1. 16.2 Life in the North pp

2. Objectives:
Describe the conditions in Northern factories in the mid-1800s.
Consider how increased immigration affected life in the North.

3. A. Working Conditions (pp. 516-517)
Workers flocked to Northern factories in the mid-1800s, despite low pay and hazardous working conditions.
Factory owners often hired women and children because they would work for lower wages.
Most factories were poorly lit and not well ventilated, which resulted in physical exhaustion and numerous injuries.

4. B. Workers Organize (pp. 517-518)
Workers began to resist poor working conditions by forming labor unions, or organizations that try to improve the working conditions and wages of their members.
A union could call a strike, which meant that workers refused to do their jobs until employers met their demands.
In some states union demands brought about a shorter workday (10 hours) and schools for workers’ children.

5. C. Immigrants (p. 518)
An immigrant is a person who comes to a country with the intention of living there permanently.
U.S. employers discovered that immigrants would work for long hours for low wages with few complaints.
By 1860 one out of every eight Americans had been born elsewhere.

6. D. German and Irish Immigrants (p. 519)
Many immigrants during this time were from Germany, where a failed revolution led thousands to flee their country and seek refuge in America.
But a vast majority of immigrants (40%) came from Ireland.
Between 1845 and 1854, a disastrous blight, or disease, ruined several potato crops and led to widespread starvation in Ireland.

7. E. Immigrants Face Resentment (pp. 519-520)
Americans known as nativists wanted to keep immigrants from coming to the U.S., or to stop those already here from becoming citizens or participating in politics.
Nativists formed a new political party, the American Party.
Their critics called it the Know Nothing Party because members always responded “I know nothing” when asked about the organization’s secret activities.

8. F. African Americans in the North (p. 520)
By the early decades of the 1800s, all Northern and New England states had passed emancipation laws to abolish slavery.
Nevertheless, many African Americans continued to face discrimination in the northern states.
Discrimination occurs when certain groups of people are not treated fairly.
In no states could African Americans serve on juries or be elected to Congress, and many faced complete social and economic separation from whites.

9. Review: Describe factory conditions in the early 1800s? Define unions—
Define immigrants—
Why did so many immigrants come from Ireland?
What were the goals of the nativists?
What did critics call the American Party and why?