1. “[…I have visited the homes of the people, have conversed with them
“[…I have visited the homes of the people, have conversed with them. I know something… Our authorities may not be able to eradicate all the evils found in such an enormous population. There are no yards, no roof gardens….”
Read This to the class

2. “…It is impossible to walk on the sidewalks
“…It is impossible to walk on the sidewalks. There is greater cause for alarm in the bringing of many people into an area of space which is totally inadequate to their convenience. It is a standing menace in case of fire or epidemic…]”
Letter to the Editor of the NYT
M.R. Birnie
May 23, 1899
Read This to the class

3. Too many living here,
By Christian Orellana

4. What it meant to live in NYC in the 19th century
Overcrowdness
Diseases
Gang Violence
There were many aspects of what it meant to live during the 19th century in New York City. From the danger of possible fire, to the hardships of finding job to provide for the family, it was definitely not easy to live in New York. The three aspects I want to focus on are the overcrowdness, the diseases, and gang violence.

5. Overcrowdness
Immigrants from European nations such as Ireland, Italy, Germany were immigrating to the United States
Full two thirds of New York City’s population were living in tenement homes
Many immigrants came to America seeking greater economic opportunity, while some, such as the Pilgrims in the early 1600s, arrived in search of religious freedom.
Approximately one-third came from Ireland, which experienced a massive famine in the mid-19th century.
The United States received some 5 million German immigrants
Population doubled every decade from 1800 to Tenements, these narrow, low-rise apartment buildings–many of them concentrated in the city’s Lower East Side neighborhood–were all too often cramped, poorly lit and lacked indoor plumbing and proper ventilation.
By 1900, some 2.3 million people (a full two-thirds of New York City’s population) were living in tenement housing.

6. Many tenements began as single family dwellings which then became to 4 or 5 family dwellings.
Heating and cooking were done by wood or coal burning stoves.
While all tenements before central heating and air conditioning were cold in the winter and roasting hot in the summer
Early tenements had very dark hallways as lighting was only from a sky light and/or glass transoms in apartment doors. Even the advent of the air shaft next to the stairway did not substantially increase the light and air in the tenement hallways.
In the oldest and poorest tenements water had to be obtained from an outside pump
Not only was it overcrowded in the homes, it was also overcrowded and unsafe in the factories that people worked in.
Nicer buildings were called flats, while other buildings had more floors built.

7. Diseases

8. Leading causes of death by disease
Tuberculosis
Diarrhea
Pneumonia

9. Tuberculosis Leading cause of death
1912, the death rate from tuberculosis was approximately 215 per hundred thousand
In the nineteenth century, tuberculosis, also known as consumption, phthisis, and the 'White Plague' was the leading cause of mortality and one of the American people's greatest fears.
The reason for its height of contagion at that time was likely due to the Industrial Revolution when a mass migration of people moved to cities where they worked in dark, unsanitary factories and lived in crowded housing conditions
the first anti-spitting notices were put up in street cars in New York in 1891
In the United States these health gains were made with better water and milk supplies (in 1910 purification/chlorination of water was introduced and in 1912 milk was pasteurized), the rapid growth of the sanatorium movement (the first of which began in 1885 at Saranac Lake) and laws against spitting in public (). Measures were made by the city of New York to improve living conditions, especially in crowded conditions on the Lower East Side.
which required building alterations for adequate lighting, ventilation, water supply, and proper sanitary equipment.
In New York City, the death rate from tuberculosis in 1812 was as high as 697 per hundred thousand.
Tuberculosis is a contagious disease that is contracted by breathing in or swallowing the tubercle bacillus germ. The germ, once ingested, causes swelling and damage of the lungs and can lead to death. The disease has an indefinite incubation period and can be very slow to progress. Many people can be exposed to tuberculosis and not exhibit any symptoms. There are many strains of the disease such as tuberculosis meningitis, bovine tuberculosis and tuberculosis of the intestines, but pulmonary tuberculosis is the most prevalent.

10. Gang Violence

11. The gangs in new york The Bowery Boys The Dead Rabbits
The Daybreak Boys
The Forty Thieves
5. The Whyos
6. The Five Points Gang
Al Capone, Lucky Luciano
7. The Eastman Gang
During the Victorian era of the mid-to-late 1800s, New York City was rocked by an epidemic of gang violence. Crime was especially rampant in Manhattan neighborhoods like Five Points, Hell’s Kitchen, the Fourth Ward and the Bowery, where back alleys and tenements became infested with thieves, hustlers and street thugs.

12. What they did Pick pocket Brawls Fight other gangs Prostitution rings
For more than 60 years, Five Points (near modern-day Chinatown) was one of the city’s most notorious—and dangerous–neighborhoods
Boys in Hell's Kitchen demonstrating how they rob people who have passed-out.
The Forty Thieves operated between the 1820s and 1850s
Members of the Forty Thieves reportedly had quotas that required them to steal a certain amount of goods each day or face expulsion
The Bowery Boys who clashed with the Irish Five Points gangs during the 1840s, 50s and 60s.
The Dead Rabbits This crew of Irish immigrants was one of the most feared gangs to emerge from Five Points
According to legend, one of the most feared Dead Rabbits was “Hell-Cat Maggie,” a woman who reportedly filed her teeth to points and wore brass fingernails into battle.
The Five Points Gang
This legendary mob came together in the 1890s
Pointers initiated thugs like Al Capone, Lucky Luciano and Johnny Torrio
the Five Pointers ran widespread robbery, racketeering and prostitution rings

13. Time line of NYC Life 1812 – Tuberculosis leading cause of death
1840’s – The Bowery Boys form and fight constantly against the Irish Five Points Gang
1885 – Sanatorium movement growth
Anti Spitting Notices put up in street cars
1900 – 2.3 million people (two thirds of population of NYC living in tenement homes.
1901 – Tenement Housing Law passed
1912 – Death rate of tuberculosis decreases to second