Transcript The Gilded Age - Birdville ISD / Overview

1
Why Immigrants Came
• Work - factories, mines, railroads,
farms
• Free Land - Homestead Act
• Education – free public schools
• Freedom - democracy, no forced
military service, religious tolerance
2
How Many Came
• Between 1865 and 1920
• Estimated 30 million
• Nearly doubled the U.S. population
3
Where They Came From
1890 – 1920
1865 - 1890
10 million
• Germans (2.8)
• English (1.8)
• Irish (1.4)
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10 million
Italians (3.8)
Russian Jews (3.0)
Slavs
Greeks
Armenians
Chinese Immigrants 1900
Hungarian Immigrants 1920
Russian-Jewish Immigrants 1911
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Pogroms
Violent
massacres
of Jews in
Russia in the
late 1880’s
How They Came
• Steam powered ships
• Crossed the Atlantic in 2 – 3
weeks
• The poor traveled in steerage
5
A typical steamship from 1900
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Steerage
• Large open area beneath a
ship’s deck near the steering
mechanism
• Cheap tickets
• Limited toilet facilities
• No privacy
• Poor food
1875
Steerage
Rates
from
England
to New
York
Typical Steerage
Accommodations
What happened when
they arrived
7
• Most Europeans came in
through the port of New
York – Ellis Island
• Subjected to physical exams
and quarantined or sent back
if found to be diseased
8
Ellis Island
• Huge reception area in New York
harbor near the Statue of
Liberty
• Opened by federal government in
1892 for steerage passengers
entering the country
Ellis Island,
New York
Ellis Island Registry Room, 1905
Asians
• Settled on the west coast
• Many worked on RR’s
• Others in mining, fishing,
farming, laundry and factory
work
• Willing to work for extremely low
wages
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Chinese immigrants working on
the Central Pacific Railroad
Mexicans
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Settled largely in the Southwest
Agricultural jobs
Built RR’s in the South
Willing to accept hard jobs for low
wages.
• Because of immigration restrictions on
Asians, many jobs open for Mexican
immigrants.
Europeans
• Settled mainly in cities, or
headed west to mining towns
• Usually settled with the same
ethnic groups in ghettos
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Ghettos
Ethnic communities
within a city
How Americans
Responded
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Nativism
Restrictive Covenants
Chinese Exclusion Act
Movement to Suburbs
Nativism
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• An attitude favoring
native-born Americans
over immigrants
• Nativists demanded the
teaching of only the
English language and
American culture in schools
Restrictive
Covenants
• Agreements among
homeowners not to sell real
estate to certain ethnic
groups or nationalities
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Chinese Exclusion Act
• 1882 - Law passed that
prohibited Chinese laborers from
entering the U.S.
• Labor unions claimed that
American wages were dropping
because Asian immigrants
accepted such low pay.
• Law was in effect until 1943
Suburbs
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• Residential communities that
began to develop on outskirts
of major cities
• Public rail carriages were used
for transportation to and from
the city by those who could
afford it.
Horse Drawn Trolley
How
Immigrants
Affected
American
Cities
Urbanization
The growth of cities
(urban areas)
18
New York
City
c. 1900
Philadelphia
Street
Scene
c.1890
Tenements
19
• Low-cost apartment buildings
designed to house as many
families as an owner could
pack into them
• Generally associated with
slums
Dumbbell Tenement Design
New York
Tenement,
c.1890
Tenement
living
c.1890
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Urban Living Conditions
• Pollution - soot made the air dark and
foul
• Poor sanitation - open sewers, rats and
other vermin
• Contaminated drinking water
• Diseases spread rapidly - TB, malaria,
typhoid
• Fire danger - 18,000 buildings burned
in Chicago and 250 died in 1871 fire
Great Chicago Fire 1871
Urban Politics
• Political Divisions - as cities grew,
so did public pressures for
sanitation, taxes, transportation,
etc. Many people vied for
offices.
• Graft—people using office for
personal gain
• Political machines develop
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Political Machines
• Unofficial organizations
designed to keep a particular
party in office
• Usually run by a “boss” who
either held office himself or
hand-picked an individual to
hold office
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Tammany Hall
• A club that ran the NY
Democratic Party
• Controlled by “Boss” Tweed
in the 1850’s -1870’s
“Boss”
William
Tweed
Caption reads:
“As long as I
count the
votes, what
are you going
to do about
it?”
Social Reform
• Efforts to improve society by
– Aiding and educating the poor
– Eliminating evil or destructive
elements
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Jacob Riis
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Immigrant from Denmark 1870
Lived in NYC tenements
Became a newspaper reporter
Wrote How the Other Half
Lives, exposing the terrible
conditions in tenement slums
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Prohibition
• Movement to legally abolish
alcohol in the U.S.
• Supporters blamed immigrants
for a large portion of the
alcohol-related problems in
the nation.
27
Social Gospel
Movement
• Churches sought to address
problems like drinking and
gambling by applying Jesus’s
teachings to society.
• Sought labor reforms and
improved living conditions for
workers
Education
28
• Schools aimed at assimilating
immigrants into society.
• Immigrants sought literacy
and civic skills needed to gain
citizenship.
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Settlement
Movement
• Reformers who believed that
hand-outs did not help the poor
• They would settle among the
needy to witness their plight
first-hand and offer social
services through “settlement
houses.”
Hull House
30
• A “settlement house” in Chicago
• Opened by Jane Addams and Ellen
Gates Starr in 1889
• Provided child-care, playgrounds,
clubs and children’s summer camps,
legal offices and a health clinic
Jane
Addams
c. 1896
Hull House
Hull House
Museum in
Chicago
today
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Purity Crusaders
• Sought to end the vices (immoral
behavior) such as alcohol, drugs,
prostitution and gambling
• Formed societies that supported
candidates for office and sought
legislation to end vice and corrupt
political machines