America in the 1900s: Urbanization, Industry Boom, and Social Challenges

1. Chapter 16 Notes

2. Jacob Riis • Riis was a journalist and photographer. • The homeless boys in the photo that we’ve looked at a good bit were common in NYC around 1900. • Riis was a muckraker.

3. Continued: • Muckraker: a group of journalists that wrote about the nation’s problems. • Urbanization: the growth of cities. • You see, America was a much different looking place than in 1800.

4. Continued: • In 1800, the nation was made up mainly of farmers. • Now, the nation had 45 states and stretched across the continent! • There was less and less land to settle in the frontier.

5. It’s Your Turn! • What are some of the differences between the map in 1900 and today’s map? • What states are missing?

6. Factories Increase Production • In 1865, American industry produced $3 billion dollars in goods and services. • By 1900, American industry had increased it production to $13 billion! • Wow!

7. Reasons for this Happening: • Efficient machines • Mass production of goods • This happened in the textile industry and the steel industry.

8. How to Make $$ • Companies started producing mail order catalogs. • Sears and Montgomery Ward got their start by selling goods of all kinds in their catalogs. • You could even buy homes from the Sears catalog!

9. It’s Your Turn! • Advertising has changed a lot from 1900 to now. • What are some of the different ways that people advertise today? • Create an ad for an item. Create a slogan and a price for it from the era of the 1900s.

10. Urbanization • Other benefits to urbanization: • By 1900, 40% of Americans now lived in urban areas. • African-Americans moved into cities, looking for opportunities.

11. Perks of a City • Cities had many amusements for people when they weren’t working. • Theatres produced dramas and comedies. • Vaudeville: music, comedy, and dance. • Circuses became popular.

12. Continued: • Department stores were so huge that they took up entire city blocks. • Skyscrapers that were 10 or more stories tall began to dot the skyline.

13. It’s Your Turn! • What are some of the perks of your city? • What are some of the features that are special to this area that you have taken advantage of? • Why do you think that they attract other people to the area?

14. Housing Conditions • By 1900, many middle-class homes had running water and indoor plumbing. • Cities built sewer systems to get rid of the wastewater. • However, the slums were not so lucky.

15. Continued: • In poorer neighborhoods, they didn’t always have indoor plumbing. • Waste often ended up on the streets. • Tuberculosis and pneumonia spread quickly through the slums.

16. Workplace Problems • Muckrakers helped to let people know about unsafe working conditions. • Sharp blades were everywhere in meat packing plants. • Employers were paying their employees as little as possible.

17. The Jungle • There was more meat available, but people didn’t know what was in the products. • The government didn’t regulate the quality of meats. • Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle to show the problems in the meatpacking plants.

18. Discussion • What do you think of The Jungle? • What safeguards did it put into place?

19. Environmental Problems • With all of the urbanization taking place, problems with pollution began to creep up across the country. • Sadly, this is still happening today.

20. Deforestation • Farmers cleared trees to plant crops. • Loggers also cut down large wooded areas. • This has caused a problem with erosion.

21. Extractive Industries: • Extractive industries: businesses that take minerals from the earth. • Mining companies were dynamiting and drilling into the earth for oil and other metals like copper, gold, and iron.

22. Consequences: • Workers could be killed • Mining scarred the land • Polluted streams and rivers • Back then, there were no regulations on how companies treated the environment.

23. Election Time • Political bosses rigged local elections. • Political machines routinely used fraud to win. • Voters had little say so in their candidates. • At the state level, big business ruled, and the needs of the citizens were ignored.

24. It’s Your Turn! • You are a political boss. • How would you make sure that you stayed in office to have more money and power? • Would you break the rules, or would you try to be “good”? • A political opponent wants your job. What will you do to him/her? (You can’t kill or harm them). • Create a campaign poster of the office that you’re running for.

25. Pendleton Act • To overcome the idea of patronage, the Pendleton Act was created by Congress. • It required exams for types of government jobs, like postal workers. • Civil service jobs are now based on a person’s qualifications.

26. Social Tensions • Urbanization brought many people of different races and backgrounds together. • Because of this, social tensions between groups of people increased. • African-Americans faced racism and violence.

27. Jim Crow • In the years after the Civil War, African-Americans had difficulties in gaining personal and economic freedoms. • Jim Crow: a series of laws that southern states passed.

28. Jim Crow Continued: • These laws segregated African-Americans from whites in schools, trains, hospitals, and other public places. • Poll taxes and “grandfather clauses” were around to prevent African-Americans from voting.

29. Jim Crow Continued: • Grandfather clause: men could only vote whose fathers or grandfathers had the right to vote in 1867. • Violence against black men was also very common in Northern cities and the south.

30. Violence • Lynchings happened about 70 times a year between 1882 and 1900. • Lynching: the killing of an African-American, usually by mob violence. • In response, many African-Americans moved into the North.

31. Discussion • What could have been done to solve this? • Why do you think that people were acting this way?

32. Changing Roles for Women • Around 1900, women made up 18% of the work force. • They worked in unskilled labor positions like textiles, food-processing, and garment factories.

33. Women continued: • Women who had a high school education worked as a telephone operator, store clerk, nurse, or a teacher. • African-American women largely worked as cooks or housekeepers.

34. Higher education • Women were also getting the opportunity to go to college. • Women had their own colleges, like Vassar and Wellesley. • Yet, they still didn’t have the right to vote around 1900.

35. Alcohol • Many people saw alcohol as a problem for society. • Temperance movement: cutting back or stopping the drinking of alcohol. • Some people wanted to ban it completely.

36. It’s Your Turn • What are your thoughts on women’s roles in the workplace at this time? • What type of job would you prefer to have? • What is your opinion on the temperance movement? • What problems would this have on society?