The Urban Experience

The Urban Experience

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The Urban Experience

•Compare and contrast the origins of “Old” and “New” immigration.

•What opportunities and problems were present in the growing urban areas?

•Describe the evolution of the Social Gospel Movement.

IMMIGRATION

-Old Immigration

Western Europe

-New Immigration, 1890

Eastern & Southern Europe

Asian Immigration

Hispanic Immigration

New Immigrants

• In the decades after the Civil War, more and more Europeans immigrated to America.– They differed from earlier immigrant groups from

northern and western Europe who were typically Protestant, spoke English, and arrived with the government’s welcome.

– The new immigrants came from eastern and southern Europe, often were Jewish or Catholic, and usually spoke no English.

• The U.S. government welcomed the wealthy but forced poorer people to pass health and welfare tests at government reception centers such as Ellis Island in the New York Harbor.

Immigration

• Whether Asian or European, these new immigrants tended to settle in areas populated by people from the same countries who spoke the same languages and worshipped in the same ways.– The new immigrants were usually poor because they

came from politically unstable countries.• They usually worked as unskilled laborers in big cities

because they could not afford to buy farmland.– In cities, they created communities to imitate cultures of their

home countries.– These immigrants did not blend into American society like

earlier immigrants had.

NEW LIFE

-Difficult journey

-Ellis Island, NY

immigrant processing

-Angel Island, SF

-Culture Shock

Anti-Immigration

• Ellis Island: Immigrant Station in New York Harbor– Between 1870 and 1920, approximately

20 million Europeans passed through the “Golden Door”

• Many Americans were not open to the “melting pot” idea of the US and some strong anti-immigrant feelings grew – Chinese laborers in the West faced

racism and violence

NEW LIFE

-Culture Shock

*ethnic communities

formed

-Melting Pot

-Nativism

Old immigrants vs. new immigrants

* Chinese Exclusion Act 1882

No more immigration of Chinese laborers

URBAN GROWTH

-Urban life

1 in 12 in 1840

1 in 3 by 1900

-Immigrant settlements

-Decline of farmers

new technology required fewer workers

-Closing of the frontier

-Industrialization

-Cultural opportunities

URBAN PROBLEMS

-Poor housing

row houses and

tenements- substandard multi-family dwellings in major urban areas.

-Transportation

-Rising crime rates

Typical urban tenement living

URBAN PROBLEMS

-Few city services

no water

no sanitation

no fire

-Pollution and disease

RAISING AWARENESS

-Social Gospel

Christian theme of helping the less fortunate

“It is the responsibility of those who have to help those who have not”

Salvation Army

-Jacob Riis

“How the Other Half Lives”

Photographer

Jacob Riis

Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives Photographs

Children Sleeping

Homeless Children

Bandit’s Roost

RAISING AWARENESS

-Social Gospel

Christian theme of helping the less fortunate

Salvation Army

-Jane Addams

Hull House, Chicago

Settlement Houses

Provided social services for the poor

The Urban Experience

•Compare and contrast the origins of “Old” and “New” immigration.

•What opportunities and problems were present in the growing urban areas?

•Describe the evolution of the Social Gospel Movement.