Industrialism, Urbanization,
Immigration, Progressivism
Standard 5 (c)
USHC-5.4 Analyze the rise of the labor movement, including the composition of the
workforce of the country in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, and skills; working conditions
for men, women, and children; and union protests and strikes and the government’s
reactions to these forms of unrest.
• It was not until the progressive President
Theodore Roosevelt began to support the
right of workers to bargain collectively that
unions began to get some government
recognition.
• It was not until the New Deal that the
unions’ right to organize workers was
recognized in the law.
USHC-5.4 Analyze the rise of the labor movement, including the composition of the
workforce of the country in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, and skills; working conditions
for men, women, and children; and union protests and strikes and the government’s
reactions to these forms of unrest.
• By the end of the 19th century unions
were not successful in changing the
abuses of the workplace.
• This was due to public perception of them
as dangerous and to government support
of the interests of Big Business.
Urbanization
• USHC-5.5 Explain the causes and effects
of urbanization in late nineteenth-century
America, including the movement from
farm to city, the continuation of the
women’s suffrage movement, and the
migration of African Americans to the
North and the Midwest.
USHC-5.5 Explain the causes and effects of urbanization in late nineteenth-century
America, including the movement from farm to city, the continuation of the women’s
suffrage movement, and the migration of African Americans to the North and the
Midwest.
• Cities developed as a result of
– geographic factors first as centers of trade,
– then as transportation hubs and finally,
– with the advent of electricity, as centers of industrial
production in the 19th century.
USHC-5.5 Explain the causes and effects of urbanization in late nineteenth-century
America, including the movement from farm to city, the continuation of the women’s
suffrage movement, and the migration of African Americans to the North and the
Midwest.
• They were affected by technological innovations such as
the
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elevator,
steel girders,
suspension bridges,
electric trolley cars,
‘els’ and
subways
These allowed cities to grow both skyward and outward.
• Cities grew as people immigrated from abroad and
migrated from the farm to the city.
Building the New York Subway
Elevated Train
Electrical Trolley
USHC-5.5 Explain the causes and effects of urbanization in late nineteenth-century
America, including the movement from farm to city, the continuation of the women’s
suffrage movement, and the migration of African Americans to the North and the
Midwest.
• Although most freedmen stayed in the South
immediately after the Civil War, AfricanAmerican migration from the South intensified as
a result of:
– poor cotton yields due to soil exhaustion and the boll
weevil,
– discrimination of Jim Crow laws,
– intimidation
– lynchings of African Americans in the South.
• As farm prices fell, African Americans joined
other farmers in the move to the cities for job
opportunities.
The Great Migration
USHC-5.5 Explain the causes and effects of urbanization in late nineteenth-century
America, including the movement from farm to city, the continuation of the women’s
suffrage movement, and the migration of African Americans to the North and the
Midwest.
• This movement to the cities intensified during
World War I as more jobs became available.
– Farm technology played a role as farmers in all
regions:
• produced more and sold it for less,
• defaulted on loans,
• lost their land and moved to the cities to find work.
– Others were attracted to the city because of its rich
cultural life and excitement.
• Despite the phenomenal growth of cities, the
majority of the American people still lived outside
of urban areas before 1920.
USHC-5.5 Explain the causes and effects of urbanization in late nineteenth-century
America, including the movement from farm to city, the continuation of the women’s
suffrage movement, and the migration of African Americans to the North and the
Midwest.
• Crowded city conditions led to problems with
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housing,
sanitation,
transportation,
water,
Crime,
fire.
• Corrupt city bosses using the political power of their
immigrant constituencies were unable to successfully
address all of these problems because of corruption.
Great Chicago Fire
USHC-5.5 Explain the causes and effects of urbanization in late nineteenth-century
America, including the movement from farm to city, the continuation of the women’s
suffrage movement, and the migration of African Americans to the North and the
Midwest.
• The progressive movement developed as
a result of the need to address urban
problems and corruption.
– The resulting city planning included parks and
majestic buildings designed to awe residents
and influence their behavior.
– Progressive changes in city government
made it more professional and more
responsive to the needs of the people.
USHC-5.5 Explain the causes and effects of urbanization in late nineteenth-century
America, including the movement from farm to city, the continuation of the women’s
suffrage movement, and the migration of African Americans to the North and the
Midwest.
• The women’s suffrage movement
intensified in the late 19th century.
– Women had the opportunity for higher
education at new women’s colleges and new
opportunities in factories and offices.
– However, it was the movement west that had
the greater impact on gaining the right of
women to vote.
• The first state to grant women suffrage was
Wyoming and western states generally allowed
women to vote before eastern states did.
USHC-5.5 Explain the causes and effects of urbanization in late nineteenth-century
America, including the movement from farm to city, the continuation of the women’s
suffrage movement, and the migration of African Americans to the North and the
Midwest.
– Middle class women were increasingly frustrated by
their inability to have political influence in solving the
problems of city life and the workplace.
• African-American women formed the National
Association of Colored Women to secure the
civil rights of African-Americans which included
women’s suffrage.
• In 1890, women formed the National American
Women’s Suffrage Association to lobby for the
vote.
USHC-5.5 Explain the causes and effects of urbanization in late nineteenth-century
America, including the movement from farm to city, the continuation of the women’s
suffrage movement, and the migration of African Americans to the North and the
Midwest.
• A split over tactics disrupted the movement as
some women lobbied state legislatures and
others targeted the national government by
supporting a national amendment to the
Constitution.
• Women campaigned on the idea that they
would clean up society and government.
– They were opposed by the liquor industry and
political bosses.
USHC-5.5 Explain the causes and effects of urbanization in late nineteenth-century
America, including the movement from farm to city, the continuation of the women’s
suffrage movement, and the migration of African Americans to the North and the
Midwest.
• More radical women organized picket lines
and hunger strikes.
• The 19th Amendment was passed in 1920
in part as a result of this activism and of
the contribution women made to the war
effort.
Immigration
• USHC-5.6 Explain the influx of immigrants
into the United States in the late
nineteenth century in relation to the
specific economic, political, and social
changes that resulted, including the
growth of cities and urban ethnic
neighborhoods, the restrictions on
immigration that were imposed, and the
immigrants’ responses to the urban
political machines.
USHC-5.6 Explain the influx of immigrants into the United States in the late nineteenth
century in relation to the specific economic, political, and social changes that resulted,
including the growth of cities and urban ethnic neighborhoods, the restrictions on
immigration that were imposed, and the immigrants’ responses to the urban political
machines.
• Many immigrants were too poor to move
beyond the port cities where they landed.
– Thus ethnic neighborhoods grew as
immigrants looked for the familiar in a strange
new land.
– Churches, schools, businesses and
newspapers reflected the ethnicity of Little
Italy, Greektown or Polonia.
Little Italy 1908
Chinatown
USHC-5.6 Explain the influx of immigrants into the United States in the late nineteenth
century in relation to the specific economic, political, and social changes that resulted,
including the growth of cities and urban ethnic neighborhoods, the restrictions on
immigration that were imposed, and the immigrants’ responses to the urban political
machines.
• Many established immigrants helped those
who had newly arrived to find jobs and
housing.
• This had a powerful impact on city politics.
– People voted for those who found them jobs
and helped them through hard times.
– Immigrants gave their votes to neighborhood
and ward bosses in gratitude for the help they
had received, not as a result of any direct
bribery.
USHC-5.6 Explain the influx of immigrants into the United States in the late nineteenth
century in relation to the specific economic, political, and social changes that resulted,
including the growth of cities and urban ethnic neighborhoods, the restrictions on
immigration that were imposed, and the immigrants’ responses to the urban political
machines.
• Although many political bosses were corrupt and
routinely used graft and bribery in awarding city
contracts, they also served an important role in
helping new immigrants to adapt to their new
country.
– The power that immigrant groups gave to the urban
political machine allowed the bosses to solve
important urban problems despite the abuses that
occurred under city bosses such as New York’s Boss
Tweed.
USHC-5.6 Explain the influx of immigrants into the United States in the late nineteenth
century in relation to the specific economic, political, and social changes that resulted,
including the growth of cities and urban ethnic neighborhoods, the restrictions on
immigration that were imposed, and the immigrants’ responses to the urban political
machines.
• Restrictions on immigration were the result
of ethnic prejudices and market forces.
– Nativism, which predated the Civil War with
prejudices against the Germans and the Irish.
– After the Civil War, westerners resented the
Chinese workers who had built the railroads
and Chinese immigration was restricted as a
result of such prejudices.
USHC-5.6 Explain the influx of immigrants into the United States in the late nineteenth
century in relation to the specific economic, political, and social changes that resulted,
including the growth of cities and urban ethnic neighborhoods, the restrictions on
immigration that were imposed, and the immigrants’ responses to the urban political
machines.
– Unskilled workers objected to the practice of
contracting laborers in Europe who would
come to take jobs from “native” Americans
and exert a downward pressure on wages.
• The United States government passed a
law which limited this practice.
• Union members also resented the
immigrants who were employed as “scabs”
(strikebreakers) by management.
USHC-5.6 Explain the influx of immigrants into the United States in the late nineteenth
century in relation to the specific economic, political, and social changes that resulted,
including the growth of cities and urban ethnic neighborhoods, the restrictions on
immigration that were imposed, and the immigrants’ responses to the urban political
machines.
• In the late 19th century, resentments focused on the
immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe as the
numbers of these groups grew and the differences
with previous immigrant groups, (such as the English,
Irish and Germans) and ‘native’ Americans were more
obvious.
• Although further restrictions on immigration were
proposed in Congress in the 1890s, they did not pass
until the 1920s.
• Late 19th century nativism can be seen as another
expression of Social Darwinism.
USHC-5.6 Explain the influx of immigrants into the United States in the late nineteenth
century in relation to the specific economic, political, and social changes that resulted,
including the growth of cities and urban ethnic neighborhoods, the restrictions on
immigration that were imposed, and the immigrants’ responses to the urban political
machines.
• Reformers, such as Jane Addams, served
the immigrant population through the
establishment of settlement houses, such
as Hull House, to aid the immigrants in
their assimilation into American culture.