Chapter 20: Immigrants and Urban Life

Immigration andUrban LifeChapter 20

Section 1: A New Wave of Immigrants

• Demographic of Immigrants coming to America in the mid-1800s:

Northern Europeans

Protestant

Many are skilled workers (or become farmers)

• By the late 1800s, this people group is known as the ‘old immigrants’

The new immigrants

• 5 millions immigrants come to the U.S. in the 1880s

• Mostly from southern and eastern Europe

• They left because…

Religious and political persecution

Job opportunities

Arriving in a New Land• Most traveled in steerage (hot, foul-

smelling, seasickness)

• Once on land, they were processed by government immigration centers:

Chinese thru Angel Island (San Francisco)

Europeans thru Ellis Island (New York City)

Mexicans thru El Paso, Texas

Ellis Island

Ellis Island

The Registry Room

Ellis Island –Registry Room

Adjusting to a New Life

• Immigrant neighborhoods -What are the advantages and disadvantages?

• Key Terms:

Benevolent societies

tenements

Finding Work in America

• Many immigrants had been farmers. Since they could not afford land in America, they stayed in cities and found jobs in manufacturing

• They became unskilled workers

• Sweatshops – workplaces with long hours and hot, unhealthy working conditions

Opposition to Immigration

• How did citizens react to the wave of immigration?

Some business owners were happy (low-wage workers!)

BUT there was a general feeling of animosity

• Nativists want laws to stop or limit immigration

Chinese Exclusion Act

Section 2: The Growth of Cities

• By 1900, 40% of the U.S. lives in cities

New immigrants

Rural families

African Americans from the south

How Cities Changed

• Cities had to change to make room for their new residents

• Questions city planners had to answer…

Where will all of the new residents live?

How will they move about the city?

Building Skyscrapers

• The strength of steel buildings rise higher than 5 stories

• Builders can use city space more efficiently

• Elisha Otis invents the safety elevator

Getting Around Town• Mass Transit : public transportation designed to move many people

In the 1860s, elevated trains (the El) run on tracks above the streets

1897– the first subway opens in Boston

• Suburbs grow

Sharing Ideas

• Mass Culture – leisure and cultural activities shared by many people

+ Growth in publishing (newspapers, books)

+ Department Stores (giant retail shops) form

+ The World Fairs

+ Parks designed (Frederick Law Olmsted)

Department Stores

The World Fair

Design & Frederick Law Olmsted

Section 3: City Life

How would you react if you saw this on the news?

Urban Problems

• Affordable housing was difficult to find, so the poor squeezed into tiny, unsafe tenements

What helped improve city life?

• Many city governments…

Improved their sewage and water systems

Hired full-time firefighters and police officers

• Journalist/photographers, like Jacob Riis, and reformers/activists, like Lawrence Veiller. exposed the terrible conditions

• Laws like the 1901 New York State Tenement House Act require housing to be built with basic amenities

What helped improve city life?

• Private organizations set up settlement houses

Neighborhood Guild (Lower East Side in NYC)

Jane Addams’ Hull House, where reformer Florence Kelley and others studied and worked to find solutions to urban problems

Chapter 20 Review

Big Idea #1:

A new wave of immigration in the late 1800s brought large numbers of immigrants to the United States

Key Terms

Old immigrants

New immigrants

Steerage

Benevolent societies

Tenements

Sweatshops

Chinese Exclusion Act

Chapter 20 Review

Big Idea #2:

American cities experienced dramatic expansion and change in the late 1800s

Key Terms

Mass transit

Suburbs

Mass culture

Joseph Pulitzer

William Randolph Hearst

Department stores

Frederick Law Olmsted

Chapter 20 Review

Big Idea #3:

The rapid growth of cities in the late 1800s created both challenges and opportunities

Key Terms

Jacob Riis

Settlement houses

Jane Addams

Hull House

Florence Kelley