Chapter 14: Forging the National Economy, 1790-1860
1. American frontier life was often plagued by poverty and illness.
A. True B. False
2. The influx of Irish immigrants contributed to America’s tolerance of
ethnic and religious pluralism.
A. True B. False
3. Most early American manufacturing was concentrated in the South.
A. True B. False
4. The principle of “general incorporation” permitted individual
businesspeople to apply for limited-liability corporate charters from the
state legislatures.
A. True B. False
5. The early industrial revolution greatly benefited workers by opening up
well-paying factory jobs.
A. True B. False
6. Early labor unions made very slow progress, partly because the strike
weapon was illegal and ineffective.
A. True B. False
7. The steel plow and mechanical reaper helped turn American farmers from
subsistence farming to commercial, market-oriented agriculture.
A. True B. False
8. By 1840, overland highways had proved a more effective form of
transportation than canals.
A. True B. False
9. The Erie Canal’s greatest economic effect was to create strong east-west
commercial and industrial links between the Northeast and the West (Midwest).
A. True B. False
10. The railroad gained quick acceptance as a more efficient and flexible
alternative to water bound transportation.
A. True B. False
11. In the sectional division of labor that developed before the Civil War,
the South generally provided raw materials to the Northeast in exchange for
manufactured goods, transportation, and commercial services.
A. True B. False
12. The growth of a market economy drew most American women off the farms
and out of the home into the new factories and mills.
A. True B. False
13. By 1850, permanent telegraph lines had been stretched across both the
Atlantic Ocean and the North American continent.
A. True B. False
14. The advances in manufacturing and transportation decreased the gap
between the rich and the poor in America.
A. True B. False
15. The continental American economy provided more opportunity to ordinary
workers than existed in the contemporary societies of Europe.
A. True B. False
16. The experience of frontier life was especially difficult for
A. women.
B. young people.
C. foreign immigrants.
D. Roman Catholics.
17. As late as 1850, over one-half of the American population was
A. foreign-born.
B. living west of the Mississippi River.
C. under the age of thirty.
D. living in cities of over 100,000 people.
18. The primary economic activity in the Rocky Mountain West before the
Civil War was
A. agriculture.
B. fur-trapping.
C. mining.
D. small business trading.
19. Americans came to look on their spectacular western wilderness areas
especially as
A. one of the things that defined and distinguished America as a new nation.
B. a source of economic exploitation.
C. a potential attraction for tourists from abroad.
D. the sacred home of American Indian tribes.
20. The American painter who developed the idea for a national park system
was
A. Samuel F. B. Morse.
B. Caleb Bingham.
C. John James Audubon.
D. George Catlin.
21. The two major sources of European immigration to America in the 1840s
and 1850s were
A. France and Italy.
B. Germany and France.
C. Germany and Ireland.
D. Ireland and Norway.
22. One consequence of the influx of new immigrants was
A. a decline in the birthrate of native-born Americans.
B. an upsurge of anti-Catholicism.
C. a virtual end to westward migration.
D. a national decline in wage rates.
23. Industrialization was at first slow to arrive in America because
A. there was a shortage of labor, capital, and consumers.
B. low tariff rates invited foreign imports.
C. the country lacked the educational system necessary to develop technology.
D. the country lacked a patent system to guarantee investors the profits
from new machines.
24. The first industry to be shaped by the new factory system of
manufacturing was
A. textiles.
B. the telegraph.
C. agriculture.
D. iron-making.
25. Wages for most American workers rose in the early nineteenth century,
except for the most exploited workers like
A. immigrants and westerners.
B. textile and transportation workers.
C. single men and women.
D. women and children.
26. A major change affecting the American family in the early nineteenth
century was
A. the rise of an organized feminist movement.
B. the movement of most women into the work force.
C. increased conflict between parents and children over moral questions.
D. a decline in the average number of children per household.
27. The first major improvement in the American transportation system came
from
A. canals and railroads.
B. railroads and clipper ships.
C. steamboats and highways.
D. keelboats and Conestoga wagons.
28. The new regional "division of labor" created by improved transportation
meant that
A. the South specialized in cotton, the West in grain and livestock, and the
East in manufacturing.
B. the South specialized in manufacturing, the West in transportation, and
the East in grain and livestock.
C. the South specialized in cotton, the West in manufacturing, and the East
in finance.
D. the South specialized in grain and livestock, the West in cotton, and the
East in transportation.
29. The most effective long-term solution to trans-oceanic shipping and
travel proved to be
A. the submarine.
B. the transatlantic cable.
C. the clipper ship.
D. the steamship.
30. One major effect of industrialization was
A. an increasing economic equality among all citizens.
B. a strengthening of the family as an economic unit.
C. an increasingly stable labor force.
D. a rise in the gap between rich and poor.
