U.S. History

Chapter 15: New Movements in America

Section 2: Immigrants & Cities

Waves of Immigrants

• 1840—1860 : More than 4 million immigrants settle in U.S.

• More than 3 million Irish or German

• Fleeing unfavorable economic/political conditions

Waves of Immigrants

•Mid 1840s: potato blight left many families in Ireland without any food

•1 million + die

•Many flee to U.S.

Waves of Immigrants

• Most immigrants arrived poor

• Women worked as domestic servants

• Men could only find unskilled jobs

Waves of Immigrants

•1848: Germans revolt

•Immigrate to escape persecution and for economic reasons

•Protestants, Catholics, Jews

Waves of Immigrants

•Became farmers in Midwestern states

•Often took low-paying jobs

The Nativist Response

•Immigrants drawn to industrial jobs in the Northeast

•Immigrants filled need for cheap labor

•Native-born citizens feared losing jobs to immigrants

•Threatened by cultural differences

•Catholicism

•Nativists—U.S. citizens who opposed immigration

The Nativist Response

The Nativist Response

•Know-Nothing Party—wanted to exclude Catholics & foreigners from public office

The Know-Nothing Party was anti-Catholic

Those Know-Nothings are a

bunch of haters!

Growth of Cities

• Industrial Revolution led to new jobs in cities

•Transportation Revolution helped make it easier to move

•Cities grew rapidly

•Middle Class—social and economic level between the wealthy & poor

•New entertainment: libraries, clubs, theaters

Growth of Cities

Urban Problems

•Limited transportation = crowded conditions

•Riots

•Tenements—dirty, overcrowded, & poorly built housing

•Lack of public sanitation

•Disease & epidemics

•Lack of police/fire protection

Urban Problems