immigration 1877 1914 2008

Immigration 1877-1914

Give us your tired…….

Who First?

• mainly – English,– Irish, – Germanic,

Scandinavian,– and others from

northwestern Europe

Reasons for “Old Immigration”

• Between 1840-1850, 1.5 million immigrants came to America.

• Nearly ½ were from Ireland due to the potato famine of that country.

• From 1846-1860, approximately 1.5 million Irish settled in port cities such as New York and Boston.

• In the 1840’s, large numbers of Germans immigrated to escape crop failures, and political persecution. German Jews were also seeking their freedom. Most German immigrants settled on farms in the Midwest, and in cities such as Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and St. Louis.

When, how many

• 1815-1860–5 million

• 1877-1914–10 Million

Who Second….

1. c. 1890-1914---1. -15 million

immigrants journeyed to the United States,

2. many of whom were Austro-Hungarian, Turkish, Lithuanian, Russian, Jewish, Greek, Italian, Romanian

The Dillingham Commission

• In 1907, the US Senate, under pressure from the Immigration Restriction League, formed the Dillingham Commission

• Commission -a 1880 shift in immigration patterns corresponded to the rise of festering social and economic problems in the US

• "inferior" migrants from places in southeastern Europe were responsible

• Stricter immigration restrictions and literacy test should be used to limit the poor and uneducated.

Cause of immigration

• Fugitives– Religious, Cultural,

Justice

• Economy– Poor European– Strong US

• Social Change Europe                                              

Societal Change in Europe

• Dramatic population increase.

• Spread of commercial agriculture

• Rise of the factory system

• proliferation of inexpensive means of transportation

Urban settlement

• Majority settle in cities

• Immigrant populations, highest in the largest cities (New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, and Chicago).

Why Cities?

• No money for land and expensive farming equip.

• Rejection of European landowners traditions

• US farming unique• Cultural centers

already established• Too late for free land

Reactions of “natives”

• Readily welcomed early on by WASPs as cheap labor

• Unions and Haymarket square alter opinions

EMIGRANT.--Can I come in?UNCLE SAM.--I 'spose you can;

there's no law to keep you out.

Dr. Charles Benedict Davenport

• weaknesses in society were due to the unnatural preservation, by the use of modern medicine, of the "feeble-minded" and "unfit."

• "the population of the United States will, rapidly become darker in pigmentation, smaller in stature, more mercurial, more attached to music and art, [and] more given to crimes of larceny, kidnapping, assault, murder, rape and sex-immorality

Immigration Restriction League

• Boston lawyers, professors, and philanthropists

• demonstrate literacy in some language

• it would keep out many of the "new" immigrants from southern and eastern Europe---whom league members considered inferior beings,

• Some questions to keep in mind:

1. Why did so many Europeans choose to migrate to the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?

2. How did immigration transform American society and culture?

3. How did Americans react to immigration?