UNITED STATES HISTORY AND THE

CONSTITUTION

South Carolina Standard USHC-4.5

Mr. Hoover, Abbeville High School

Farm to City, America on the Move

What are the causes and effects of urbanization in late nineteenth-century America, including the movement from farm to city,

Explain the changing immigration patterns, the rise of ethnic neighborhoods, the role of political machines, and the migration of African Americans to the North, Midwest, and West.

Melting PotAs immigration increased in the late

nineteenth century and cities grew, immigrants sought ways to participate in the democratic process.

Rise of the CityCities developed as a result of

geographic factors first as centers of trade, then as transportation hubs.

With the advent of electricity, cities became the centers of industrial production in the 19th century.

Modern Technology

They were affected by technological innovations such as the elevator, steel girders, suspension bridges, electric trolley cars, elevated tracks (‘els’) and subways that allowed cities to grow both skyward and outward.

Population ExplosionCity populations grew as people

immigrated from abroad and migrated from the farm to the city.

Farm technology played a role as farmers in all regions produced more and sold it for less, defaulted on loans, lost their land and moved to the cities to find work.

Big City Cultural LifeOthers were

attracted to the city because of its rich cultural life and excitement.

Despite the phenomenal growth of cities, the majority of the American people still lived outside of urban areas before 1920.

ImmigrationIn the late 19th

century, immigration patterns changed as more and more immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe rather than northern and western Europe.

While the Irish and the Germans who predominated prior to the Civil War had also been met with hostility and resentment from the native-born American population.

Nativism increased as Italians and Poles, Jews and Russians came to dominate immigration.

Literacy TestA movement to restrict

immigration through a literacy test was initiated but was not successful until the 1920s.

Many immigrants were too poor to move beyond the port cities where they landed.

Thus ethnic neighborhoods grew as immigrants looked for the familiar in a strange new land.

Old World InfluenceChurches, schools, businesses

and newspapers reflected the ethnicity of Little Italy, Greektown or Polonia.

Many established immigrants helped those who had newly arrived to find jobs and housing.

This had a powerful impact on city politics.

Political BossesPeople voted for those who found them

jobs and helped them through hard times.

Immigrants gave their votes to neighborhood and ward bosses in gratitude for the help they had received, not as a result of any direct bribery.

Although many political bosses were corrupt and routinely used graft and bribery in awarding city contracts, they also served an important role in helping immigrants to adapt to their new country.

Boss TweedThe power that immigrant groups gave to

the urban political machine allowed the bosses to solve important urban problems despite the abuses that occurred under city bosses such as New York’s Boss Tweed.

Progressive MovementIncreasingly crowded city

conditions led to problems with housing, sanitation, transportation, water, crime and fire.

The progressive movement developed as a result of the need to address urban problems and political corruption.

Poor Cotton YieldsMost freedmen had stayed in the

South immediately after the Civil War.

In the 1890s, the migration of African-Americans from the South was the result of poor cotton yields due to soil exhaustion and the boll weevil, as well as the discrimination of Jim Crow laws, intimidation and lynching's.

Job Opportunities. As farm prices fell, African

Americans joined other farmers in the move to the cities for job opportunities.

However jobs in mill towns of the South were not open to them.

So African Americans headed to the West in search of land and to the cities of the North and Midwest.

StrikebreakersAfrican Americans found

discrimination in the cities. They were the last to be hired

and the first to be fired. Often used as Strikebreakers,

they suffered resentment of striking workers.

They were relegated to the least desirable parts of the city in segregated neighborhoods.

Cultural RenaissanceThis movement intensified during

World War I as more jobs became available and the movement of African American culture to the cities of the North and Midwest would result in a cultural renaissance in the post World War I period.

Great Disasters The influence of disasters such as the

Great Chicago Fire, the hurricane and flood in Galveston, Texas and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake help make the way for the development of new strategies for addressing urban problems.

Temperance MovementAnti-immigrant initiatives such as the

temperance movement or efforts to assimilate immigrants through public education that started in the pre-Civil War period and continued into the 20th century.

The temperance movement was directed at ethnic groups whose cultures were associated with drink such as the Irish and Germans and later applied to Italians.

Public SchoolsThe public school movement was

promoted to teach the newly arrived about democracy and the Protestant religion of the American majority.

Consequently Roman Catholic immigrant groups developed their own parochial school systems.