Quiz for Documenting the American Promise: Mill Girls Stand Up to Factory Owners, 1834

Quiz for Documenting the American Promise: Mill Girls Stand Up to Factory Owners, 1834

Mill Girls Stand Up to Factory Owners, 1834

Choose the best answer to each question.

Question

1. Documents 1 and 3 in this set refer to the Lowell mill workers’ “turn out,” which took place in 1834. In this context, a turn out is a

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is D. In this context, a “turn out” is a strike organized by the mill workers against the mill owners to protest their plan to cut workers’ wages.
Incorrect. The correct answer is D. In this context, a “turn out” is a strike organized by the mill workers against the mill owners to protest their plan to cut wages.

Question

2. What does the February 18, 1834, Lowell Journal article suggest about why most of the mill workers returned to their jobs only four days after the turn out began?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is B. According to the Lowell Journal on February 18, 1834, the workers decided to return to their machines after only a few days because they saw through the “wicked misrepresentations” of their coworkers and decided that their actions had been neither rational nor necessary.
Incorrect. The correct answer is B. According to the Lowell Journal on February 18, 1834, the workers decided to return to their machines after only a few days because they saw through the “wicked misrepresentations” of their coworkers and decided that their actions had been neither rational nor necessary.

Question

3. In Document 2, the Anonymous Mill Girls position paper, the workers counter the Lowell Journal’s position and justify their turn out by comparing themselves to those who “preferred privation to bondage, and parted with all that renders life desirable—and even life itself—to procure independence for their children.” In doing so, they were making an association between their struggles and those of

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is D. In Document 2, the mill girls reference their “patriotic ancestors, who preferred privation to bondage, and parted with all that renders life desirable—and even life itself—to procure independence for their children.” This is a clear reference to the Patriots of the American Revolution. By making this connection, the mill girls are attempting to make their cause appear patriotic and justified.
Incorrect. The correct answer is D. In Document 2, the mill girls reference their “patriotic ancestors, who preferred privation to bondage, and parted with all that renders life desirable—and even life itself—to procure independence for their children.” This is a clear reference to the Patriots of the American Revolution. By making this connection, the mill girls are attempting to make their cause appear patriotic and justified.

Question

4. In Document 3, one of the strike leaders speaks out to say, “We do not estimate our Liberty by dollars and cents; consequently it was not the reduction of wages alone which caused the excitement, but that haughty, overbearing disposition—that purse proud insolence . . . that spirit of tyranny so manifest at present among the avaricious and wealthy manufacturers of this and the old country.” This statement supports which of the following historical arguments?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is C. In this document, the strike leader explains that the workers’ grievances were not simply economic. Referring to many of the values articulated by Andrew Jackson in his critiques of the moneyed elite, the young woman criticizes the mill owners for treating the young women workers as their economic AND social subordinates.
Incorrect. The correct answer is C. In this document, the strike leader explains that the workers’ grievances were not simply economic. Referring to many of the values articulated by Andrew Jackson in his critiques of the moneyed elite, the young woman criticizes the mill owners for treating the young women workers as their economic AND social subordinates.

Question

5. Which of the following explains how the Lowell mill girls’ actions in the 1830s differed from those organized by female temperance advocates and moral reformers in the same period?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Correct. The answer is A. The mill workers’ grievances and protests were spurred initially by economic concerns. Female temperance and moral reform activists, on the other hand, were spurred to action by religion, though their later work became more explicitly political.
Incorrect. The correct answer is A. The mill workers’ grievances and protests were spurred initially by economic concerns. Female temperance and moral reform activists, on the other hand, were spurred to action by religion, though their later work became more explicitly political.