ssush12a immigrants and tenements - mr....
TRANSCRIPT
SSUSH12A
Immigrants and Tenements
Immigrants and Tenements
How the Other Half Lives:
Studies Among the Tenements of New York City
Jacob A. Riis
• Born in Denmark in 1849.
• Immigrated to the United States in 1870.
• Traveled to America in steerage on the
Steamship Iowa (costing $50 for passage).
• Arrived in the U.S. with about $40 and spent
half of it to buy a pistol for protection.
• Struggled to find work and was destitute for
the first several years he lived in the U.S.
• Became a Newspaper editor by the mid-1880’s.
• Published his book in 1890.
Immigrants and Tenements
• “THE first tenement New York knew bore
the mark of Cain from its birth.” • “large rooms were partitioned into
several smaller ones, without regard
to light or ventilation, the rate of
rent being lower in proportion to
space or height from the street; and
they soon became filled from cellar
to garret with a class of tenentry
living from hand to mouth, loose in
morals, improvident in habits,
degraded, and squalid as beggary
itself.”.
How the Other Half Lives:
Immigrants and Tenements
• The death of a child in a tenement
was registered as “plainly due to
suffocation in the foul air of an
unventilated apartment.”
• “All the fresh air that ever enters
these stairs comes from the hall-
door that is forever slamming, and
from the windows of dark
bedrooms.”
How the Other Half Lives:
Immigrants and Tenements
• “as we grope our way up the stairs and down
from floor to floor, listening to the sounds
behind the closed doors -- some of quarrelling,
some of coarse songs, some of profanity.”
• “That short hacking cough,
that tiny, helpless wail --what
do they mean? . . . . a sadly
familiar story -- before the
day is at an end, the child will
die of the measles.”
How the Other Half Lives:
Immigrants and Tenements
• “Here is a room neater than the rest.
The woman, a stout matron with hard
lines of care in her face, is at the
wash-tub. "I try to keep the child
clean," she says, apologetically, but
with a hopeless glance around.”
• “There is no Monday cleaning in the
tenements. It is wash-day all the week
round, for a change of clothing is
scarce among the poor. The true line
to be drawn between pauperism and
honest poverty is the clothes-line.”
How the Other Half Lives:
Immigrants and Tenements
• “The bulk of the sewing work is done in
the tenements of Jewtown, which the law
that regulates factory labor does not reach.”
• “In a dimly lighted room with
a big red-hot stove to keep the
pressing irons ready for use, is
a family of a man, wife, three
children, and a boarder who
cut, sew, and press clothes.”
How the Other Half Lives:
Immigrants and Tenements
How the Other Half Lives:
• “The rent is ten dollars a month for the room and a miserable little coop of a
bedroom where the old folks sleep. The girl makes her bed on the lounge in
the front room; the big boys and the children sleep on the floor.”
Immigrants and Tenements
• “More than half of all the Bohemians
in this city are cigar makers.”
• “While the wife is usually the original
cigar maker; Men, women and children
work together seven days in the week
in these cheerless tenements to make a
living for the family, from the break of
day till far into the night.”
How the Other Half Lives:
Immigrants and Tenements
How the Other Half Lives:
• “All sorts of frightful stories were
told of the shocking conditions
under which people lived and
worked in these tenements.”
• “Doubtless the people are poor, in
many cases very poor; but they are not
uncleanly, rather the reverse; many live
much better than the clothing-makers
in the Tenth Ward.”
Immigrants and Tenements
97 Orchard Street:
New York City’s Tenement Museum
• Built on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 1863 by
German immigrant Lucas Edward Glockner.
• Home to nearly 7000 working class immigrants
between 1864 and 1935.
• Abandoned building discovered by historians and
social activists Ruth Abram and Anita Jacobson in
1988.
• Excavation, Research, and Restoration has
continued for 25 years.
• Museum opened in 1992 and has 6 apartments
restored to their original appearance (1869 – 1935).
Immigrants and Tenements
97 Orchard Street:
1865-1886: John & Caroline Schneider owned and ran a Saloon in the basement and lived in the rear.
Immigrants and Tenements
97 Orchard
Street:
1865-1886: John & Caroline Schneider owned and ran a Saloon in the basement and lived in the rear.
Immigrants and Tenements
97 Orchard Street:
1869: Joseph and Bridget Moore from Ireland lived in one of the tenement apartments for only 1 year,
during which time their 5 month old daughter died.
Immigrants and Tenements
97 Orchard Street:
1869: Joseph Moore worked as a Bartender in the Irish part of the city controlled by Tammany Hall.
Immigrants and Tenements
97 Orchard Street:
1869 – 1884: The Gumpertz Family (Mom, Dad and 3 Children) from Prussia lived in the tenement in the
area known then as Kleindeutschland (Little Germany).
Immigrants and Tenements
97 Orchard Street:
1874: Julius Gumpertz disappeared leaving his wife Natalie to care for the family and pay the rent.
Immigrants and Tenements
97 Orchard Street:
1892 – 1905: Harris and Jennie Levine came from Poland and settled in the tenement with two children.
Immigrants and Tenements
97 Orchard Street:
1892 - 1905: Jennie gave birth to 3 more children while she and Harris ran their tenement dress shop
Immigrants and Tenements
97 Orchard Street:
1907 – 1935: Abraham and Fannie Rogarshevsky came from Lithuania to live in the tenement with their 6 kids.
Immigrants and Tenements
97 Orchard Street:
1907 – 1935: Although Abraham died in 1918, Fannie remained the janitress of the tenement until 1935.
Immigrants and Tenements
97 Orchard Street:
1913 – 1918: The Greek family of Abraham and Rachael Confino came to live in the tenement after
immigrating from the Ottoman City of Kastoria.
Immigrants and Tenements
97 Orchard Street:
1918: The Confino family of ten eventually moved uptown to a Sephardic Community in East Harlem.
Immigrants and Tenements
97 Orchard Street:
1864 - 1905: The Privy Yard was the rear area of the tenement where the toilets were located.