chapter 19 immigration, urbanization, and everyday life 1860-1900

Chapter 19

Immigration, Urbanization, and Everyday Life

1860-1900

Introduction

1.) How did immigrants help shape the cities?

2.) What were political bosses, and why did they gain power in post-Civil War cities?

3.) Why did tensions develop between civic reformers and the urban poor?

4.) How did new consumer products and greater leisure time reinforce awareness of class and ethnic differences?

Introduction (cont.)

5.) What was “Victorian morality”, and why was it under attack by the late 19th century?

6.) How did economic and educational transformations affect the social roles of women?

The New American City• Introduction– In the post-Civil War years, the U.S. experienced rapid

urbanization– By 1900, 40% of all Americans lived in cities

• NY, Chicago, and Philly each had more than 1 million inhabitants– Cities attracted thousands from the surrounding rural districts

and most of the 11 million immigrants who arrived between 1870 and 1900• Offered work and other opportunities

Introduction (cont.)

• The population growth:– swamped municipal services– caused terrible housing and sanitary conditions– aggravated class differences and conflicts

• The physical deterioration, ethnic diversity, and social instability alarmed native-born reforms who tried to clean up cities and quickly “American” immigrants

Migrants and Immigrants

• In the post-Civil War years, thousands of young people, especially women, moved from farms to cities to find employment

• Between 1860 and 1890 about 10 million Northern European immigrants settled in East Coast and Midwestern cities– Germany– English– Irish

Migrants and Immigrants (cont.)

• In the late 19th century, “new immigrants” from southern and eastern Europe arrived– Italians– Slavs– Greeks– Jews– Armenians (from the Middle East)

• By 1890, the foreign-born and their children accounted for 4/5’s of the population of Great New York


• Most who disembarked on the East Coast came through the immigration reception centers at Castle Garden (1855-1890) or Ellis Island (1892 on)

• Ellis Island photo albums

http://www.ellisisland.org/photoalbums/ellis_island_photo_album.asp


• After 1910, Angel Island in SF served as the main West Coast reception center

• Angel Island photo gallery

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/angel/gallery.htm


• German and Scandinavian newcomers tended to migrate to Midwestern cities and to farms on the prairie beyond

• Italians and Irish took the first jobs they found in eastern cities

Adjusting to an Urban Society

• To ease their adjustment, immigrants clustered together in ethnic neighborhoods– They could speak their native language– Buy their traditional foods– Celebrate traditional holidays

Adjusting to an Urban Society (cont.)

• The various immigrant groups improved their social and economic status at different rates– Those who came with a skilled trade or spoke some English

generally did well– The Irish came in such great numbers, that they were able

to dominate the Democratic Party and Catholic Church leadership in NY and Boston• They accounted for 16-17% of the population in each city

Adjusting to an Urban Society (cont.)

• Nationality groups that had high rates of return to their homelands experienced slower upward mobility and assimilation– Italians– Chinese

• By the end of the 19th century, resentment of the newcomers (from whatever country) was growing

Slums and Ghettos

• Neighborhoods deteriorated into slums– landlords packed more and

more people into their buildings

• The poorer the residents, the greater the crowding and the faster the area declined

Slums and Ghettos (cont.)

• Ethnic slum neighborhoods became ghettos when discrimination and law kept members of the minority group from obtaining housing elsewhere– Black ghettos in Chicago and Philadelphia– Mexican in Los Angeles– Chinese in San Francisco

Five Points, New York City

Slums and Ghettos (cont.)

• Slums and ghettos were usually adjacent to industrial cities– were filled with soot, coal dust, noise, and foul

oders• Pollution and crowding were especially hard

on the young– Had very high infant mortality rates

Fashionable Avenues and Suburbs

• In contrast to slums, grand millionaires’ mansions lined Fifth Avenue in New York, Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, and fashionable boulevards in other cities

Fashionable Avenues and Suburbs (cont.)

• The wealthy and the middle class also moved to newer, more desirable suburbs on the edges of the old, compact cities

• American cities became increasingly segregated along class as well as ethnic and racial lines

Middle-and Upper-Class Society and Culture

• Manners and Morals– The 19th century Victorian worldviews preached to make

personal and national progress an individual must:• work hard• exercise self-discipline• display good manners• cultivate an appreciation of literature and the arts

Manners and Morals (cont.)

• To the highly moralistic Victorians, status was conferred by possessing abundant amounts of the right material goods

• The Victorian code served to heighten the visible gap between classes

The Cult of Domesticity• Victorian morality assigned

a special place to women– Used the domestic sphere to

provide the genteel, sensitive, and spiritual influences that moved society toward higher civilization

• They decorated their homes as richly and artistically as their means permitted

• Fostered the family’s sense of cultural appreciation

The Cult of Domesticity (cont.)• At not time, however, were all middle-class

women satisfied with devoting their whole life to this cult of domesticity?

Department Stores

• Innovative entrepreneurs developed urban department stores that appealed particularly to the Victorian outlook of the upper and middle echelons– Rowland H. Macy– John Wanamaker– Marshall Field

Department Stores (cont.)

• These giant emporiums advertised: – high-quality goods at low cost– encouraged buyers to believe that owning the right

material possessions contributed to civilized living• The department stores were designed to look like

palaces:– Marble staircases– Sparkling chandeliers– Thick carpet

The Transformation of Higher Education

• Higher education was still restricted to the upper and upper-middle class

• By 1900, only 4% of youths between 18-21 were enrolled in colleges and universities

• These institutions were seen as the training schools for the future business and professional elites– Wealthy capitalists made large donations to already

existing universities or started new ones• John D. Rockefeller and Leland Stanford

Department Stores (cont.)

• For the middle-and upper-classes shopping “became an adventure, a form of entertainment, and a way to affirm their place in society.”

The Transformation of Higher Education (cont.)

• With private contributions and state support, more than 150 additional colleges and universities were founded between 1880 and 1900


• Higher education for upper-and upper-middle-class women as grew impressively

• Some eastern elite universities established affiliated schools for women– Columbia=Barnard (1889)– Harvard=Radcliffe (1894)

• More all-female colleges were founded– Wellesley– Smith


• By 1900, women made up 1/3 of the nation’s college students

• In this period, the research university was developed and major reforms were instituted in medical and other professional training

Working-Class Politics and Reform

• Political Bosses and Machine Politics– Urban political machines emerged to govern the unwieldy

cities and their many competing interests• Headed by powerful political bosses

– The machines gave tax breaks and awarded contracts to favored businessmen • In return received a payoff

– Machines also gathered the votes of poor immigrants • Provided them with relief, legal help, and city jobs

Political Bosses and Machine Politics (cont.)

• Most famous is Tammany Hall

• Led by William Tweed– Between 1869 and 1871,

Tweed gave $50,000 to the city’s poor and built new school, hospitals,and other facilities

– Tammany Hall cost taxpayers about $70 million through graft and padded contracts


• Tweed was finally toppled from power with the help of Thomas Nast’s political cartoons in Harper’s Weekly


• By the late 19th century, middle-and upper-class good-govt. reformers had begun their drives against the bosses

• The bosses and machines attempted to hold on to power by providing more public services and improved urban facilities– Better sewer systems– More parks

Battling Poverty

• Middle-class reformers also set out to relieve poverty• They often tended to blame:– the problem on character flaws of the poor– “self-destructive” cultural practices of the immigrants

• Reformers concentrated on moral uplift and Americanization campaigns among the needy

Battling Poverty (cont.)

• New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor– AICP– Robert M. Hartley

• New York Children’s Aid Society– Charles Loring Brace– Founded dormitories, reading rooms, and workshops for

indigent boys– Sent thousands of them to live with and work for families

in the Midwest

Battling Poverty (cont.)

• Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Associations offered rural young people arriving in the cities temporary housing, recreation, and moral strictures against alcohol and other vices

New Approaches to Social Reform

• By the 1880’s, the Salvation Army and Charity Organization Society (COS) joined the fight against poverty

• COS preached a tough-minded approach to charity– Insisted that the needy must meet the standards of

responsibility and morality set by the COS’s “friendly visitors” to receive aid

• Critics charged that the COS was more interested in “controlling the poor than in alleviating their suffering”

The Moral-Purity Campaign

• Middle-and upper-class reformers attacked what they considered urban vice

• Crusaders demanded that city officials close down gambling dens, saloons, and brothels and censor obscene publications– Anthony Comstock and Charles Parkhurst

The Moral-Purity Campaign (cont.)

• In 1894, the nonpartisan Committee of Seventy elected a NYC mayor committed to moral purification– But within 3 years the effort failed

• The more tolerant political machine was back in power

The Social Gospel

• The Social Gospel movement developed in the 1870’s and 1880’s among a small group of Protestant clergymen

• Founded by Washington Gladden

• Congregational minister

The Social Gospel (cont.)

• The movement preached that urban poverty was caused in part by actions of the rich and well-born

• “that true Christianity commits men and women to fight social injustice head on, wherever it exists”

The Social Gospel (cont.)

• Walter Rauschenbusch• Baptist pastor in NY’s

“Hell’s Kitchen”slums• Made the clearest

statement on the movement’s philosophy (Christian unity)

• Led to the founding of the Federal Council of Churches

The Settlement-House Movement

• Settlement-House founders blamed poverty not on the poor but on social and environmental causes

• Leaders believed that middle-class relief workers must reside among the immigrant masses and learn what services they needed

• Firsthand experience

The Settlement-House Movement (cont.)

• Jane Addams• Hull House in Chicago• Day-care nursery• Legal aid• Health aid• Help find jobs• Offered classes in English

and other subjects for immigrants

Hull House in 1890’s

Hull House today

The Settlement-House Movement (cont.)

• Settlement-house workers also published studies of the terrible housing and corrective laws

• By 1895, more than 50 settlement houses in various cities were training a young generation of students– Many would become state and local govt. officials – Applying the lessons they had learned– Florence Kelly became a factory inspector for IL in 1893

Working-Class Leisure in the Immigrant City

• Streets and Saloons– The neighborhood streets served as the area of

social life and free entertainment for shop girls, laborers, and poor immigrant families

– For workingmen the saloons offered male companionship, reinforced group identity, and were centers for immigrant politics

The Rise of Professional Sports

• Baseball– Americans were the first to turn what had been a

children’s game into the professional sport of baseball– By 1890’s, baseball had become a big business– It appealed to members of all social groups, particularly

workers• Horse racing– often a social event for the rich

• Boxing– Spectators from all social levels

Vaudeville, Amusement Parks, and Dance Halls

• Vaudeville shows, amusement parks and dance halls were popular with working-class men and women

• Coney Island in Brooklyn was most famous amusement park of the time

• Coney Island video--History Channel• Coney Island video--History Channel--3 minutes

http://www.history.com/media.do?id=tdih_jun16_broadband&action=clip

http://www.history.com/media.do?action=clip&id=states_newyork_coneyisland_broadband

Ragtime

• The middle class preferred hymns or songs that carried a moral lesson

• The masses became fans of ragtime• Originated with black musicians in the saloons and

brothels of the South and Midwest• In the 1890’s, honky-tonk players introduced its

syncopated rhythms to a wide national audience

Cultures in Conflict

• The Genteel Tradition and Its Critics– In the 1870’s and 1880’s a group of upper-class writers and

magazine editors attempted to set standards for fine writing and art• Charles Eliot Norton• E.L. Godkin

– They insisted that literature must avoid sexual allusions, vulgar slang, disrespect for Christianity, and depressing endings

The Genteel Tradition and Its Critics (cont.)

• High-toned journals like The Century and the North American Review upheld this genteel standard by banishing from their pages authors who violated these rules


• Many emerging writers refused to fit into the mold– Sara Orne Jewett

• regionalist– William Dean Howells

• realist– Stephen Crane

• Naturalist– Mark Twain

• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)– Theodore Dreiser

• Sister Carrie (1900)


• Huck Finn and Sister Carrie were both condemned by proponents of Victorian ideals


• Socialist scientists criticized the business elite and challenged middle-class notions about the link between moral worth and economic standing

• Thorstein Veblen• W.E.B. DuBois


• The depression and labor unrest of the 1890’s further undermined the smug Victorian outlook and its genteel culture

Modernism in Architecture and Painting

• Some architects and artists began questioning Victorian ideals of beauty

• Modernists architects refused to copy European design

• William Holabird• John Wellborn Root• Louis Sullivan• Frank Lloyd Wright

Modernism in Architecture and Painting (cont.)

• They looked to their vision of the future for inspiration and argued that a building’s form should follow its function

Modernism in Architecture and Painting (cont.)

• Painters often times rejected sentimentality in favor of tough realism

• Winslow Homer• Thomas Eakins• Mary Cassat was one of the first American

artists to paint in the French Impressionist style

From Victorian Lady to New Woman

• Women’s Christian Temperance Union

• Led by Frances Willard• WCTU• Founded in 1874• Broadened the scope of

women’s social responsibilities

• WCTU.org• 150,000 members by

1890

http://www.wctu.org/

From Victorian Lady to New Woman (cont.)

• WCTU was the first American mass organization of women

• Crusade against liquor• Experience as lobbyists, organizers, and

lecturers


• General Federation of Women’s Clubs– Founded in 1892– Middle-and upper-class women– Social welfare projects– Tenement reform

• The so-called new woman broke Victorian restraints about dress and exercise

• The most advanced advocated women’s economic independence from men through work outside the home


• Charlotte Perkins Gilman• The new-woman

emphasis on economic and social independence and equality had little impact on the lives of working-class women

Public Education as an Arena of Class Conflict

• In the 1870’s middle-class reformers campaigned:– To expand public schools– Bring them under central control– Make attendance mandatory

Public Education as an Arena of Class Conflict (cont.)

• William Torrey Harris• Public schools were

instruments for indoctrinating the masses with middle-class values and outlook


• By 1900, as a result of the work of education advocates, 31 states passed laws requiring school attendance for all children from 8-14

• The illiteracy rate dropped• More than 500,000 students were attending

some 5,000 high schools


• Centralized urban public-school systems aroused opposition from various quarters– Poor immigrant parents objected to laws that kept

youngsters in school beyond the elementary level• Needed the wages of their children to survive

– Catholics disliked the Protestant orientation of the public schools• Organized their own parochial school system

– Upper-class parents preferred to send their kids to exclusive, private academies

Conclusion

• Between 1860 and 1900 class and ethnic conflicts appeared in almost every area of city life

• To distinguish themselves from the exploited working class immigrants, native-born elite and middle-class Americans embraced Victorian moral codes

• The upper and middle classes, with their genteel Victorian morality and ideals, were dismayed by the raucous, vibrant culture of the working masses

Conclusion (cont.)

• “Respectable” people periodically attempted to suppress “indecent” lower-class enjoyments such as gambling; gathering in dance halls, saloons, and amusement parks, listening to ragtime, attending Sunday baseball games, and bare-knuckle prizefights

Conclusion (cont.)

• However, Victorian standards of decency were weakening by the 1890’s as they came under attack from:– younger middle-class writers, artists, social scientists – “new women”– the working masses– the immigrants

Conclusion (cont.)

• By 1900, the 2 cultural traditions were reaching an accommodation that blended elements of both:– National pastimes became highly commercialized– working-class amusements of the 19th century evolved

into the mass culture of sports spectaculars, movies, and other entertainments of modern America

chapter 19 immigration, urbanization, and everyday life 1860-1900

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