Chapter 25 America Moves to the City 1865-1900

1. Chapter 25America Moves to the City1865-1900 What shall we do with our great cities? What will our great cities do with us…? The question…does not concern the city alone. The whole country is affected…by the condition of its great cities. Lyman Abbott, 1891

2. The Urban Frontier • Americans Move to Cities • From 1870 to 1900 urban population grew from 10 million to 30 million • Rural Americans moved to cities in large numbers to seek industrial jobs • Immigrants flocked to American cities to escape persecution and famine in Europe • By 1890, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia all contained 1 million+ people • By 1900, New York was 2nd largest city in the world

3. New Urban Environment • Skyscrapers • Allowed more people and workspace on small parcels of land • 1st skyscraper was the 10-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago • New York expanded upward faster than any city in the world (location on Manhattan Island required innovative use of space) • Louis Sullivan, an architect, contributed more to design of skyscrapers than anyone else • Developed principle that ‘form follows function’ • Stated that “What people are within, the buildings express without.” • Elevators • Allowed skyscrapers to become usable • Perfected in 1885

4. Mass Transit • Horse cars • Railroad cars pulled by horses • Moved about 70% of urban traffic in 1890 • Cable cars • Pulled along tracks by underground cables • Installed by large cities (i.e. San Francisco) beginning in 1873 • Electric trolley cars • Developed by engineer Frank J. Sprague • Powered by antennae from overhead wires • Elevated railroads • Built by cities to relieve congestion • Subways • Railroads established underground

5. Lure of the City • Modern Amenities • Electricity, indoor plumbing, and telephones made city life more attractive than farms • Advertising • Became big business by 1900 • Retailers spent $90 million to attract new customers • Department Stores • Brought huge assortment of products together under one roof • Macy’s in New York; Marshall Field’s in Chicago • Provided working class jobs, mainly to women • Chain Stores • Groups of similar stores owned by the same company • Focused on thrift and offered low prices • Woolworth’s, opened in 1879, became one of the most successful chain stores in history • Mail Order Catalogs • Issued by retailers to bring urban products to rural consumers • Montgomery Ward and Sears distributed catalogs by mail

6. Urban Separation • Megalopolis • Mass transit led to creation of large cities with separate areas for business, industry, and residential neighborhoods • Boundaries established in late 1800s can still be seen in many American cities today • Urban Divisions • Race • Ethnicity • Social Class • Wealthy, middle class, and working class lived in different parts of cities • Industrialization created larger middle class • Mass transit allowed middle class to move into ‘streetcar suburbs’

7. Urban Problems • Slums • Tenements • Dark, crowded multi-family apartments • ‘Dumbbell’ tenements had poor ventilation, little light, shared bathrooms • Flophouses • Crime and Violence • Minor criminals flourished • Crime rate jumped (murder rate increased from 25/million in 1880 to 100/million people in 1900) • Alcohol contributed to violent crime • Waste Disposal • Larger populations created more garbage • Cities unable to cope • Poor Sanitation and Disease • Improper sewage disposal contaminated water • Epidemics of typhoid and cholera were rampant • Pollution • Animal waste left in streets • Smoke from factories • Soot and ash from coal and wood fires

8. Dumbbell Tenements

15. New Immigration • Southern and Eastern Europe • Italians, Croatians, Slovaks, Greeks, and Poles • Many were Jews • Little history of democratic government • Most were illiterate and poor • Reasons • Overpopulation in Europe • Job opportunities • Escape forced military service • Avoid religious persecution (esp. Jews, who faced pogroms in Europe) • Few immigration quotas • Desire for democratic government/escape from rigid class system

16. Ellis Island Immigration center, located in New York Harbor, that processed majority of Europeans arriving on the East Coast after 1892

18. Angel Island Immigration center opened in California to process Asian immigrants

19. Assimilation and Ethnicity • Assimilation • Immigrants faced discrimination • Learning English language and American culture helped immigrants fit into new society • Immigrants with marketable skills or money adapted more quickly • Ethnic Cities • Immigrants attempted to preserve ethnic heritage • Established ethnic neighborhoods in American cities • Little Italy, Chinatown, Lower East Side (New York), etc. • Established culture specific schools (Catholics – parochial schools; Jews – Hebrew schools, etc.) and churches (Jewish synagogues, etc.) • Children of immigrants often rejected ‘Old World’ culture

20. Aid for Immigrants • Political Machines • City governments, unable to handle urban growth, supplanted by political machines • Party bosses exploited immigrants, often trading jobs and services for votes • Christian Socialists • Protestant clergymen, like Walter Rauschenbusch and Washington Gladden, believed churches should combat urban problems • Paved the way for the Progressive Movement • Settlement Houses • Located in poor neighborhoods to provide numerous community services like medical care, child care, libraries, and classes in English • Became centers of women’s activism and social reform • Jane Addams established Hull House in Chicago

21. Settlement Houses • Hull House • Established by Jane Addams in Chicago in 1889 • Located in neighborhood of Greeks, Italians, Russians, and Germans • Offered English lessons, counseling services, child care services for working mothers, and cultural activities • Successfully lobbied for anti-sweatshop law to protect women and children • Henry Street Settlement • Opened by Lillian Wald in New York in 1893

22. Opportunities for Women • Number of women in the workplace increased during Gilded Age • 1 million+ joined workforce in 1890s • Majority were single • Black women limited to domestic service • Jobs open to women included social workers, secretaries, nurses, teachers, retail sales clerks, telephone operators, etc. • Some, especially immigrants, worked in factories • Increased social and economic independence • Although paid less than men (even for same work), women usually had ‘extra’ money for social activities

23. Resurgence of Nativism • Nativism • Asians, Jews, eastern Europeans, and southern Europeans • American Concerns • Suspicion of Catholicism among predominantly Protestant American population • Alarm at high immigrant birthrate • Blame placed on immigrants for urban problems • Fear by labor movement that immigrants (who would work for lower wages) would undermine American workers • Fear of ‘European’ ideas of socialism, communism, and anarchism • Organization • American Protective Association • Restrictions on immigration • Barred paupers, criminals, and convicts • Eventually excluded the insane, polygamists, prostitutes, alcoholics, anarchists, and those with diseases • Prohibited importation of immigrants under contract • Chinese Exclusion Act (see Ch. 23)

24. Statue of Liberty • Gift from France in 1886 to commemorate America’s centennial • Inscribed with the following saying: “…Give me your tired, your poor Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

25. Gilded Age Religion • Protestant church membership declined; Catholic and Jewish churches gained numbers • Wealth began to dominate many large churches • New Organizations and Denominations • Christian Science • Founded by Mary Baker Eddy • Salvation Army • Organized as Christian Mission as a social welfare organization • Adopted military style organization • Offered practical aid and counseling to urban poor • YMCA • Tried to help industrial workers and urban poor through Bible studies, prayer meetings, citizenship training, etc. • Revivalism • Dwight Moody preached message of forgiveness, soul redemption, and character reform • Helped organize the YMCA • Introduced gospel hymn to worship services • Rejected Social Darwinism and Social Gospel Movement

26. Social Gospel Movement • Goals • Improve conditions in cities according to biblical ideas of charity and justice • Mediate between labor and capital, science and faith, religious and secular values • Reformers • Washington Gladden, a minister, attempted to apply ‘Christian law’ to social problems • Walter Rauschenbusch, a Baptist minister, eventually led the movement • Believed competition was cause of social problems • Results • Inspired churches to expand missions • Led churches to take active role in community service and societal improvement

27. Charles Darwin • Published On the Origin of the Species in 1859 • Proposed his theory of evolution, which stated that higher forms of life had evolved from lower forms through biological mutation and adaptation • Scientific Challenges • Louis Agassiz, a Harvard zoologist, maintained doctrine of ‘special creations’ • Jean Baptiste Lamarck, a French biologist, argued that development of a species could be influenced by traits acquired during the course of a lifetime • Theories became accepted scientific orthodoxy by 1920s • Religious Response • Conservative minority condemned Darwin and held fast to literal interpretation of creation from the Bible • Accommodationists rejected the Bible as history or science, and reconciled Darwin’s ideas with Christianity

28. Education • Public Education • Tax-supported elementary schools grew after Civil War • States began passing compulsory attendance laws • Rates of illiteracy fell from 20% in 1870 to 10.7% in 1900 • Normal Schools established to train teachers • Immigrant influence • Kindergartens from Germany • Catholic parochial schools • Americanization • Process by which immigrants were assimilated into American culture through public education • Included lessons in English, American history, civics, discipline, etc. • Chautauqua Movement • System established to combat lack of public schools • Involved series of nationwide lectures and home study courses

29. Booker T. Washington • Founded Tuskegee Institute in Alabama • Trained blacks in agriculture and vocational skills • Beliefs • Proposed that blacks concentrate on economic achievement rather than legal or political equality • Believed that economic independence would lead to political and civil rights • Atlanta Compromise • Speech before (mostly white) group in Atlanta • Urged African Americans to concentrate on educational and vocational training rather than civil rights • Received criticism from black civil rights leaders, especially W.E.B. DuBois

30. Tuskegee Institute Booker T. Washington

31. George Washington Carver • Hired by Booker T. Washington to teach and conduct agricultural research at Tuskegee Institute • Experimented with various crops, including peanuts, sweet potatoes and soybeans • Hoped to ease problems faced by sharecroppers in the South (depleted soil, poverty, and poor nutrition) • Believed peanuts and soybeans could be profitable and add needed protein to southern diets • Developed more than 300 uses for peanuts, including peanut butter, flour, inks, dyes, wood stains, soap, and cosmetics • Led to peanuts becoming 2nd most lucrative crop in South

33. W.E.B. Du Bois • Background • First black to earn Ph.D. from Harvard University • Wrote The Souls of Black Folk • Pointed out wrongs committed against blacks • Encouraged blacks to demand their rights • Views • Opposed Booker T. Washington, calling him an ‘Uncle Tom’ for compromising on segregation and civil rights • Believed the right to vote was essential to black progress • Niagara Movement • Du Bois, along with William Trotter, organized a meeting of blacks on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls • Called for opposition to racial segregation and disfranchisement • Named for the "mighty current" of change the group wanted to effect • NAACP • National Association for the Advancement of Colored People • Founded by W.E.B. Du Bois, et al, to fight racial discrimination • Inspired by Race Riot of 1908 (Springfield, Illinois)

34. W.E.B. Du Bois founded N.A.A.C.P. in 1911 Leaders of Niagara Movement

35. Higher Learning • Women’s Colleges • Most colleges for women were privately funded • Vassar, Wellesley and Smith founded, as well as female additions at Harvard and Columbia • Black Colleges • Howard, Hampton Institute, Tuskegee • Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 • Gave federal land grants to states for the purpose of establishing agricultural and mechanical colleges • Led to creation of land-grant colleges such as California, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Georgia Tech, and Auburn (War Eagle!) • Hatch Act of 1887 • Provided federal funds for the establishment of experimental stations in connection with land-grant colleges (like the one in Crossville which is linked to Auburn) • Philanthropy • Cornell, University of Chicago, etc. funded by private donations

36. Educational Reform • Fact based curriculum developed (separated ‘facts’ from ‘values’) • Harvard’s motto changed from ‘For Christ and Church’ to ‘Truth’ • Elective system allowed students to choose courses ‘cafeteria’ style • Specialization allowed students to concentrate on fields of study to prepare for entry into a profession • Improvements in medical schools and science • Louis Pasteur (a founder of microbiology) developed method to kill bacteria in wine and milk (pasteurization) and 1st vaccination for rabies • Joseph Lister developed methods of sterilization (Listerine…)

37. The Appeal of the Press • Public Libraries • Popular books included David Copperfield and Ivanhoe • Library of Congress (1897) became largest public library in world • Carnegie donated $60 million to fund public libraries • Newspapers • Linotype invented in 1885 • Sensationalism • Stories about sex, scandal, etc. increased circulation • Critics called editors ‘presstitutes’ • Journalistic Tycoons ‘prostituted the press…for increased circulation’ • Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World used sensationalism (yellow journalism named for his ‘Yellow Kid’ cartoons) • William Randolph Hearst established powerful newspaper chain, beginning with the San Francisco Examiner • Magazines

38. Gilded Age Literature • Dime novels • Depicted the “Wild West” • Morality in Literature • Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880) • Written by General Lewis Wallace to combat the wave of Darwinian ideology • Horatio Alger • “Rags to Riches” author • Wrote stories depicting success for ‘virtuous’ people and poor people • Walt Whitman • ‘Purified’ his poetry • Wrote “O Captain! My Captain!” about the death of Lincoln • Emily Dickinson • Published posthumously

39. Pragmatism • Metaphysical Club • Organization of the late 1800s whose members met to argue “the meaning of life” and “the nature of the universe” • Included Charles S. Peirce, William James, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Chauncey Wright • Philosophy • Pragmatism is a philosophical movement that focused on ‘learning by doing’ and was influenced by ideas of Darwin • Marked by practicality, experimentation, and questioning • Supporters included members of the Metaphysical Club, as well as John Dewey and George Herbert Meade • Effects • Abandoned during Cold War Era but revived in recent times • Scientific questions, terrorist violence, and other modern problems spurred a renewed interest in pragmatism

40. Literary Realism • American authors began to depict American life as it was, abandoning romantic sentimentality • Kate Chopin focused on adultery, suicide, and women in The Awakening • Bret Harte wrote about the West, especially the gold rush with stories like “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” • William Dean Howells wrote about controversial social themes like divorce and class struggles and later became an influential literary critic • Stephen Crane wrote about urban poverty in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and about the horrors of the Civil War in The Red Badge of Courage • Henry Adams, grandson of John Quincy Adams, became a historian, novelist and critic, and published his autobiography The Education of Henry Adams about his failure to deal effectively with changes of the modern world • Henry James exposed the relationships of innocent Americans with Europeans in Daisy Miller and The Portrait of a Lady, and wrote about the feminist movement in The Bostonians • Jack London focused on nature in The Call of the Wild and White Fang • Theodore Dreiser depicted the cruelty of life for the urban poor with Sister Carrie, which was withdrawn from circulation because if its disregard of prevailing moral standards of the day • Edith Wharton won a Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Age of Innocence about upper-class New York society during the Gilded Age

41. Mark Twain • Samuel Langhorne Clemens • Most notable of Gilded Age realists, typifying the realist genre • Wrote “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” and The Innocents Abroad • Co-wrote The Gilded Age with Charles Dudley Warner, a satire of the post-Civil War era • Most famous for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, novels that captured frontier realism and humor with the use of authentic American dialect

42. New Morality • Woodhull Sisters • Victoria Woodhull proclaimed idea of ‘free love’ in 1871 • Together published feminist periodical, Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly • Comstock Law challenged new morality • Result of efforts by Anthony Comstock • Federal statute that banned immorality • End of the 1800s brought soaring divorce rates, new methods of birth control, and open discussion of sexuality

43. Families and Women in Urban America • Changes in Family Life • Divorce more common and easier to obtain • Smaller families • Delayed marriages • Feminism • Charlotte Perkins Gilman published Women and Economics, a feminist classic • Called on women to abandon dependence on men • Women’s Suffrage • Feminists insisted on the right to vote • Carrie Chapman Catt took leadership role in suffrage movement • Won gains in western states, particularly Wyoming (called ‘the Equality State’ • National Women’s Suffrage Association • Limited membership to whites • Ida B. Wells worked to enable black women

44. Prohibition • Temperance Movement gained popularity during Gilded Age • Saloons more numerous than grocery stores in major cities • National Prohibition Party organized after Civil War (1869) • Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (1874) • Led by Francis E. Willard (also the champion of planned parenthood) • Included crusader Carrie Nation, the ‘Kansas Cyclone’, who carried a hatchet into bars • Anti-Saloon League (1893) • Eighteenth Amendment (1919) • Prohibition declared nationwide • Ultimate success of temperance movement

45. Artistic Triumph • Metropolitan Opera House of New York built in 1883 • New music styles • Blues • Ragtime • Scott Joplin became known as the “King of Ragtime” • Jazz • Phonograph allowed music to be reproduced mechanically, leading to ‘canned music’ • Columbian Exposition • Held in Chicago in 1892 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first voyage of Columbus • Raised American artistic standards • Promoted idea of city planning

46. Amusement • Leisure Activities • Vaudeville, adapted from French theater, amused audiences with animal acts, acrobats, dancers, etc. • The Circus was popularized by P.T. Barnum and James Bailey with their ‘Greatest Show on Earth’ • ‘Wild West’ shows, distinctly American, popularized by ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody and Annie Oakley • Sports • Baseball emerged as America’s pastime • Cincinnati Red Stockings 1st salaried team • 1st modern World Series played in 1903 between Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates • Basketball invented in 1891 • Football appealed to upper classes and began in private universities • Boxinggained respectability with the addition of boxing gloves • Croquet, lawn tennis and golf also became popular