Coming to America

• “Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”

• This poem by Emma Lazarus is on display at which American landmark? Are the ideas accepted by all Americans?

Coming to America

Ellis Island: Arrival point for new European immigrants

Angel Island: Arrival point for new Asian immigrants

New European Immigrants

Ellis Island Processing

Immigration

• Prior to 1871, most immigrants to America came from northern and western Europe (Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, and Sweden).

• During the half-century from 1871 until 1921, most immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe (Italy, Greece, Poland, Russia, present-day Hungary, and former Yugoslavia), as well as Asia (China and Japan).

• Due to the change from northern and western to southern and eastern Europe these immigrants are known as “new immigrants.”

Immigration

• Immigrants to the United States made valuable contributions to the dramatic industrial growth of America during this period. For example:

• Chinese workers helped to build the Transcontinental Railroad.

• Immigrants worked in textile and steel mills in the Northeast.

• Immigrants worked in the clothing industry in New York

Immigration

• Slavs, Italians, and Poles worked in the coal mines of the East.

• These immigrants often worked for very low pay and endured dangerous working conditions to help build the nations’ industrial strength.

Ethnic Neighborhoods

Immigrants tend to live in the same areas to ease transition to America

Mulberry Street Bend, 1889

Dumbbell Tenement

Tenement

a rundown apartment used to house large numbers of low-income families.

5-Cent Lodgings

Men’s Lodgings

Women’s Lodgings

Immigrant Family Lodgings

1890s ”Morgue” – Basement

Saloon

” Bandits’ Roost”

Mullen’s Alley ”Gang”

The streets could be dangerous

URBAN PROBLEMS

• Overcrowded Housing

• Sanitation: garbage was often not collected

• Polluted air

• Lack of clean water

• Crime

• Fire Harper’s Weekly image of

Chicagoans fleeing the fire

over the Randolph Street

bridge in 1871

POLITICS IN THE GILDED AGE

• As cities grew in the late 19th century, so did political machines

• Political machines controlled the activities of a political party in a city

• The head of the Political machine was known as the “Boss”

ROLE OF THE POLITICAL BOSS

• The “Boss” controlled jobs, business licenses, granting of contracts and influenced laws and courts

• Political Machines helped immigrants with naturalization (citizenship), jobs, and housing in exchange for votes

Boss Tweed ran NYC

Political Corruption was considered to be widespread • President Grant’s

Administration

• Voter Fraud- used fake names and voted multiple times

• Patronage- granting favors in return for political support

• Graft- bribes

• kick-backs - Return of money in exchange for a business

Boss Tweed and

Tammany Hall

THE TWEED RING SCANDAL• William M. Tweed, known as

Boss Tweed, became head of Tammany Hall, NYC’s powerful Democratic political machines

• Between 1869-1871, Tweed led the Tweed Ring, a group of corrupt politicians, in defrauding the city

• Tweed’s ring stole between 40 and 200 million

• Tweed died in Jail

Boss

Tweed

Party Bosses & Political Machines

Term given to city officials who gave jobs, housing, and

money to immigrants in return for political

support

Boss Tweed: Most famous party boss. He ran the Tammany Hall Machine

Reformers:

• Jacob Riis:

• “How the other half lives”

• Book detailing the horrors of

city life

- Jane Addams: Hull House

-Settlement House movement:

- Teaching immigrants how

adapt to America - Social Gospel Movement: Christians should work to improve the lives of everyone

Political Reform

• Goal: End control of political bosses and machines

• How: Pendleton Act: Required civil service exams to qualify for government jobs.

CIVIL SERVICE REPLACES PATRONAGE

• Nationally, some politicians pushed for reform in the hiring system

• The system had been based on Patronage; giving jobs and favors to those who helped a candidate get elected

• Reformers pushed for an adoption of a merit system of hiring the most qualified for jobs

• The Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883 authorized a bipartisan commission to make appointments for federal jobs based on performance

Applicants for federal

jobs are required to take

a Civil Service Exam

Immigration and Assimilation

• Immigrants would begin to assimilate into the American “melting pot.”

• Public schools played a vital role in this process.

• Immigrants to America often faced hardships and hostility.

• Some reasons why (fear and resentment that immigrants would take jobs for lower pay than American workers would accept; prejudice based on religious and cultural differences).

Anti-Immigrant protest

Anti-Immigrant protest

Nativist: People opposed to

new immigrants.

KKK & Know-Nothings

were Nativist groups

Chinese Exclusion Act: Banning

of Chinese immigration

Gentleman’s Agreement: Banning of Japanese immigration

Class Work: Reading

• Read Chapter 16 section 2 and 3, pages 529-539.

• Answer the Checkpoint questions as you read.

• Once you have finished your reading you may work on your study guide.

• You should have your study guide completely answered by the end of class, if you have been keeping up with it as we’ve gone along.