Why Immigrants Came?

• Jobs - factories, mines, railroads, farms

• Free Land - Homestead Act• Education – free public schools• Freedom – political and

religious

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

Pogroms

Many immigrants came to have religious freedom and escape religious persecution, such as the Pogroms in Russia.

How Many Came?

• Between 1865 and 1920• About 30 million came• Nearly doubled population of

U.S.

Immigrants“Old” & “New”

1865 – 1890

• Germany• England• Ireland

Western Europe

1890 – 1920

• Italy• Jews from Russia

• Poland• Greece

Eastern and Southern Europe

Russian-Jewish Immigrants 1911

Hungarian Immigrants 1920

How They Came

•Steam powered ships•Crossed the Atlantic in 2 –

3 weeks

A famous steamship from 1912

The RMS Titanic – the largest, most luxurious passenger ship of the time (2222

passengers)

The Main Staircase on the Titanic

Parlor on the Titanic

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

Europe to New York

Average Fair: Adults

$22Children $12

Infants $3

Typical Steerage Accommodations

What happened when they arrived?

•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

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 did many of these European immigrants settle after crossing

the Atlantic by steam ship?

The port cities where they entered:

New York Boston

Baltimore

Ghettos

Ethnic communities within a city

ChinatownLittle Italy

Asians• Mostly Chinese• Settled in California• Most worked on railroads or

mining• Worked for extremely low wages

Chinese immigrants working on the Central

Pacific Railroad

Chinese man in traditional

clothing, 1900

•Look closely at the following picture of Chinese immigrants.

•What can you infer from the picture?

Chinese Immigrants 1900

Mexicans• Settled largely in the Southwest

(Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California)

• Agricultural jobs• Built Southern railroads• Accepted hard jobs for low wages,

especially after Chinese were excluded from immigrating

How did many Americans respond

to the huge numbers of new

immigrants?

Nativists and Nativism

• Native-born Americans Native-born Americans who who opposed immigrationopposed immigration, because , because they believed that many of these they believed that many of these “new immigrants” would never fit “new immigrants” would never fit into American society.into American society.

• Thought schools should Thought schools should Americanize immigrantsAmericanize immigrants by by teaching English and “Anglo-teaching English and “Anglo-Saxon” values.Saxon” values.

Chinese Exclusion Act

• 1882 – Law that prohibited any new 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

Immigration Brings Rapid

Urbanization

Urbanization

The growth of cities (urban areas)

Philadelphia

c.1890

New York City

c. 1900

Urban Living Conditions

• Crowded - Insufficient adequate housing• Air Pollution – soot from factories made

the air dark and foul• Water Pollution - Poor sanitation –

human and animal waste, garbage, rats in streets

• Diseases - Tuberculosis, malaria, typhoid• Fire – Wooden buildings burned rapidly –

No fire/safety codes• Great Chicago Fire of 1871

– 18,000 buildings destroyed– 250 died

Great Chicago Fire of 1871

Tenements

• Low-cost apartment buildings

• No windows in some rooms• Crowded• No electricity• No plumbing• Sinks and toilets in hall or

basement

Dumbbell Tenement Design

Improvement: Courtyard in middle allows window in every room

Windows

New York Tenement,

c.1890

Tenement living

c.1890

How did these conditions affect

politics in the cities?

Political Machines

• Corrupt powerful organizations that worked to keep a particular political party elected to city offices, such as mayor

• Usually run by a party “boss” • The boss either ran for office himself

or chose someone else whom he could control.

• Promised new immigrants favors and help in return for their vote

Tammany Hall

• The most famous political machine

• Ran the NYC Democratic Party• “Boss Tweed”• Featured in the movie, Gangs of

New York

“Boss” William Tweed

Boss Tweed:

“As long as I count the

votes, what are you

going to do about it?”

What will it take to change the filth,

disease, crime and corruption in the

cities of America in the Gilded Age?

Social Reform

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

elements

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Jacob Riis

• Immigrant from Denmark 1870•Lived in NYC tenements•Became a newspaper reporter•Wrote How the Other Half

Lives, exposing the terrible conditions in tenement slums

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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.

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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

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Education

•Schools aimed at assimilating immigrants into society.

• Immigrants sought literacy and civic skills needed to gain citizenship.

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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 and offer social services through “settlement houses.”

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Hull House

• 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

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Jane Addamsc. 1896

Hull House

Hull House

Museum in

Chicago today

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

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