The Lowell Mill System Organizer

Use the inventions and telegraph sheets together for cause and effect. Pair the Lowell mills with the immigration graph, then finish with the railroad letter.

Follow cotton through a Lowell mill in a flow chart and chart a worker's hours, pay and rules. The directions on the page read: Read the text. In each box of the flow chart, write what happens at that step. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 8th grade Immigration and Industry, and it works the same at home or at school. At home, a student can work through it alone and then go over it with you, which shows quickly what is solid and what needs another look. In class it works as independent practice, homework or a warm-up, and you can print one copy or a full set.

The inventions sheet includes Oliver Evans's automated flour mill, McCormick's mechanical reaper, Colt's revolver, Goodyear's vulcanized rubber and Howe's sewing machine. Students sort each one's effect on farms, factories or cities.

On May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse sent the words "What hath God wrought" from the U.S. Capitol to Alfred Vail in Baltimore over a test line Congress had paid for.

By February 1867, about 11,000 Chinese workers, about 90 percent of the workforce, were digging tunnels and laying track in the Sierra Nevada. They were paid less than white workers and paid for their own food.