Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
Chapter 7, Lesson 1, Life Changes Along the Atlantic Seaboard (pp. 190-195)
I. Family Farms Become More Profitable
B. Efficient new tools like the mechanical reaper and the plow helped farmers
increase their production.
C. With cash from selling extra wheat, farmers could afford to buy more ready-made products.
II. The American Economy Matures
B. Better transportation, increased manufacturing, and labor-saving inventions
gradually moved men's work away from the home.
C. The rise in manufacturing helped create a middle class -- people with better than
average education and income.
III. Port Cities Provide Economic Opportunity
B. Increasing demand for crafted goods caused merchants to set up factories using
less-skilled workers and production lines to produce goods cheaply.
IV. Some African Americans Experience Changes
B. Gradually, Northern states abolished slavery in the late 1700s.
C. Fighting many difficulties, communities of free African Americans grew in cities
and organized groups for support and protection.
Lesson at a Glance Outline
A. Wars in Europe in the early 1800s increased the demand for wheat, so
American farmers planted as much wheat as they could.
A. Families began buying some manufactured goods instead of making them, and women
used the time saved to earn money doing "outwork."
A. In the years between 1790 and 1860 port cities grew dramatically, with their
populations doubling several times over.
A. Most African Americans living in the first half of the 1800s were slaves without
any legal rights.
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