Immigration During the Gilded Age Scott Lee, Jeyson Man, Andy Zhou
Background From 1865- 1900, 13.5 million immigrants arrived in US.
“Old” Immigrants (1800-1880) Ethnicities: Religion: Motives: Irish, German, northern Europeans ( England, Scandinavia, etc) Religion: Protestants, Catholics Motives: Irish : potato famine German: liberal and intellectuals escape after Revolution of 1848 Northern Europeans: settle the frontier near railroads in the west.
“Old” Immigrants (1800-1880) Workers for factories, mines, railroads Farmers for the west They had special abilities and high rate of literacy Manpower for military Easily assimilated in American society Accepted because spoke same language and worship same religion
“New” Immigrants (1891-1920) Ethnicities: Religions: Motives: Southern and Eastern Europe (Russian, Greek, Polish, Austrians, Jews) Religions: Catholic, Orthodox, Judaism Motives: Push factors Crops failure, famine Persecution Poverty Pull factors Promise of freedom “Perfect America” Factory jobs, better lifestyle
“New” Immigrants (1891-1920) Not literate and highly skilled Flocked cities of New York and Chicago Resistant to Americanization Frontier closed no more land Created ghettoes, not willing to learn American ways
Asian Immigrants Ethnicity: China and Japan Religion: Buddhism and others Motives: Hired by California construction companies Went to west coast due to gold rush Building of the First Transcontinental Railroad Better life
Immigrant Experience Ellis Island (New York) If poor, travel in steerage (worst accommodation on the ship) Came through processing center in Ellis Island Handled 12 million European Immigrants Asked a list of questions Do you have money, relatives or a job in the United States? Are you a polygamist? An anarchist? … etc Doctors then look for signs of disease quarantine
Immigrant Experience Angel Island West version of Ellis Island San Francisco bay Designed to filter out the Chinese immigrants Chinese were turned away unless they were citizens or had relatives in America
Life of Immigrants Immigrants live in their own separated neighborhood (Little Italy, Chinatown… etc) Kept most of their cultures Can only find low paying jobs Many were forced into tenement housing Small cramped apartment buildings
Anti-immigration Nativism Extreme dislike for foreigners by native-born people and a desire to limit immigration Immigrants might take all the jobs Restrictive Covenant- agreements among house-owners not to sell real estate to certain of group of people
Anti-immigration Chinese Exclusion Act Gentlemen’s Agreement Banned Chinese immigration for 10 years Banned from becoming citizens Attend segregated school Gentlemen’s Agreement Limit the immigration of Japanese Japanese students can attend public schools Japanese government would stop granting Japanese passports to US.
Americanization Help newcomers to learn English and adopt American culture “Melting Pot”
Sources: http://www.slideshare.net/kuhnb61/american-immigration-14050765 http://www.slideshare.net/mrsstrong-clay/immigration-after-1880 http://www.slideshare.net/coachlowe/unit-1-powerpoint-4-the-gilded-age-immigration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogrom http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snpim1.htm http://www.sparknotes.com/history/american/gildedage/summary.html http://prezi.com/4omlmtuhvu6d/immigration-in-the-gilded-age/ http://www.ushistory.org/us/38c.asp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Age#Immigration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Dream http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_immigration_to_the_United_States#Immigration_1791_to_1849 http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/era.cfm?eraID=9&smtID=8 http://besthistorysites.net/index.php/american-history/1800/gilded-age http://gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/rise-industrial-america-1877-1900/gilded-age