The Migration to the Cities

1. The Migration to the Cities 1865-1900

2. The Frontier • In 1890 Frederick Jackson Turner stated his “Frontier thesis” which claimed there was no longer a frontier in the United States • The first skyscraper appeared in Chicago in 1885, allowing buildings to expand up as well as out • By 1890 Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia all had over 1 million inhabitants • Rail systems allowed people to move to the city every day to work and return home later • Distinct areas developed based on race and ethnicity as well as business

3. Millions of people migrated to the cities – with sidewalks, shops, and electricity and left the ‘backward’ rural areas • Mail-order companies like Sears provided people all over the country with products • Cities also created problems – such as trash and crime • Many thought the slums were the biggest problems – over-crowded, unclean, rat-infested, and smelly • Yet the slums remained as magnets to the new immigrants who found their way to the city • Wealthy people left the city to live in the suburbs, usually on the western side of the city

4. Immigrants • To many Europeans the United States was the land of opportunity and promise • Between 1870 and 1900, millions of immigrants arrived – mostly European and mostly poor • Before the 1880s the immigrants primarily came from northern Europe – they were Protestant and fair-skinned, often British or Irish • After the 1880s the immigrants came more from southern and eastern Europe – they were Catholic and dark-skinned

5. Immigrants tended to stay together in communities of people with a similar ethnic background • The immigrants came to America to start a new life but few had anything to offer – except their work • Industrialists welcomed the immigrants as a source of low-paying labor and few cared if the immigrants were over-worked or under-paid • Without political help they often worked in sweatshops and factories until they complained or were hurt on the job – then they were fired

6. Some did bring skills –Russian Jews fleeing persecution soon established control of the tailoring trade in New York • Others never intended to stay. They planned on making some money and then returning home, but many never returned home • They tried to maintain their cultural identity by creating Churches, synagogues, and restaurants • The children of immigrants usually wanted to separate themselves from the Old World and learn the customs of the New World • Political bosses, like Boss Tweed so learned the value of the immigrants

7. Resentment Grows • Nativism had existed for most of the century but after 1880 it resurfaced with new vigor • Despite criticism Jane Addams opened Hull House in Chicago to help immigrants learn the language and get an education • Nativists had some problems with northern European but lots of problems with southern Europeans • Immigrants were often used as strikebreakers so the Unions quickly turned against them

8. Education • After 1870 most states made compulsory at least a grade-school education • But people wanted more education and people demanded High Schools • Schools that trained teachers – Normal Schools increased dramatically after the Civil War • Kindergartens became popular for small children, especially from families with money • Yet the South was noticeably slower at education reform than the North

9. Education for Blacks • In 1881 Booker T. Washington became the head of the Tuskegee school in Alabama • The school was for blacks and focused on teaching them a trade so they could make a living • Washington accepted the practice of segregation and racism, but believed through education and opportunity the black man would gain equality • W.E.B. Du Bois the first black man to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard called Washington “Uncle Tom” for keeping the black in manual labor • Du Bois wanted equality and helped create the NAACP in 1910

10. Colleges and universities appeared all over the country after the war • Women’s colleges gained the most ground • The 1862 Morrill Act had provided grants of public lands for education • In 1887 the Hatch Act provided federal funds for agricultural colleges • Money also came from philanthropists like Stanford, Cornell, and Vanderbilt • Johns Hopkins opened the first high-level graduate school in 1876 – fashioned after European colleges

11. Morality • The movement to the cities and the stresses of life created a enormous problems for the family • The number of divorces in the late eighteenth century reached almost epic proportions • The birthrate continued to fall and the size of families continued to drop • Women grew more independent • Charlotte Perkins Gilman called on women to be more productive members of society. She also advocated day-cares and nurseries so women could work

12. In 1890 the National American Woman Suffrage Association was founded • A new leader in the suffrage movement was Carrie Chapman Catt • Catt said women knew more about the family so they had a responsibility to vote, especially in the cities • In many states women could vote in local elections but not the Presidential Elections • In 1869 Wyoming granted unrestricted voting rights to women • The NAWS did not include black women – who later created their own association in 1896 – the National Association of Colored Women

13. Alcohol consumption was often blamed as a cause of social problems • Consumption had risen during the Civil War and was popular with the immigrants • In 1869 the National Prohibition party claimed some votes in the presidential election, but had no real success • In 1874 the Women’s Christian Temperance Union was formed • In 1893 the Anti-Saloon League tried to organize prohibition and had some significant success in Maine • In 1919 the Eighteenth Amendment authorized national prohibition