1. Immigration, Urbanization, and Unionism1876-1915

2. Part I: Urbanization

3. Overview: UrbanizationFlowchart

4. Labor chart

5. Unsanitary Conditions

6. Poor Housing

13. Cultural Opportunities: Central Park, NYC

14. Technological Advancement • Flat Iron Building • Overlooking Madison Square • 21-story building • Steel Frames • Skyscrapers in 1902 • Louis Sullivan • Land is expensive, so build up

15. Subway Construction • 1904 – nearly 150,000 people rode the subway on its first day

16. Suburban Sprawl

17. Class System • High Society: every luxury, city, business men • Middle Class: suburbs, professionals • Working Class: majority, lived in tenements, children worked

18. Urban Problems • Crime • Fire • Pollution • Disease • Alcoholism • Overcrowding

19. Urban Politics • Political Machine: informal political group • In exchange for votes party bosses provided jobs, food, housing • Successful • See Boss Tweed Notes

20. Suburban Sprawl

21. Part II: Immigration

22. Immigration chart

23. Nativism

24. “New Immigration”

25. Ellis Island - Now

26. Then

27. Immigrants at Ellis Island

28. Ellis Island Exami-nation Hall

29. Immigration patterns

30. Reasons for European Immigration • Pull Factors: reasons to come to America • Jobs • Few immigration restrictions • Democratic nation • Social mobility • Push Factors: reasons they left • Avoid forced military service • Religious persecution • Economic hardships • Poverty • Famine • Unemployment

31. European Immigration 1890-1914 • Arrived at Ellis Island • Medical Exam • Ethnic Cities Emerge • Southern & Eastern Europe: Russia, Poland, Greece, Austria-Hungary, Italy • Different languages • Different religions • Different Ways of Dress

32. Reception • Not welcome • Competed with and took jobs • Difficult to Americanize • Americans believed immigrants were inferior • Lived in ghettos • Disease • Crime • Know Nothing Party reinforces the notion of Nativisim • Birds of passage: immigrants not intending to stay in America, here to make money then go back home

33. Riis • From, “How the Other Half Lives,” by Jacob Riis

34. Riis 2

35. Migration to present

36. Asian Immigration

37. Chinese & Japanese • Arrived at Angel Island (CA) • Why: famines, land shortage, civil war • Occupations: railroad, construction, skilled labor, merchants, small business

38. Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 • A dime novel from the period - The stereotypical Chinese villains in such stories run opium dens and take great delight in abducting white women who they attempt to hook on the drug.

39. Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 • Stopped the immigration of Chinese laborers • Denied American citizenship to Chinese born in America • “Gentlemen’s Agreement”

40. Chinese immigration

41. Part III: Unionism

42. Why did Unions form? • Industrial workers had complaints that were not being addressed by factory owners: • Loss of freedom • Loss of identity • Long hours, low wages • Dangerous working conditions • Child labor • The Sweatshop system

43. Child Labor

44. The Great Strike of 1877 • Railroads cut wages by 35%, increased workday to 18 hours, & doubled train size. • Railroad strikes broke out. • Federal troops were used to break up the strikes, people were killed (President Hayes) • Strikers were often replaced by “scabs” • After these strikes, “yellow-dog contracts” were used to prevent future strikes • Increased union membership

45. Knights of Labor: 1869 • Led by Terrance Powderly • Open to individuals of any race, gender, or degree of skill • The only occupations excluded were lawyers, bankers, gamblers, and liquor dealers • Favored an 8-hour day • Opposed child labor, strikes, and unequal pay • Demanded worker-owned factories • Wanted a gov. bureau of labor statistics • Supported arbitration

46. Terence V. Powderly • Mechanic from Pennsylvania • Under his leadership, the KOL grew from 28,000 members in 1880 to 700,000 in 1886 • Made the KOL public • Led successful strikes against the railroads

47. Haymarket Riot (Chicago, 1886) • 1,200 protesters gathered to protest the shooting of protesters by police at the McCormick Harvester plant • Police showed up to break up the protest, someone threw a dynamite bomb, killing 7 policemen • Police charged the crowd on horseback, killing 10 and wounding 50 • This resulted in public distaste for unions and the dissolution of the Knights of Labor

48. Haymarket riot in press

49. Union Membership

50. American Federation of Labor • Founded by Samuel Gompers in 1881 • National unions • Only skilled workers were members • 8 hr. workdays • Better pay • Collective bargaining • Closed Shops