Urbanization and Immigration in the Gilded Age © Mr. Mark Batik Jesuit College Prep

Antebellum Immigration Year Immigrants 1844 78,615 1847 234,968 1848 226,527 1849 297,024 1850 369,980 1851 379,466 1852 371,603 1853 368,645 1854 427,833 Immigration as a Source of Population Increase  Year Percent of Total Population Increase  1820s  4 percent 1830s  13 percent 1840s  23 percent 1850s 34 percent 1860s  25 percent 1870s  27 percent 1880s  41 percent 1890s  28 percent

Rising German and Irish Immigration

Nativism Fear of the unknown Immigrant groups congregated together Anti-Catholic “popery” Protestant “Public School” education Know Nothing Political Party Organized as the “American Party” in 1854

Know Nothing Demands Limit immigration Limit office holding to native-born Americans Extend to 21 years residency before citizenship Limit the sale of liquor Use Protestant Bible in public school

Post War Immigration Shift (New Immigrants)

Changing Face (New Immigrants) Immigration changes from Western/Northern European to Southern/Eastern European (66% of immigrants in 1910s) Change in religion from Protestant to Orthodox, Jewish, and Catholic Change in nature of the country leaving democratic versus despotism Illiterate, poor, flood to city in concentrated communities

Immigrants per decade

Reasons for the Flood Urbanization of Europe Population Boom in Europe America Fever Transportation advances Domestic disturbances in Europe example 1880s Russian purge of Jews

Reactions to Immigrants No oversight on the assimilation process Jobs for votes, promises for votes Settlement House Movement Jane Addams Chicago Nobel Peace Prize Winner 1931 Hull house provided language instruction, assimilation assistance, day care, cultural activities

Reactions to Immigrants Anti-foreignism nativism Based on negative impression of the new immigrants Different Religion, High Birth Rate, Fear of outbreeding of Anglo-Saxonism Blame Problems with government Unions hated them Dangerous minds

Post War Nativism American Protective Association Organized Labor 1882 and 1885 restrictions removal of paupers, criminals, convicts Contract laborers banned Complete ban on Chinese

Thomas Nast (1840–1902), the most famous political cartoonist of the 1860s and 1870s, used his art to comment on pressing political issues, such as the plight of former slaves during Reconstruction, the evils of machine politics, and the rivalry between the national political parties. His drawings were made into wood engravings that were then printed in newspapers or popular magazines such as Harper’s Weekly. In this cartoon published in 1871, Nast depicts Columbia protecting a Chinese immigrant from a racist mob. SOURCE:Stock Montage,Inc./Historical Pictures Collection.

Chinese Exclusion Blamed for working cheap and too hard Prejudice against Chinese Racial Religious Chinese Exclusion Act Renewed until 1902 when extended indefinitely Barriers last till 1943 Exceptions for family members, paper sons and daughters

Taken from J. B. Legg’s architecture book, this page illustrates the ideal suburban home. His book, published in 1876, was aimed at the prospering middle class. SOURCE:Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Consequences Skyscrapers Mass Transit “Dumbbell” Tenement Machine politics