Deck 11: Technology, Culture, and Everyday Life, 1840-1860

Question 1

What was one of the advantages of the "American system" of manufacturing?

A) Inventors would have more time to develop their inventions slowly.
B) Manufacturers would have a convenient way of excluding outside investors.
C) Foreigners would have no way of copying American machines.
D) Damaged parts could be replaced easily.
E) American craftsmen could demonstrate their skills to the British.

Answer 1

Damaged parts could be replaced easily.

Question 2

Which of the following was not a popular health or scientific movement in antebellum America?

A) Hydropathy
B) Vegetarianism
C) Epidemiology
D) Phrenology
E) Temperance

Answer 2

Epidemiology

Question 3

What impact did technological changes have on the American worker before the Civil War?

A) Prices of many commodities rose.
B) Hourly wages rose.
C) The purchasing power of the average worker rose.
D) The purchasing power of the average worker declined.
E) Annual income declined.

Answer 3

The purchasing power of the average worker rose.

Question 4

How did John Deere change American agriculture?

A) He invented a steel-tipped plow that made tilling much easier and less time consuming.
B) He introduced crop rotation which allowed each acre under cultivation to produce greater yields.
C) He created a conglomerate of farmers which gave them greater control over the market.
D) He persuaded Congress subsidize farmers during bad years.
E) He developed a reaper that could harvest wheat seven times as fast and with fewer works than previously.

Question 5

Which of the following statements best captures the attitude of many antebellum Americans about technology?

A) They believed that technology was democratic and would help everyone.
B) They believed that technology was a force for positive change.
C) They believed that technology was God's chosen instrument of progress.
D) They believed that technology would help to make up for a labor shortage.
E) All of these choices

Question 6

What medical development greatly advanced the image of surgeons and the success of health care in the decades before the Civil War?

A) The development of anesthesia
B) The discovery of the cause of epidemics
C) The development of new varieties of surgical steel that resulted in sharper scalpels
D) The realization of the importance of cleanliness
E) All of these choices

Question 7

Which of the following was not one of the causes of nationwide epidemics in the United States during the antebellum period?

A) Municipal health boards were powerless.
B) People distrusted physicians.
C) Doctors did not understand the causes of disease.
D) The transportation revolution enabled epidemics to spread.
E) The widespread use of laughing gas by young people seriously suppressed their immune systems.

Question 8

How did home furniture change during the antebellum period?

A) Furniture came to reflect an informal style of life.
B) Furniture became "democratized" as rich and poor were more likely to buy the same types.
C) Furniture became more ornate.
D) Furniture became more expensive but less durable.
E) The upper classes distinguished themselves from the rising middle class through ornate furniture.

Question 9

What advance in heating and cooking occurred in antebellum America?

A) Americans adopted the open-hearth method of cooking.
B) Central heating became standard in tenement buildings.
C) Natural gas stoves became less common.
D) Coal-burning stoves were introduced
E) Electricity became common.

Question 10

What was one of the results of rising urban land values in the early nineteenth-century American city?

A) Many row houses were subdivided and occupied by many families.
B) Homeownership became more common.
C) Cities expanded by annexing additional land.
D) Fewer people occupied each row house.
E) Tenements were replaced with lavish mansions.

Question 11

What statement best describes life for the average American farm worker in the antebellum period?

A) Most workers found it difficult to raise enough capital to buy a farm.
B) Most agricultural workers eventually owned their own farms.
C) Small family farms were rapidly being replaced by agribusiness.
D) Unlike urban workers, agricultural workers tended to have consistent employment throughout the year.
E) Compared with urban workers, farm workers placed greater emphasis on education for their children.

Question 12

Isaac Singer transformed American society by

A) designing a practical sanitation system that enabled cities to clean up their streets.
B) patenting a practical sewing machine that allowed for the mass production of textiles.
C) organizing inventors into specific groups which allowed them to work on projects together.
D) introducing science into farms and showed how healthier animals and larger crop yields could be produced.
E) persuading Congress to create the National Academy of Sciences.

Question 13

In 1851 the a journal editor wrote that in this become "the great agent of civilization and progress, the most powerful instrument for good the world has yet reached." What was he referring to?

A) the locomotive
B) Hydropathy
C) American democracy
D) The New York Stock Exchange
E) Plantation slavery

Question 14

How did the penny press change publishing?

A) Political and commercial coverage became subordinated to human interest stories of robberies, murders, rapes, and abandoned children.
B) Many publishers were driven out of business because of overproduction and low prices.
C) Newspapers could now afford to publish more hard-core news.
D) For the first time, politicians could afford to use the presses to print leaflets and treatises.
E) None of these choices

Question 15

How did the McCormick reaper help the North win the Civil War?

A) It forced the South to invest more and more into slavery to keep up production
B) It proved to the border states that the North was technologically more advanced.
C) It allowed the North to keep agricultural production high even though many farmers went to fight.
D) It ensured that France would remain pro-North during the war.
E) It enabled the North to grow more corn than the South.

Question 16

Romanticism in literature was characterized by

A) show learning and refinement.
B) veneration of timeless traditions and respect for previous work.
C) emphasis on the author's inner feelings and emotions.
D) respect for kings, queens, knights, and nobles.
E) sex and violence.

Question 17

Besides inventing the cotton gin, what did Eli Whitney do that benefited American manufacturing?

A) He developed railroad ties that were capable of supporting heavy weight.
B) He showed how water could be used to power textile mills.
C) He introduced the concept of interchangeable parts
D) He marketed American manufacturing products in Europe
E) He invented a heating process that removed impurities from iron.

Question 18

Which of the following statements accurately describes railroads in the United States in 1860?

A) The United States had more track than the rest of the world combined.
B) American railroads lacked government support and therefore lagged behind the rest of the world.
C) Railroad owners faced financial difficulties because they could not compete with canals.
D) The railroads brought about the decline of the once great city of Chicago.
E) They had an international reputation for punctuality.

Question 19

What type of urban housing developed during the early nineteenth century?

A) Unattached frame houses
B) One-story brick houses
C) Row houses
D) Condominiums
E) Garden apartments

Question 20

How was the building of the railroads in the United States financed?

A) By state and local governments
B) By the federal government
C) By private investors
D) By overseas investors
E) All of these choices

Question 21

What were the goals of the Hudson River school of painters?

A) They wanted to depict natural scenes with photographic accuracy.
B) They wanted to preserve a record of a disappearing wilderness.
C) They wanted to depict scenes of ruined castles and crumbling temples.
D) They wanted to demonstrate that art could thrive outside of New York City.
E) None of these choices

Question 22

The popular minstrel show help to shape public perceptions of blacks during the antebellum period because it

A) accustomed white Americans to seeing blacks in public roles.
B) helped to convince northerners that slavery should be abolished.
C) show reinforced stereotypes of the black as stupid and clumsy.
D) exposed middle class audiences to the beauties of African-American music.
E) presented free blacks as suave and sophisticated urbanites.

Question 23

Who is usually described as the father of mass entertainment in the U.S.?

A) Robert Bonner
B) Phineas T. Barnum
C) Lorenzo Fowler
D) Tom Thumb
E) James G. Bennett

Question 24

During the pre-Civil War decades, what did most American painters prefer to paint?

A) Historical topics
B) Portraits
C) Mythological tales
D) Landscapes
E) Still life scenes

Question 25

Who wrote Woman in the Nineteenth Century?

A) Susan B. Anthony
B) Frances Willard
C) Margaret Fuller
D) Emily Dickinson
E) Martha Lincoln

Question 26

Which of the following does not reflect an accurate description of the budget of a working-class family in an urban area?

A) The main breadwinner in a family typically made less than $300 per year.
B) Approximately 70 percent of a family's income went towards, food and rent.
C) To meet basic needs, many working-class children had to work.
D) Most families lived close to the margin.
E) Skyrocketing commodity prices pushed many families to the edge of starvation.

Question 27

Who was an American publisher who helped to transform newspapers and create the modern concept of news and news reporting?

A) James Gordon Bennett
B) Susan Warner
C) Sylvester Graham
D) Phineas T. Barnum
E) Edwin Forrest

Question 28

Which "theory" proposed that bumps on the skull reveal an individual's personality?

A) Hydropathy
B) Phrenology
C) Miasm
D) Sanitoriumism
E) Grahamism

Question 29

Who was the most popular dramatist in antebellum America?

A) Edwin Forrest
B) William Shakespeare
C) Stephen Foster
D) James Fenimore Cooper
E) Lydia Sigourney

Question 30

Why did movements for rural cemeteries and urban parks develop during the antebellum period?

A) There was a fear that sprawling urban growth was destroying the spiritual healing that nature provided.
B) There was a desire to meet the working-class demand for a quiet place to relax.
C) There was a desire to demonstrate that cities could support themselves.
D) There was a hope of taming the undeveloped areas that still remained within city borders.
E) There was a need to find a use for undeveloped city land.

Question 31

Which of the following statements does not accurately describe railroad travel in the antebellum period?

A) Delays were frequent.
B) Trains often traveled at night to avoid bandit attacks.
C) Scheduling was a nightmare.
D) Passengers sometimes had to help stop the train.
E) Locomotives often showered passengers with sparks.

Question 32

Sylvester Graham was

A) a prominent health food advocate.
B) a crusader for improved public sanitation.
C) the manager of a popular hydropathic sanatorium.
D) the nation's leading phrenologist.
E) the founder of a utopian community.

Question 33

What was one of the purposes of the lyceum lectures?

A) They were designed to introduce controversial topics.
B) They were designed to spread and popularize knowledge.
C) They were designed to teach Americans how to paint.
D) They were designed to prevent the working class from spending their free time in saloons.
E) They were designed to stimulate interest in gambling.

Question 34

By the 1850s where was the center of modern investment firms?

A) Washington, D.C.
B) Chicago
C) New York
D) Boston
E) Pittsburgh

Question 35

Which of the following scents would have been present in most antebellum cities?

A) Body odor
B) Animal manure
C) Human waste
D) All of these choices
E) None of these choices

Question 36

Which of the following statements is true concerning a typical antebellum theater?

A) Lawyers were welcomed, but prostitutes were excluded.
B) There were very few seats, and most of them were expensive.
C) Classical Greek drama was usually performed.
D) Audiences were rowdy.
E) It was not a popular form of entertainment because revivalists accused theaters of being houses of sin.

Question 37

In his 1837 address "The American Scholar," Ralph Waldo Emerson argued that Americans needed to

A) improve their literature by emulating European forms.
B) work for cultural autonomy.
C) create literature that conformed to universal standards of beauty and taste.
D) reform their education system.
E) to turn away from scholarship and concentrate on farming.

Question 38

What was one of the changes that transformed American newspapers in the decades before the Civil War?

A) Publishers had to increase the price in order to maintain a profit.
B) Fewer newspapers were printed because Americans turned to other sources of information.
C) Most of them became semi-official organs of national political parties.
D) They began to print more political and commercial news rather than celebrity news.
E) They began to print "human-interest" stories rather than just political and commercial news.

Question 39

How did the writings of Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman differ from those of Hawthorne, Poe, and Melville?

A) Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman wrote only novels.
B) Hawthorne, Poe, and Melville had a pessimistic view of the human condition.
C) Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman celebrated the aggressiveness of their countrymen.
D) Hawthorne, Poe, and Melville sought wide commercial success, while Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman preferred to write for a small elite audience.
E) Hawthorne, Poe, and Melville wrote mainly about European themes and experiences.

Question 40

Why were novels popular among American women in the antebellum period?

A) They often contained very realistic descriptions of intimate relationships.
B) Since they were fairly expensive, owning books was a sign of status.
C) They taught women to depend upon strong males.
D) The sentimental or domestic novel addressed themes and taught lessons that spoke to middle class women.
E) Middle class women liked the escapism of sensationalist stories of murder mystery and horror.

Question 41

MAP QUESTIONS
Instructions: Choose the letter on the accompanying map of the eastern United States that correctly identifies each of the following:

Boston, Massachusetts

Question 42

MAP QUESTIONS
Instructions: Choose the letter on the accompanying map of the eastern United States that correctly identifies each of the following:

New York, New York

Question 43

MAP QUESTIONS
Instructions: Choose the letter on the accompanying map of the eastern United States that correctly identifies each of the following:

Cincinnati, Ohio

Question 44

MAP QUESTIONS
Instructions: Choose the letter on the accompanying map of the eastern United States that correctly identifies each of the following:

St. Louis, Missouri

Question 45

MAP QUESTIONS
Instructions: Choose the letter on the accompanying map of the eastern United States that correctly identifies each of the following:

Chicago, Illinois

Question 46

What happened in New Orleans in 1832 and 1833?

A) Hurricane Camille destroyed most of the city and killed 25,000 people.
B) Measles swept through the city killing 50 percent of the children under age 10.
C) An epidemic of yellow fever and cholera killed 1/5 of the population.
D) After a group of slaves attempted a rebellion, the army occupied the city and executed 250 slave leaders.
E) A fire swept through most of the housing districts killing 15,000 people.

Question 47

MAP QUESTIONS
Instructions: Choose the letter on the accompanying map of the eastern United States that correctly identifies each of the following:

Savannah, Georgia

Question 48

MAP QUESTIONS
Instructions: Choose the letter on the accompanying map of the eastern United States that correctly identifies each of the following:

Washington, D.C.

Question 49

MAP QUESTIONS
Instructions: Choose the letter on the accompanying map of the eastern United States that correctly identifies each of the following:

Richmond, Virginia

Question 50

MAP QUESTIONS
Instructions: Choose the letter on the accompanying map of the eastern United States that correctly identifies each of the following:

Louisville, Kentucky

Question 51

MAP QUESTIONS
Instructions: Choose the letter on the accompanying map of the eastern United States that correctly identifies each of the following:

Detroit, Michigan

Question 52

MAP QUESTIONS
Instructions: Choose the letter on the accompanying map of the eastern United States that correctly identifies each of the following:

New Orleans, Louisiana

Question 53

MAP QUESTIONS
Instructions: Choose the letter on the accompanying map of the eastern United States that correctly identifies each of the following:

Charleston, South Carolina

Question 54

MAP QUESTIONS
Instructions: Choose the letter on the accompanying map of the eastern United States that correctly identifies each of the following:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania