A. Immigration of the Gilded Age
“New Immigrants”
• Immigrants coming from new
countries
– Italy
– Russia
– Austro-Hungarian Empire
• Very different religions and
cultural backgrounds
• Were seen as lower level
“races” than Western
European immigrants
• 1880’s – 19% of immigrants
• 1900 – 66% of immigrants
• 25% of the immigrants
will return home
Why were they coming?
• Population of the Old World growing
rapidly
– American Food Exports
– Industrialization
• 60 million Europeans will be uprooted
– Half will come to the U.S. with
“America Fever”
• Many came for the idea of the “land of
opportunity”
• Some came to escape religious
persecutions
– Jews
Immigration on the West Coast
• Mainly Chinese immigrants
– Some Japanese
• 1870’s on Chinese
families now immigrating
• Faced horrible
discrimination
• Chinese Exclusion Act
(1882) – 1st time a race is
barred from entering the
U.S.
Fighting Exclusion
• U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark(1898)
– Fought for 14th amendment
rights
– Set an important legal
precedent for citizenship
– If you were born here you
were a CITIZEN
• But Exclusion still legal
Ellis Island (1892)
• Main processing facility
on the East Coast
• Processed 70% of all
immigrants
• Had medical
inspections
• Sent home any
undesirables
(2%)
Angel Island
• West Coast Ellis
Island
• Would hold the
Chinese
appealing the
Exclusion Act
The Immigrant Lifestyle
• Ethnic Neighborhoods
• Tried to preserve
traditional cultures
– Speaking native languages
– Established their own
schools
– Had businesses that catered
to just them
• Low Wages, Unskilled
Labor source
• Used as “Scabs”
Mulberry Street Bend 1900
“Little Italy”
• Children will lose the
traditional culture and
become more mainstreamed
The Nativist Reaction?
• Anglo-Saxon Americans feared
being outbred and outvoted
• Saw New Immigrants as scum
• 1882 law began restricting
immigration
• American Protective Association
(1887)
• In 1886 the Statue of Liberty
given to the U.S
– Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send
these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift
my lamp beside the golden door!
Immigrant Advocates
• Tammany Hall and other
Political Machines
– Helped immigrants find jobs
and become citizens
• Settlement Houses
– Helped immigrants adjust to
life in the United States
– Ex: Jane Addams’ Hull House
B. Urbanization of the Gilded Age
Urban Growth: 1870-1900
Characteristics
1. Megapolis
- Sprawling Urban Area
- Grew both up and out
- 1st Skyscraper built in Chicago in 1885
2. Mass Transit
- Sprawling suburbs needed to connect to city
centers
- Electric Trolley
- Bridges
3. Economic and Social Opportunities
- Jobs attracted people to the cities
- Urban lifestyle was very attractive
- Electricity, Indoor Plumbing,
Telephones
- Department stores
(Macy’s)
4. Pronounced Class Distinctions
-Wealthy had their own distinct neighborhoods
- Poor lived in the “Slums” in buildings called tenements
Immigrant Family Lodgings
- Most tenements were overcrowded, had poor ventilation
and were dangerous
- 1879, NYC passed the Dumbbell Tenement Plan to try to
improve conditions
5. Squalid Living Conditions
- No waste in the
countryside
- LOTS of waste in the
cities
- Impure water,
uncollected garbage,
unwashed bodies, and
animal droppings littered
the cities
- Led to the spread of
diseases like cholera and
tuberculosis
- Jacob Riis How the Other Half Lives tried to expose
the squalid living conditions
Five Cent Lodgings
Bandit’s Roost
6. New Opportunities for Women
7. Political Machines
8. Ethnic Neighborhoods
Amusement in the Cities
• More Americans have more leisure time
• Want to find amusement
– Vaudeville
– Circus
– Professional Sports
• Baseball
– Games
• Croquet
• Bicycles