Chapter 25
AP Notes
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1880 – 72% of the population lived on farms
1910 – 54% lived on farms
Today – 3% live on farms
1880-1920 population shifted in the U.S.
from primarily agrarian to urban
This trend, coupled with increased
immigration, greatly affected the cities
 Mechanization
on the farms –
men’s work
 Factories produced more
goods that women once
produced
 Rural women went to the cities
to find work
 Began
to migrate to southern
urban centers from rural South
 Racial violence
 Segregation policies
 Boll weevil destroyed cotton crops
 Floods in Mississippi and Alabama
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Before the Civil War people lived at or near
their work – “walking cities”
After the Civil War people began to use
horse-drawn streetcars. Those who could
afford to moved to the suburbs
Movement out of the cities was helped by
cable cars, electric trolleys, elevated trains,
automobiles, and subways
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Before C.W. – no higher than 5 stories
After C.W. – steam driven elevators and steel
girders permitted the construction of sky
scrapers
Specialized areas – 1 area for banking, law
offices, and government offices, 1 area for
retail, and 1 area for industrial
 Slums,
overcrowded, rats
 Poor sanitation and disease,
soot (coal furnaces), open
sewers, backyard privies
 Crime
 Neighborhoods declined
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Cholera, malaria, diphtheria, typhoid
epidemics
NYC tenements 6 out of 10 infants died in
their 1st year
 Buildings
close
 Coal furnaces
 No fire safety
 Chicago 1871
 Boston 1872
 NY
street gangs
 Crime flourished
 Poverty
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Sections of cities in which certain ethnic
or racial groups lived
By choice: immigrants sought to live with
others from their same country
Necessity: through threat or economic
necessity – boundaries defined
Real estate restrictions – covenants –
can’t sell property to anyone from a
certain racial or ethnic group
 People
separated – widening
gap
 Wealthy  suburbs
 Poor stayed behind
 Wealthy were not aware of the
poverty
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As cities expanded there was a need for
more services (fire, police, hospitals,
sanitation, water, health dept., electric,
transportation, schools).
Cities raised taxes and set up offices
Remaining middle and upper classes
struggled with working class for control
Old immigrants vs. new immigrants
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Machines – unofficial-designed to keep a
particular group or party in office
Headed by a boss – who sometimes held
public office – however, he usually picked
others to run and helped them win.
Ward leaders – administered a district –
assisted the boss by handing out city
jobs and contracts – did favors for the
residents
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In return, residents supported the machine
on election day
Machines controlled jobs and city contract
work (gave the leaders access to graft
money under the table in return for favors)
Immigrants voted for the boss and machine
– made up for a lack of a welfare system
William Marcy Tweed – Tammany Hall in
NYC – amassed huge amounts of money
through graft and corruption
 Some
reformers felt that problems
of the cities stemmed from the
presence of immigrants – wanted
to limit immigration
 Others objected to certain habits
or behaviors – wanted to change
these behaviors
 1865-1920
– 30 million came to
U.S.
 Dreams: make fortunes, free
government lands, personal
freedom, free public education,
no conscription (draft),
democratic government
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Steamships made the
voyage faster
$15 ticket
Steerage – large open
area beneath the
ship’s deck: no
privacy, poor food,
inadequate toilet
facilities
 Opened
in
1892
 Processing
center for
steerage
passengers
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Had to be “fit”
Physical exams for
tuberculosis or
trachoma, mental
illness
Make sure that they
wouldn’t become a
public charge
 Old
immigration – 1865 – 1890 –
From Northern Europe (England
and Germany)
 New immigration – 1890-1920 –
From southern and eastern
Europe and Middle East – Italians,
Greeks, Slavs, Russian Jews, and
Armenians
¼
million Chinese
 Recruited to work by RR
companies
 Worked as indentured servants
 Victims of ethnic stereotyping and
racism
 Unions wanted them kept out –
accepted low wages
 Movement
to restrict
immigration
 Chinese Exclusion Act
 American Protection Society
 Designed
to keep Asians out of
the U.S.
 Did not prevent entry to those
who had previously established
residence or who had family living
in U.S.
 Angel Island: detention center off
coast of San Francisco – 1910
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Teach only American culture
Only English language in schools
Tighter rules for citizenship
Fanned the fear of “aliens”
Resent immigrants taking Am. Jobs
Limit immigration – Keep “unfit” out
Pass literacy test
Exclude new immigrants from S. and E.
Europe
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Temperance movement
Opposed to drinking
Drinking leads to personal tragedy
Link between saloon, immigrants, and
political bosses
Saloons – “social clubs” where immigrants
met and picked up information about jobs
and socialized
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As urban populations grew – vice became
big business
Anthony Comstock – New York Society for
the Suppression of Vice
Comstock Law – prohibited sending through
the mails materials deemed to be obscene
(including birth control info.) – slowed the
distribution of info for decades
Attacked political machines- believed they
controlled the police who profited from vice
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Social conscience – religious idealism
Middle and upper classes – felt they had
a responsibility for poverty and to
improve social conditions
Charity organization movement
Social Gospel Movement
Settlement Movement
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Kept files on those who received help
Make sure those who accepted aid were
“worthy”
Interfered in people’s lives
Wanted immigrants to adopt American
standards
 Sought
to apply gospel of
Jesus directly to society
 Supported improved living
conditions
 Reform
movement
 Live in poor neighborhoods to
witness effects of poverty first
hand
 Jane Addams and Helen Gates
Starr founded Hull House in
Chicago
Jane Addams
– Hull House
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Cultural events
Classes
Child care center
Clubs
Summer camps
Playgrounds
Employment and
legal aid
Healthcare clinics
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Investigated city conditions – economic,
political and health
Foundation for future reform
Workers – college educated women
Contribution – widen people’s perspectives
on social conditions and close the gap
between divisions in society
First social workers