Immigrants in the Gilded Age

1. Immigrants in the Gilded Age

2. Why Immigrants Came 1 • Work - factories, mines, railroads, farms • Free Land - Homestead Act • Education – free public schools • Freedom - democracy, no forced military service, religious tolerance

3. How Many Came 2 • Between 1865 and 1920 • Estimated 30 million • Nearly doubled the U.S. population

4. 1865 - 1890 10 million Germans (2.8) English (1.8) Irish (1.4) 1890 – 1920 10 million Italians (3.8) Russian Jews (3.0) Slavs Greeks Armenians Where They Came From 3

5. Chinese Immigrants 1900

6. Hungarian Immigrants 1920

7. Russian-Jewish Immigrants 1911

8. Pogroms 18 4 Violent massacres of Jews in Russia in the late 1880’s

9. How They Came 5 • Steam powered ships • Crossed the Atlantic in 2 – 3 weeks • The poor traveled in steerage

10. A typical steamship from 1900

11. Steerage 6 • Large open area beneath a ship’s deck near the steering mechanism • Cheap tickets • Limited toilet facilities • No privacy • Poor food

12. 1875 Steerage Rates from England to New York

13. Typical Steerage Accommodations

14. What happened when they arrived 7 • 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

15. Ellis Island 8 • Huge reception area in New York harbor near the Statue of Liberty • Opened by federal government in 1892 for steerage passengers entering the country

16. Ellis Island, New York

17. Ellis Island Registry Room, 1905

18. Where They Settled and How They Lived

19. 9 Asians • Settled on the west coast • Many worked on RR’s • Others in mining, fishing, farming, laundry and factory work • Willing to work for extremely low wages

20. Chinese immigrants working on the Central Pacific Railroad

21. 10 Mexicans • Settled largely in the Southwest • Agricultural jobs • Built RR’s in the South • Willing to accept hard jobs for low wages. • Because of immigration restrictions on Asians, many jobs open for Mexican immigrants.

22. 11 Europeans • Settled mainly in cities, or headed west to mining towns • Usually settled with the same ethnic groups in ghettos

23. Ghettos 12 Ethnic communities within a city

24. How Americans Responded 13 • Nativism • Restrictive Covenants • Chinese Exclusion Act • Movement to Suburbs

25. Nativism 14 • An attitude favoring native-born Americans over immigrants • Nativists demanded the teaching of only the English language and American culture in schools

26. Restrictive Covenants 15 • Agreements among homeowners not to sell real estate to certain ethnic groups or nationalities

27. Chinese Exclusion Act 16 • 1882 - Law passed that prohibited 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

28. Suburbs 17 • Residential communities that began to develop on outskirts of major cities • Public rail carriages were used for transportation to and from the city by those who could afford it.

29. Horse Drawn Trolley

30. How Immigrants Affected American Cities

31. Urbanization 18 The growth of cities (urban areas)

32. New York City c. 1900

33. Philadelphia Street Scene c.1890

34. Tenements 19 • Low-cost apartment buildings designed to house as many families as an owner could pack into them • Generally associated with slums

35. Dumbbell Tenement Design

36. New York Tenement, c.1890

37. Tenement living c.1890

38. 20 Urban Living Conditions • Pollution - soot made the air dark and foul • Poor sanitation - open sewers, rats and other vermin • Contaminated drinking water • Diseases spread rapidly - TB, malaria, typhoid • Fire danger - 18,000 buildings burned in Chicago and 250 died in 1871 fire

39. Great Chicago Fire 1871

40. Urban Politics 21 • Political Divisions - as cities grew, so did public pressures for sanitation, taxes, transportation, etc. Many people vied for offices. • Graft—people using office for personal gain • Political machines develop

41. Political Machines 22 • Unofficial organizations designed to keep a particular party in office • Usually run by a “boss” who either held office himself or hand-picked an individual to hold office

42. Tammany Hall 23 • A club that ran the NY Democratic Party • Controlled by “Boss” Tweed in the 1850’s -1870’s

43. “Boss” William Tweed

44. Caption reads: “As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it?”

45. Social Reform 24 • Efforts to improve society by • Aiding and educating the poor • Eliminating evil or destructive elements

46. Jacob Riis 25 • 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

47. Prohibition 26 • Movement to legally abolish alcohol in the U.S. • Supporters blamed immigrants for a large portion of the alcohol-related problems in the nation.

48. Social Gospel Movement 27 • 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

49. Education 28 • Schools aimed at assimilating immigrants into society. • Immigrants sought literacy and civic skills needed to gain citizenship.

50. Settlement Movement 29 • 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.”