Inventions that changed how goods and people moved

Grade 8 Social Studies Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Two economies on the eve of the Civil War (cards A to E; summaries in our words from the National Park Service and the U.S. Senate Historical Office). Card A, NPS Civil War facts: the Union had a population of 18.5 million; the Confederacy had 5.5 million free and 3.5 million enslaved people; the Border States had 2.5 million free and 500,000 enslaved people. The Union had 101,000 factories, the Confederacy 21,000 and the Border States 9,000. The Union had 20,000 miles of railroad, the Confederacy 9,000 and the Border States 1,700. Card B, NPS, Industry and Economy during the Civil War: in 1860 the South was predominantly agricultural; it produced two-thirds of the world's cotton but had little manufacturing, about 29 percent of the railroad tracks, and 13 percent of the nation's banks. By 1860, 26 percent of the Northern population lived in urban areas, compared with about a tenth of the Southern population. The Southern lag did not result from any inherent economic disadvantage: there was great wealth in the South, but it was primarily tied up in the slave economy, and in 1860 the economic value of enslaved people exceeded the invested value of all the nation's railroads, factories and banks combined. Confederate leaders, with cotton prices at an all-time high, were confident that cotton's importance to England and France would bring help. Card C, U.S. Senate Historical Office on the telegraph: Congress appropriated $30,000 in 1843 for a test line, and Samuel Morse sent "What hath God wrought" over a 38-mile line to Baltimore on May 24, 1844. Congress added only $8,000 to keep it running a year, and in 1847 the Post Office leased the line to private investors. The Senate page says accounts decades later placed the first message in the Old Supreme Court Chamber, where a plaque was placed in 1944, but researchers have found no documentation that Morse left the room in the Senate wing where his equipment was set up. Two decades after the demonstration, 100,000 miles of telegraph wire connected towns and cities, mostly through private investment. Card D, a summary in our words from the U.S. House of Representatives' history office: it lists May 24, 1844 as the day Morse sent the first official message from the Supreme Court Chamber, then in the Capitol, to Alfred Vail in Baltimore, and says Congress appropriated $30,000 on March 3, 1843. Card E, NPS: the Pacific Railway Act, approved July 1, 1862, was long debated before the war; Southerners wanted a transcontinental railroad on a southern route, and Northerners a northern route. Once Southerners left Congress, Republicans passed a law setting a middle route, from Omaha to Sacramento.

2. 1.

   Card A: the Confederacy had 5.5 million free and 3.5 million enslaved people. What share was enslaved, and why does card B stress it, Ari asks?

   • About 19 percent, since 3.5 is compared with the Union's 18.5 million
   • About 4 percent, a small share of the Confederacy's people
   • About 64 percent, since 3.5 is compared with the 5.5 million free people alone
   • About 39 percent, and card B ties the South's wealth to that slave economy
3. 2.

   A student says: "The South had too little money to build railroads." How strong is that claim, given card B, Luz asks?

   • Weak: card B says the South had great wealth, but it was tied up in slavery
   • Weak: card B says the South had more track and more factories than the North
   • Strong: card B says the South lagged in industry, so it had no money
   • Strong: card A shows just 9,000 miles of track in the whole Confederacy
4. 3.

   Which chain from cards A and B best explains the Confederacy's weaker industrial base, Tala asks?

   • Fewer railroads came first, and that is what tied the Southern wealth up in slavery
   • Wealth was tied up in slavery, so less was invested in factories and track
   • Losing the war in 1865 reduced Southern factories, so industry stayed small
   • Cotton prices were low, so planters had no money left to invest in factories
5. 4.

   In card E, how do Southern and Northern positions on the railroad route differ, and what happened, Jun asks?

   • The law chose a southern route after Southerners left Congress
   • Both sides agreed on the route, so the law followed it with no debate from the start
   • Southerners wanted a northern route and Northerners a southern one; in the end a middle route passed
   • Each side wanted its own region's route; a middle route passed once Southerners left Congress
6. 5.

   Cards C and D disagree on where Morse sent the first message. What should a careful student say, Bo asks?

   • Card D is right, since a plaque in the old chamber marks the exact room where it was sent
   • Say it was sent from the Capitol; the room is uncertain since the cards disagree
   • Whichever card is newer, since newer pages correct the errors of older ones
   • Both cards are wrong about the room, so say nothing about the first message
7. 6.

   A student says: "The government built the telegraph network." How strong is that claim, given card C, Milo asks?

   • Strong: card C says Congress paid $30,000, so the government built the whole network
   • Weak: card C says the government paid for the 100,000 miles and ran them itself
   • Strong: card C says the Post Office ran the national network in 1860
   • Weak: Congress funded one short line; private investors built the 100,000 miles
8. 7.

   Which source would best show how Southern leaders explained their region's lag in factories in the 1850s, Zee asks?

   • Card B, since the National Park Service wrote it as an expert summary
   • Speeches, letters and newspapers by Southerners from the 1850s
   • NPS counts of factories and track from the start of the war in 1861
   • Card E, since it names Southern positions on the railroad route
9. 8.

   A student says: "Railroads and factories explain why the North won." How strong is that claim, given card A, Kira asks?

   • Weak: card A shows the South had more factories and more track than the North did
   • Weak: a page from a park service cannot speak about a war it did not fight
   • Partly: card A shows big Northern advantages, but not how they decided the war
   • Proven: card A lists the North's advantages, so they decided the war
10. 9.

    Card A gives 101,000 factories for the Union, 21,000 for the Confederacy and 9,000 for the Border States. What share were in the Union, Ren asks?

    • About 7.7 percent
    • About 77 percent
    • About 48 percent, because 101 is compared with 21
    • About 83 percent, using just the Union and Confederacy
11. 10.

    How did Confederate leaders' expectations in card B differ from the North's advantages in card A, Esme asks?

    • They knew the South would lose because of its factories, while the North held large advantages
    • They believed cotton prices were falling, so cotton would not bring foreign help
    • They expected the North's factories to help them, while the North lacked rails
    • They counted on cotton to win help from Europe, while the North had more rails and factories