America Moves to the City 1865 — 1900

America Moves to the City, 1865 - 1900 AP U. S. History Chapter 25

THE URBAN FRONTIER • Population in 1900 doubled to about 80 million (16. 2 million were immigrants) • Cities growing up and out • Skyscrapers • Louis Sullivan Chicago 1 st skyscraper - 1885 St. Louis Buffalo, NY

• Commuting increased due to mass-transit – “Street car cities” – 1890 s – electric trolleys, elevated railroads, and subways – Bridges – Brooklyn Bridge • Segregate urban workers by income!!!

Residential Suburbs • Factors that promoted suburban growth: – Abundant land available for low cost – Inexpensive transportation – Low cost construction methods – wood framed houses – Ethnic and racial prejudice – American fondness for grass, privacy, and detached individual houses

3 Groups Moving to Cities 1. Farmers 2. African Americans 3. Immigrants - largest

Rural to Cities • Industrial jobs brought people to cities • Lure of entertainment, electricity, indoor plumbing, and telephones • Cities gave women career opportunities • Millions of Southern Blacks moved to cities (Great Migration biggest movement during WWI)

Immigration • “Old Immigrants” • 1860 s – 1880 s • Northern and Western Europe • Language, level of literacy, occupational skills similar – easily accepted • Rural • “New Immigrants” • After 1890 • Southern and Eastern Europe • Poor, illiterate, no democratic traditions, Catholics, Jews – not accepted • Urban

Most came through Ellis Island in New York harbor from 1882 -1954

Chinese and Japanese • 1851 – 1883 – 300, 000 Chinese to West Coast. Why come? Fleeing famine, oppressive government, and Civil War. Also looking for gold, working for the RR • 1884 – Japanese emigration to Hawaii to work on plantations (sugar cane). • 1898 annexation of HI led to Japanese immigration to the US. • 1907 – 30, 000 Japanese came to the US (peak).

Anti-Asian Sentiment • • • lower wages served as strikebreakers strange customs looked different 1882 – Chinese Exclusion Act – banned all Chinese from entering the country

• Also scared Japanese and other Asian’s would take jobs. Japan had just defeated Russian and agitators used this – “Yellow Peril” • 1906 – Asian children segregated in schools. Japan upset over treatment. • 1907/08 – Gentlemen’s Agreement – TR and Japan – Japan would limit immigration of unskilled workers and US would repeal segregation order.

Urbanization and Industrialization • Happened at same time • Cities – cheap labor force, market for goods • 1900 – 40% of Americans lived in towns/cities • 1920 – more urban than rural

Challenges of Cities … • Rampant crime: prostitution, cocaine, gambling, violent crime. • Unsanitary conditions persisted as cities could not keep up with growth • "Dumbell" tenement • Pages 559 – 560

Immigrant Cultures in America • As rich moved out to suburbs, immigrant poor moved in • Ethnic neighborhoods – “ghettos” – maintain own culture, language • Foreign-language newspapers, theaters, food stores, restaurants, parishes, social clubs. • Catholic parochial schools

Push/Pull Factors • Economic: Push – farmlands worn out, large-scale commercial farming drove them off their land, and low wages and unemployment due to machines. Pull – America seen as land of opportunity – fertile lands for little or no cost and expanding economy offered opportunities for jobs. Also rising populations in Europe – doubled to 400 million. This led to competition for jobs in Europe. • Political: Push – European governments controlled by upper class with common people having no say so in political matters. Pull – America democratic with people having a strong voice in government. • Social: Push – Europe – rigid class distinctions, few educational opportunities for poor, discrimination against religious minorities. Jew pushed out of Russia. Pull – America land of equality where they could rise in social status. “American Letters”

REACTIONS TO THE NEW IMMIGRATION • Political machines catered to new immigrants • Bosses often traded jobs and services for votes (creating powerful immigrant voting blocks) • Tammany Hall – New York City, “Boss Tweed” – Did bring modern services to the city

• Thomas Nast – political cartoonist who brought attention to the Tweed Ring – finally broken in 1871.

Social Crusaders • Reformers hated these practices; wanted to curb power of political machines • Social Gospel advocates emerged – Christianity should improve life on earth – improve problems of alcoholism & unemployment • Washington Gladden: Sought to open churches in working class districts. • Salvation Army – aid to homeless/poor

Settlement House Movement • Primarily a women’s movement, northern, white, middle-class, college-educated and prosperous. • Jane Addams - living among the poor – Established Hull House in Chicago - immigrants were taught English, classes in nutrition, health, and child care, social gatherings. • Helped immigrants cope with American big-city life • Lillian Wald -- Henry Street Settlement in NY. • Settlement houses became centers of women’s activism and social reform.

NARROWING THE WELCOME MAT • Nativists viewed Eastern and Southern Europeans as culturally and religiously exotic and often treated them badly. – Alarmed at high birthrates – willingness to work for "starvation" wages. – Concerned at foreign doctrines e. g. socialism, communism & anarchism. • American Protective Association (APA) formed in 1887 – supported immigration restrictions • Congress – 1882 – banned paupers, criminals, and convicts. 1885 – banned foreign workers under contract (usually working for substandard wages). • Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

DARWIN DISRUPTS THE CHURCHES • Churches confront urban challenge • Origin of the Species (1859) theory that humans had slowly evolved from lower life forms -- Cast serious doubt on the literal interpretation of the Bible, esp. creationism. • Created rifts in the churches and colleges of post Civil War era. • “Fundamentalists" VS. "Modernists"

THE LUST FOR LEARNING • • • Tax-supported elementary schools Grade-school education compulsory Public high schools increased Kindergarten Private Catholic parochial schools grew Chautauqua movement began in 1874 in NY to educate adults. • 90% literacy rate • WHY? ? ? Free government can not function without educated citizens!!!

Higher Education • Morrill Act of 1862 granted public lands to states for support of education. • Philanthropists • Women’s Colleges

BTW vs. WEB • Booker T. Washington • W. E. B. Du. Bois – opposed BTW – – Tuskegee, AL demanded – Useful trades as a means towards self. IMMEDIATE social respect and economic equality for Af – Am, led by – Accommodation – “Talented 10 th” accept segregation for now • GRADUAL!!!!! – Niagara Movement – immediate end to segregation – NAACP

The Press • Joseph Pulitzer: Yellow Journalism attributed to his newspapers • William Randolph Hearst also built up a powerful chain of newspapers

The New Morality • Victoria Woodhull’s periodical Woodhull and Clafin’s Weekly included feminist propaganda for women’s suffrage, equal rights, and "free love. " • Comstock Law" of 1873 passed by Congress forbade publishing of “provocative” sexual material (e. g. discussion of birth control) • New Urban environment hard on families – separated from families, subjected to stress. Launched the era of divorce • Birthrates continued to drop, marriages delayed. • Voting – Carrie Chapman Catt • Women were increasingly given the right to vote in local elections (WY – first state to give women unrestricted suffrage).

Crusade for the Prohibition of Alcohol • Liquor consumption increased in years following Civil War. 1. Immigrant groups resisted temperance or prohibition laws. 2. Saloons in late-19 th century were exclusively male. • Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) organized in 1874 – Led by Francis Willard - Increasingly saw alcoholism as result of poverty, not the cause. Put enormous pressure on states to abolish alcohol; somewhat successful. • Carrie A. Nation • Anti-Saloon League formed in 1893 • Statewide prohibition laws now sweeping new states during the Progressive Era. -- In 1919, 18 th Amendment made alcohol illegal (lasted only 14 years).

Women’s Rights • National American Women’s Suffrage Association (formed in 1890) – NAWSA – equal rights (esp right to vote) • Elizabeth Cady Stanton • Susan B. Anthony • American Women Suffrage Association led by Lucy Stone.