary, Terms, and People
Complete each sentence below by filling in the blank with the correct term or person from
the module.

1. The system of was developed to represent letters of the alphabet

when sending telegraph messages.
2. The first American woman to hold a high-ranking position in the labor movement
was .
3. The was a period of rapid growth in the use of machines and
manufacturing.
4. The first locomotive in the United States was built by .
5. Workers would sometimes go on to force factory owners to meet
their demands for better pay and working conditions.
6. The industry, which produced cloth items, was the first to use
machines for manufacturing.

Comprehension and Critical Thinking

Lesson 1 Lesson 3
7. a. Identify What ideas did Eli Whitney want 9. a. Describe How were Americans affected
to apply to the manufacture of guns? by the introduction of steamboats?
b. Analyze How did the War of 1812 lead to b. Make Inferences How did railroad
a boom in manufacturing in the United companies become some of the most
States? powerful businesses in the country?
c. Elaborate Why do you think the Indus- c. Elaborate What was the most important
trial Revolution began in Great Britain result of the Transportation Revolution?
rather than in the United States? Why?
Lesson 2 Lesson 4
8. a. Describe What was mill life like? 10. a. Recall What important change took
b. Draw Conclusions How did the Rhode place in how factories were powered?
Island system and the Lowell system b. Draw Conclusions How did the tele-
change the lives of American workers? graph affect communication in the
c. Evaluate Were reformers such as Sarah United States?
G. Bagley effective in improving labor c. Evaluate Do you think moving factories
conditions? Why? close to cities helped or hurt working
life? Explain.

446 Module 13
Module 13 Assessment, continued
Review Themes Social Studies Skills
11. Science and Technology What are the Personal Conviction and Bias Use the Social
three most important inventions of the Studies Skills taught in this module to answer the
Industrial Revolution? Why? question about the reading selection below.
12. Economics What was the overall effect
of the Industrial Revolution on the U.S. “Is anyone such a fool as to suppose that out of
economy? six thousand factory girls in Lowell, sixty would
be there if they could help it?”
Reading Skills —Sarah G. Bagley, quoted in Voice of Industry,
September 18, 1845
Understand Causes and Effects in History Use
the Reading Skills taught in this module to answer 14. Do you think that Bagley’s opposition to the
the question about the reading selection below. Lowell system was unfairly biased? Why or
why not?
Many young women came to Lowell from
different parts of New England. They wanted the Focus on Writing
chance to earn money instead of working on the 15. Write a Newspaper Advertisement
family farm. Review the inventions discussed in the
module. Choose one invention for which
13. According to the passage above, what was a
you will create an advertisement. Then
cause for moving to Lowell?
answer these questions to help you plan
a. working long hours
your advertisement: Who is your audience?
b. earning money Who will buy this invention? How will the
c. meeting people invention benefit this audience? What
d. working on a farm words or phrases will best persuade this
audience? Once you have answered these
questions, design your advertisement. To
draw readers’ attention to your ad, include
an illustration, a catchy heading, and a few
lines of text.

The North 447

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