Immigration & Urbanization

1. Immigration & Urbanization

2. Immigration • 1870-1910: 20 million immigrants entered the US • Added to the labor pool • Added to the demand for housing • Added to the demand for goods

3. Eastern & Southern Europeans • About 14 million immigrants from Italy, Greece, Poland, Russia, Slavic states • Many were Catholic, Orthodox, or Jewish • Came because of job and land availability, to escape religious persecution, to escape a fixed class system, and/or to live in a democracy

4. Ellis Island • New York Harbor • Used from 1892 to 1954 to process immigrants • Immigrants were medically inspected • Unhealthy quarantined or sent back to Europe (only about 2% were denied entry) • Now part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument

5. Statue of Liberty (1886)

6. The Know-Nothings • The American Party (1849-1860) • Nativists • Anti-Catholic • Opposed immigration • Played on prejudices and fears that immigrants would take jobs

7. American Protective Association • Founded in 1887 by Henry Bowers • Opposed Catholicism because Catholics obeyed the Pope above all other powers, including the government • Wanted to limit Catholic immigration, ban Catholics from teaching, holding public office • Also wanted to make understanding English a requisite for citizenship • Had faded out by 1900

8. Immigration Act of 1882 • $.50 tax on each immigrant entering US to help pay costs of regulating immigration • Denied entry to “convicts, lunatics, idiots, and persons likely to become public charges”

9. Asian Immigrants • Chinese: looking to escape famine, unemployment, and violent rebellions • Often excluded from regular American society, so developed their own in “Chinatowns” • Some limited Japanese immigration

10. Angel Island • In use 1910 – 1940 • Processed over 1 million immigrants • Located in San Francisco Bay • 75% of immigrants were detained for at least 2 weeks, some for up to 2 years

11. Workingman’s Party of California • 1870s - 1900 • Founded by Irish immigrant Denis Kearney • Opposed Chinese immigration and use of Chinese labor to build railroads • “The Chinese Must Go!”

12. Chinese Exclusion Acts • Passed in 1882 • Banned Chinese immigration for 10 years • Chinese already here could not become citizens • Renewed in 1892 • Made permanent in 1902 • Finally repealed in 1942 • Led to a decline in Chinese population in US

13. Ethnic neighborhoods • “Cultural pluralism” • Immigrants preferred to stick together, form neighborhoods where it was safe to speak native language, continue ethnic customs, practice their religion • These neighborhoods led to general distrust of immigrants by the native US population

14. “Melting Pot” or “Tossed Salad”? • Melting pot = assimilation of multiple cultures into a new, blended “American” culture • Tossed salad = many different cultures thrown together, but little blending – each culture stands out

15. Urbanization • Between 1870 -1900: US urban population soared from 10 million to 30 million • NYC: 800,000 in 1860, 3.5 million in 1900 • Chicago: 109,000 in 1860, 1.6 million in 1900 • Immigrants tended to stay in cities • Many poor farmers moved to cities for better paying jobs • Many freed slaves migrated to northern cities to seek new opportunities

16. Appeal of Cities • More jobs available • Electric lighting • Running water and sewer • Abundance of goods • Variety of leisure activities

17. Adult Entertainment • Vaudeville Theater: collection of acts, including dancers, singers, acrobats, comedians, etc. (similar to “America’s Got Talent” but without judges) • Dance Halls: large venues with live bands playing dance music • Cabarets: bars or nightclubs which offered musical entertainment • Saloons: neighborhood bars where working men ate, drank, talked politics and discussed current events

18. Family Entertainment • Museums • Libraries • Amusement Parks: NYC’s Coney Island became a resort area after Civil War, first “attraction” was a carousel that opened in 1876 • Spectator sports: Boxing, horse racing, wrestling, professional baseball

19. Skyscrapers • As cities became more crowded, space became more valuable • Inventions like high-quality steel and the Otis elevator made going higher the most practical solution • Chicago architect Louis Sullivan generally credited with pioneering the “skyscraper”

20. Home Insurance Building • Chicago • Built in 1885 • First to have a steel frame • 10 stories (138 ft.) • 2 floors added later • Designed by William LeBaron Jenney (who trained Louis Sullivan) • Demolished in 1931 because it was too small and wasted space!

21. Tallest Modern Buildings

22. Public Parks

23. Frederick Law Olmstead • 1822 – 1903 • Landscape architect • Designed many major urban green-spaces, including Central Park in NYC and parks in Chicago, Washington DC, and other cities • Also designed the grounds at Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC

24. Mass transit • Horsecars: railroad car pulled along tracks by horses • Cable cars: railroad car pulled along tracks by underground cables (San Francisco, 1873) • Electric trolley car: developed in 1887 by Frank J. Sprague, first used in Richmond, VA • Elevated railroads: Used in Chicago starting in 1892 • Subways: Boston in 1897, NYC in 1904 • Major bridges, such as NYC’s Brooklyn Bridge (1883)

25. Changes in Shopping • Bold new forms of advertising products, using large, illustrated ads in newspapers & magazines • Department stores: John Wannamaker’s Grand Depot in Philadelphia • Chain stores: Woolworth’s (1879) • Mail-order catalogs: Montgomery Ward, Sears Roebuck

26. Upper Class • “High Society” • Wealthiest families, primarily industrialists like the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts • Built palatial houses, clustered in downtown districts

27. Middle-Class Gentility • Doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, managers, teachers • Lived in “streetcar suburbs” on edges of cities • Average salary = $1100/year

28. The Working Class • 75% of urban population • Lived in tenement housing within easy walking distance of the industrial district • Average salary = $445/year

29. Urban problems • Violent crime: murder rate jumped 400% between 1880 and 1900; rate today is about ½ the rate of US in 1900 • Pollution: especially of drinking water, but also of land and air • Disease: cholera, typhoid • Fire: Chicago (1871), Boston (1872), Baltimore (1904), San Francisco (1906, caused by earthquake)

31. Tenements • Small, extremely crowded apartment buildings • Whole families often lived in just one room, sometimes with only a single window for air • Up to a dozen families might share a single bathroom • Buildings were unsafe – hard to escape in a fire, little fresh air and close quarters led to spread of disease

33. Jacob Riis • 1849 – 1914 • Danish immigrant, social reformer, journalist, photographer • Wrote How the Other Half Lives (1890) • Documented horrors of life in the slums & tenements • Blamed alcohol for many of society’s ills

34. Jane Addams & the Social Gospel • 1860 – 1935 • Founded Hull House, a settlement house in Chicago • First woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize • “Social Gospel”: idea that Christians have a moral responsibility to fix society’s problems & help the less fortunate

35. Settlement Houses • Most famous settlement house = Chicago’s Hull House • Middle class “settlers” moved into working class neighborhoods to help provide education, meals, childcare, medical care, and general advice to immigrants and poor workers