Immigration in the early 1900s

20th Century Studies 1-Awww.historyalive.com

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Travel by Steamliner

• What are these people doing? Why might they be leaving? How might they feel? Why?

• The period between 1865 and 1915, a great wave of immigrants came to the United States. Between 1865 and 1900 over 13 million immigrants came to the United States. The four major reasons that people came to the United States at this time were wars, famine, religious persecution, and overpopulation. One of the first large immigrant groups to come over was the Irish, trying to escape the Potato Famine in the mid-1800s.

Travel by Steamliner, 2

• Who are these people? What are some of the hardships of their voyage? From what economic class might they come? How can you tell? How do you think these immigrants are feeling now? Why?

• Many immigrants came over to the United States in the steerage class of ships, since that was the cheapest way to travel. It was terribly uncomfortable. Many people were sick throughout the long journey; people lived in cramped quarters with little food and no room to move or breathe. One US immigration official said that “During the twelve days in the steerage I lived in…surroundings that offended every sense. Only the fresh breeze from the sea overcame the sickening odors. Everything was dirty, sticky, and disagreeable to the touch.” Passage to the United States might cost someone’s entire savings. Usually only one or two family members could make the trek; they would then find jobs and try to save enough money to send for the rest of the family.

• Although there were ports around the United States, over 70% of the immigrants came through the “Golden Door” – New York City, through Ellis Island. Many stayed and settled near the ports, but some were brave enough to venture into the interior of the country and try life as farmers.

• Of the immigrants that stayed close to port, many settled in major cities. Here they could find jobs and fellow immigrants, where they could all work on creating new lives together. By 1900, two-thirds of the foreign-born people in the United States lived in the cities, and 80% of the residents in New York City were immigrants or children of immigrants (second generation). Neighborhoods of immigrants from the same country would form. These neighborhoods offered new immigrants support and networking so that they could find housing and jobs. However, these neighborhoods slowed immigrants’ assimilation into US society, which made it easier for Americans to keep their stereotypes and prejudice against the immigrants.

Arrival

• If you were an immigrant and this was the first building you saw, what would be your impression of the United States? Why?

• This building is Ellis Island in Upper New York Bay. It opened in 1892, burned to the ground in 1897, reopened in 1900, and by 1910 over six million immigrants passed through its processing points. In 1924, immigration quotas were decreased. The people in power in the United States did not want to continue welcoming immigrants, especially those from Europe. By 1954, Ellis Island was closed. It was allowed to fall into disrepair until the government decided that this was a historical site worth preserving for future generations.

Processing

• Why are the immigrants being inspected? What are the holding pens for? How do you think the immigrants feel? Why? Is the treatment fair or not?

• Upon arrival at Ellis Island (or elsewhere in the United States), immigrants had to pass through a series of inspections. Because of the number of immigrants passing through Ellis Island, sometimes people would stand in line for hours, waiting to go through the medical inspection. This was a very nerve-wracking time because inspectors had the authority to send immigrants back, no questions asked.

• The inspections were very dehumanizing. Medical inspectors were so busy that they only spent about two minutes inspecting each person; each immigrant had that amount of time to convince the inspectors that they were healthy and would somehow benefit the United States. Once medical inspections were done, other officials took down the names of immigrants. Officials were often so busy that they didn’t want to bother with the proper spelling of foreign names, so they either changed the names of immigrants or completely misspelled them.

Political Cartoons

• Who is the man coming down the gangplank? Who are the men on the dock? What are the men on the dock trying to tell the arriving immigrant? Why? Why might Americans have these feelings toward foreigners? What do the shadows represent? What is the irony of this cartoon?

• Political cartoons of the time period showed attitudes toward immigrants. Many native-born Americans resented the rise of immigration. They feared the new languages, religions, and customs that the immigrants were bringing. New immigrants also brought competition for jobs, which were already difficult to find. Immigrants were willing to work low-wage jobs even if the jobs required long hours or were grueling.

• Employers started using the immigrants as strike-breakers, which increased native-born Americans resentment of these newcomers. One newspaper editorial described the attitude toward immigrants: “The immigrants are an invasion of venomous reptiles…long-haired, wild-eyed, bad-smelling, atheistic, reckless foreign wretches, who never did a day’s work in their lives.”

Living Standards

• Who are the people in the picture? Why do so many of them have to sleep in the same room? Why was this type of lodging called "nickel a spot"? How do you think these people feel about their living conditions? Why?

• Many immigrants who came over to the United States without their families started out in “five cents a spot” lodging. This was very illegal because it was a fire hazard, but it was affordable and in common practice. Jacob Riis, a Dutch photographer, said about the fives cents a spot lodging, “In a room not thirteen feet either way slept twelve men and women, two or three in bunks set in a sort of alcove, the rest on the floor. A kerosene lamp burned dimly in the fearful atmosphere, probably to guide other and later arrivals to their ‘beds,’ for it was just past midnight.” Living conditions were terrible. One New York social worker counted over 1200 people living in 120 rooms. Another could not find one bathtub within three city blocks. In Chicago, conditions were so bad that 60% of infants did not live even one year.

Employment

• What is this girl doing? What are her working conditions probably like? Why do you think the employer hired her instead of an adult? How do you think she feels about her job? Why? How do you think her parents feel? Why?

• What is this boy’s job? What is life like for him?

• This girl is working at a textile factory. Immigrants took jobs that no one else wanted, such as working in textile factories, stockyards, coal mines, and steel mills. Unskilled workers were normally paid 10 cents an hour, or $5.50 each week. Children made less than half an adult’s wage. In 1910, the average work week was 55 hours, even for children.

• Many of these occupations were dangerous. Between 1880 and 1900, over 35,000 workers were killed on the job (an average of one every two days). Employees who got sick due to their working conditions were laid off; employers did not offer compensation.

• In 1905, 10 year old boys worked in the coal mines as “breakers.” Their job was to pick out stone and slate from the coal in coal chutes. Ten hours of work a day was exhausting. It caused boys to become round-shouldered and their growth was stunted. If they became too tired and fell off their perch on the chutes, they would be crushed by falling coal.

Minorities

• Who are these people? To what area of the United States did they immigrate? Why? Does it appear from this picture that the Chinese immigrants tried to "melt into" American culture? How do you think many Americans felt toward the Chinese?

Chinese Americans

• This picture shows Chinese immigrants in Chinatown, a segregated section of San Francisco. Most Asians arrived on the West Coast during this period of immigration. In the early days of this rise in immigration, most of the Asian immigrants were Chinese. Between 1865 and 1882, 320,000 Chinese immigrated to the United States. Chinese immigration jumped from 3,000 per year in the 1850s to 23,000 per year in the 1870s.

• By 1877, 17% of California’s population was Chinese. Thousands of Chinese immigrants were employed in the building of the transcontinental railroad. These immigrants created several segregated neighborhoods, called Chinatowns, around the state. Chinese considered American culture, just as Americans considered Chinese backwards and savage. Both communities distrusted each other as a general rule, which led to problems between the communities. Like European immigrants, Chinese were willing to take on menial jobs; American workers just started to resent these new immigrants.

• In 1877, anti-Chinese riots took place in San Francisco. In 1880, the United States reached an agreement with China and signed a treaty limiting immigration but promising not to ban it altogether. However, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 violated the treaty by banning Chinese immigration completely. This law made it illegal for Chinese to immigrate to the United States. In 1924, the United States extended this ban to all Asians. The limits and ban on immigration continued until 1943. Asians were treated as second-class citizens until after the end of World War II (1945).

Mexican Workers

• With the restriction of Chinese immigration, railways looked at Mexican immigrants as the new workers. Many were forced into debt peonage, a system that bound laborers into slavery to pay off a debt; this system lasted until 1911.