The Transformed Workforce I.Introduction II.Immigration A.Types B.Motivations III.Work A.Common B.Industrial C.Skilled IV.Cultural Identity and Protest A.Sojourners and slackers B.Loyalists C.Radicals V. Ethnicity and Class A.Nativism B.Divided workers

“Old” Immigrants Sen. Carl Shurz, Liverpool Docks, 1850

Chinese Immigrants People of Chinese descent in the US –1860: 35K –1870: 63K

“New” Immigrants Polish Church, 1918 Italian Grocers, 1915Jewish Garment Workers, 1914

Motivations Famine –Irish Potato Blight, 1849 Unrest –Germany, 1848 Repression –Pogroms –2 nd class citizenship –Draft Irish Family, 1850

Labor Migration Padrone system Five Companies Castle Gardens Labor Exchange, 1868 

Fortune Gold Rush cartoon, 1849

Common Labor Immigrant men from agricultural backgrounds often found work doing common labor, esp. before Completing the final mile of the transcontinental RR, 1869

Skilled Labor Many immigrants arrived with significant skills. German workers, Mitchell’s Brewery, Wisconsin, circa 1890s

Industrial Work Machine operatives Home work Boy and mother rolling cigars in apt., NYC, 1877

Sojourners and Slackers Many immigrants come to the United States, planning to return and buy land –Chinese –Italians Workers express their dissatisfaction by skipping work, slacking off Chinese immigrants to San Francisco, 1877

Loyalists New workers were usually the most compliant But become more defiant over time Striking Pennsylvania coal miners jeer their replacements, 1870s

Radicals Nationalism –Irish Molly Maguires Clan Na Gael Socialism –Scandinavian –German Anarchism –Italian –Jewish

Nativism “Hands off, Gentlemen! America means Fair Play for All Men,” Harper’s Weekly, February 18, 1871

Divided Workers  Nationalities at Duquesne Steel Mill, 1919