Life in the Big City Life in the Big City
Industrialization, Urbanization, and Immigration
Industrialization, Urbanization, and Immigration
A few revealing statsA few revealing stats» Life expectancy
» 1900: » 46.3 yrs for men» 48.3 yrs for women
» Family size» 5.7 kids for laborers» 5.2 children for skilled workers
» Top 12% of nation controlled 86% of wealth in 1900; lowest 44% controlled 1.5%
UrbanizationUrbanization» Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore, etc.
» From 1860 to 1910, city population grew sevenfold
» By 1920, the majority of Americans lived in urban areas
» Urban growth came from southern and eastern European immigrants; Southern African Americans who moved north
» New innovations in transportation: cable cars, subways, trolley cars, Brooklyn Bridge, etc.
ImmigrationImmigration» “Push” and “pull” factors» 1860-1890: Irish and Germans» After 1890: “New immigrants:” Italians, Poles, Greeks, Russians, Slovaks, Croats; Catholics and Jews; many were very poor and illiterate
» 1892: Ellis Island constructed» http://www.ellisisland.org/» 1910: Angel Island (California): Asian immigrants
» Immigrants settle in ethnic neighborhoods, ghettos
Immigration (cont.)Immigration (cont.)
» 15% of Americans in 1900 were immigrants» 4 out of 5 New Yorkers were born abroad or were children of immigrants
» Assimilate or stay true to your roots?» Discrimination by native-born Americans» Nativism: anti-Catholic organizations, immigration restriction groups like the Protective Association, Immigration Restriction League, etc.
» 1880s/90s: more restrictive immigration laws limiting Chinese, “undesirables,” etc.
Working class family lifeWorking class family life
» Cooperative family effort: women take in laundry, boarders
» Children went to work at age 10 and turned over earnings to parents
» Most children stopped education after elementary school; Catholic immigrants founded their own schools separate from Protestant-controlled public schools
Urban Problem 1: HousingUrban Problem 1: Housing
» Shortage of quality, affordable housing
»Tenements»4-5 story buildings on 25x100 foot lots (500-800 people?)
»4,000 people per block/700 per acre»Bordered industrial districts: noise, odor, smoke, coal dust
»1879 NYC law: each bedroom must have a window; dumbbell tenements with an air shaft in the middle
»http://www.tenement.org/»Lively ethnic neighborhoods
Urban Problem 2: WaterUrban Problem 2: Water
» Skyrocketing population; not enough clean drinking water
» Poor (or no) indoor plumbing» Disease (cholera, smallpox, diphtheria, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, whooping cough, measles, scarlet fever)
» 20% infant mortality rate in Chicago in 1900
» Filtration and chlorination introduced in late 19th and early 20th century
Urban Problem 3: SanitationUrban Problem 3: Sanitation
»Sewage flowed through open gutters, horse manure piled up on the streets, factories spewed foul smoke into the air; outhouses
»In Chicago, only 25% had access to a bathroom with running water
»No dependable trash collection»Early 1900s: many cities developed sewer lines and created sanitation departments
Urban Problem 4: Political corruptionUrban Problem 4: Political corruption
» Political machines fill the power vacuum » Precinct captains» Ward bosses» City boss
» Tammany Hall, NYC: Boss Tweed (in the 1860s, 65% of public building funds went directly in his pocket)
» New immigrants=new voters!» Bosses provide food, favors, and JOBS
to immigrants» Graft and corruption
Urban Problem 5: CrimeUrban Problem 5: Crime
» Pickpockets and thieves, murder» Ethnic street gangs» NYC: first police department, 1853
» Widespread corruption and cooperation between criminals and police
» Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt cleans NYC up: 1895-97
Urban Problem 6: FireUrban Problem 6: Fire» Caused by limited water supply, wooden houses, use of candles
» Absence of organized municipal fire departments
» The Great Chicago Fire (1871)» The San Francisco Earthquake (1906)