New Immigrants

Many native-born Americans thought of their country as a melting pot – a mixture of people of different cultures and races who blended together to create one country.

Video: The Great American Melting PotHowever, many immigrants did not want to

give up their own culture.As immigration increased, strong anti-

immigrant feelings emerged

A Melting Pot

From 1880-1910 approximately 18 million immigrants came to the United States

Most came from southern and eastern Europe including Greece, Italy, Poland, and Russia

These new immigrants brought more religious diversity to the United States: Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, and Jewish

By 1910 1 in every 7 Americans was foreign born

Coming to America

In 1892 the U.S. opened an immigration station on Ellis Island in New York City

Over the next 62 years 12 million Europeans passed through Ellis Island

Immigrants from Asia passed through a similar point at Angel Island in San Francisco

Many immigrants lived in crowded tenements and took low paying, unskilled jobs.

Many immigrants settled in areas with people from their same country of origin – Chinatown, Little Italy, etc.

Coming to America

Nativists – Americans who blamed immigrants for increases in crime and poverty and believed immigrants were taking American jobs

Some nativists called for immigrants to pass a literacy test in order to vote

Americanization – a process in which native-born Americans attempted to help new immigrants assimilate into American society.

Schools and organizations taught literacy skills and other subjects needed for citizenship

SHEG: Chinese Immigration

Reactions to Immigrants

Many immigrants, and other Americans, moved to large cities in the early 1900’s

They came to the cities looking for jobs in growing factories and businesses

This resulted in a growth of urbanizationUrbanization – the growth of cities and urban areas

Due to an increase in technology many farm workers lost their jobs and moved to the cities to find work.

Many of those workers were African-American.Between 1890 and 1910 about 200,000 African-

Americans moved from the South to cities in the North.

Urban Life in America

1) A Shortage in housingMany people

lived in tenements – urban houses that housed many families and were overcrowded and unsanitary

Urban Challenges

2) Transportation ChallengesDuring this time

many cities developed mass transit systems – transportation designed to move a large number of people along fixed routes (subways, railcars, etc.)

Urban Challenges

3) Providing safe drinking waterSome cities built public waterworks but many

city residents still had no easy way to get clean water

4) SanitationPeople threw garbage out their windowsSewage flowed in the streetsBy 1900 many cities had built sewers and

created sanitation departments to fix these problems.

Urban Challenges

5) CrimeBig cities were

full of robberies, murder, and other crimes.

6) FireOvercrowded

and poorly built tenements and lack of water made the risk of fire great.

Urban Challenges

Many people worked to improve life in the cities.

One early program was the Social Gospel Movement – movement that urged people to help the poor

Reformers also established settlement houses – community centers that addressed problems in slum neighborhoods

Reformers Help

One of the most well known social reformers of this time was Jane Addams

She helped establish the Hull House – a settlement house that helped the poor of Chicago.

Reformers Help