Chapter 20
Immigrants and Urban Life
1872 - 1914
Essential Question
•How did immigration
during the late 1800s
affect the United States?
I. A New Wave of Immigration
• Changing Patterns of Immigration
– Old Immigrants: immigrants from northern and
western Europe (1800-1870)
• Great Britain, Germany, Ireland, Scandinavia
• Protestant (except the Irish)
• Skilled workers or farmers (except the Irish)
– “New” Immigrants: immigrants from southern and
eastern Europe (1870 – 1930)
• Greece, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Italy, Czechoslovakia
• Roman Catholic, Jewish
• Unskilled workers, escaping religious or political persecution
Arriving in a New Land
• Steerage: an area below
a ship’s deck where
steering mechanisms
are located
– Inexpensive
– Cramped
– Foul-smelling
Immigration Centers
•
•
•
•
Ellis Island, NY
Angel Island, CA
El Paso, TX
Tests
– Documentation
– Literacy
– Health
• Trachoma – contagious
eye disease
Adjusting to a New Life
• Immigrants had to find
jobs, find homes, and
learn a new language
• Ethnic Neighborhoods:
areas where people
shared same language
and culture
• Benevolent Societies:
offered immigrants help
in cases of sickness,
employment, or death
Tenements and Finding Work
• Tenements: poorly
built, overcrowded
apartment buildings
• Often took low paying,
unskilled jobs in
factories
• Sweatshops: work
places known for hot,
unhealthy working
conditions
Opposition to Immigration
• Business leaders wanted immigrants because
they work for less
• Nativists feel too many immigrants are coming
into the country
• Chinese Exclusion Act (1882): banned Chinese
people from immigrating to the United States
for 10 years
• Even with restrictions, immigrants still came in
large numbers
II. The Growth of Cities
• Immigrants responsible
for large urban (city)
growth – Chicago, New
York, Philadelphia, St.
Louis, Boston, Baltimore,
Detroit, Cleveland
• African Americans move
to northern cities to
escape discrimination and
find opportunity (Great
Migration)
• Chicago, 1900
Changing Cities
• The rise of the steel
industry made building
skyscrapers possible
• Mass Transit: public
transportation designed
to move many people
– Elevated trains
– Subways
– Electric trolleys
• Suburbs: residential
neighborhoods outside of
downtown areas
• Boston Subway, 1897
New Ideas
• Mass Culture: leisure
and cultural activities
shared by many people
• World fairs brought
merchants together
• Department Stores:
giant retail shops
– Low prices
– Store restaurants
– Fancy window displays
• Public Entertainment
– Amusement parks
– Open public space
– Frederick Law Olmstead:
designed Central Park,
New York City
New Ideas
New Ideas
III. City Life
• Shortage of affordable housing
forced many poor families to
squeeze into tenements
• Jacob Riis: famous journalist
and photographer who
exposed these horrible
conditions
– Sanitation problems
– Poor fire escapes
– No clean water
– Pollution
– Disease
Improving City Life
• Because there was little government aid
available, private organizations helped urban
poor
• Settlement Houses: neighborhood centers in
poor areas that offered education, recreation,
and social activities
– Hull House: most famous – started by Jane Addams in
Chicago to help poor immigrants
– Florence Kelley: reformer from Hull House that
exposed conditions in sweatshops – convinced
lawmakers to limit working hours for women and end
child labor
Statue of Liberty
Colossus of Rhodes
Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty Facts
• Official dedication ceremonies
held on Thursday, October 28,
1886
• Total overall height from the base
of the pedestal foundation to the
tip of the torch is 305 feet, 6
inches
• There are 154 steps from the
pedestal to the head of the
Statue of Liberty
• There are seven rays on her
crown, one for each of the seven
continents, each measuring up to
9 feet in length and weighing as
much as 150 pounds
• Total weight of the Statue of
Liberty is 225 tons (or 450,000
pounds)
• At the feet of the Statue lie
broken shackles of oppression
and tyranny
• “Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to
breathe free; the wretched refuse
of your teeming shore. Send
these, the homeless, tempesttost to me; I lift my lamp beside
the golden door.”
– Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus”