Immigrants & urbanization

IMMIGRATION & URBANIZATION

CHAPTER 15

SSUSH12 The student will analyze important consequences of American

industrial growth.a.Describe Ellis Island, the change in immigrants’ origins to southern and

eastern Europe and the impact of this change on urban America.

SSUSH13 The student will identify major efforts to reform American

society and politics in the Progressive Era.

b. Identify Jane Addams and Hull House and describe the role of women in reform

movements.

CAUSES OF IMMIGRATION: PUSH V. PULL FACTORS

“Push”_____• Famine• Lack of opportunity• Racial, religious, political persecution• Compulsory military service

“Pull”____

• Economic opportunity – industrialization created jobs• Freedom from persecution• RR advertisements• Legislation – Contract Labor Law

THROUGH THE “GOLDEN DOOR”

• Many immigrants came to American in hopes of having a better life; some wanted to come to stay, others wanted to come only for a short while, and then return home• Roughly 20 million Europeans emigrated to the

US b/t 1870—1920. Most were from Western and Northern Europe• Many left their homeland b/c of religious

persecution (Jews)• Some left b/c of rising populations in their

homelands—no opportunities to better their lives

NATIVISM

• A political movement seeking to guarantee better treatment for native-born Americans.

• The American Protective Association—called for the teaching of American culture and English-only instruction in schools.

• Fought for the Chinese Exclusion act…• Supported forced literacy tests for immigrants.• The biggest targets were immigrants from southern and eastern

Europe and Asia.

IMMIGRANTS• Chinese and Japanese immigrants came to the west

coast b/t 1851—1883. Nearly 300,000 Chinese arrived and settled in California during the gold rush

• Chinese immigrants helped build the nation’s RR lines• Once the RR was complete, they turned to farming out

west• The US annexation of Hawaii in 1898 resulted in

massive Japanese immigration to the west coast• About 260,000 immigrants from the West Indies came

to the east coast by 1920• About 700,000 Mexicans emigrated to the US by 1910

“Steerage” Accommodations

ELLIS ISLAND• Nearly all immigrants traveled by steamship to the US;

they stayed in the ships cargo holds, and were not allowed to come up to the ships deck

• Disease spread quickly on these trips due to the lack of sanitation

• Once they arrived in the US, many did not know whether they would be admitted into the country

• Immigrants on the east coast had to go through Ellis Island, NY for inspection before being allowed in the US• Physical exam• Documents to determine legal status (no felony, ability to work,

at least $25)

Ellis Island, 1905

ELLIS ISLAND, NY

Ellis Island Processing Facilities

Rejected Ellis Island immigrants, waiting for deportation

An immigrantin quarantine

IMMIGRATION BY NUMBERS, 1865-1920

1865-1890 (First Wave)

• Germany—2.8 million• Great Britain—1.8

million• Ireland—1.4 million

1890-1920 (Second Wave)

• Italy—3.8 million• Russia—3 million• Millions more from

eastern Europe, Greece, Armenia and Middle East.

ANGEL ISLAND• While European immigrant had to go through Ellis

Island, NY; Asian immigrants had to pass through Angel Island in San Francisco, California

• Conditions in Angel Island were much worse than Ellis Island—many more were denied entrance into the US

• Once in America, immigrants sought out people within their culture so they would understand the language/ customs, even though they were in America

• Large urban cities had individual communities within them; Chinatown, Little Italy, Russia, Irish, etc. were common in NY, Boston, San Francisco

• Many native born Americans felt threatened by so many immigrants in the US

ANGEL ISLAND, CA

IMMIGRATION RESTRICTIONS

• Native born Americans felt as if the country was a melting pot—mixture of people of different cultures blended together by abandoning their native languages and customs. However, many immigrants refused to abandon their culture—strong anti-immigrant feelings began to emerge

• Nativism —overt favoritism toward native-born Americans—began to evolve during the early 1900s

• Nativists believed that Anglo-Saxons were superior to other ethnic groups, and favored immigrants from “right” countries like Britain, Germany, & Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, Finland).

• Nativists disliked those from “wrong” ethic blood like Slavic, Latin, and Asian

• Many Nativists also felt religious beliefs of immigrants was important; Jews and Roman Catholics would undermine the traditional Protestant faith of the US

ANTI-ASIAN SENTIMENT

• People in the west feared that jobs would be given to the Chinese, who would work for less money than native born Americans• Sound familiar?

• In 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned the Chinese from entering the US unless they were students, teachers, merchants, tourists, or govt officials. The law was not repealed until 1943

• In 1906, the school board in San Francisco segregated Japanese students, which caused them to protest the city

• President Teddy Roosevelt worked out a Gentlemen’s Agreement in 1908 w/ Japan’s govt to stop letting unskilled workers emigrate to the US, in exchange for a repeal of the school segregation law

REFORMERS MOBILIZE • The Social Gospel movement preached salvation

through good deeds and services to the poor• Many established settlement houses, which were

community centers in slum neighborhoods that gave assistance & education to those in need (especially immigrants)• Jane Addams (the mother of Social Work) founded

Chicago’s Hull House in 1889

URBANIZATION

THE CHALLENGE

OF THE CITIES• Between 1880 and 1920, 11

million Americans left farms for the cities…

• Driven by drought, floods, falling prices, new opportunities, discrimination.

• 1880-1910—population on farms falls from 72% to 54%

• This mass migration created modern city life. The Home Insurance

Building

HOW CITIES GREW

• Suburbs developed for middle class, live near, not in a city• Subways, trains, trolleys,

and cars

• Steel allows for skyscrapers

URBAN LIVING CONDITIONS• Most workers live in company

housing or tenements (cheap apartments).

• Poverty, overcrowding, neglect, open sewers, and vermin become common.

• Hundreds crammed into spaces built for a few families.

• In NYC, 6 in 10 babies died before their first birthday.

• Fires often destroyed dozens of city blocks (Great Chicago Fire—18,000 buildings burned).

• Many neighborhoods become “Ghettos”, dominated by one particular ethnic group.

Aftermath of the Great Chicago Fire

JACOB RIIS• Worked as a police reporter

on New York’s Lower East Side in 1873…

• Wrote a book called “How the Other Half Lives”, which exposed the lives of tenement dwellers.

• The book shocked the American public into supporting reform of the tenements.

• However, wealthy families continue to flee to the suburbs, making cities concentrations of urban poor.

New York City, 1867

Wall Street, 1870

Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan

Five Points,

Manhattan

(now demolished)

A Flophouse

A Tenement’s Exterior

A Tenement’s Interior

“Bandit’sRoost”, GreenwichVillage

BasementDweller

Mulberry Street, Manhattan

URBAN PROBLEMSHousing Transportatio

nWater Sanitation Crime Fire

Many immigrants had to live in tenements

Horrible living conditions!

Mass transit made getting around in large cities easy

Street cars in SanFran

Subways in Boston, NY

Fresh water was difficult to provide to residents in large cities

Fresh water had to be gathered from the street, then boiled to be safe

Everything was thrown into the streets

•Garbage

•Sewage

•Factory waste

Pickpocket

Thieves

1844 NYC had 1st full time salaried police force

The lack of water made fires difficult to contain

Cincinnati had 1st fire dept.

200 YEARS OF PROGRESS

NEW FORMS OF ENTERTAINMENT

• Men go to saloons, women to dance halls

and cabarets

• Amusement parks

• Nickelodeons

• Vaudeville

• Sports

• Baseball

• Women participate in sports

• Bicycling Fad

• Newspapers

• Yellow Journalism

• William Randolph Hearst

MAGAZINES AND POPULAR FICTION

• Magazines like Cosmopolitan• Horatio Alger – Fictional Character • Rags to riches stories

• Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain)• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn