1. Unit 1: The Gilded Age and the Industrialization of the United States PowerPoint #2

2. Daily Essential Questions:
1. How did American urban (city) life change between ?
With regard to immigrants?
With regard to cities?
2. How did politics change during the Gilded Age?

3. How were the immigrants different in the late 1800s?
Old Immigrants (pre-1870s)
s - Protestants from North West Europe
s, German & Irish Catholics
Families to settle farms
Had money, a skill, or an education
Children blended into society.
“New” Immigrants (post-1870s)
Mainly Catholics or Jews from Southern and Eastern Europe (Italy, Poland) – make up 70% of immigrants after 1900.
Attracted to cities (vs. farms)
Poor & unskilled
There was a fear these new immigrants would destroy American culture.
Sought ways to participate in the democratic process. 3

5. How were the immigrants different in the late 1800s?
Old Immigrants (pre-1870s)
s - Protestants from North West Europe
s, German & Irish Catholics
Families to settle farms
Had money, a skill, or an education
Children blended into society.
“New” Immigrants (post-1870s)
Mainly Catholics or Jews from Southern and Eastern Europe (Italy, Poland) – make up 70% of immigrants after 1900.
Attracted to cities (vs. farms)
Poor & unskilled
There was a fear these new immigrants would destroy American culture.
Sought ways to participate in the democratic process. 5

6. The foreign-born population of the U. S
The foreign-born population of the U.S. nearly doubled between 1870 and 1900. 6

7. What was it like when a new immigrant arrived?
Processed at stations, - Ellis Island in NY Harbor or Angel Island in San Francisco Bay.
Europeans – primarily at Ellis Island
Chinese and other Asians – Angel Island
Lived in cities in Ethnic ghettos. (Little Italy, Chinatown)
Nativism - hostility from native-born white Americans
People voted for those who helped them find jobs such as neighborhood and ward bosses!
Ellis Island – What it means today. 5min
Actual footage of immigrants – no sound

8. How did Congress start to restrict immigration to the US?.
In 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited immigration and limited the rights of Chinese immigrants. Did not allow the naturalization of Chinese residents.
Another law prohibited the immigration of criminals, paupers, anyone likely to need public assistance. 8

9. What is urbanization? The movement to cities!
In only 16 % live in towns or cities
Today appx. 80%!
By 1900, 32 %—15 million Americans—lived in cities of more than 50,000. 9

10. NAME OF CITY
POPULATION IN 1870
POPULATION IN 1900
POPULATION IN 1920
Boston
250,525
560,892
748,060
Chicago
298,977
1,698,575
2,701,705
Los Angeles
5,728
102,479
576,673
New York
1,478,103
3,437,202
5,620,048
Philadelphia
1,293,687
1,350,000
1,823,779
Pittsburgh
86,075
321,616
588,343
San Francisco
149,473
342,782
506,676
Seattle
1,107
237,194
315,312

11. What problems did rapid population growth cause in cities?
Neighborhoods -overcrowded.
Poor workers lived in crowded tenements – little sanitation, often dangerous, crime.
Unpaved streets.
Disease.
This leads to….
City sanitation – garbage men!
Firefighters and more police.
Electric streetlights for safety.
New transportation – streetcars, trolleys

12. What advantages did cities offer to the middle class?
More money for some led to an increase in the standard of living
which led to…
conspicuous consumerism and mass culture
Shopping in department stores
Wearing fashionable clothing
Amusement Parks – Coney Island
Circuses and Buffalo Bill’s Wild Wild West Show
Vaudeville shows and Ragtime bands
Baseball, Boxing, Horse Racing and other sports
2. More public education – literacy rates increased to almost 90% by 1900.
3. Better sanitation and health

13. The literacy rate climbed to nearly 90 percent by 1900.
Crash Course 12min

14. EQ #2. How did politics change during the Gilded Age?

15. What are examples of political corruption?
1. Congress passed few laws between 1877 and 1900.
Neither political party achieved control of both the White House and Congress for more than two years in a row.
Presidents during the Gilded Age were elected only by slim margins.
This made it difficult to pass new laws.
2. Corruption plagued national politics as many officials accepted bribes. Examples:
Credit Mobilier Scandal – Railroad company sold shares to politicians who then approved government funds to build more railroads – which made the politicians money.
Whiskey Ring – Whiskey Makers around the country bribed govt. officials so they would not have to pay whiskey taxes.
3. The spoils system – in which party supporters received government jobs regardless of their qualifications, shifted power to a few.

16. 4. President James Garfield was assassinated by a man who believed the Republican Party owed him a job SO….
In 1883, President Chester A. Arthur signed into law the Pendleton Civil Service Act, which established a merit-based system for government employment. (To try to put an end to the Spoils System)
President Garfield
20th President
March 1881 – Sept. 1881
President Arthur
21st President
Sept – March 1885

17. 5. Local Politics – Political Machines – organizations that provided social services and jobs in exchange for votes.
Most Famous - Tammany Hall led by Boss Tweed – use fraud and corruption to gain power and make money.
Boss Tweed 9min

18. 6
Crash Course Gilded Age Politics 13min

19. What does Gilded Age mean?
In his 1873 novel, The Gilded Age, Mark Twain satirically depicted American society as gilded, or having a rotten core covered with gold paint.
Historians call the late 19th century (the late 1800s) the Gilded Age.
What do you think?