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

2. 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

3. Rising German and Irish Immigration

4. 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

5. 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

8. Post War Immigration Shift (New Immigrants)

9. 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

10. Immigrants per decade

11. 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

13. 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

14. 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

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

18. 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.

19. 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

20. 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.

22. Consequences Skyscrapers Mass Transit “Dumbbell” Tenement
Machine politics