Transcript Slide 1

America Moves to the
City
Chapter 25
Urban Frontier
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Chicago, Illinois 1890
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Cities tripled in size from Civil War until end of century
– By 1900 New York second largest city in world
1880’s – cities limited in size because people had to walk
to work
Skyscrapers
– Cheap steel allowed for steel skeleton buildings
designed by people like Louis Sullivan
– Otis invented elevator to make access to skyscrapers
easier
– Electric light, plumbing and telephones
Transportation
– Electric trolleys, elevated trains allowed for cities to
expand beyond walking boundaries
– Suspension Bridges (Brooklyn Bridge) connected
areas
Employment
– Immigrants and rural residents attracted by factories
and jobs
Department Stores (Marshall Fields, Macy’s)
– Allowed for a mixing of social classes and
development of fashion and consumerism
Problems in City
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Cities grew faster than people could handle
Sanitation
– In rural areas, materials were repaired or reused,
urban environments generate waste
– Consumerism from mass production also led to
waste
– Animals left waste throughout the city
Police
– Criminals and con-men were common throughout
cities
Fire
– Overcrowded cities, tenements made fires
especially dangerous
Dumbbell Tenements
– Were overcrowded, poorly ventilated, had a shared
bathroom
– Slums developed of extremely poor
Ethnic neighborhoods
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Collection of people in one
area by language or nationality
– Were mostly poor and
consisted of tenements
– Very overcrowded
Suburbs
– Transportation
improvements allowed
wealthier people to move
away from dirt, crime
overcrowded of the city
Old immigration
• Original settlers –
English, Scots,
Germans, Irish,
Scandinavians
• Africans were brought
to America through
slavery
• Immigration slows with
industrial revolution
New Immigration (1880-1920)
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24 million immigrants
mostly from Eastern, Southern Europe and Mediterranean, were illiterate and
poor
Came from countries with no democratic or capitalist traditions
Push Pull of Immigration
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Push factors – reasons why someone wanted to leave
Europe (famine, war, disease, unemployment, poverty,
oppression)
Pull factors – reasons that attracted someone to
America (jobs, freedom, land, family, new start)
“America Letters”
– Told of opportunity in America that encouraged
immigrants to come
Steamship
– Some had to work way across the ocean
– Were strong so ocean travel was safer
– Were faster than wooden ships
– Did not rely on winds
– Could operate on schedule
– Allow people to work for a little while in America
than return to homeland
Ellis Island: Gate to America
• Ellis Island: Immigration center in
New York Harbor
• Went through medical check up
• Questioned on name, where
going, job etc
• Sometimes people given new
names because inspectors
couldn’t understand the old one
Where Immigrants Settled
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Half went to NY, MA, PA, IL
cities grew fast
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Went where they could find work
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Went where family was
– Many had family members pay
for trip
– Get jobs in similar areas that
family members had
Assimilation and challenges
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Many new immigrants were resisted by existing populations
– Immigrants were also given hard time from members of same
nationality that had been here earlier
Catholic schools created to deal with prejudice and preserve heritage
“birds of passage” – many immigrants returned to homeland after earning
some money
Generation gap created between European parents and American
children
– Old values and cultures were replaced by new American values
Government did little to protect immigrants. State governments were
dominated by rural areas
Jobs for Immigrants
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Labor bosses
– Would stay around Ellis Island and give jobs to low skilled
workers off the boats
– Would give jobs, shelter, food
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– Worker would give boss part of wages
Unskilled labor
– Work with hands that doesn’t require much training, education or
language skills
– Dug sewers, subways, built buildings etc.
New Immigrants replaced earlier generations of immigrants
– Created tensions between ethnic groups
– Italians replaced Irish
Support for Immigrants
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Religious leaders advocated support for the poor based
on “social Gospel” from Sermon on the Mount
– Walter Rauschenbusch, Washington Gladden
– Inspired middle class reform movements
Provided daycare, adult education and social clubs for
poor
– Encourage playgrounds to be built
– Improve education
– Provide social services to the poor
Jane Addams
– Created Hull House in Chicago
– help immigrants in the city
– provide place for educated women to do useful work
Florence Kelley
– Led movement against sweatshops and child labor
Prejudice in America
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Nativists
– Opposed immigration, feared higher birthrate and immigration would
cause Anglo Saxons to be out numbered. Also did not want mixing of
races
– American Protective Association – voted against Catholic politicians; had
support of unions to limit immigrant workers
Catholics
– Anti-Catholic groups feared Catholics were taking over US
– Catholics denied housing, jobs, education
– Parochial schools created to avoid prejudice
Jews
– Anti-Semitism; Leo Frank was lynched
Mexicans
– immigrated to avoid Revolution in 1910
– Moved to barrios in big cities
Japanese
– Came for economic opportunity
– Were not allowed to go to school
– Gentleman’s agreement
• Japan would stop allowing new immigrants
• US would let wives of existing residents to enter
Churches Confront the Urban Challenge
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Life in cities begin challenging traditional values; increase
crime, poverty and immoral behaviors
Some churches supported laissez-faire and status quo
– Baptist Church was supported by Rockefeller
– Episcopal Church supported by JP Morgan
Liberal Protestantism
– Inspired by “social gospel” led by Dwight Lyman Moody
– Balanced capitalism, science and faith
– Focus on personal growth and earthly salvation
Christian Science
– Created by Mary Baker Eddy
– Believed that disease and social ills can be healed with
prayer
Salvation Army
– Created to address hunger and poverty
YMCA
– Combined physical education with religious education
Social Darwinism
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Darwin’s Theory
– Charles Darwin wrote “On the Origin of the
Species”
– Nature had law of natural selection
• Rejected doctrine of special creations which
established that value of species was
determined by God
• Was challenged by both religious and scientific
communities
• Strongest religious opponents evolve into the
fundamentalist movement in 20th century
• Religion became more for faith and private life
– “Survival of the Fittest”
• Only the strong survive
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Social Darwinism
– Applied theory to businesses and poor
– Justified harsh tactics in business and not helping
poor
Education and Literacy
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Secondary Education
– Free public high schools were more popular as well as
teacher training programs
– Chautauqua movement encouraged adult education
through lectures on science, government, literature;
founded by John Vincent
Colleges
– Became more popular including colleges for women
(Vassar) and Blacks (Howard, Hampton, Atlanta)
– Morrill Act (1862) Hatch Act (1887) created land grant
state universities
Popular Press
– 1880’s papers designed to entertain as well as inform
people
– better technology allow for increase in circulation
– makes newspapers big business
– Joseph Pulitzer
• Popularized newspapers with sensationalism, comics
(“Yellow Kid”), human interest stories, simple
language, sports
– William Randolph Hearst (San Francisco Examiner)
– Hearst and Pulitzer both used yellow journalism
Education and Literacy
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Medicine
– Medical schools and new ideas about health develop
– Louis Pasteur, Joseph Lister, William James (psychology)
Magazines
– Harper’s Weekly; Atlantic Monthly; Scribners; Nation
• Nation focused on intellectual leaders and advocated
reform of society
– Progress and Poverty (Henry George)
• Sought to end connection between progress and
poverty
• Wanted to tax land to prevent economic inequalities
• Influenced Fabian socialism
Edward Bellamy – wrote utopian vision of America where
problems of society were fixed
Novels
– “dime novels” were popular – gun fighters and wild west
– Ben Hur by General Lewis Wallace
– Horatio Alger stories
– Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass; Emily Dickinson (poets)
Education and Literacy
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Literature
– Kate Chopin The Awakening (1899) feminist writer of the Gilded Age
– Mark Twain The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (1867);
Innocents Abroad (1869); The Gilded Age (1873); The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer (1876); The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
• Captured frontier realism, political satirist
– Bret Harte wrote gold rush stories
– William Dean Howells wrote about controversial social themes such as
divorce and socialism
– Stephen Crane wrote about life in industrial America and also Red Badge
of Courage
– Charles Francis Adams wrote historical books
– Henry James wrote Daisy Miller was master of psychological realism
– Jack London Call of the Wild – wrote about nature
– Frank Norris The Octopus realist writer wrote about corruption of
railroads
– Theodore Dreiser Sister Carrie graphically realistic social portrayal of
America
Changing role of Women
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Changing Sexual Roles
– Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Clafin argued for free love
and openness in sexuality
– “Comstock Law” allowed Anthony Comstock to investigate
people for obscene behaviors and sexual promiscuity
– New morality and freedom of women increased divorce rate
and use of birth control
Family
– Urbanites lose community as social support; so family
becomes only support
– Family size shrinks because kids become financial liability
instead of asset
Feminism
– Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1898)
• Called on women to be independent and play a larger
role in society
• Advocated daycares and cooperative kitchens to free
women to work
– National Woman Suffrage Association
• Led to cause for suffrage. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Carrie Chapman Catt
– Catt argued suffrage necessary to allow women to
protect traditional values
African Americans Organize
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Booker T Washington
– Leading African American politician
– Believed blacks should focus on occupational
training, not legal equality
– When whites realize how valuable blacks are,
whites will give equality
– Washington founded Tuskegee Institute (1881) to
train African Americans
• George Washington Carver was famous scientist
and researcher
WEB DuBois
– Blacks should focus on immediate legal equality
• Rejected gradual approach
– Must be able to vote, equal education, end
discrimination
– NAACP
• Founded 1909
• Work to get equal rights for blacks
• Tried to end segregation using legal means
Temperance Movement
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Temperance
– Crusade to end alcohol use
– Alcohol kept poor in poverty, ruined families
and communities
– Partially motivated by nativism – opposition to
Germans and Irish
National Prohibition Party (1869)
– Called on women to pressure men not to drink
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
– Frances Willard and Carrie Nation were
aggressive in fighting against alcohol
Anti-Saloon League (1893)
18th Amendment (1919)
– Begins Prohibition – banned sale and
consumption of alcohol
Entertainment
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Sports
– Professional baseball begins in 1869
• Immigrants biggest fans
• Rooting for team gave people sense of
belonging or identity
– Football first started in 1869
• Rutgers v Princeton
– Basketball begin in Massachusetts in 1891
• Provide indoor sport for winter
Bicycles
– Were cheaper, more maneuverable than a horse
– Was fun and easy way to get around
Vaudeville Theatre
– variety show with many different types of
entertainment
• Dance, comedy, gymnastics, juggling
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Allow theatre for everyone
Movies
– 1890’s first movies start being developed
– nickelodeons – showed short silent simple films for a
nickel