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7th grade · Social Studies · Unit 8 of 18

Factories & Reformers

Inventions, immigrants and reform

What your child practices

The Industrial Revolution in the North, canals, roads and railroads, immigration, public schools, and the abolition and women's rights movements before 1861.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 7.7a; 7.7c; 7.8a · early factories, canals and railroads, and the reform movements for schools, abolition and women's rights

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. The North built factories, canals and railroads; the South relied on plantation crops worked by enslaved people.
  2. Interchangeable parts made manufacturing faster. Mills like Lowell hired young women from farms.
  3. Reformers worked for abolition and women’s rights: Sojourner Truth, David Walker and the Seneca Falls Convention (1848).

Example: What did the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 call for? It was a meeting about women’s rights. It called for equal rights, including the vote. Answer: equal rights for women, including the vote

Factories & Reformers in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 8 of 18 in 7th grade Social Studies, after A New Nation and before Native Nations of New York.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Harriet Tubman is known for…

    • Inventing the telegraph
    • Writing the Constitution
    • Escaping slavery and guiding many others to freedom on the Underground Railroad
    • Leading the Trail of Tears

  2. Question 2

    How did the Erie Canal affect trade?

    • It only carried people
    • Trade stopped
    • Moving goods became much cheaper and faster
    • Goods became more expensive

  3. Question 3

    The Industrial Revolution brought…

    • Machines and factories that made goods faster
    • Horses replacing trains
    • The end of all work
    • Only farming

  4. Question 4

    Why did factory workers sometimes form unions?

    • To stop all work forever
    • To leave the country
    • To push for better pay, shorter hours and safer conditions
    • To own the factories

  5. Question 5

    The Seneca Falls Convention (1848) was the first major meeting for…

    • Ending the Civil War
    • Building canals
    • Women's rights
    • Indian removal

  6. Question 6

    The Lowell mills in Massachusetts hired many…

    • young women from farms
    • kings
    • sailors from Spain
    • soldiers

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