Chapter 19Toward an Urban Society

1

2

By the early 1900s immigrant populations were overwhelming American citiesMore Poles in Chicago than in Warsaw, Poland!More Irish in New York than in Dublin, Ireland!

Many immigrants often lived in neighborhoods with others who shared their backgroundThis helped them adapt to the new culture

Many African Americans moved North to cities like Detroit and Chicago

3

Immigration to the United States, 1870–1900

4

Foreign-born Population, 1890

Immigration Problems

5

Row houses became very popular

Working class families were moving out of the city

Dumbbell tenements were oddly shaped in include an air shaft• Unfortunately people began

to use them as a garbage disposal

Dumbbell Tenement

6

TRANSPORTATION WATER/SANITATION

PROBLEM: People can’t get to work

Streetcars Cable cars Subways

Many tenements did not have fresh water

Diseases were spread• Horse manure in the streets• sewage in the gutters• foul smoke from factories

7

More Urban Problems

Urban Problems

8

Lack of water

Wooden dwellings

1853 – first paid fire dept.

1874 – first auto fire sprinkler

1844 – first organized police force

Chicago Fire 1871

Housing Conditions

© 2011, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

12

Total Immigration, 1861-1900

13

Baltimore 1850 Baltimore 1910

The Ethnic City

The Diverse Immigrant Populations Lived in ghettos together Why did this make it easier

to adjust?

Importance of Ethnic Ties Felt more comfortable Continued traditions Advanced in society

15

Assimilation and Exclusion Assimilation Encouraged

Mainly English Stores sold American food and clothing

Immigration Restriction League Screen immigrants through literacy tests “desirable” and “undesirable” What was the benefit to so much

immigration?

16

17© 2011, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

“Immigration Under Attack,” 1903

(New York Public Library. Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations)18

Ellis Island About a one week trip

Immigrants stayed in steerage

Checked for diseases• This could take up to 5 hours!

Needed to:• Pass a test• Able to work• $25

From 1892-1943, more than 16 million immigrants passed through!

19

20

21

22

Angel Island Chinese and others arrived

off the coast of San Francisco at Angel Island

Between 1910-1940 50,000 Chinese entered through Angel.

VERY long admission process

Kept like prisoners23

24

Public Space

The Mall in Central Park, 1902 (Library of Congress)25

• Built to represent something different than a city• Libraries, parks, theaters• Who supported the construction of these

projects?

The Machine and the Boss What were the various positives and negatives of

Tweed and other bosses?

Often were vehicles for making money

“Boss” Tweed

VIDEO: BOSS TWEED

26

27

Social and Cultural Change 1877–1900

End of Reconstruction marks shift of attention to new concerns

Population growth• 1877: 47 million• 1900: 76 million• 1900: population more diverse

Urbanization, industrialization changing all aspects of American life

28

Urban and Rural Population, 1870–1900 (in millions)

29

Manners and Mores Victorian morality dictates dress, manners

Protestant religious values strong

Mugwumps

Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)

30

Leisure and Entertainment Domestic leisure: card, parlor, yard games

Sentimental ballads, ragtime popular

Entertainment outside home• Circus immensely popular• Baseball, football, basketball

Street lights, streetcars make evening a time for entertainment and pleasure

31

Growing Assertiveness among Women

"New women”: Self-supporting careers• How were they viewed?

Demand an end to gender discrimination

Speak openly about once-forbidden topics• Divorce, equal pay, etc..

Susan B. Anthony helped to create the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA)

32

Education Trend is toward universal education: By

1900, 31 states and territories had compulsory education laws

Purpose of public education was to train people for life and work in industrial society

1896: Plessy v. Ferguson allows “separate but equal” schools• Challenges under the 14th amendment; loses in a 7-1

decision

33

Plessy v. Ferguson What societal issues were created following

the ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson?

What is the obvious oversight in this court decision?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4Wyb7f-iNc

34

35

African Americans and reform

Booker T. Washington vs. W.E.B. Du Bois

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

“Is it possible and probable that nine millions of men can make effective progress in economic lines if they are deprived of political rights, made a servile caste, and allowed only the most meager chance for developing their exceptional men?”

W. E. B. Du Bois

REFORM

36

Most mainstream or old line Protestant churches struggle to address plight of urban poor

Catholicism thrives, founds schools and parishes

SOCIAL GOSPEL is preached

(vs. SOCIAL DARWINISM)

Jane Addams: Reformer, studies social ills, founds Hull House in Chicago in 1889

Florence Kelley joined in the movement to popularize Settlement Houses founded to provide assistance

to poor and new immigrants

Provided aid and education

37

Chapter 20Political Realignments of the

1890s

© 2011, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

38

Politics of Stalemate Politics was a major fascination of the late

nineteenth century

White males made up bulk of electorate• Women allowed to vote in national elections only in Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Colorado

• Black men denied vote by poll tax, literacy tests Grandfather Clause

39

The Party Deadlock Democrats emphasize state’s rights and limited government

Republicans see government as agent to promote moral progress and material wealth

One-party control of both Congress and White House rare

“Doubtful” states• What were these?

Federal influence wanes, state control rises

40

Experiments in the States State government commissions investigate,

regulate railroads, factories

Munn v. Illinois (1877) upholds constitutionality of state investigations

Wabash case (1886) prompts establishment of Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)

ICC prototype for modern regulatory agencies

41

Reestablishing Presidential Power

Presidency hits nadir under Johnson

Later presidents reassert executive power• Hayes ended military Reconstruction• Garfield asserted leadership of his party• Arthur strengthened navy, civil service reform• Cleveland used veto to curtail federal activities, called for low tariffs

42

The Election of 1880

© 2011, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

43

44

The Election of 1884

45

The Election of 1888

46

The Rise of the Populist Movement

Discontented farmers of West and South provide base of support

The National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union the result

47

The Farm Problem Worldwide agricultural economy causes great

fluctuations in supply and demand

Farmers’ complaints:• Lower prices for crops (although purchasing power rising) • Rising railroad rates (rates actually declining)• Onerous mortgages (loans permit production expansion)

Conditions of farmers vary by region

General feeling of depression, resentment

48

Selected Commodity Prices

49

The Fast-Growing Farmers’ Alliance

1875: Southern Alliance begins

Alliance movement segregated, Colored Farmer’s National Alliance• Destroyed after leaders lynched in 1891

1889: Regional Alliances merge into National Farmer’s Alliance

50

Ocala Demands System of government warehouses to hold crops

for higher prices Free coinage of silver Low tariffs Federal income tax Direct election of Senators Regulation of railroads

51

The People’s Party Southern Alliance splits from Democrats to

form Populist party

Southern Populists recruit African Americans, give them influential positions

1892: Populist presidential candidate James Weaver draws over one million votes• Loses South to violence and intimidation by Southern

Democrats• Loses urban areas

Alliance wanes after 1892 elections

52

Election of 1892