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Post Civil War America. Immigration, Industrialization, and Child Labor. 19 th century immigration to the US can be broken into two phases: Old Immigrants and New Immigrants. Old immigrants came mostly from western Europe between 1840 and 1880.
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Post Civil War America Immigration, Industrialization, and Child Labor
19th century immigration to the US can be broken into two phases: Old Immigrants and New Immigrants • Old immigrants came mostly from western Europe between 1840 and 1880. • Most of these came from Germany, with large numbers of Irish, English, and Italians as well. • Some came to escape from famines, such as the Irish potato famine. • Some came seeking land for farming. • Some came to escape from political turmoil, such as Germany's 1848 attempted revolution.
New immigrants came from Eastern Europe, from Russia, Romania, Poland, and Austria-Hungary • Beginning in the 1890s, most US immigrants came from Eastern Europe. • Many of these came to escape from rising populations. Between 1800 and 1900 , the population of Europe doubled, resulting in scarcity of farm land. • These displaced farmers came to America seeking, not farm land, but jobs in America's booming factories.
Eastern European Jews came to America to avoid religious persecution. • Some Russians, for example, had an intense hatred for Jewish people, called "anti-semitism." These anti-semites would raid Jewish villages, driving the people out. • This kind of thing happened in many eastern European nations, so a large number of Jewish people came to America for religious freedom.
A large number of New Immigrants came to America from Asia, specifically China and Japan • Between 1851 and 1883, about 300,000 Chinese immigrants came to the west coast. • Some were seeking their fortunes after the discovery of gold in California. • Many Chinese immigrants helped build the nation's railroads. • When the railroads were completed, the workers farmed, mined, or opened businesses.
In 1884, the Japanese government allowed Hawaiian planters to recruit Japanese workers, and a wave of Japanese emigration began. • The US annexation of Hawaii increased Japanese immigration to the West Coast. • It continued to increase as word of comparatively high US wages spread. • By 1920, more than 200,000 Japanese lived on the US West Coast.
New immigrants often had a harder time assimilating: becoming part of American life and culture • Many Americans had German, English, and Irish heritage, so they could relate to the dress, language, and mannerisms of old immigrants. • New immigrants, though, dressed differently, ate different foods, spoke languages totally unfamiliar to most Americans, and had different religions. • Plus, they tended to live together in small parts of the cities, and to avoid associating with natural born Americans.
The “Five Points” was an area in New York that was heavily populated by Irish immigrants. Living conditions were poor and crowded and crime and violence were high in this area. Areas like the “Five Points” were the kinds of housing that most immigrants could afford after their voyage to the United States.
Jacob Riis photographed living conditions for immigrants in New York City. His images depicted overcrowding, starvation, unemployment, and suffering. His images are sometimes credited with opening the eyes of Americans to the poverty of immigrants.
It is a serious matter to many a man who has invested his all in a ticket for the New World to face the possibility of rejection. During the late 19th century, the United States imposed its first restrictions on immigration. The earliest immigration restrictions were aimed at Asian immigrants. The United States imposed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. It barred the entry of Chinese laborers and established stringent conditions under which Chinese merchants and their families could enter. Also in 1882, the United States excluded people likely to become public charges. It subsequently barred contract laborers (1885), illiterates (1917), and all Asian immigrants (except for Filipinos, who were U.S. nationals) (1917). Other acts restricted the entry of certain criminals, "dangerous radicals," people who were considered immoral, those suffering certain diseases, and paupers.
Children who worked long hours in the textile mills became very tired and found it difficult to maintain the speed required by the overlookers. Children were usually hit with a strap to make them work faster. In some factories children were dipped head first into the water cistern if they became drowsy. Children were also punished for arriving late for work and for talking to the other children. Parish apprentices who ran away from the factory were in danger of being sent to prison. Children who were considered potential runaways were placed in irons.
Dr. Ward from Manchester was interviewed about the health of textile workers on 25th March, 1819. When I was a surgeon in the infirmary, accidents were very often admitted to the infirmary, through the children's hands and arms having being caught in the machinery; in many instances the muscles, and the skin is stripped down to the bone, and in some instances a finger or two might be lost. Last summer I visited Lever Street School. The number of children at that time in the school, who were employed in factories, was 106. The number of children who had received injuries from the machinery amounted to very nearly one half. There were forty-seven injured in this way.
With most immigrant families being poverty stricken, children often had to find work to help the family. The boys seen here are coal workers known as “breaker boys.” Many more worked in factories and mills.
Sarah Carpenter was child laborer in a factory. She was interviewed by The Ashton Chronicle on 23rd June, 1849. Our common food was oatcake. It was thick and coarse. This oatcake was put into cans. Boiled milk and water was poured into it. This was our breakfast and supper. Our dinner was potato pie with boiled bacon it, a bit here and a bit there, so thick with fat we could scarce eat it, though we were hungry enough to eat anything. Tea we never saw, nor butter. We had cheese and brown bread once a year. We were only allowed three meals a day though we got up at five in the morning and worked till nine at night.
