URBANIZATION1865-1900

Chapter 10

The Rise of Urban America

A. Population in 1900 doubled to about 80 million

* Population in cities tripled; by 1900 40% of Americans lived in cities.

B. Skyscrapers emerged - steel allowed for taller buildings; elevators were perfected.

Working class housing: “Dumbell” tenement – 1879; 7 or 8 stories high with little ventilation; crowded; often a fire trap!

Class distinctions

1. New class of super-wealthy: nouveau riche

2. Wealthy = 10% of families; 90% of wealth

* Traveled to Europe as children, attended college or academies, owned more than

one house, boats, carriages, & later…autos

* Employed several servants

Vanderbilt mansion in NYC(He built one just like it next door

for his daughter.)

3. Middle class

a. Lower end: salesmen, clerks governmentworkers, teachers

b. Upper end: lawyers & doctors

c. Mostly WASP

d. Had fairly large homes; atleast one domestic servant

e. “Respectable” women didn’t debate public issues or draw attention

to themselves.

4. Working class

a. Usually Catholic (esp. Irish), foreign(esp. E. & S. Europe), or black

b. Between 23% & 30% out of work forsome period every year

c. By 1900 - nearly 20% of children under age 15

labored in non-agricultural work

d. 20% of women worked; most were young – between school & marriage

Child LaborNo time for school or play.

Cities had deplorable conditions!

- Crime, violence, fire, disease, & pollution.

- Native-born Americans blamed immigrants (NATIVISM).

- Alcohol - contributed to violent crime.

Epidemics were a Constant Threat

The Great Chicago Fire of 1871There was often insufficient equipment to fight

fires; no building codes for safety.

Dirty cities....... Pollution

Dangerous and Unhealthy Working ConditionsNo rules for workers’ safety; no help if they were injured.

“New Immigration” - after 1880

A. “Old” Immigration - 1850-1880, 6 million+

1. Mostly Anglo-Saxon; came from Britain & W. Europe (Germany & Scandinavia)

-- Most were literate & easily adapted(assimilated) to American society

2. Before 1880 - stereotype of immigration was German & Irish

a. Germans seen as sturdy, hard-working

b. Irish seen as dirty, drunk, immoral, violent

B. “New Immigration” - between 1880-1920(27 million; 11 million went back)

1. Most came from E. & S. Europe (Italians, Jews, Poles, Greeks, Hungarians, Croat/ Slovenian, Bulgarian/Serbian, Czech)

2. By 1910, 1/3 of Americans were either foreign-born or had at least one foreign-born parent

* Most came through Ellis Island in NY harbor

Most “new immigrants” had to endure a difficult Atlantic crossing in steerage, the cheapest and most uncomfortable accommodations.

Immigrantswere processedat Ellis Islandwhere they hadto undergophysical exams.If found to beill, they wereeither put under quarantine or back on the ship to return toEurope.

3. Many immigrants were Orthodox Christians or Jewish (from E. Europe)

4. Came from countries with little democracy

5. Heavily illiterate

C. Tried to maintain their cultures in America – ethnic neighborhoods (Language, Security)

1. Catholic parochial schools & Jewish Hebrew schools.

2. Foreign-language newspapers, theaters, food stores, restaurants, social clubs. Slowed immersion.

D. Why so much immigration from Eastern & Southern Europe?

1. Overpopulation

2. America was seen as the "Land of Opportunity" (conditions in Europe dismal!)

-- Statue of Liberty erected in NY harbor, a gift from the French.

3. US needs low-wage labor; RRs' need buyers of land from government grants; states want more population; steamship lines want business.

5. Asian Immigration to America

Why did Asians come to America?

- Chinese - mid-1800s; mostly to western cities to escape:

Overpopulation at home

Unemployment

Poverty

Famine & hunger

Rebellion in China (20 million dead)

- Discovery of gold in California demand for workers in the mines.

- Transcontinental railroad demand for labor.

- Japanese - later 1800s/early 1900s.

Japan was building an industrial economy.

Building an empire disrupted economy, causing hardships for Japanese people.

- Angel Island - “Ellis Island of the West Coast” (processing immigrants, etc.)

• There was a resurgence of nativism during the late 19th

and early 20th centuries.

• Wave of immigrants

fear & distrust of foreigners. Fear of immigrants taking American jobs. Fear that immigrants would take jobs as strikebreakers and hurt labor unions’ activities. Customs, language, religions (ex. Irish Catholics)

- Previous immigrants had been mostly from Western and Northern Europe; now from Eastern

and Southern Europe and from Asia.

Suspicion of political motives.

• Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Chinese Laundry in San Francisco

Barred Chinese immigration for 10 yrs. Kept Chinese already in US from becoming citizens. Some Chinese immigrants protested the double standard (no ban on Irish, Italians, Germans, etc.) Some filed suit in court...lost. 1902 - Exclusion Act made permanent; not repealed until 1943. American-Chinese population decreased dramatically.

The Political Machine

A. Political machines catered to new immigrants

1. “Bosses” traded jobs & services for votes = created powerful voting blocs for their own purposes

-- Provided jobs on city payroll; found them housing; gave food& clothing; helped with legal counseling; built schools, parks,& hospitals.

2. Reformers infuriated by these practices; wanted to curb power of political machines.

How did political machines work?

• The “Political Machine” mobilized the voters to get their candidates elected.

• The “Political Machine” ran on “patronage/spoils system

-- securing jobs for supporters. “Spoils system”

Definition: Gov’t ’jobs for votes Gov’t employment expanded

significantly (ex: postal service)

-- Reforms of civil service (govt) jobs attempted to take take power away from political leaders and city bosses

B. Social Crusaders attempted to improve the “shame of the cities” (i.e. Lincoln Steffans)

1. Motivation: feared working class revolution

2. Social Gospel advocates emerged

a. “Christianity should improve life on earth rather than waiting for the afterlife.”

* Wanted less alcoholism, unemployment.

* Mediated between management & unions

b. Salvation Army: To US in 1879

* Appealed to poor; soup kitchens most obvious contribution.

3. Settlement House Movement

a. Primarily a women’s movement (college-educated & prosperous women)

* Teaching or volunteerism - permissible occupations for young women of that social class.

* Women prohibited from involvement in politics (Victorian ideals & “cult of domesticity”)

b. Jane Addams

* One of the first generation of college-educated women

* Established Hull House in Chicago

- Immigrants were taught English - Nutrition, health, child care classes - Discussed current events - Social activities - Helped immigrants cope with American big city life; provided childcare. - Model for other settlement houses.

* Addams – Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

4. American Red Cross launched in 1881- led by Clara Barton.

5. YWCA founded in 1858 - help for young urban women.

C. Anti-foreignism or “nativism”? ....

“Melting pot” or “Dumping ground”?

Clara Barton

"MELTING POT" OR "SALAD BOWL?"

Nativism …. Ironic?

1. Nativists viewed Eastern & Southern Europeans as culturally & religiously inferior; often treated them badly.

a. Alarmed at high birthrates common among people of low standard of living.

b. Alarmed at prospect of a mongrelized America (mixture of “inferior” blood).

c. Angry that those immigrants would work for low wages; drove their wages down, too!

d. Concerned about foreign doctrines, e.g. socialism, communism, & anarchism.

Rise of Segregation

Main idea: In the late 1800s, southern states passedlaws denying African-Americans the right to voteand imposed segregation on them.

I. Resistance and Repression: Black Codes-”vagrancy”

A. Post-Reconstruction: African Americans not much better off than under slavery.1. Technically free, but stuck in poverty!2. Most were sharecroppers

B. African-Americans flee the South1. Mass migration to Kansas2. Called Exodusters

C. Colored Farmers’ National Alliance1. Set up co-ops2. Many joined Populist Party

D. Dems resorted to racism to crush Populist Party.

Democrats Disenfranchise African-Americans

* To get past the 15th Amendment: 1. Poll tax - blacks couldn’t afford it.

2. Literacy tests - most had no education.3. Intimidation at the polls.

Fifteenth Amendment

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by

any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

• Racist movements like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) were formed in many southern towns. They intimidated both black people and those white people who supported racial equality.

Segregation in the South A. Democrats passed laws forcing segregation - Jim Crow Laws. B. Supreme Court, 1883, said 14th Amendment meant only state laws (not private organizations or businesses) were prohibited from

practicing racial discrimination.

Fourteenth AmendmentAll persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

C. Plessy v. Ferguson - upheld segregation, using “separate but

equal” justification.

D. Lynchings (illegal executions) increased. 70% of them were African-American.

African-American Response A. Ida B. Wells - African American; writings were a crusade against lynchings. B. Booker T. Washington

1. Stressed economic goals, rather than legal or political actions.2. Atlanta Compromise - he called on blacks to concentrate on education &

vocational training to empower themselves.

C. W.E.B. DuBois1. Urged African-Americans to demand full civil rights, especially the right to vote.2. Advised them to use the courts and the political system to force equal rights under the law.