Why did the number of European immigrants increase during the ...

[geodog55]

Question 1

Analyze the reasons for the limited success achieved by organized labor in antebellum America.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

It is 1834 and, as a single woman of 18, you have decided to work for one year in the textile mills at Lowell, Massachusetts. Write a letter home to your parents, explaining your decision, your working and living conditions, and your plans for the future.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 3

Analyze the costs of industrialization for the United States from 1820 to 1860.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 4

Discuss efforts to improve and expand public education in antebellum America. Were schools supported as an agent for or as a defense against change?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 5

Why did the number of European immigrants increase during the 1840s and 1850s? Analyze the impact of these immigrants upon the American economy and society.
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[onowka]

Answer 1

Answer: Industrialization undermined traditional skills and reduced most workers to wage slaves. Periodic depression made workers reluctant to endanger jobs through organized protests. Waves of immigration increased the numbers of workers and contributed to a growing cultural and ethnic diversity that compounded workers' differences.

Answer 2

Answer: Young women came to Lowell in search of economic and perhaps personal independence. Although mill work paid relatively well, most women considered it merely a temporary commitment before marriage. The work was regimented and exhausting. Life in the company boardinghouse was closely supervised but offered opportunities for leisure and friendship. The women protested wage cuts in 1834, demonstrating their concern about the impact of industrialization upon workers.

Answer 3

Answer: Economic expansion was cyclic in nature, marked by periodic panics and depressions, during which times industrialists protected themselves through wage cuts and layoffs. Older paths to economic independence disappeared and many Americans fell victim to wage slavery. An increasing concentration of wealth in fewer hands characterized both urban and rural life. Workers failed to organize because of ethnic, racial, religious, and gender divisions. Environmental consequences of industrialization included deforestation, destruction of wildlife, and pollution of air and water.

Answer 4

Answer: Although several states had decided to use tax monies for education by 1800, Massachusetts moved first toward mass education by mandating total state funding in 1827. Reformer Horace Mann pushed for curricular revision and teacher training. Whereas many viewed schools as a means to train more productive and innovative workers, others felt that schools could inculcate the values and virtues of middle-class American society and guard against destabilizing trends of rapid economic change.

Answer 5

Answer: A population explosion in Europe and the disruption of industrialization there caused many to seek a new life in America. The Irish became the most numerous group, escaping the potato blight and resultant famine at home. Although providing cheap labor, immigrants contributed to problems of urban congestion, racial tensions, and labor disunity.

[geodog55]

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[onowka]

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