Factories, cities and new immigrants in the North

Grade 8 Social Studies Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Immigration and the mills (cards A to D). Card A, the Preliminary Report on the Eighth Census (published in 1862 by the Census Office for Congress): foreign-born passengers arriving in the ten years before June 1 of each census year were 552,000 (1840), 1,558,300 (1850) and 2,707,624 (1860). Card B, the same report (spacing modernized): "To arrive at the true immigration, these numbers should be largely increased for those who have come by way of Canada. On the other hand, they should be diminished for return emigrants, and for the merchants, factors, and visitors who go and come repeatedly, and are thus enumerated twice or more in the returns." Card C, a summary in our words from the National Park Service, Lowell: starting in 1823 the textile corporations recruited young women from New England farms and villages. Most textile workers worked 12 to 14 hours a day and half a day on Saturday. Card D, a summary in our words from the National Park Service, Lowell: in 1822 about 30 male Irish laborers walked from Boston to build the canals and factories. In the 1840s the Irish population of Lowell grew rapidly as people escaped poverty and famine in Ireland. Unskilled jobs attracted poor immigrants despite long hours and low pay. Mill managers hired the newcomers, and that blunted the efforts of the young women who were holding turnouts for higher wages and a ten-hour day.

2. 1.

   Card A gives 552,000 arrivals for the decade ending 1840 and 2,707,624 for the decade ending 1860. About how many times as many came in the later decade, Ari asks?

   • About twice as many
   • About fifty times as many
   • The same number, since both are ten-year totals
   • About five times as many
3. 2.

   Card B names ways the count could be too high or too low. Which one makes it too high, Esme asks?

   • People who arrived before 1830 and were counted again in the later decade
   • People who came by way of Canada and so were left out of the count at U.S. customs houses
   • Women and children, who were missed by the officers counting each passenger ship
   • Merchants and visitors who went back and forth and were counted twice or more
4. 3.

   A student writes: "Exactly 2,707,624 people moved to the United States to stay in the 1850s." How strong is that claim, given card B, Jun asks?

   • Strong: official reports are exact, so the figure is the true number
   • Overstated: card B says the true figure could be higher or lower
   • Weak: card B says the count was far too high, so the true figure is lower
   • Weak: a government count cannot be used as evidence about anything
5. 4.

   Card A comes from a government report that counted arrivals. What is it best evidence for, Kira asks?

   • Why people left their homes and what they hoped to find
   • How many stayed their whole lives in the United States
   • How arrivals changed from one decade to the next
   • What jobs the newcomers found in Lowell after they arrived
6. 5.

   Card D links famine, jobs and protest. Which chain is best supported, Luz asks?

   • Mill protests drew Irish workers to Lowell, and then a famine began in Ireland that sent more of them
   • Managers paid the newcomers high wages and short hours, so the young women ended their turnouts
   • Lowell's Irish workers began arriving in the 1840s, after the women's turnouts had ended
   • Famine pushed people out, unskilled jobs drew them in, and managers hired them to blunt protest
7. 6.

   Card D says managers hired the newcomers. How did that look different to the young women holding turnouts and to the managers, Milo asks?

   • Both groups left Lowell in the 1840s, and the newcomers took over the mills
   • The women gained bargaining power; managers lost workers who would take low pay
   • Both groups wanted the newcomers hired, since the women hoped to share the work
   • The women lost bargaining power; managers gained workers who took low pay
8. 7.

   Cards C and D describe Lowell's workers at different times. What change do they show, Noah asks?

   • From Irish workers alone to farm women alone, with no overlap between the two groups
   • From low pay to high pay in the 1840s, once managers raised wages for the Irish newcomers
   • From young women from New England farms to a workforce that also hired Irish newcomers
   • From immigrant workers to a workforce of young women from New England farms and villages
9. 8.

   A student writes: "The Irish came to Lowell only because of the famine." How strong is that claim, given card D, Ren asks?

   • Strong: card D says no Irish people lived in Lowell before then, so the famine explains it
   • Strong: the 1840s famine explains each Irish arrival, even those in 1822
   • Weak: card D says the Irish did not work in the mills, just on the canals and on the roads
   • Weak: card D has Irish laborers in Lowell in 1822, long before the 1840s famine
10. 9.

    Which evidence would best show how many Irish workers mills hired in the 1840s, Tala asks?

    • A museum guide written today that retells the story of the Lowell mills
    • The women's turnout petitions, which list their demands for higher wages
    • Mill payrolls and census records from Lowell in the 1840s
    • Card A's national totals of foreign-born passengers who arrived each decade
11. 10.

    Which source would best show how the long workday felt to a mill worker, Zee asks?

    • The mill's own rule book for workers on the long working day
    • Diaries and letters by women who worked in the mills
    • A modern summary of the work hours in the textile mills
    • A census count of textile workers in Lowell during the 1840s