ImmigrationChapter 15Section 2

Key Words for Section 2: Americanization Movement

Tenements and Rowhouses

Social Gospel MovementSettlement Houses

Technological boom = industrial strength of the U.S.

Result: rapid urbanization – growth of cities

Why?Most immigrants became city dwellers because cheapest and most convenient

Offered unskilled laborers steady jobs in mills and factories

assimilate people into the dominant culture

Social campaign sponsored by government and citizens

Schools and voluntary associations had programs to teach skills needed for citizenship

Many immigrants did not want to abandon traditionsEthnic communities provided social support

speak own language & practice their customs and religion

Neighborhoods soon overcrowded

improvements in farming technology good for some farmers but not others

Inventions made farming more efficient but meant that fewer laborers were needed to work the land

Farms merging caused many rural people to move to city for work

Those farming lost livelihoods

escaping racial violence, economic hardship, and political oppression

Segregation and discrimination in Northern cities too

Job competition caused more racial tension

working-class family: live outskirts and face transportation problems

rent cramped rooms in the city

Working Class Homes:row houses - single-family homes with a shared wall began

As working-class left central city, immigrants moved behind them

Tenements were overcrowded and unsanitary

Housing the Poor:Dumbbell Tenements: cheap housing units which looked like a dumbbell with many housing units sharing a corridor.

New York City set minimum standards for plumbing/ventilation in apartmentsLandlords installed air shafts which were used as garbage cans and attracted vermin making situation worse

New forms of mass transit let workers go to work easilyStreet cars in San Francisco

Electric subways in Boston

mass transit networks linked city neighborhoods to one another

However:cities struggled to repair old systems and building new ones

Problem supplying drinking waterCities building public waterworks to support increasing demand

Residents of cities had little or noFew homes had indoor plumbing

residents had to collect water in pails from faucets on the street andheat it for bathing

It is needed to control disease

filtration and chlorination introduced in early 1900’s

Early 20th century, many city dwellers still had no access to safe water

Horse manure piled up on streets

Sewage flowed through open gutters

Factories spewed foul smoke into the air

Garbage dumped in streets

Though private firms hired to clean streets, outhouses, collect garbage, etc… they did bad jobs

By 1900, many cities developed sewer lines and created sanitation departments

As population increased, so did thieves

New York first to organize full-time police force with salary

Too small to impact crime problem

Limited water supply Major fires occurred in almost every city during 1870’s and 1880’s

Most cities packed in wooden dwellings

Use of candles and kerosene heaters

Earthquakes in San Francisco

First were volunteers and not always available

By 1900, most cities had full-time professional fire departments

Introduction of practical automatic fire sprinkler in 1874 and the replacement of wood as building material with brick, stone, or concrete

Concerned citizens work to find solutions

Social welfare reformers targeted poverty

Social Gospel Movement Early reform program that preached salvation through service to the poor

Began the idea of Settlement Houses

Community centers in slum neighborhoods

Many workers lived there to learn problems of urbanization and create solutions

Run largely by middle-class, college-educated women

Provided educational, cultural, and social services such as classes in English and health

Sent nurses into homes of sick and provided aid needed to secure “support for deserted women, insurance for bewildered widows, damages for injured operators, furniture from clutches of installment store

Today’s Terms:Political machineGraftBoss TweedTammany Hall