Chapter 11



Chapter 11

Labor During the

Early Industrial Period

General Questions

1. In the antebellum period, the largest source of employment was

a. the agricultural sector.

b. the manufacturing sector.

c. government (local, state, and federal)

d. the service industry.

2. The Waltham System

a. employed whole families to work in textile mills.

b. employed young women in their late teens and early twenties.

c. employed young children, who often worked 10 to 12 hours per day.

d. was considered a disreputable form of employment for women.

3. According to studies by Goldin and Skoloff (1982) and Craig and Field-Hendry (1993), the female-to-male wage ratio in the early 1800s

a. was higher in the North than in the South.

b. is comparable to the ratio in 1860.

c. encouraged the adoption and success of the Waltham system.

d. was greater than one.

4. From which country came the fewest immigrants during the large wave of immigrants who arrived in the United States in the 1840s and 1850s?

a. England

b. Germany

c. Ireland

d. Spain

5. Which of the following statements best describes antebellum immigration to the United States?

a. Immigration peaked in the 1820s and slowly decreased through the Civil War.

b. Immigrates in the late 1840s and 1850s were primarily “pulled” to the United States by the attractive opportunities available here.

c. Immigration from England was relatively constant over time compared to the immigration rate from other nations.

d. Large scale German immigration occurred primarily in the early part of this period.

6. Which statement best describes the growth rate of U.S. adult male real wages between 1820-1860?

a. The growth rate was about the same as it was in the pre-Revolutionary United States.

b. The growth rate was negative.

c. The growth rate was more than 5 percent per year.

d. The growth rate was 1.2 to 1.6 percent per year.

7. Which of the following statements presents accurate information about antebellum wages for males employed in manufacturing?

a. During the 1850s, real wages doubled.

b. Real wages were higher and grew more rapidly in New England than in the Middle Atlantic states.

c. Wage rates converged in the mid-1800s due to transportation improvements.

d. Wage rates in the 1820s were higher in rural areas than in urban areas.

8. What is the least accurate description of movements in real wages between 1800-1860?

a. U.S. wages grew relative to those of England.

b. The wages of females increased relative to those of males.

c. The wages of skilled laborers increased faster than those of unskilled laborers.

d. The United States became more unequal in terms of income.

9. Which of the following statements accurately characterizes pre-1820 wages?

a. Skilled workers in England received higher wages than U.S. skilled workers.

b. The wage premiums paid to skilled workers in the United States were typically greater than those paid in England.

c. Early immigration of primarily skilled workers tended to reduce the wages of skilled labor in the United States.

d. The pull on unskilled labor to enter agricultural pursuits led to lower wages for unskilled workers in the manufacturing sector.

10. What best describes the union movement between 1800-1860?

a. Unions were composed primarily of craftsmen.

b. Unions were concentrated primarily in rural towns and villages.

c. Union membership grew consistently through the period and comprised a substantial portion of the working population.

11. Which of the following statements presents inaccurate information about the early U.S. labor movement?

a. Courts in the early 19th century often found unions guilty of conspiracy.

b. Unskilled factory workers were the primary beneficiaries of early labor gains.

c. In the 1820s and 1830s, small craft societies began to coalesce to form larger unions.

d. Early unions experimented with collective bargaining, strikes, and closed shops.

11. In Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842) the Supreme Court of Massachusetts

a. established a legal minimum wage in manufacturing.

b. ruled that union members have the right to strike and push for a closed shop.

c. found the Boston Bootmakers’ Society guilty of unlawful conspiracy.

d. established the 10-hour day as the legal maximum in manufacturing.

e. all of the above

12. Generally speaking, by 1860 which of the following groups could not vote in the United States?

a. white male citizens

b. black males in New York and New England

c. alien males in the agricultural Northwest

d. white women in the North

14. Which of the following best describes the antebellum United States?

a. Immigration peaked in the 1820s and slowly decreased through the Civil War.

b. Union membership grew consistently through the period and comprised a substantial portion of the working population by the Civil War.

c. English wages grew relative to those of the United States.

d. The percentage of people living in U.S. urban areas approximately tripled.

e. The North had the most unequal income distribution because of its large increase in industry.

15. What most accurately describes the American family?

a. In 1800, women typically married at about age 30.

b. In 1800, over her lifetime a woman gave birth to an average of two children.

c. In 1800, about half of all women and men did not get married.

d. In 1850, about 25 percent of all infants died in the first year of life.

Economic Insights

1. Which of the following is the best explanation for the rapid rise in skilled wages relative to unskilled wages in the antebellum United States?

a. The demand for unskilled labor fell while the demand for skilled labor increased.

b. The supply for unskilled labor increased and the supply for skilled labor remained the same.

c. While both the supply and demand for skilled and unskilled labor grew during the period, the supply of unskilled labor grew relative to the supply of skilled labor.

d. The supply and demand for skilled labor increased while both decreased for unskilled labor.

2. In the 1850s, the growth rate of real wages in U.S. manufacturing slowed to nearly zero because

a. the demand for manufacturing labor and the supply of manufacturing labor increased by approximately the same amount during this period.

b. the demand for manufacturing labor and the supply of manufacturing labor decreased by approximately the same amount during this period.

c. the demand for manufacturing labor increased more rapidly than the supply of manufacturing labor during this period.

d. the demand for manufacturing labor increased while the supply of manufacturing labor decreased during this period.

Economic Analysis

1. If New England had a Gini coefficient of 0.63 and the Middle Colonies had a Gini coefficient of 0.32, which of the following would be most accurate?

a. New England would have a higher per capita income.

b. New England would have a lower per capita income.

c. New England would have greater income inequality.

d. New England's income was growing faster.

2. If the U.S. Gini coefficient increased from 0.4 in 1970 to 0.6 in 1990, which of the following statements would be the most accurate?

a. Income inequality increased in the United States.

b. Per capita income increased in the United States.

c. Both income inequality and per capita income increased.

d. Income inequality decreased.

e. The growth rate of income increased.

2. As a result of the relatively low female-to-male wage ratio in early-1800s New England, the

a. supply of women willing to work in factories increased.

b. supply of women willing to work in farming declined.

c. wages of female farm labor rose.

d. North industrialized more quickly than the South.

e. all of the above

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