Chapter 20

Immigrants and Urban Life1872 - 1914

Essential Question

•How did immigration during the late 1800s affect the United States?

I. A New Wave of Immigration

• Changing Patterns of Immigration– Old Immigrants: immigrants from northern and

western Europe (1800-1870)• Great Britain, Germany, Ireland, Scandinavia • Protestant (except the Irish)• Skilled workers or farmers (except the Irish)

– “New” Immigrants: immigrants from southern and eastern Europe (1870 – 1930)• Greece, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Italy, Czechoslovakia• Roman Catholic, Jewish• Unskilled workers, escaping religious or political persecution

Arriving in a New Land

• Steerage: an area below a ship’s deck where steering mechanisms are located– Inexpensive– Cramped– Foul-smelling

Immigration Centers

• Ellis Island, NY• Angel Island, CA• El Paso, TX• Tests– Documentation– Literacy– Health

• Trachoma – contagious eye disease

Adjusting to a New Life

• Immigrants had to find jobs, find homes, and learn a new language

• Ethnic Neighborhoods: areas where people shared same language and culture

• Benevolent Societies: offered immigrants help in cases of sickness, employment, or death

Tenements and Finding Work

• Tenements: poorly built, overcrowded apartment buildings

• Often took low paying, unskilled jobs in factories

• Sweatshops: work places known for hot, unhealthy working conditions

Opposition to Immigration

• Business leaders wanted immigrants because they work for less

• Nativists feel too many immigrants are coming into the country

• Chinese Exclusion Act (1882): banned Chinese people from immigrating to the United States for 10 years

• Even with restrictions, immigrants still came in large numbers

II. The Growth of Cities

• Immigrants responsible for large urban (city) growth – Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Boston, Baltimore, Detroit, Cleveland

• African Americans move to northern cities to escape discrimination and find opportunity (Great Migration) • Chicago, 1900

Changing Cities

• The rise of the steel industry made building skyscrapers possible

• Mass Transit: public transportation designed to move many people– Elevated trains– Subways– Electric trolleys

• Suburbs: residential neighborhoods outside of downtown areas • Boston Subway, 1897

New Ideas

• Mass Culture: leisure and cultural activities shared by many people

• World fairs brought merchants together

• Department Stores: giant retail shops– Low prices– Store restaurants– Fancy window displays

• Public Entertainment– Amusement parks– Open public space– Frederick Law

Olmstead: designed Central Park, New York City

New Ideas

New Ideas

III. City Life• Shortage of affordable housing

forced many poor families to squeeze into tenements

• Jacob Riis: famous journalist and photographer who exposed these horrible conditions– Sanitation problems– Poor fire escapes– No clean water– Pollution– Disease

Improving City Life

• Because there was little government aid available, private organizations helped urban poor

• Settlement Houses: neighborhood centers in poor areas that offered education, recreation, and social activities– Hull House: most famous – started by Jane Addams in

Chicago to help poor immigrants– Florence Kelley: reformer from Hull House that exposed

conditions in sweatshops – convinced lawmakers to limit working hours for women and end child labor

Statue of Liberty

Colossus of Rhodes Statue of Liberty

Statue of Liberty Facts• Official dedication ceremonies

held on Thursday, October 28, 1886

• Total overall height from the base of the pedestal foundation to the tip of the torch is 305 feet, 6 inches

• There are 154 steps from the pedestal to the head of the Statue of Liberty

• There are seven rays on her crown, one for each of the seven continents, each measuring up to 9 feet in length and weighing as much as 150 pounds

• Total weight of the Statue of Liberty is 225 tons (or 450,000 pounds)

• At the feet of the Statue lie broken shackles of oppression and tyranny

• “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free; the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me; I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” – Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus”