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Chapter 21: A New Urban Culture

(1865-1914)(American Nation Textbook Pages 598-624)

Powerpoint by Mr. Zindman

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Between 1866 and 1915, more than 25 million immigrants poured into the United States. Both push factors and pull factors played a part in the vast global migration. Push factors are conditions that attract people from their homes pull factors are conditions that attract immigrants to new areas.

1. New Immigrants in a Promised Land

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Political and religious persecution pushed many people to leave their homes. In the late eighteen hundreds, the Russian government supported programs, organized attacks on Jewish villages. Millions of Jews fled Russia and Eastern Europe to settle in American cities.

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Persecution also played a factor for Armenian immigrants. The Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire which is present day Turkey. Between the 1890’s and the 1900’s, the Ottoman government killed a million or more Armenians. Many fled to the United States and settled in California.

Ottoman Empire

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Leaving their homes required great courage. The voyage across the Atlantic and Pacific was often miserable. Most immigrants could afford only the cheapest seats on boats traveling to the Americas. Ship owners jammed up to 2000 people in steerage compartments in crowded spots on their ships.

In these close quarters, diseases spread rapidly. Diseases such as the measles infected many immigrants.

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For most European immigrants, the voyage ended in New York City. There, after 1886, they saw the giant Statue of Liberty in the harbor. The statue of liberty became a symbol of hope and freedom offered by the United States.

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After 1892, ships entering New York harbor stopped at the new receiving station on Ellis Island. Here, immigrants faced a last hurdle, the dreaded medical inspection.

Doctors examined eyes, ears and throats. The sick had to stay on Ellis Island until they got well. With hundreds of immigrants to process each day, officials had only minutes to check each new arrival. To save time they often changed names that they found difficult to spell.

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In the late 1800’s, the patterns of immigration changed. Large numbers of people arrived from South Eastern Europe.

Ellis Island

Millions of Italians, Polish, Russians, and Greeks landed in the Eastern United States. Stopped at Ellis Island before arriving in New York City.

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Many immigrants have heard stories that the streets of the United States were paved with gold.

Once in the United States, the newcomers had to adjust their dreams to reality. They immediately set out to find work. Through friends, relatives, labor contractors, and employment agencies they found jobs.

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Immigrants adjusted to their new lives by settling in neighborhoods with their own ethnic group. An ethnic group is a group of people who share a common culture. Within these ethnic neighborhoods, newcomers spoke of their own language and celebrated special holidays with food prepared as in the old country.

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Religion stood at the center of immigrant family life. Houses of worship sprang up in most neighborhoods. They brought at the groups together.

In their effort to adapt, many immigrants sometimes blended their native tongues with English. They became part of a new culture. The process of becoming part of another culture is called assimilation.

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Many Americans opposed the increase in immigration. They felt the newcomers were too different. They wanted to limit immigration and preserve the country for native born white Protestants. These people were called nativists.

Many nativists resented the new immigrants because they took jobs for low pay away from working Americans.

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Congress responded to the violence aimed at the Chinese by passing the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Under it, no Chinese laborer could enter the United States. In addition, no Chinese living in the United States could return once they left the country.

One of the cultures that the nativists targeted was the Chinese. The Chinese immigrants helped build the railroads. Most Chinese people lived in cities in an area called Chinatown. Most Americans didn’t understand why the Chinese would learn American ways. As the numbers of Chinese moved into the United States. Prejudice and violence against them began to increase.

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African Americans moved to the cities to improve their lives. Most African Americans lived in the rural south. When hard times hit or prejudice lead to violence, some African Americans headed to northern cities.

By the 1890’s, the south side of Chicago has a thriving African-American community. Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, and other northern cities also had growing African American neighborhoods.

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Many poor families crowded into the cities oldest sections. Middle-class people lived father out in row houses or new apartment buildings. Beyond them, the rich built fine homes with green lawns and trees.

City Life

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Poor families struggled to survive in slums. The streets were jammed with people, horses, pushcarts, and garbage. Living space was very limited so builders devised a new kind of house to hold more people. They put up buildings six or seven stories high. The divided the buildings into small apartments, call tenements. Many tenements had no windows, heat, or indoor bathrooms. Typhoid and cholera raged through the tenants. Tuberculosis, a lung disease was the biggest killer.

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In the1880’s reformers asked for changes. Building codes were established that provided standards of safety. Fire escapes were added to buildings.

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Just beyond the slums stood the homes of the new middle class people. These people were the doctors, lawyers, and business managers, skilled machinists, and office workers. These people lived in rows of neat houses lined with three shaded streets. Here diseases broke out less frequently.

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Many people moved from farms to the cities. This move and was called urbanization. As industrialization continued cities grew more rapidly.

2. An Age of Cities

By 1860 one out of every five Americans lived in a city. Jobs drew people to the city. People worked in steel mills, meatpacking plants, and garment factories.

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Many religious organizations helped the poor. The Protestant ministers began preaching Social Gospel. They called upon their church members to do what is needed to help the poor.

In 1865 William Booth, a minister, established the Salvation Army in London to help the poor. He later expanded it to the United States.

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The first Young Men’s Hebrew Association, or YMHA, provided help and social activates for many Jewish Americans. Later these places were called the JCC or Jewish Community Centers.

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Addams opened a settlement house called the Hull House 1n 1869. In the Hull house teachers taught the English language and classes on American government.

Settlement Houses, or community centers, were also started to help the poor. Jane Addams became famous in organizing settlement houses in America.