CHANGING AMERICAN SOCIETY 1865-1914

1. CHANGING AMERICAN SOCIETY 1865-1914

2. Thematic History of the Late 19th Century INDUSTRIALISM Producing goods by machines rather than by hand IMMIGRATION People moving into a country from another country URBANIZATION The growth of cities

3. URBANIZATION The growth of cities Rural and Urban Population in the United States 1860-1920 1860 80% 20% 26% 1870 74% 1880 72% 28% 1890 35% 65% 1900 60% 40% 1910 54% 46% 51% 1920 49%

4. WHAT MAKES A CITIY A CITY village borough town city metropolis Cities are organized communities based on size of population and area of land megalopolis

5. Cities grow in specific patterns Circle Model of City Growth “The Loop” I Factory Zone II Workers’ Homes III Residential Area IV Commuter Zone V

6. The Largest Cities in the United States 1860 1880 1900 What Led to Urbanization? Increase in Population – immigration & migration; increasing birth rate & decreasing death rate New York 813,669 New York 1,206,299 New York 3,437,202 Philadelphia 565,529 Philadelphia 847,170 Chicago 1,698,575 Baltimore 212,418 Chicago 503,185 Philadelphia 1,293,697 Boston 177,840 Boston 382,185 St. Louis 575, 238 New Orleans 168, 675 St. Louis 350,518 Boston 560,892 Cincinnati 161,044 Baltimore 332,313 Baltimore 508,957

7. Minneapolis (flour) Buffalo Boston New York Detroit Omaha (meat packing) Chicago Philadelphia Pittsburgh (steel) Baltimore New Orleans Geographic Location Cities which grew the fastest were… …those along the coast …those associated with specific industries, and …those along transportation routes.

8. Expansion of industry – manufacturers built factories in cities where workers could be found Improvements in Transportation Improvements in Architecture

9. MASS TRANSIT was possible with the invention and introduction of new ways of moving large numbers of people from place to place. In the mid-1860s, most people traveled by foot, on horseback, or with wagons. Stagecoach Pioneers with hand cart Horse drawn carriage

10. Cities, however, created problems for the earlier ways of transportation--horses were frightened by city sights and sounds and there were too many people. Answers were found through inventive creativity, with a little help from industry and technology. The omnibus was a long, horse-drawn vehicle; some had two decks making it possible to carry more people. By using a street car on rails, traffic was kept where it belonged and moved faster.

11. The use of the cable car began in San Francisco in 1873. The cables were laid in “tunnels”; the cars moved along the track as they were pulled by the cables. With the introduction of electricity, trolleys changed urban transportation even further.

12. Still looking for better ways to use scarce space, New Yorkers looked “up” with the introduction of the elevated railway--called “els”...

13. …while Bostonians looked “down” with the introduction of the first underground railroad--the subway.

14. The invention of the elevator--with a safety catch--by Elisha Otis encouraged architects to build even taller buildings. The first skyscraper, in 1895, was 10 stories high. Soon, however, they stood as sentinels across an urban landscape. The Bessemer process of steel production allowed for the use of steel frameworks to support buildings. James Bogardus introduced cast iron to construction, allowing for taller buildings.

15. What problems did Urbanization bring? • Sanitation/Pollution • Smoke and steam created air pollution • Run-off from factories entered water systems • Sewage systems frequently emptied into rivers without being processed • Rapid spread of disease

16. Housing • For the rich, having a home was not a problem, but where the house was located was a “problem” • For the middle class, there were generally two options: • Apartment house: • a single building • with multiple • housing units http://www.brynmawr.edu/iconog/washw/images/D/D19.jpg

17. Row houses: a group of houses built along a street, each separate, but sharing exterior walls http://www.brynmawr.edu/cities/courses/05-306/proj2/ab2/2501%20Ellsworth%20St%20Phila%

18. For the poor, there were only bad options • Boarding house: single house where residents have a private room, but share the main living areas (kitchen, bathroom, etc.) • Tenement house: • former houses or • apartments that • had been • vacated and/or • fallen into • disrepair (slums) http://www.geh.org/ar/strip19/m198501640045.jpg

19. What contemporaries said about living conditions... “Be a little careful, please! The hall is dark and you might stumble….Here where the hall turns and dives into utter darkness is…a flight of stairs. You can feel your way if you cannot see it. Close? Yes! What would you have? All the fresh air that enters these stairs comes from the hall-door that is forever slamming….The sinks are in the hallway, that all the tenants may have access--and all be poisoned by their summer stenches….Here is a door. Listen! That short, hacking cough, that tiny, helpless wail--what do they mean?…The child is dying of measles. With half a chance it might have lived; but it had none. That dark bedroom killed it. Jacob Riis How the Other Half Lives (1890) “Between the buildings that loomed like mountains, we struggled with our bundles….Up Broadway, under the bridge, and through the swarming streets of the ghetto [a segregated neighborhood]. I looked about the narrow streets of squeezed-in stores and houses, ragged clothes, dirty bedding oozing out of the windows, ashcans and garbage cans cluttering the sidewalk. A vague sadness pressed down on my heart--the first doubt of America.” AnziaYezierskaHungry Hearts

20. …and working conditions. “During the same winter three boys from a Hull House club were injured at one machine in a neighboring factory for lack of a guard which would have cost but a few dollars. When the injury of one of these boys resulted in his death, we felt quite sure that the owners of the factory would share our horror and remorse, and that they would do everything possible to prevent the recurrence of such a tragedy. To our surprise they did nothing whatever, and I made my first acquaintance then with those pathetic documents signed by the parents of working children, that they will make no claim for damages resulting from ‘carelessness’.” Jane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull House “I was only a little over thirteen and a greenhorn [beginner], so I received nine dollars a month and room and board, which I thought was doing well. Mother made nine dollars a week. Mother caught a bad cold and coughed and coughed. She tried to keep on working, but it was no use. She had not the strength. At last she died and I was left alone.” Sadie Frowne “I felt a strangling in my throat as I neared the sweatshop prison; all my nerves screwed together into iron hardness to endure the day’s torture. For an instant I hesitated as I faced the grated window of the old dilapidated building--dirt and decay cried out from every crumbling brick. In the maw of the shop, raging around me the roar and the clatter, the clatter and the roar, the merciless grind of the pounding machines. Half maddened [crazy], half deadened, I struggled to think, to feel, to remember--what I am--who am I--why was I here? I struggled in vain--bewildered and lost in a whirlpool of noise.” AnziaYezierska, Hungry Hearts

21. Fire: wooden buildings built in close proximity; only volunteer fire fighters • Ethnic neighborhoods created divisions within the cities • Law and Order • High crime rates • Small police forces • Rise of gangs • Political Machine: organization of government leaders who ran a city if it were their own private organization

22. New York 21.3 814.5 1204.6 1300.7 Chicago 23.8 1440.9 1563.6 1427.9 Philadelphia 25.9 436.2 903.9 1620 Pittsburgh 17.4 355.7 3409.7 1449.3 Anchorage 8.7 602.8 897.2 863..7 Most communities, regardless of size had some form of law enforcement. The size of the police force did not grow at the same rate as the cities grew. This resulted in gangs, high crime rates, and police corruption. Crime has become synonymous with urbanization--the more people there are, the higher the crime rates. Consider these current crime rates for selected large cities (incidents per 100,000 people): Murder Assault Burglary Car Theft

23. Provided services in exchange for votes • Accepted money as campaign contributions in exchange for political favors – bribery, rigged elections What benefits did Urbanization bring? • For Businesses • Department store – sell larger quantity of goods at lower price (Macy’s in New York City) • Chain store – one business that owns a number of stores and sells the same merchandise (F.W. Woolworth’s)

24. More Leisure Time • Work in the city was different than work in rural areas: shorter hours and higher incomes • Public libraries • Theaters – vaudeville (plays, comedians) • Public parks • Sports – baseball, basketball, cycling • Education • Beginning of kindergarten • Larger schools with greater variety of courses

25. Closer supervision of curriculum and conduct • New skills (factories, offices, etc.) required new training • The Popular Press • A more educated population • Advertising made publishing less expensive • Better postal service with cheaper rates • Settlement Houses: community centers that offered services to slum residents (child care, athletics, medicine)