America Moves to the City

Immigrants and Others Decide to Urbanize

Consequences of Urban Development• Lure of industry jobs draws farmers and

immigrants• Mass transit in cities (trolleys, subways)

– different social groups no longer lived close together

• Inadequate water and sewer systems• By the end of the 19c cities

– cities built better sewers and supplied purified water

– Death rate declined

Consequences of Urban Development cont.• Outbreaks of deadly diseases

such as cholera and tuberculosis• Crowded tenements &

‘flophouses’• Increasing segregation of social

groups by income• Poor treatment of water, sewage,

and waste

Writing About the City• How the Other Half Lives

– Jacob Riis portrayal of American Urban Slums

• The Shame of the Cities – Lincoln Steffens muckraking

novel concerning the poor living conditions in the cities

– Muckrackers? Investigative journalists who worked to expose urban decay & corruption

JACOB RIIS: DOCUMENTING POVERTY AND HOPELESSNESS

Evicted

“New” Immigrant Origins• Most of the immigrants came from

southern and eastern Europe– Russian Jews escaping religious

persecution – Italian peasants– Greeks, Slovaks, and Poles– Unemployed Europeans seeking factory

jobs in U.S. cities“Old Immigrants”?-Irish & Germans of 1840/50’s also fled

poverty of Europe, but culturally closer to being ‘American’

Immigration Characteristics

• most immigrants were unskilled day laborers.

• immigration increased steadily during these years.

• immigrants tended to be Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Jewish. (“Old Imm. were?”)

• Chinese immigrants were excluded by law during most of these years

Immigration Centers• Ellis Island (European, mainly)-

New York• Angel Island (Asian, mainly- San

Francisco• Ellis Island- http://www.ellisisland.org/default.asp• Angel Island- http://www.angel-island.com/beck.html

Nativist sentiment against the New immigrants • practiced different religions• had different languages and cultures• were willing to work for lower wages

than were native born workers• were not familiar with the United

States political system• Blamed by “Nativists” for degradation

of the cities (they work for less, aren’t ‘American’ enough)

Immigration Restrictions• The Rise of Nativism

– Melting pot – in U.S. people blend by abandoning native culture

• New Immigrants don’t want to give up cultural identity

– Nativism – overt (obvious) favoritism torward native-born Americans

– Nativists believe Anglo-Saxons (whites) superior to other ethnic groups

– Some object to immgrts. religion; many imgrnts. are Catholic, Jewish

What group is targeted? What is the justification?

Immigration Advocates• Tammany Hall

– Political machine in New York, headed by Boss Tweed • Runs on graft, corruption, $$$• PATRONAGE JOBS- only the well

connected get help/jobs• Trade $$ & favors for jobs

– Help immigrants adjust to city life • In return for votes and support

– poor urban immigrants biggest supporters

Immigration Advocates• Settlement Houses (Jane Addams and

Hull House)– Located in poor working-class and

immigrant neighborhoods– Staffed by college-educated, middle-

class men and women– Taught English to immigrants – Helped to educate immigrant children

Immigration Issues• The American educational system could

not absorb the numbers of immigrant children

• Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 – Denied citizenship to Chinese in the U.S.

and forbid further immigration of Chinese

– Supported by American workers who worried about losing their jobs to Chinese immigrants who would work for less pay

• American Protective Association– A Nativist group of the 1890s which

opposed all immigration to the U.S

Who is the subject? What two groups are being depicted & how are they depicted? What purpose would this cartoon serve?