New Immigrants Steerage New Immigrants Immigrants who came

“New” Immigrants / Steerage “New” Immigrants – Immigrants who came to the United States from southern and eastern Europe and struggled to adapt to America culture due to their difference in language, religion, and social status. Between the end of the Civil War (1870 s) and the beginning of World War I (1910 s) there was a dramatic increase in the number of immigrants coming to the United States. Prior to the 1870 s the majority of immigrants had been Protestants from northern and western Europe. They came as families to settle in the United States, often on farms with family or friends who had come before. Many had saved money for the journey, had a skill or trade, and were educated. In contrast, “new” immigrants were often unskilled, poor, Catholic or Jewish, and likely to settle in cities rather than on farms. Many came alone, planning to save some money in the United States and return home to live. Between 1900 and 1910, 70% of all immigrants coming to the United States came from Italy, Greece, Poland, Russia, Hungary, and other southern and eastern European countries. Steerage – The worst accommodations on a ship; located on the lower decks with no private cabins, most “new” immigrants were only able to afford this type of travel. Closure Question #1: How did new immigrants differ from old immigrants?

Push Factors / Pull Factors Push Factors – Events which took place in the native countries of immigrants which led them to immigrate to the United States; these include poor economy, warfare, and religious persecution. In Mexico, Poland, and China, land reform and low prices forced many farmers off their land. Beginning in the 1840 s, China and eastern Europe experienced repeated wars and political revolutions. One of the largest groups t settle in America were Russian and eastern European Jews fleeing religious persecution. Pull Factors – Perceived opportunities in the United States that led people in other countries to immigrate to the United States; these include cheap land in the American west and industrial jobs in American cities, political stability, and freedom of religion. The United States offered special attractions, including plentiful land employment. The 1862 Homestead Act and aid from railroad companies made western farmland inexpensive. The railroads even offered reduced fares to get there because they needed customers in the west for their own business to succeed. Until 1885, immigrants were recruited from their homelands to build railroads, dig mines, work in oil fields, harvest produce, or toil in factories. Others hoped to strike it rich by finding gold.

Ellis Island / Angel Island Ellis Island – Immigrant processing station in New York Harbor for most immigrants entering the United States from Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean between 1892 and the 1960 s. In the processing station immigration officials decided who could stay in the United States. To enter, immigrants had to be healthy and show that they had money, a skill, or a sponsor to provide for them. While 1 st and 2 nd class passengers were inspected on the ship and released unless they had obvious medical problems, all 3 rd and steerage class passengers had to go through Ellis Island. There immigration officers conducted legal and medical examinations. Only about 2% of immigrants were denied entry. Angel Island – Immigrant processing station in San Francisco Bay for most immigrants entering the United States from Asia and the Pacific Islands between 1910 and the 1960 s. While Ellis Island was generally welcoming, the purpose of Angel Island was to filter out unwanted immigrants, specially the Chinese. After 1882, Chinese immigrants were turned away unless they could prove that they were American citizens or had relatives living in America. Officials often assumed that Chinese newcomers would misrepresent themselves in order to gain entry. While most immigrants left Ellis Island within hours, Chinese immigrants at Angel Island often spent weeks or even months detained in poor conditions. Closure Question #2: What problems did immigrants face in coming to America?

Americanization / Melting Pot Americanization – A process through which an immigrant and his/her descendants abandon their native customs and language, replacing them with English and American dress, diet, and traditions. Most new immigrants stayed in cities, close to industrial jobs and factories. There, they often lived in ethnic neighborhoods, called ghettoes, with people who shared their native language, religion, and culture. By 1890, many cities had huge immigrant populations. In San Francisco and Chicago, they made up more than 40% of the population. 4 out of 5 inhabitants of New York City were foreign born or had foreign-born parents. In many cities, volunteer institutions, known as settlement houses, ran Americanization programs. At the same time, immigrants helped one another through fraternal organizations, such as the Polish National Alliance and the Ancient Order of Hibernians. These organizations, based on ethnic or religious identity, provided social services and financial assistance. Melting Pot – A society in which white people of all different nationalities blend to create a single culture; the United States at the turn of the 20 th century was considered to be a melting pot society.

Nativism / Chinese Exclusion Act Nativism – A belief that native-born white Americans were superior to newcomers; competition for jobs and housing between native-born and foreign-born Americans led to a rise in Nativism in the late 1800 s Religion was also a big problem. Protestants were suspicious of Catholicism, the religion of many Irish, German, Italian, and Polish people. Some native-born white Protestants would not hire, vote for, or work with Catholics or Jews. Some Americans even signed restrictive contracts agreeing not to rent or sell property to Catholics, Jews, African-Americans, or other groups they considered “non-native”. Chinese Exclusion Act – Passed in 1882, this law prohibited immigration by Chinese laborers, limited the civil rights of Chinese immigrants already in the USA, and forbade the naturalization of Chinese residents. Nativist intellectuals backed up their prejudices with dubious scientific rhetoric that linked immigrants’ physical characteristics to criminal tendencies or lower intellectual abilities. As a result of the CEA, many Chinese-Americans dared not visit their families in China, fearing they would not be permitted to return to the USA.

Mark Twain Pseudonym for Samuel Clemens, a 19 th century American author and satirist; Twain wrote classics such as Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer and is also credited with labeling the era following the American Civil War as “The Gilded Age”. In his 1873 novel, The Gilded Age, Twain depicted American society as gilded, or having a rotten core covered with gold paint. Late nineteenth-century cities were filthy. Unpaved streets were snarled with ruts and littered with trash and even dead horses that were left to rot. Alleys between tenements were clogged with food waste and trash. Only the newest urban dwellings had indoor toilets, and the shared toilets in tenements often overflowed. These conditions were perfect for breeding epidemics, posing danger to everyone. During the 1880 s, planners attempted to regulate housing, sanitation, sewers, and public health. They began to take water from reservoirs that were separate from the polluted rivers and lakes. In the next decade, a new filtration system improved water quality even more. Private companies competed for lucrative contracts to manage water distribution. Especially in the Southwest, where water was in short supply, questions of who should profit from water delivery sent city planners into a frenzy.

Gilded Age Label given to the last decades of the nineteenth century; the era is known for technological advancements and dramatic quality of life improvements for the middle-class. The new lifestyle that middle-class Americans adopted during this period – shopping, sports, and reading popular magazines and newspapers – contributed to the development of a more commonly shared American culture that would persist for the next century. After the Civil War, Americans began to measure success by what they could buy. Equating purchasing power with a higher standard of living, middle-class and some working-class consumers rushed to modernize their homes and clothing styles. In this period, the cost of living decreased because manufactured products and new technology cost less. Better sanitation and medical care contributed to better health, causing life expectancy to climb. The end of the 19 th century is sometimes called the Victorian Era, after the queen of England. The rich were richer than ever before, and the middle-class tried to imitate their lifestyle. Factory-produced clothing and prepackaged food gave homemakers a break from some activities, but rising expectations of cleanliness and more complicated meals meant that they spent more time on those tasks. Other luxuries, like indoor plumbing, also became common. On the other hand, many women had to work outside their homes to achieve a middle-class lifestyle.

Conspicuous Consumerism A cultural trait of the United States in the late 19 th century in which people wanted and bought the many new products on the market. Industrialization and urbanization changed the lives of American workers. More people began to work for wages rather than for themselves on farms. Some people worked in offices, drove trolleys, or became factory foremen. Even farmers made more cash as machinery improved and they sold more crops. More products were available than ever before and at lower prices. All but the very poorest working-class laborers were able to do and buy more than they would have in the past. Rowland H. Macy opened what he called a department store in New York in 1858. It became the largest single store in America. Its sales methods – widespread advertising, a variety of goods organized into “departments” and highquality items at fair prices – became the standard in large urban stores. By the 1870 s, many big cities had department stores: Jordan Marsh in Boston, Marshall Field in Chicago, and Wanamaker’s in Philadelphia. John Wanamaker developed innovative ways to keep customers satisfied. He was the first to offer a money back guarantee. In addition, he placed large newspaper advertisements to attract customers. Later, Wanamaker became Postmaster General. In that position, he lowered the bulk shipping rates and began free delivery to rural areas, which led to a boom in the mail-order catalog business. Closure Question #1: What factors contributed to consumerism?

Joseph Pulitzer / William Randolph Hearst Joseph Pulitzer – Hungarian immigrant who started The World, a successful newspaper in New York City which was supported by business that placed advertisements in the paper. Pulitzer fought in the Civil War for the Union. After the war he moved to Missouri and was active in politics there in the 1870 s before moving to New York City. The World was so successful that Pulitzer started publishing The Evening World. The job of a newspaper, Pulitzer believed, was to inform people and to stir up controversy. His newspapers were sensationalistic, filled with exposes of political corruption, comics, sports, and illustrations. They were designed to get the widest possible readership, rather than simply to report the news. William Randolph Hearst – Founder of The Morning Journal and Pulitzer’s chief rival in the New York City newspaper business. Ethnic and special-interest publishers catered to the array of urban dwellers. Between 1870 and 1900 the number of newspapers increased from about 600 to more than 1, 600. The Philadelphia Tribune, begun in the 1880 s, targeted the African-American market. In New York, there were six Italian-language papers by 1910. Each sold more than 10, 000 copies daily.

Horatio Alger Late 19 th century American Author who wrote about characters who succeeded by hard work. (Rags-to-Riches) In 1868 Alger published his first novel, Ragged Dick, or Street Life in New York. This wildly successful novel told the story of a poor boy who rose to wealth and fame by working hard. Alger’s novels stressed the possibility that anyone could vault from poverty and obscurity to wealth and fame. Novels that explored harsh realities were also popular in the Gilded Age. Stephen Crane exposed the slums of New York in his Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893). He later wrote The Red Badge of Courage, which explored the psychological aspects of war. Henry James and Edith Wharton were authors who questioned a society based upon rigid rules of conduct. Playwrights such as John Augustin Daly mirrored Mark Twain’s disapproval of the Gilded Age. The vitality of city life also inspired graphic artists. Philadelphia’s Thomas Eakins painted a larger-than-life illustration of a medical operation, complete with exposed flesh. Painter Robert Henri and his associates developed a style of painting known as the Ashcan School which dramatized the starkness and squalor of New York City slums and street life.

John Dewey Influential philosopher, reformer and professor of the Gilded Age; Dewey’s child-centered philosophy of education provides the foundation for modern education in the United States. Dewey argued that students learn by doing activities that teach them to answer their own questions, rather than by memorizing from books and lectures. His opponents argued that orderly classrooms were better for learning. Dewey’s ideas declined in popularity by the 1950 s, but regained popularity in the 1980 s. During the Gilded Age Public Education expanded rapidly. Grade-school education became compulsory nationwide. Many locales also provided high schools, although only a small percentage of young people attended. In 1870, the nation had only a few hundred high schools; in 1910, there were more than 5, 000. Kindergartens also appeared as a way to help working-class mothers. As a result, the literacy rate climbed to nearly 90% by 1900. Schools taught courses in science, woodworking, and drafting, providing skills that workers needed in budding industries. The curriculum also included civics and business training. Urban leaders counted on schools to help Americanize immigrants, teaching them English and shaping them into good citizens. Teacher-training schools responded to the call. Not only did they grow in number, but they also developed more sophisticated ideas about teaching and learning.

Spectator Sports / Baseball Spectator Sports – Athletic competitions held for entertainment; in the United States spectator sports began to become popular during the Gilded Age and included baseball, horse racing, boxing, bicycle racing, and football. Baseball – The national sport of the United States and the most popular spectator sport of the Gilded Age; the first professional baseball league, the National League, was established in 1876. Major cities built stadiums that seated thousands of people, like Boston’s Fenway Park. Billboards advertised everything from other sports to toothpaste and patent medicines. There were even baseball songs. The most famous – “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” – was written in 1908. Until 1887 teams sometimes included African American players. After the Chicago White Stockings refused to play against a team that had a black player, separate African American teams emerged by 1900. Closure Question #2: Describe middle-class entertainment.

Mining Towns Rapidly constructed communities established in the western United States following the discovery of gold or silver; examples of towns include Carson City, Nevada & Pikes Peak, Colorado. Closure Question #1: How did mining in the West change over time?

Transcontinental Railroad A rail link between the Eastern and Western United States; the first Transcontinental Railroad was completed by the Central Pacific and Union Pacific in 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah. It connected Omaha, Nebraska with Sacramento, California. Closure Question #2: How did railroads contribute to the settlement and growth of the West?

Open-Range System of cattle ranching in which owners marked (branded) their cattle so they could be identified, then allowed them to graze on communal property that was not fenced in. Closure Question #3: How did economic and cultural diversity cause conflicts in the West?

Homestead Act - 1862 Law under which the government offered farm plots in the west of 160 acres to anyone willing to live on the land, dig a well, and build a road. Closure Question #3: How did economic and cultural diversity cause conflicts in the West?

Exodusters A group of African-American agricultural migrants organized by Benjamin Singleton who came to Kansas and Oklahoma after the end of Reconstruction, founding several all-black towns. Closure Question #3: How did economic and cultural diversity cause conflicts in the West?