ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by work/life balance,

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the most elusive of fine motor skills.

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Yeah.

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All right, first up, the excerpt.

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[ mumbles ]

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[ mumbling continues ]

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... 1813... Harriet Robinson.

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All right, and now the question:

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One significant result of the work in the excerpt was... what?

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And here are your potential answers.

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[ mumbles ]

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Okay.

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The development of textile mills sowed all kinds of

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societal discontent.

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So let's see which answer best describes this new,

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mostly-improved weave.

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Did this new kind of work create A -

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a unified economy throughout all regions of the country?

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Well, despite the big technological advancements,

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this revolution did little to unify the separate

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regions of the U.S.,

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since slavery was still a major roadblock on the path

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to political harmony.

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So that scratches out A and D.

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Could the textile mills have created C -

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a blurring of the distinction between home and work?

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Well, as women entered the workforce, there was actually

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more of the distinction between work and home

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since many of them for the first time

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found employment outside the house.

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So it's not C, either.

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Which means that a significant result of the advancement

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in textile machinery was B - the development of

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a distinct American middle class.

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Woo-hoo.

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With women working in mills,

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many families suddenly had two sources of income,

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allowing for a third distinct social class to develop.

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So B is the right answer.

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For many upper class women, though,

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the influx of women entering factory jobs

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caused an unmendable rip in the fabric

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of American society.

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[ oh, no ]

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