Chapter 9 Section 4 Notes
Growing Divisions
Objectives for today:
1.What were the causes for the huge
rise in immigration to the US in the
1830s and 1840s?
2. How did Americans react to
immigrants
Main Idea
• The United States grew increasingly diverse due
to the arrival of new groups of immigrants and
the growing cultural differences between the
North and South
• The young, nation was attracting immigrants
from a variety of European cultures.
• Some people of this diverse population did not
share the “Native” Americans’ vision of America.
• The North and the South were becoming more
distinct.
• Differences between working people and the
middle class were widening.
Rising Immigration
• Thousands of jobs were created
due to the Industrial Revolution.
• created a growing demand for
cheap labor in factories and in the
building of canals and railroad lines.
• These jobs attracted immigrants,
most of whom arrived hungry,
penniless, and eager to work.
• 1820s-143,000 immigrants
• 1830s-600,000
• 1850s-2,400,000
• Nearly all of these new arrivals
settled in the North and the West
because the use of slave labor in
the South offered few job
opportunities in that region.
Irish Immigration
• Irish immigration soared in the
mid-1840s when Ireland suffered
a horrible disaster known as the
Irish Potato Famine.
• The famine, which lasted from
1845 to 1849, caused hundreds of
thousands of Irish people to flee
to the United States.
• Most settled in northeastern cities
such as Boston and New York.
Potato Famine
• During the summer of 1845, a "blight of unusual
character" devastated Ireland's potato crop, the basic
staple in the Irish diet.
• few days after potatoes were dug from the ground, they
began to turn into a slimy, decaying, blackish "mass of
rottenness."
• the cause was a fungus that had traveled from Mexico
to Ireland.
• "Famine fever"--cholera, dysentery, scurvy, typhus, and
infestations of lice--soon spread through the Irish
countryside.
• Observers reported seeing children crying with pain and
looking "like skeletons, their features sharpened with
hunger and their limbs wasted, so that there was little
left but bones."
• Masses of bodies were buried without coffins, a few
inches below the soil.
IRISH POTATO FAMINE
MEMORIAL STATUE IN
BOSTON
Irish Immigration
• Like other immigrant groups,
after settling in the United
States the Irish became
naturalized.
• That is, they applied for and
were granted American
citizenship.
• Irish men filled manual labor
jobs in factories or on canals
or railroads.
• Once established, the
newcomers sent for relatives
to join them.
• Irish communities in northern
cities grew steadily.
1. What year did
US immigration
hit its peak?
2. What happened
during that year?
Irish in Boston
• Proper Bostonians pointed and laughed at the
first Irish immigrants stepping off ships
wearing clothes twenty years out of fashion.
• They watched as the newly arrived Irishmen
settled with their families into
neighborhoods that became exclusively Irish
near the Boston waterfront along
Batterymarch and Broad Streets, then in the
North End section and in East Boston.
• Irishmen took any unskilled jobs they could
find such as cleaning yards and stables,
unloading ships, and pushing carts.
Irish Immigration
• As their numbers grew,
Irish Americans became a
political force.
• Most were Jacksonian
Democrats.
• The Democratic Party had
reached out to these
potential new voters when
they first arrived, and the
tactic paid off.
• In 1855, for example, 34
percent of all New York
City voters were firstgeneration Irish immigrants
John F. KennedyGrandson of an IrishImmigrant
• Most Irish
immigrants came to
the U.S. poor,
settling in either
Boston, New York,
or Philadelphia.
(left) Population
density of people
born in Ireland,
1870; these were
mostly Catholics
The Germans
• Many Germans came to America
seeking political freedom after a series
of failed rebellions across Europe in
1848.
• The majority of the German
immigrants were peasants who bought
large tracts of farmland in the
Midwest, especially in Wisconsin and
Missouri.
• Many also settled in Texas and, by
1850, made up about 5 percent of the
state's population.
• German artisans and intellectuals
tended to settle in northern cities such
as New York, Chicago, and Milwaukee.
The Germans
• German
immigran
ts came
to the
U.S. to
escape
war and
to better
their
lives.
German immigrants boarding a ship for America in the late
19th century
• Those with money bought farms in the Midwest.
New Cultures
• These immigrants brought new
cultural traditions to the United
States.
• Most of the Irish and many of the
Germans were Roman Catholic.
• Like Catholics in other countries,
they respected the authority of the
Pope in Rome as the head of the
Church..
• Like other laborers, the new
immigrants worked long hours.
• After work the men gathered in
taverns, often the social centers of
the neighborhood.
• Boxing matches, horse races, and
new team sports such as baseball
were inexpensive diversions from
the grind of daily life.
Irish Catholic Church
In South Boston
-built 1844
Effects of
Immigration
• Immigrants
took available
jobs in
factories and
mines, helping
the economy.
1900 US photo
miners in
Hazleton, PA
Immigrants face Hostility
• Irish and German
immigrants often faced
discrimination, the unequal
treatment of a group of
people because of their
nationality, race, sex, or
religion.
• Discrimination came from
Americans who felt
threatened by the
presence of the newcomers
or who disapproved of
their culture
Immigrants face Hostility cont.
• One source of tension was economics.
• Because the Irish would work for lower wages,
companies used them as strike breakers.
• This was not the best time for Americans to go
on strike in the factories.
• Many of the New England mill girls lost their
jobs to Irish men in the 1830s and 1840s.
• This caused a lot of resentment towards the new
immigrants.
• Americans felt jobs should not be given to
immigrants over native born Americans.
Immigrants face Hostility cont.
• A second source of tension was religion.
• Many Protestants disapproved of the Catholic
religion.
• Protestants and Catholics had fought wars for
centuries in Europe over this debate.
• Catholics protested when their children in
public schools were forced to read the
Protestant version of the Bible
• Textbooks of the time taught Protestant
values.
• Catholics fought efforts by reformers to enact
laws restricting drinking, gambling, and sports,
which they did not view as immoral when
practiced in moderation.
Famous 1876 editorial cartoon by Thomas Nast showing
bishops as crocodiles attacking public schools, with
connivance of Irish Catholic politicians.
Know-Nothing Party
• There was a fear in the US that the country was being
overwhelmed by Irish Catholic immigrants, who were
often regarded as hostile to American values and
controlled by the Pope in Rome.
• The Know-Nothing Party was a political party aimed at
passing laws and policies against immigrants in the US.
• The platform of the American Party called for, among
other things:
• Severe limits on immigration, especially from Catholic
countries
• Restricting political office to native-born Americans
• Mandating a wait of 21 years before an immigrant could
gain citizenship
• Restricting public school teachers to Protestants
• Mandating daily Bible readings in public schools
• Restricting the sale of liquor
Know-Nothing Party cont.
• Mainly active from 1854–56, it
strove to curb immigration and
naturalization
• The movement originated in New
York in 1843 as the American
Republican Party.
• It spread to other states as the
Native American Party and
became a national party in 1845.
• In 1855 it renamed itself the
American Party.
• The origin of the "Know Nothing"
term was in the semi-secret
organization of the party.
• When a member was asked about
its activities, he was supposed to
reply, "I know nothing."