Immigrants in the Gilded Age 15 Why Immigrants

Immigrants in the Gilded Age

15 Why Immigrants Came • Work - factories, mines, railroads, farms • Free Land - Homestead Act • Education – free public schools • Freedom - democracy, no forced military service, religious tolerance

16 How Many Came • Between 1865 and 1920 • Estimated 30 million • Nearly doubled the U. S. population

17 Where They Came From 1890 – 1920 1865 - 1890 10 million • Germans (2. 8) • English (1. 8) • Irish (1. 4) • • • 10 million Italians (3. 8) Russian Jews (3. 0) Slavs Greeks Armenians

Russian-Jewish Immigrants 1911

Chinese Immigrants 1900

Hungarian Immigrants 1920

18 18 Pogroms Violent massacres of Jews in Russia in the late 1880’s

How They Came 19 • Steam powered ships • Crossed the Atlantic in 2 – 3 weeks • The poor traveled in steerage

A typical steamship from 1900

20 Steerage • Large open area beneath a ship’s deck near the steering mechanism • Cheap tickets • Limited toilet facilities • No privacy • Poor food

1875 Steerage Rates from England to New York

Typical Steerage Accommodations

What happened when they arrived 21 • Most Europeans came in through the port of New York – Ellis Island • Subjected to physical exams and quarantined or sent back if found to be diseased.

22 Ellis Island • Huge reception area in New York harbor near the Statue of Liberty • Opened by federal government in 1892 for steerage passengers entering the country

Ellis Island, New York

Ellis Island Registry Room, 1905

Where They Settled • Asians settled on the west coast. • Many worked on RR’s • Others in mining, fishing, farming, laundry and factory work • Willing to work for extremely low wages. 23

Chinese immigrants working on the Central Pacific Railroad

Where They Settled continued • Mexicans settled largely in the Southwest because of the irrigated land there. • Agricultural jobs • Built RR’s in the South • Willing to accept hard jobs for low wages. • Because of immigration restrictions on Asians, many jobs open for Mexican immigrants.

Where They Settled continued • Europeans settled mainly in cities in which they arrived, or headed west to mining towns. • Usually settled with the same ethnic groups in ghettos.

24 Ghettos Ethnic communities within a city

How Americans Responded 25 • • Nativism Restrictive Covenants Chinese Exclusion Act Movement to Suburbs

Nativism 26 • An attitude favoring native -born Americans over immigrants • Nativists demanded the teaching of only the English language and American culture in schools

Restrictive Covenants • Agreements among homeowners not to sell real estate to certain ethnic groups or nationalities 27

28 Chinese Exclusion Act • 1882 - Law passed that prohibited Chinese laborers from entering the U. S. • Labor unions claimed that American wages were dropping because Asian immigrants accepted such low pay. • Law was in effect until 1943

Suburbs 29 • Residential communities that began to develop on outskirts of major cities • Public rail carriages were used for transportation to and from the city by those who could afford it.

Horse Drawn Trolley

How Immigrants Affected American Cities

Urbanization The growth of cities (urban areas) 30

New York City c. 1900

Philadelphia Street Scene c. 1890

Tenements 31 • Low-cost apartment buildings designed to house as many families as an owner could pack into them. • Generally associated with slums.

New York Tenement, c. 1890

Tenement living c. 1890

32 Urban Living Conditions • Pollution - soot made the air dark and foul • Poor sanitation - open sewers, rats and other vermin • Contaminated drinking water • Diseases spread rapidly - TB, malaria, typhoid • Fire danger - 18, 000 buildings burned in Chicago and 250 died in 1871 fire

Great Chicago Fire 1871

Urban Politics • Political Divisions - as cities grew, so did public pressures for sanitation, taxes, transportation, etc. Many people looked to the city gov’t to take care of the problem. • Graft—people using office for personal gain • Political machines develop 33

34 Political Machines • Corrupt city gov’t, used immigrants for votes • Usually run by a “boss” who either held office himself or hand-picked an individual to hold office

35 Tammany Hall • A club that ran the NY Democratic Party • Controlled by “Boss” Tweed in the 1850’s -1870’s

“Boss” William Tweed

Caption reads: “As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it? ”

Social Reform • Efforts to improve society by – Aiding and educating the poor – Eliminating evil or destructive elements 36

Jacob Riis • • 37 Immigrant from Denmark 1870 Lived in NYC tenements Became a newspaper reporter Wrote, How the Other Half Lives, exposing terrible conditions in tenement slums

38 Prohibition • Movement to legally abolish alcohol in the U. S. • Supporters blamed immigrants for a large portion of the alcohol-related problems in the nation.

39 Social Gospel Movement • Churches sought to address problems like drinking and gambling by applying Jesus’s teachings to society. • Sought labor reforms and improved living conditions for workers

Education 40 • Schools aimed at assimilating immigrants into society. • Immigrants sought literacy and civic skills needed to gain citizenship.

41 Settlement Movement • Reformers who believed that hand -outs did not help the poor • They would settle among the needy to witness their plight first -hand offer social services through “settlement houses. ”

Hull House 42 • A “settlement house” in Chicago • Opened by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr in 1889 • Provided child-care, playgrounds, clubs and children’s summer camps, legal offices and a health clinic

Jane Addams c. 1896

Hull House

Hull House Museum in Chicago today

43 Purity Crusaders • Sought to end the vices (immoral behavior) such as alcohol, drugs, prostitution and gambling • Formed societies that supported candidates for office and sought legislation to end vice and corrupt political machines