Transcript Industrial Era

immigrants
Living Conditions and
culture
What was the origin of
immigrants?
Emigration Patterns
• More immigrants
came from central and
southern Europe.
• Nativists discriminated
against them.
How were they treated?
Discrimination
• Nativism is support for people born in the
USA.
• Nativists did not like immigrants because
they would work for lower pay.
• The Chinese Exclusion Act and the
Gentlemen’s Agreement limited the
number of immigrants coming from Asia
due to nativist beliefs.
Where did they settle?
Ethnic Neighborhoods
• Immigrants settled in “ethnic neighborhoods”
(China Town, Little Italy, etc.).
• They built churches and cemeteries, established
social clubs, set up health care and elderly care,
and published newspapers in their native language
to keep people informed.
What were their living conditions?
Cliff Dwellers by George Bellows
Jacob Riis How the Other Half Lives
Living Conditions
• Most immigrants lived in urban slums,
called tenements.
• Tenements were overcrowded apartments
with open sewers, no running water, little
air flow, fire hazards, and disease ridden
pests.
What was their relationship with
political machines?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns-qtoxnAS8
Immigrants and Political
Machines
• Machines helped
immigrants gains
citizenship, find places
to live, and get jobs.
• Immigrants gave votes
in return.
Political Machines and
Bosses
City Boss: controlled city jobs, courts,
and agencies
Ward Boss: secured votes in a precinct
Precinct worker/captain: controlled a
block or neighborhood.
“Can the law reach
him?”
Diary of a Precinct Captain
•2 am: Aroused from sleep…went…to the police
station to bail out a saloon-keeper who had been
arrested for violating the excise law, Furnished bail…
•6 am: Awakened by fire engines…Hastened to the
scene of the fire…Found several tenants who had been
burned out, took them to a hotel, supplied them with
clothes, fed them, and arranged temporary quarters for
them…
•8:30 am: Went to the police court…Secured the
discharge of four by a timely word with the judge, and
paid the fines of two.
Diary…
• 9 am: Appeared in the Municipal District
Court…Paid the rent of a poor family about to be
dispossessed and gave them a dollar for food.
• 11 am: …spent nearly three hours fixing things
for the four men (who wanted jobs).
• 3 pm: Attended the funeral of an Italian…Hurried
back to make… the funeral of a Hebrew
constituent.
• 7 pm: Went to district headquarters and presided
over a meeting of election district captains.
Diary…
• 8 pm: Went to a church fair. Took chances on
everything…
• 9 pm: At the club-house again, Spent $10 on
tickets for a church excursion… Listened to the
complaints of a dozen push-cart peddlers and
promised to see about their problems.
• 10:30 pm: Attended a Hebrew wedding reception
and a dance…
• 12 am: In bed
Scandal in Political Machines
•Fraud
–Padded voter registration
lists
–Inflated bills for kickbacks
–Accepted bribes to allow
illegal activities
–Police were swayed
•The Tweed Ring
–It was led by William Marcy
Tweed, a democrat.
–Thomas Nast drew cartoons
exposing their illegal practices
–Tweed was convicted and
sentenced to 12 years.
Thomas Nast
• He was a political
cartoonist for the New
York Times and Harper’s
Weekly
• He drew cartoons showing
the corruption of the
Tweed Ring
• He was offered $50,000
from Tweed not to run a
particular cartoon, but he
refused the offer
The brains that achieved the Tammany Victory at the
Rochester Democratic convention
Boss Tweed’s Demise
• Boss Tweed was convicted
of fraud and extortion and
sentenced to 12 years in
jail.
• He escaped to Cuba, then
Spain.
• In Spain he was
recognized due to Nast’s
cartoons.
• He was returned to the
USA and died in prison.
• Boss Tweed’s City
Hall
– Construction of City
Hall in New York =
$145 million
– Funding for NY state
schools = $88 million
– Purchase of Alaska
from Russia by the US
= $7.2 million
Working Conditions
Working Conditions
• Whole families tended to work since wages were
low and one person could not support the entire
family.
• People worked 12 hours a day, six days a week.
• Women worked simple machines and had little
chance of advancing.
• Children as young as five worked in the factories
instead of going to school.
• African Americans worked in factories, but were
resented by others because they worked for the
lowest pay and took jobs from others.
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
• March 25, 1911
• Fire killed 146 people
• People could not exit
because exit doors to the
factory were locked to
stop workers from stealing
• Led to a push for
improved working
conditions (sprinklers, in
this case)
Sweatshops
• Sweatshops were makeshift factories set up
in small apartments or unused buildings
• Workers were paid by production, not
hourly wages.
• Sweatshops were usually had little light or
ventilation and were unsafe.
• Most workers were immigrants who worked
long hours for little pay.
Early Labor Unions
• Unions are organizations of workers formed
to protect the interests of its members.
• There are two types of unions
– Craft Unions are opened to skilled workers who
practice a specific craft
– Trade unions are opened to less skilled workers
The Knights of Labor
• Formed in 1869
• Included men, women,
and African Americans
• Fought for equal pay for
equal work, the 8 hour
workday, and an end to
child labor
• Created Labor Day
• Unskilled labor
The American Federation of
Labor
• Led by Samuel Gompers
• Was a craft union (skilled
workers)
• Used strikes and boycotts,
collective bargaining,
arbitration, and mediation
to bring change
• Pushed for the closed shop
where factories could hire
only union members
American Railway Union
• Led by Eugene V.
Debs
– Socialist who wanted
government ownership
and control of
businesses
– Ran for president but
never won
• This union led the
Pullman Strike
Employer Response to Unions
• Yellow dog contracts said if workers wanted to be
hired they could not join labor unions.
• Blacklists were lists of workers who belonged to
unions that employers would not hire.
• Lockouts did not allow workers who went on
strike to return to work after the strike was over.
• Scabs took the jobs of striking workers (A-A and
recent immigrants)
• Injunctions were court orders that forbade strikes.
The Great Strike of 1877
• Railroad workers became upset by a wage
cut and protested.
• President Rutherford B. Hayes sent in
federal troops two separate times.
• It showed that the government was in
support of the employers, not the union
members
The Haymarket Riot
• National demonstration in
support of the 8 hour
workday
• Chicago
• Radicals exploded a bomb
that killed or wounded
several police officers
• A riot broke out and
gunfire killed both
policemen and striking
workers
• It turned public opinion
against unions
Homestead Strike
• Carnegie Steel plant in
Pennsylvania
• “Pinkertons” were hired
by owners to put down a
strike
• A shootout left several
people dead or wounded
• Striking workers were
seen as creator of violence
Pullman Strike
• George Pullman fired laid
off workers and fired 3
labor representatives in his
railroad car plant
• He closed his plant and
refused to meet with union
leaders
• Union leaders called for a
nationwide boycott of
Pullman cars
• President Cleveland
forced the workers to end
the boycott and strike.