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Population and Urban Growth

Population and Urban Growth. At the beginning of the 19th century, the United States was a nation of farms and rural villages. The nation's four largest cities together contained only 180,000 persons - and were the country's only cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants.

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Population and Urban Growth

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  1. Population and Urban Growth

  2. At the beginning of the 19th century, the United States was a nation of farms and rural villages

  3. The nation's four largest cities together contained only 180,000 persons - and were the country's only cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants. - Boston, which in 1800 contained just 25,000 inhabitants, looked much as it had prior to the Revolution. - streets paved with cobblestones unlighted at night

  4. New York was so small that Wall Street was considered to be uptown and Broadway was a country drive. *police force: only patrolled the city at night, = 2 captains, 2 deputies, and 72 assistants

  5. Population Growth • During the 1820s and 1830s, the nation's cities grew at an extraordinary rate • urban population increased 60 percent a decade - five times as fast as that of the country as a whole • 1810, New York City's population was less than 100,000 - Two decades later it was more than 200,000 • Western cities grew particularly fast - Between 1810 and 1830, Louisville's population climbed from 1,357 to 10,341

  6. American Population 1820-1840 • 3 Trends 1. rapid increase in population 2. large amount of westward movement 3. population growth around towns and cities

  7. Population Growth In America as a whole In American Cities #1: improvements in health - epidemics declined #2: High Birth Rates - 6.14 average - better health - grow to adulthood #1: Migration - from rural to urban #2: Immigration - from foreign countries

  8. Migration • Agriculture in Northeast grows unprofitable - people migrate West - people migrate to eastern cities

  9. Urban Problems • absence of clean drinking water • need for cheap public transportation • poor sanitation - Sanitation problems led to 1. heavy urban mortality rates 2. frequent typhoid, dysentery, typhus, cholera, and yellow fever epidemics

  10. Urban Problems • outdoor privies - emptied into vaults and cesspools that sometimes leaked into the soil and contaminated the water

  11. Urban Problems Kitchen wastes were thrown into ditches - refuse was thrown into trash piles by the side of the streets

  12. Every horse in a city deposited as much as 20 pounds of manure and urine on the streets each day • To help remove the garbage and refuse, many cities allowed packs of dogs, goats, and pigs to scavenge freely

  13. The editor of one New York newspaper described the filth that plagued that city's streets in vivid terms: "The offal and filth, of which there are loads thrown from the houses in defiance of an ordinance which is never enforced, is scraped up with the usual deposits of mud and manure into big heaps and left for weeks together on the sides of the streets."

  14. Immigration’s role in shaping America

  15. #1 Source of immigrantsIrish • Why do they come to America? • 6 week journey • thousands die from dysentery, typhus, and malnutrition • ship become known as “coffin ships” • In 1847 40,000 died en route to America

  16. Irish Immigrants • in 1850 = 45% of foreign born in America - NY had more Irish born citizens than Dublin • settled in eastern cities • unskilled labor • many were young single women • kept to themselves • slow to assimilate • “the poorest and most wretched population that can be found in the world” • stereotypes of drunken, brawling Irishmen • mindlessly loyal to their Catholic leaders

  17. #2 Source of ImmigrantsGermans • In 1850 = 20% foreign born in America • more $ than Irish • Moved to Northwest business or farming • came as families • assimilated into society • majority Protestant

  18. Source of Immigration 1820-1840

  19. Source of Immigration 1840-1860

  20. What is Nativism?

  21. Nativism • A backlash against immigration by white native-born Protestants • can be based on - racial prejudice: professors and scientists sometimes classified Eastern Europeans as innately inferior - religion: Protestants distrusted Catholics and Jews - politics: immigrants were often associated with radical political philosophies - economics: labor leaders resented competition

  22. Why Nativism? • times when there were major social, economic, or political upheavals • blame recent arriving immigrants or ethnic/religious groups different from their own for the troubles that America was experiencing - racism against scapegoat - scapegoat was un-American - foreign ideas - threaten American life - voted as a bloc

  23. Anti-Catholic • Sermons by Lyman Beecher provoke a mob to attack and burn the Ursuline Convent in Massachusetts • 1844 armed clashes against Catholic and Protestant - 20 killed - 100 injured • felt threatened by Catholic authoritarianism

  24. Nativists Unite • formpolitical groups - Native American Party 1854 - Supreme Order of the Star Spangled Banner 1. ban Catholics and foreign born from holding office 2. restrictive naturalization laws 3. literacy tests for voting • Becomes the Know-Nothing Party

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