The document provides study guide questions about several topics in American history including the fur trade, Mormon migration, the Texas Revolution, westward expansion, the Industrial Revolution, cotton gin, slavery, and telegraph. It asks about key people, events, innovations, economic factors, and social aspects related to these historical periods and issues.

1. Chapters 11, 12, and 13 Study Guide
What caused the American fur trade to move west in the early 1880s?
Fur companies wiped out the beaver population in the East in their effort to meet European
demand for the popular “high hat.”
How might a trader have described the Santa Fe Trail?
“a long, hot, and dangerous road… but profitable”
When they first moved from New York in the early 1830s, what did Mormons hope to find in the
west?
A sense of religious freedom
Which practice caused Mormons to be persecuted in the 1850s?
Marriage to more than one wife
By December 1806, the Mormon population of Utah had reached about 40,000 people because
of the efforts of which church leader?
Brigham Young
Who was Stephen F. Austin?
An empresario who started a colony on the lower Colorado River in 1822
What created conflicts between the Mexican government and American settlers in Texas?
Requirement of citizenship, strict enforcement of its laws, prohibition on importing slaves
Why was the Battle of the Alamo significant to the outcome of the Texas Revolution?
The Texans were beaten, but Sam Houston’s forces were inspired to win the Battle of San
Jacinto
Why did President Jackson refuse to annex Texas?
It would have upset the balance between free and slave states
What is another way of saying “manifest destiny”?
Obvious fate
In 1821, Mexico won its independence from Spain. What happened in California as a result?
Mexican officials terminated the mission system
Americans cried “Fifty-four forty or fight!” in reference to:
The line to which they wanted their northern territory to extend
How did Mexico react to the annexation of Texas?
Mexico ordered all American settlers to leave California
What happened during the Bear Flag Revolt?
A small group of Americans seized the town of Sonoma and declared California’s independence
How did the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed in 1848, affect the US?
It increased the size of the US by almost 25 percent
How did the Gadsden Purchase benefit the United States?
It secured a southern route for a transcontinental railroad on American soil
Which description fits the group of people known as “forty-niners”?
Gold-seekers from America and abroad who migrated to California
As a result of the population explosion of the “gold fever” years, what happened to California?
Eligible for statehood
How is the Industrial Revolution best defined?
A period of rapid growth during which machines became essential to industry
Which small, inexpensive machine revolutionized the manufacture of the cloth?
The spinning jenny
How did the water frame revolutionize the production of cloth?
It shifted the location of production from homes to textile mills
Who was the man responsible for bringing new textile machines to the US?
Samuel Slater
Why were more American textile mills built in the North than in the South?
The north had more rivers to provide power
What was Eli Whitney’s greatest contribution to American manufacturing?
He came up with the idea of interchangeable parts
How did the War of 1812 help American manufacturing?
Tariff on foreign goods encouraged Americans to buy domestic goods
What was the “Rhode Island system”?

2. Hiring families of workers and dividing factory work into simple tasks
For how long would a typical “Lowell girl” stay at the mills?
Four years
What was a trade union?
An organization of workers with a specific skill or from a single factory who tried to improve pay
and working conditions for members
Who was Sarah G. Bagley?
She fought to bring the 10-hour working day of public employees to private business employees
Why was the steamboat well suited to river travel?
It traveled well upstream
What was the Tom Thumb and why was it significant?
A steamboat, it brought thousands of settlers upriver to the Ohio Valley
What was the reaction travelers had to train wrecks?
“Praise be the engineer for trying to keep to the schedule.”
Why was the telegraph significant?
Enabled people to send news quickly from coast to coast
How did Eli Whitney’s original cotton gin work?
A worker cranked the machine and “teeth” separated green seeds from cotton fibers
What was the “cotton belt”?
An area stretching from South Carolina to Texas that grew most of the country’s cotton crop
Planters felt cotton would be a profitable “cash crop” because why?
It was easy to grow, It could be stored over time, It was cheap to market
What does “crop rotation” involve?
Changing the type of plant grown on a given plot each year in order to protect the land from
mineral loss
What was the South’s first major cash crop?
tobacco
In the first half of the 1800s, what portion of white southern families had slaves?
One third
What kind of man was a “yeoman”?
A white owner of a small farm
How did wealthy white southerners use religion to justify slavery?
God created some people to rule over others
Why did southern slaves suffer more after the North began abolishing slavery?
The though that freed slaves would inspire their slaves to rebel caused masters to enforce
harsher discipline
Above all, slave owners treated their slaves as they would treat what?
property
What would a slave have worried about most when coming up for auction?
The fate of parents, brothers, sisters, and children
“Spirituals” most inspired what later musical form?
gospel
How did enslaved parents pass their culture down to their children?
The told folktales with customary characters and morals
What event prompted many states to strengthen their slave codes?
Turner’s rebellion
Who perfected the telegraph in 1832?
Samuel F. B. Morse
What belief inspired Nat Turner to lead a group of slaves to kill slaveholders?
Turner believed he was on a mission from God to free the slaves
What job did drivers perform on large southern plantations?
Supervised the work of slaves. Made sure they followed orders and if they didn’t the driver
enforced punishment