Transcript Urban America

Urban America
Chapter 10
Immigration
• Immigration from Eastern and
Southern Europe (Poles, Slavs,
Russians, Italians, Greeks, etc.)
• Many were Jews
• What were push/pull factors?
 Jobs
 Military service
 Religious persecution
 Political freedom
 Class system
Immigration
• The Atlantic Voyage – steerage
class
• Ellis Island – New York City
 Health problems
 Insanity
 Criminal record
 Mostly European immigrants
• Angel Island – San Francisco
 Mostly Asian immigrants
 Mostly young, single males
Immigration
• Immigrants tended to settle in
ethnic neighborhoods such as
Chinatown or Little Italy
• Why these neighborhoods?
 Familiar languages spoken
 Familiar foods and goods
 Native-language newspapers
 Churches similar
Immigration
• Harsh urban life for immigrants
 Tenement living
 Pollution
 Crime
 Jacob Riis – exposed horrible living
conditions of immigrants
• Everyone worked – even small
children
• Little knowledge of American
democracy
Immigration
• 1849 California Gold Rush lured
Chinese immigrants
• Taiping Rebellion in China
caused huge suffering =
migration
• Construction of Central Pacific
Railroad required huge numbers
of Chinese workers
• Some Japanese immigration
Immigration
• Resurgence of Nativism
 Nativists were Americans who did
not want immigration
 First targets were Irish – now
Asians, Jews, and Eastern
Europeans
 Many labor unions were antiimmigrant
 Nativists formed anti-immigrant
associations like the American
Protective Association and the
Workingman’s Party of California
Immigration
• Flood of immigrants caused laws
to be passed limiting their
entrance
 A 1882 law prohibited convicts,
paupers, and mentally disabled
and placed a 50 cent head tax on
immigrants
 1888 Chinese Exclusion Act
prohibited immigration from China
 Theodore Roosevelt’s Gentleman’s
Agreement – rejected Japanese
Urbanization
• Migration of Americans to cities
exploded after Civil War
• Immigration also swelled city
populations
• Large populations caused cities
to build up not out
• Skyscrapers developed due to
availability of steel
• Led by architect Louis Sullivan
Urbanization
• People lived within 1-2 miles of
work
• Mass transit allowed people to
move out of cities and commute
• Mass transit types
 Horsecars
 Cable cars – San Francisco
 Electric trolley – Frank Sprague
 Elevated railroad – Chicago
 Subway – New York
Urbanization
• Urban Class System
 High Society – lived in fashionable
districts of city; houses were grand
 Middle Class – could afford to live
in streetcar suburbs; could afford a
servant
 Working Class – lived in dank
tenements; all family members
were expected to work
Urbanization
• Urban Problems
 Crime, violence, fire, pollution,
and disease
 Nativists blamed immigrants for
rising crime rates
 Alcohol problem
 Pollution contaminated wells and
resulted in outbreaks of disease
especially cholera
 No garbage removal systems
Urbanization
• Urban Politics
 Political machine – political group
designed to gain and keep power
 Party Bosses – provided services
to gain votes
 Corruption – party officials grew
rich stealing from the public,
fraud, and graft
 Tammany Hall – Famous New York
Democratic political machine
 “Boss” Tweed – famous leader of
Tammany Hall; eventually jailed
for corruption
The Gilded Age
• Term coined by Mark Twain and
Charles Warner
• What does it mean?
• Ideal if individualism
• Horatio Alger Stories
• Social Darwinism – Herbert
Spencer – survival of the fittest
on a national level
The Gilded Age
• Gospel of Wealth – Andrew
Carnegie – belief that the wealthy
had the responsibility of
philanthropy
• Popular Culture
 Industrialization brought higher
wages and more leisure time
 Saloons – outnumbered grocery
stores
 Amusement parks – Coney Island
 Spectator sports – baseball, college
football, invention of basketball
 Vaudeville – variety shows; ragtime
music (Scott Joplin)
Birth of Reform
• Excesses of Gilded Age caused many Americans to actively
seek change
• Henry George
 Believed tax on land would make society more equal
• Lester Frank Ward
 Argued for government control of economy – that
competition was wasteful
Birth of Reform
• Edward Bellamy
 Looking Backward – futuristic
book where government owned
all industry and shared equally
with public
 Socialist
• Social Gospel
 Religion-based groups seeking
social reform/change
 Washington Gladden
 YMCA, Salvation Army
Birth of Reform
• Revivalism – Dwight Moody
 Helped organize YMCA
 Revivalist preacher
 Believed poor best helped through
redemption not social services
• Settlement Houses
 Established mainly by middle-class
women
 Provided services to poor
including classes, child care, etc.
 Jane Addams – Hull House
Birth of Reform
• Public Education
 Caused by demand for skilled
workers
 Schools crucial to Americanization
of immigrant children
 Some parents worried children
might forget cultural identities
 Unequal opportunities for blacks
caused establishment of black
schools such as Tuskegee Institute
(Booker T. Washington)
Birth of Reform
• Morrill Land Grant Act
 Government grants of land to
states for agricultural and
mechanical schools
 Greatly increased school
enrollment
 Women’s colleges established
• Public Libraries
 Many libraries supported by
Andrew Carnegie