Do you think life in 19th century America was good for the new immigrants?

A Ride Across the Ocean and then…

•NYC▫First lower Manhattan ▫Then Ellis Island – 75% processed here!

Medical examination Questioning/Paperwork

Not a criminal; able to work; some money

•San Francisco▫Angel Island

Much harsher Longer Dirtier

Where do immigrants go???•2/3 immigrants went to major cities

▫NYC, Boston, Chicago or Philadelphia • lived in ethnic communities

▫Why?

•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAWIZFqE6L4

•What does this tell you about ethnic neighborhoods?

Five Points NYC

•NYC – mid/late 19th century

Living Conditions • Most urban immigrants

lived in tenements▫ low rent apartments

built in the poorest parts of town called slums

▫Poorly built▫ Lacked ventilation,

running water, toilets• Also served as workplace

for some▫ Cigar makers,

seamstresses, et cetera

Dumbbell tenements

five cents a day

Housing

$1/month

Other Conditions: • Infectious Diseases

▫60% of immigrant babies died before their first birthday

▫Typhoid Mary, an Irish immigrant of course

•Sanitation •Water

▫Cholera, Typhoid •Fire

▫Limited water, wood, candles, overcrowding

•Crime

Chicago Fire 1871

How will “ethnic communities/enclaves” impact attitudes towards new immigrants?

How will the conditions of cities impact attitudes towards new immigrants?

Attitudes towards immigrants• “Lunatics and Idiots Shipped from Europe” and “The World’s

Dumping Ground,” screamed newspaper headlines.• Alabama congressman William C. Oates summed up the

growing belief in the undesirability of new immigrants:“A house to house visit to Mulberry street [the city’s burgeoning

Little Italy], in New York, will satisfy any one that there are thousands of people in this country who should never have been allowed to land here. . . . Many of the Russian Jews who inhabit other streets in New York, and other cities, are of no better class than the Italians just referred to.”

• The Chicago Post wrote, "The Irish fill our prisons, our poor houses...Scratch a convict or a pauper, and the chances are that you tickle the skin of an Irish Catholic. Putting them on a boat and sending them home would end crime in this country.“

• When Leland Stanford was elected governor of California in 1862, he promised in his inaugural address to protect the state from "the dregs of Asia."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbyoUb3mp1ETrump

“Destroying” America•Spread disease because/bc of poor hygiene • Increase in crime other bad behavior bc of low

morality •Less intelligent & lazy bc look how they live!•Changing American culture bc not

assimilating/staying in ethnic communities •Lowering our wages (how?)•Taking over government (why?)•Asian immigrants viewed even more negatively**

why?

•Xenophobia – fear of foreigners

Nativism

▫Nativism – native born are superior ▫Immigrants to blame for their position in

life

Anti-Immigration Groups/Legislation

• Anti-Catholic groups• Literacy tests*** (vetoed)• Chinese Exclusionary Act, 1882-1943!

▫ Students, teachers, vacationers, gov. • Gentlemen’s Agreement (Japanese), 1907

▫ End SF segregation, limit unskilled immigrants

• Americanization movement• Discrimination in hiring, social clubs,

housing, et cetera

• **only want British, German, Scandinavian “stock”**

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Proportion of Children 10-15 in Labor Force

Boston Philadelphia Pittsburgh

Boys Native 7 20 20

2nd generation 8 24 20

1st generation 19 39 30

Black 10 17 19

Girls Native 3 12 5

2nd generation 6 18 8

1st generation 13 39 18

Black 4 14 7

Number What do you see?/Translate what you read.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

-How would you describe an immigrants life in America based on the images, texts, cartoons?

-How do you think native born Americans will feel about immigrants based on the pictures, texts and cartoons?

Do you think things have changed much for immigrants today?