1. Immigration and Urbanization

2. Immigration Reasons: Pull factors Push factors U.S. had jobs
Few immigration restrictions
Chance to move up social ladder
Push factors
Avoid military service in home country
Flee religious persecution

3. Coming to America Most immigrants came by ship Often cost life savings
Cheapest tickets in steerage
Bottom of ship near engine & rudder
Immigrants packed tightly
Little to eat, filthy conditions
Disease was common

4. Ellis Island, New York Port of Entry for most Europeans after 1890
Immigrants tagged by native country
Inspected for disease, mental competency, criminal history
Could be sent back if they failed (deportation)
Name changes sometimes occurred for non-English speaking immigrants
Not on purpose

7. Asian Immigration to America
Angel Island, San Francisco Bay
Port of entry for most Asian immigrants
Processed mostly Chinese immigrants
Endured longer detentions in filthy buildings
Harsher questioning than Europeans
Japanese moved to Hawai’i to work on plantations
Moved to mainland US after annexation in 1898

8. Asian Immigration to America
China suffering from rebellion, unemployment, poverty & famine
US offered gold discovery, railroad jobs
Usually settled in West Coast
Outcasts in American society
Opened their own shops & restaurants

10. The “New” Immigrants
After 1890 most immigrants came from southern & eastern Europe
Italy, Greece, Poland, Russia
Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox
Majority were unskilled & uneducated
Worked for low pay as factory workers, miners, construction workers
Immigrant children usually did not go to school
Worked to help support their families

11. The “New” Immigrants
Settled in ethnic neighborhoods such as Chinatown and Little Italy
Used their native language
Recreation through local churches & clubs
Assimilation was based on:
Americanization
Learning English
Accepting American culture
Marketable skills

12. Urbanization
Immigrants & Rural people also came looking for opportunities
Land was limited so cities started growing upwards – skyscrapers (steel structures)
Poor conditions, but better than their home country
Lived in tenements
Multi-story housing near city center
Overcrowded breeding ground for crime & disease
Horse cars, cable cars, electric trolleys, elevated railroad and subways

13. Urban Problems
Threats of living in the city included crime, violence, fire, disease & pollution
Many Americans blamed immigrants for crime
Alcohol (saloons) were blamed
for “breeding poverty”
Improper sewage disposal caused
disease & pollution
Jacob A. Riis
How the Other Half Lives
Tried to bring awareness to the
plight of immigrants with his
photography & book

14. The Muckrakers Journalists who exposed society’s
problems and the corrupt practices
of industry
Upton Sinclair
Wrote The Jungle exposing practices
of the meat-packing industry (1906)
Jacob A. Riis
How the Other Half Lives (1890)
Brought awareness to the plight of
immigrants with his photography & book

15. The Social Gospel Movement
Believed Christians were called upon by God to perform acts of charity & goodness
Call for social reforms:
End child labor, safer working conditions
Temperance movement (against alcohol)
Settlement Houses community centers
Medical care, recreation programs, English classes, hot lunches
Jane Addams established Hull House (1889)
To assimilate immigrants and help the poor

16. Political Machines Party bosses controlled city’s finances & services
Took bribes from contractors & awarded permits to friends
Graft: Over-charged for city projects, pocketed extra money
Boss Tweed & Tammany Hall defrauded NYC of $200 million
In exchange for votes provide services to the poor
Job placement, housing, food, police protection
Eventually cities would create:
Full-time police & fire departments
Sanitation dept (sewer lines, trash collection)
City parks for recreation (Central Park in NYC)

17. The Gilded Age (1870s – 1900) (video)
Term coined by Mark Twain to describe an era of greed & luxury
Everything appeared sparkling on the surface, but beneath lay corruption & poverty
Growing gap between the few very rich and the many very poor

18. The Biltmore House
The home of Cornelius Vanderbilt

19. Largest private home in America
OVERHEAD VIEW OF BILTMORE HOUSE in Asheville, N.C.
255 rooms / 35 guest rooms
125,000 acres (originally)
Largest private home in America
Took 5 years to build; completed in 1895

20. FOYER

21. SWIMMING POOL
BOWLING ALLEY

22. MR. V’S BEDROOM
MRS. V’S

23. GARDENS Designed by Frederick Law Olmstead (who also designed
Central Park in NYC)

24. Jacob Riis
How the Other Half Lives