The Old
Immigrants
 Before 1865 most immigrants
came from northern and western
Europe
 They were (for the greater part):
 Protestant
 English speaking
 Blended into American
society easily
 It reached the peak in 1907
when 1.3 million immigrants
came to America
The New
Immigrants: Where
did they come from?
 A new pattern of immigrants
came from different parts of
Europe
 Greeks, Russians, Hungarians,
Italians, Turks, and Poles
 These were called the “new
immigrants”; their number
increased while the “old
immigrants” began to
decrease
 Most of the eastern and
southern European
newcomers were Catholic or
Jewish
Immigrants
Eastern European
Western European
20%
80%
Other Immigrants
 Immigrants outside of Europe came in as well
 These immigrants hailed from:
 Japan
 China
 Mexico
Reasons for Leaving?
 The book describes their journey as being “pushed”
away from difficult conditions and being “pulled” in
to the USA by opportunities
 Emigrate – leave one’s homeland
 Persecution – hostility or ill-treatment
 Ethnic Group – minorities that speak different
languages or follow different customs from the
majority of those in the country
Reasons for Leaving?
Italy & Hungary
 People left their homeland
because of:
Croatia & Serbia
 People left their homeland
because:
 Poverty
 Economic Troubles
 Overcrowding
 Could not afford to buy
land
 Scarcity of Jobs
 Economic Troubles
 Could not economically
support
Reasons for
Coming to
America?
Land of:
Jobs
Plentiful and affordable
land
Opportunities for a
better life
The Journey
 Many of the people who came to America experienced
harsh travel conditions
 Those who did not live close to the port cities usually
travelled through foreign cities or countries either on
horseback or on foot
 It took at least 12 days to cross the Atlantic but several
weeks to cross the Pacific
 Steerage – cramped, noisy quarters on the lower decks of
ships
 Immigrants usually did not have much money therefore
they bought the cheapest tickets
The Statue of Liberty
o
o
o
o
The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the French
This magnificent monument greeted the newly welcomed immigrants
People were amazed of its colossal height and intricate detail
In a way it inspired some hope for the immigrants as well as a promise
for a better life in the new country
The Base of the Statue
“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”
-Emma Lazarus-
Entering America
 Before going through the “golden doors” they had
to register at the government reception
 East coast:
 Immigrants were processed at Castle Garden
 After 1892 they were processed at Ellis Island in NY
Harbor
 West coast:
 Were processed on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay,
California
Entrance Process
 Examiners recorded:
 Names (sometimes shortening or simplifying a name
they thought was too difficult to pronounce or write)
 Immigrants were asked where they came from
 The occupation the immigrants previously held
 Whether or not the immigrants had any relatives in the
US
 Health exams were given to the immigrants
 Those who had any contagious illness could be refused
permission to enter
Immigrant Experience
Finding Work
 This was possibly the most difficult challenge for the
new immigrants
 Some immigrants were able to find work because
their homeland provided them with a job via an
organization which recruited workers
 Others were hired by some of the fastest growing
industries in the nation
 Steel industry in Pittsburgh, PA
Work Cont’d
 Most of the common laborers were men who
worked 12 hour shifts, seven days a week
 Women and children also worked when they arrived
in America
 Sweatshops – garment industry
 Usually dark and crowded workshops
 Pay was very low and the hours were long and arduous
 Still people tried to assimilate – become part of the
American culture.
Work
 Many immigrants (women and children) worked in
sweatshops
 Work was repetitious, dangerous, the pay was very
low, and the hours were very long
 Pauline Newman
“We started work at 7:30 in the morning, and during the
busy season we worked until 9:00 in the evening. They
didn’t pay you any overtime and they didn’t give you
anything for supper money. Sometimes they’d give you a
little apple pie if you had to work very late”
Adjusting to America
 Immigrants tried to preserve some aspects of their
own culture while also wanting to assimilate
(become part of the American culture)
 Sometimes these two desires conflicted with one
another
 Immigrants parents continued to speak their native
languages while their children spoke English at
school and with friends
 The grandchildren, however, spoke only English
Adjusting to America
 Immigrant women roles also changed
 They generally had more freedom than women in
European and Asian countries
 But their lifestyles conflicted with traditional ways
and sometimes caused family friction
Building Communities
 Most immigrants were from rural areas but they
often settled in industrial cities and worked as
unskilled workers
 Families and people of close ethnic groups formed
their own communities
 This resulted in neighborhoods of Jewish, Polish,
Chinese, and others to build communities
Building Communities
 They tried to recreate their old way of life in their
new homes
 Houses of worship were such as churches and
synagogues were very common
 Holidays were celebrated just as in the old country
 Priests and rabbis served as community leaders
Building Communities
 These immigrants published newspapers in their
native languages, opened stores and theaters
 They also organized social clubs
 Ethnic communities and institutions helped the
immigrants preserve their cultural heritage
Nativist Movement
 Assimilation was slowed down by attitudes of native-born
Americans
 Some of these native-born Americans resented
immigrants because they feared the immigrants would
take away their jobs
 Ethnic, religious, and racial differences contributed to
tensions between Americans and the new immigrants
 People found it easy to blame immigrants for increasing
crime, unemployment, and other problems
New Immigration Laws
 1882: Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act
which prohibited Chinese workers from entering the
US for 10 years…Congress extended this law in 1892
and 1902
 “Gentlemen’s Agreement” – Japan agreed to limit
the number of immigrants to the US while
Americans pledged fair treatment for Japanese
Americans already in the US
New Immigration Laws
 1882: a law made each immigrant pay a tax and also
barred criminals from entering the country
 1897: Congress passed a bill requiring immigrants to
be able to read and write in some language
 1917: the Immigration Act (of 1917) included similar
literacy requirement to that in 1897
Support for Immigrants
 Grace Abbot & Julia Clifford Lathrop founded the
Immigrants’ Protective League
 They spoke out in support of immigration
 Americans like them recognized that the US was a
nation of immigrants and that the newcomers made
lasting contributions to their new society
Immigrants’ Contributions
 Immigrants supplied the country with workers
necessary for economic growth
 They gave the nation its major religious groups –
Protestants, Catholics, and Jews
 They enriched societies with the customs, cultures,
the language, and literature of their homeland
 The effects were most visible in the cities with fastgrowing ethnic neighborhoods
Growth of America
 Immigrants played an important part in the growth
of cities
 In urban centers such as New York, Detroit, and
Chicago, immigrants made up 80% or more of the
population
 Native-born Americans also contributed to the urban
moving
 Americans were moving from farming areas to cities
looking for jobs
Industrialization
 Industrialization changed America forever
 New farm machinery made it possible to produce
crops, using fewer farm-workers
 Rural area women no longer had to make clothing
and household goods because they were made by
machine; they could also be bought in the stores or
from catalogs
 Because of this new freedom women left farms to look
for job in the cities
African Americans
 They too contributed to the migration
 They moved from poverty-stricken rural areas to
cities in search for jobs and to escape debt, in justice,
or discrimination
 1914 saw a large number of African Americans move
to northern cities because there were more jobs in
industry and manufacturing
 They were hoping to find less violence and
discrimination
Migration of African
Americans
Transportation /
Resources
Kansas City – Meatpacking
centers
Transportation /
Resources
Pittsburgh – Steel and iron
manufacturing
Tenement Living
• People populated the cities
faster than housing could be
built to accommodate them
• Everyone wanted to move to
the cities because they were
exciting places full of jobs and
opportunities
• They were, however, also full
of substandard living and
poverty
Tenements
• The poorest residents lived in tenements, especially most
immigrants.
• It was a building in which several families rented rooms
• In the late 1800s, however, they began to take another
meaning – slums
• Slums were poor, run-down urban neighborhoods
Polish
Immigrant’s
Description
“We would so like to live in the
front, but we can’t pay the
rent…Why, they have the sun in
there. When the door is opened
the light comes right in your
face”
-referring to the dimly lit rooms
Middle-Class
 Included families of:






Professionals
Doctors
Lawyers
Ministers
Managers
Salaried office clerks
Suburbs
 The middle-class enjoyed living comfortably in these
residential areas that sprang up outside of city
centers
 Their houses had hot water, indoor toilets, and also
electricity by 1900
 They also might have a servant or two as well as
enjoy leisure time
 Leisure time activities included music, art, and
literature
Gilded Age
 This means something that is covered with a thin
layer of gold
 It refers to the extravagant wealth of the time and
the terrible poverty that was underneath
 It was also a novel published by Mark Twain and
Charles Dudley Warner in 1873
Gilded Age
 Top of the social ladder were the very rich
 They had enormous mansions in the cities and huge
estates in the country
 Some of the homes are now museums
J.P. Morgan Museum
Henry Clay Frick Museum
In the Mansions…
 Extreme luxury
 Lavish parties
Alva & William Kissam Vanderbilt
• Threw a party for more than 1,000 guests at their New York
mansions
• It is estimated to have cost $75,000 for food and entertainment
• In today’s terms this is roughly $1.3 million
City in Crisis
 Rapid growth produced serious problems for the
residents of the city
 Overcrowding in the tenements created sanitation and
health problems
 Garbage and horse manure could be found in the city
streets and sewers could not handle the flow of human
waste
 Disease was widespread throughout the districts
 Fires were also a great threat because of the inability to
control these fires
Health Problems
 1900s Chicago – babies died of whooping cough or
measles before their first birthday
 A certain section of New York was called “lung
block” because many of the residents had
tuberculosis
 To control this, NYC began to screen schoolchildren
and provided nurses to mothers with young children
 The city also established public health clinics
Crime
 Poverty led to crime
 Orphaned / homeless children resorted to pick
pocketing and other crimes just to survive
 Gangs roamed the streets of poor neighborhoods
committing more serious crimes
“The gang is the ripe fruit of tenement-house growth.
It was born there”
~ Jacob Riis
Solutions
• People wanted and tried to do
something about the ever
growing problems in the city
• Religious groups aided the poor,
orphans, prisoners, patients in
hospitals
• YMCA – Young Men’s Christian
Association
• YWCA – Young Women’s
Christian Association
• These two organizations
offered recreation centers
where young people could meet
and play
• It was an escape from the harsh
realities of the world
Solutions
 Settlement houses were located in poor
neighborhoods and provided medical care,
playgrounds, nurseries, libraries, and even classes in
English, music, and arts and crafts
 Settlement workers were mostly women who also
tried to get better police protection, garbage
removal, and public parks for poor districts
 Chicago’s Hull House is one of the most famous
settlement houses and it was founded by Jane
Addams
The Changing City
 The late 1800s saw the introduction of:
 New type of building
 New kinds of public transportation
 Public parks
Building Up –
Not Out
• 1860s: architects started using
iron frames to strengthen the
walls of buildings
• Iron supports made taller
buildings possible
• So did the safety elevator
which was invented by Elisha
Otis in 1852
William LeBaron
Jenney
• Constructed a 10-story office
building in Chicago
• It was supported by an ironand-steel frame
• It was the world’s first
skyscraper
Louis Sullivan
• He was an architect who gave
style to the skyscraper
• He and his colleagues changed
the face of America’s cities
“It must be every inch a proud and
soaring thing, rising in sheer
exultation”
Woolworth
Building
• It was completed in 1913
• It soared 55 stories high
• That’s 792 feet
• People called the building the
Cathedral of Commerce
Frederick Law
Olmsted
• He was a leader in the “City
Beautiful” movement
• The movement believed the
city dwellers should be able to
enjoy the beauties of nature
• He designed New York’s
Central Park as well as several
parks in Boston
World’s Fair
• 1892 & 1893: Chicago hosted a
World’s Fair on fairgrounds
designed by Olmsted
• The Fair revealed that
American architecture was
dynamic and original
• The best architects
understood European styles
and adapted them for modern
use
Boston Public Library
• The firm of McKim, Mead, and White used the Italian Renaissance style
in its design for the Boston
New Forms of Transportation
• At the time, street cars that were pulled on tracks by horses was available
• 1873: San Francisco began construction of cable-car lines
• An underground cable powered by a motor at one end of the rail line
moved passengers along
Trolley Car
• 1888: Richmond, VA
• This was a motorized train that was powered by electricity supplied
through overhead cables
Subways
• 1897: Boston opens up the nation’s first subway – underground
railway
• 1904: New York City opened the first section of what was to become
the largest subway in the world
Paved Streets
 Paved streets also helped transportation in the
1800s
 Although some cities like Cleveland, Ohio were
modern urban centers, most of its streets were
nothing more than sand and gravel
 Other cities used wood blocks, brick, or cobblestone
– they were all bumpy, noisy, and hard to repair
 The use of asphalt made city streets smoother and
quiter
Building Bridges
 Many cities were divided or bounded by rivers
 Architects and engineers designed huge steel
bridges to link sections of cities
Eads Bridge
• This is a 520 foot bridge across the Mississippi River in St. Louis
• It opened in 1874
Brooklyn Bridge
• 10 years later we have New
York’s Brooklyn Bridge
• It was 1,600 foot long and
connected Manhattan and
Brooklyn
Expanding Education
 In 1865 most Americans attended school for an
average of 4 hours a day
 In 1914 most states required children to have at least
some schooling
 More than 80% of all children between ages 5 and 7
enrolled in elementary and secondary schools
Public Schools
 The number of public high schools increased from
100 to 6,000 within 30 years
 Still many teenagers didn’t attend school because
they often wen to work to help their families instead
 Many African Americans, however, received little or
no education
 In other parts of the country they had no choice by
to attend segregated elementary and secondary
schools
Progressive Education
 Around 1900 there was a new philosophy of education
 It wanted to shape students’ characters and teach them
good citizenship as well as facts
 They believed that children should learn the use of
“hands-on”
 John Dewey criticized schools for overemphasizing
memorization of information
 He argued that schools should relate learning to the
interests, problems, and concerns of students
Higher Education
 1862 there was a law called the Morrill Act which
gave the states large amounts of federal land that
could be sold to raise money for education
 Land-grant Colleges – where dozens of schools were
created out of the funding from the states
 Some schools were often funded by wealthy
individuals such as Cornell University (after Ezra
Cornell) and Stanford University (after Leland
Stanford)
Higher Education
Cornell University
Stanford University
Women & Higher
Education
 In 1865 only a few number of women were admitted
to colleges
 By 1890 women could attend a wide range of
schools
 By 1910 almost 40% of all American college students
were women
Minorities & Higher
Education
 Hampton Institute in Virginia provided higher
education for African Americans and Native
Americans
 Howard University had a largely African American
student body
 By early 1870s Howard offered degrees in theology,
medicine, law, and agriculture
Prominent Graduates of
Howard University
Thurgood Marshall
Toni Morrison
Justice of the Supreme Court
Writer and political scientist
Ralph Bunche
• The first African American to
win the Nobel Peace Price
Booker T.
Washington
• Was a Hampton Institute
student
• Became an educator
• Founded the Tuskegee
Institute in Alabama in 1881 to
train teachers and provide
practical education for African
Americans
• His work as an educator and
public speaker made him
become influential in business
and politics
George
Washington
Carver
• Joined the Tuskegee faculty
• His research transformed
agriculture development in
the South
• From the peanut he
developed hundreds of
products
•
Plastic
•
Synthetic rubber
•
Shaving cream
•
paper
Schools for Native
Americans
 Reservation schools and boarding schools opened to
train Native Americans for jobs
 The Carlisle Indian Industrial School provided Native
Americans with training for jobs in industry but also
isolated them from their tribal traditions
 Some were located hundreds of miles away from a
student’s family
Public Libraries
 Americans started to become interested in reading
 Libraries opened across the nation
 Andrew Carnegie pledged to build a public library in
any city that would agree to pay its operating costs
 Within 30 years Carnegie donated more than $30
million to found more than 2,000 libraries
Spreading the News
 Printing, paper making, and communications made it
possible to publish a daily paper
 1883 Joseph Pulitzer purchased the New York
‘World’
 It included illustrations, cartoons, and sensational
stories with huge headlines
 This newspaper company built up its circulation to
more than one million readers every day
The Eye-Catching
Headlines
Exaggerating the Truth
 William Randolph Hearst was more successful than
Pulitzer because of his exaggerated dramatic stories
 This brought about yellow journalism
 Name that came from the paper’s popular comic strip,
“The Yellow Kid”
 It was a style of writing which exaggerated the actual
stories
Literature
 Realism
 Any literary writing which seeks to describe the lives of
people
 Regionalism
 Writing that focused on a particular region of the
country
Mark Twain
• He was a realist and a
regionalist
• “Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn”
• “The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer”
• They were all set along the
Mississippi River where Twain
grew up
Art, Music, and Leisure
 It reflected a European influence
 After the Civil war Americans began to develop a
distinctively American style
Painters
 Thomas Eakins
 Painted the human anatomy and surgical operations
 Henry Tanner
 Depicted warm family scenes of African Americans in
the south
 Frederic Remington
 Portrayed the America West
 Focusing on subjects such as cowhands and Native
Americans
Music in
America
John Philip Sousa
Composed many marches
“The Stars and Stripes Forever”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRn9chmRAY
In New Orleans a new music was
developed, Jazz
It combined elements of work
songs, gospel music, spirituals,
and African rhythms
Scott Joplin
“Maple Leaf Rag” was a ragtime
music
It was the dominant force in
popular music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=pMAtL7n_-rc