AP US History The Gilded Age Urbanization: America Moves to the City

AP US History The Gilded Age Urbanization: America Moves to the City The Rise of Urban America Population in 1900 had doubled to about 80 million since 1870 and grew to 105 million by 1920 Population in the cities tripled and by 1900 40% of Americans lived in cities By 1900, NYC had 3.5 million people and was the 2 nd largest city in the world (behind London, England) Chicago and Philadelphia have 1 million; no American city had 1 million people in 1860 Economic and social opportunities lured people to the city rural America could not compete Commercial districts mushroomed with department stores emerging; entertainment and other amenities like electricity, indoor plumbing and telephones were available Many jobs were available especially for women Jobs for women included social workers, secretaries, store clerks, seamstresses, telephone operators, bookkeepers, garment trade, textile mills, domestic servants, teachers, nurses It was still not seen as acceptable for middle and upper-class women to work but if they did the only tolerable jobs were as teachers and nurses By 1900, over 5 million women worked for wages with nearly 40% being domestic servants (these women were usually foreign born (mostly Irish) or black) Major class distinctions started to emerge and became the most pronounced in American history by 1900 nouveau riche = wealthy industrialists and their families Upper class = older aristocracy Middle class = salesmen, clerks, government workers, lawyers, doctors (mostly WASPs White Anglo Saxon Protestants) Working class = immigrants, blacks, Catholic (between 23-30% of the working force was unemployed for some period every year) Conditions in the Cities Living in the cities was not a pleasant experience (crowded, unsanitary, unhealthy, crime) Much like had happened in Europe during the Industrial Revolution, cities could not keep up with growth In NYC, 400,000 people were living in tenements with little to no windows; 20,000 people lived in cellars below the water table; estimates were as high as 330,000 people lived in 1 square mile Former single family residences got carved into tenements; for example, one 2-room apartment would house 1 married couple, 12 children and 6 boarders! The dumbbell tenement had windows, but those windows opened into an airshaft filled with garbage (50% of NYC housing was made up of dumbbell tenements) With so many people living in such small areas, it was impossible to stop diseases from spreading rapidly (smallpox, cholera, typhoid fever, measles, scarlet fever, the common cold could easily escalate to pneumonia) There were no real bathrooms and hundreds of people would share 1 privy; children would take baths in the water from fire hydrants; there was no safe drinking water The sanitation department couldn t keep up so streets would be filled with sewage, garbage, horse manure (sometimes horses would die on the street and be left to rot or thrown into the river) There was much air pollution from factories and coal burning stoves; the threat of fire was high from kerosene lamps and candles Crime was rampant; 14,000 homeless people in NYC in 1890 led to petty thievery; NYC police took bribes from local gangs like the 5 Points Gang, Hell s Kitchen; more sophisticated gangs by the end of the century became involved in bigger crimes, gambling, prostitution (brothels), opium dens, drug selling The national death rate during this time, per year was 20 for every 1,000 people; in the NYC slums, it was 38 per 1000; for children under the age of 5, it was 136 per 1000; in one Chicago slum, the infant mortality rate was 1 in 5 These conditions get uncovered in Danish immigrant Jacob Riis book, How the Other Half Lives Immigration Old immigration took place between 1850-1880 and over 6 million immigrants came to the US, mostly from Britain and Western Europe, were literate and easily adapted to American society (the stereotype of these immigrants were the Germans and Irish) New immigration took place between 1880-1920 and about 27 million immigrants came to the US, mostly from Eastern and Southern Europe (largest free migration in history)

Prior to 1880, about 200,000 immigrants came from Eastern and Southern Europe; from 1880-1910 that number was 8.4 million Push factors included war, poverty, f amine, overpopulation, land shortages, political and religious persecution (especially Jews from Russia the pogroms); conditions in Europe were dismal Pull factors = land of opportunity (the streets were paved with GOLD!); advertisements were used by industrialists (such as the American Woolens Co.) that showed immigrants as well-dressed and carrying sacks of money from their job to the bank; James J. Hill described the riches of the soil along the Great Northern Railroad in North Dakota! (The Foran Act in 1885 made it illegal for companies to pay immigrants fares to the US if they signed contract to work for patron basically another type of indentured servitude.) Some of the major differences between Old and New Immigration; the new immigrants were mostly Orthodox Christians or Jews; came from countries with little democracy; were heavily illiterate; wanted to maintain their own cultures (had not intention of becoming Americanized ; some were referred to as birds of passage who wanted to work to make money and then return back home (some 11 million immigrants did leave the US during this time) The new immigrants established ethnic enclaves within cities where they could live among people who had similar backgrounds, beliefs, languages, cultures, religions, etc.; would open shops selling ethnic food, print newspapers in native languages (Do these areas still exist today? Think about it.) New immigrants entered the country through Ellis Island in NYC where they were given a medical exam, had their documents checked, given some type of literacy test and showed proof that they had $25 per person; sometimes peoples names would be changed to something easier or more American; in 1905 11,000 people were processed per day at Ellis Island Statue of Liberty erected in NY Harbor (a gift from the French) and became a symbol of the opportunity for immigrants; Give us your tired, your poor/your huddled masses yearning to breath free/the wretched refuse of your teeming shore Emma Lazarus Asian Immigration The Burlingame Treaty in 1868 allowed for unrestricted Chinese immigration to work on the transcontinental railroad (Sec. of State Seward had hoped this would open Chinese markets to US goods) Japanese immigrants went first to Hawaii to work on the sugar and pineapple plantations; after Hawaii was annexed, they then began to move to the West Coast Most of the Chinese who came to America were men who worked in the gold fields or on the railroad, they also worked as cooks, laundrymen, domestic servants; the few women who came were turned into prostitutes; they had the highest percentage of immigrants who returned home In California, Chinese immigrants accounted for about 9% of the population in 1870; once the railroad was completed, they started to compete with the Irish and other whites for jobs (employers would use the Chinese workers against unionization and the Chinese were terrorized by whites) Workingmen s Party of California was formed in 1877 and led by Irishman Denis Kearney and they called for the exclusion of the Chinese from California and the US (claimed the Chinese were taking American jobs) Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882 that ended Chinese immigration until 1943 (What was happening in 1943?) Asian immigrants came to America through Angel Island in San Francisco and were treated very harshly Reaction to New Immigration By 1910, in 18 major cities immigrants made up half of the population Political machines were organized groups that controlled activities of a political party in cities and offered services to voters and businessmen in exchange for political and financial support; city bosses controlled thousands of city jobs and offered them to those who helped maintain the power of the machine Political machines welcomed immigrants and gave them help (assisted with gaining citizenship, jobs, places to live, etc.) in exchange for their loyalty and votes (votes were critical) Also, a resurgence of nativism or xenophobia started at this time Nativists viewed Eastern and Southern Europeans as culturally and religiously exotic; alarmed at their high birthrates and low standard of living; angry that immigrants were willing to work for starvation wages; concerned with foreign doctrines such as socialism, communism, anarchism; they were especially afraid of the mongrelization of America with the mixture of inferior blood

American Protective Association (APA) formed in 1887 and was anti-immigrant and anti-catholic; it consisted mainly of farmers who feared the growth and political power of immigrant populated cities and claimed a membership of about 2 million members in the 1890s Reverend Josiah Strong put forth his dislike of immigrants and cities in the book Our Country in 1885 Social Crusaders These people wanted to improve the conditions in the cities (the shame of the cities ) and were afraid that if these conditions were left unchecked, there could be a violent revolution among the working class The Social Gospel Movement began led by men like Washington Gladden and Walter Raushenbusch; Christianity should improve life on earth rather than wait for the afterlife; emphasized Christianity s social obligations ( I am my brother s keeper ); appealed to the middle class because they did not suffer directly from the power of the very wealthy but were offended by the excesses of the idle rich The Settlement House Movement was primarily a way to help immigrants learn English, proper nutrition, health, child care, how to cope with American life in the city; patterned after Toynbee Hall in London, Jane Addams established Hull House in Chicago (1889); Lillian Wald Henry Street Settlement in NYC (1893); Robert A. Woods South End House in Boston (1892); this was primarily done by educated, prosperous white women; became centers of women s activism and social reform Salvation Army came from England in 1879 and appealed to the poverty stricken; most important contribution free soup ( soup kitchens ) American Red Cross launched by the angel of the battlefield, Clara Barton in 1881 More information will be given about the social crusaders in the next unit about the Progressive Era Prohibition of Alcohol Consumption of alcohol increased in the post-civil War years; immigrant groups had resisted temperance; saloons in the late 19 th century were exclusively male Women s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded in 1874 and led by Frances Willard; saw drunkenness as an effect of poverty, not a cause of it; most important female organization and most powerful lobbying group and most important women s suffrage group in the late 19 th century Carrie A. Nation used her hatchet to smash saloon bottles and bars; her actions led her to be arrested over 30 times and she hurt the prohibition movement more than she helped it. Anti-Saloon League formed in 1893; by 1900, 25% of Americans lived in communities with restrictions on alcohol More info on this to come in Progressive Era as well! Women s Rights and Suffrage Movement Women were growing more independent in the urban environment; fewer children were being born, marriages being delayed; extra children were not economically feasible (more birth control being used) National Woman s Suffrage Association formed in 1869; led by E.C. Stanton and S.B. Anthony; excluded men and opposed black suffrage until women had the right to vote American Woman s Suffrage Association formed 1869 in opposition to the NWSA; led by Lucy Stone; included men and viewed black suffrage as a stepping stone to female suffrage The two merged together in 1890 to form National American Woman s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) Some gains for women at this time included the right to vote in local elections (especially with regard to issues relating to schools); in WY, CO, UT, and ID women granted full suffrage; most states by 1890 had passed laws to permit wives to own or control their own property after marriage Morality became a concern at this time; many WASPs felt that middle-class Victorian ideals (moral principles) were under attack; Victoria Woodhull s periodical Woodhull and Claflin s Weekly included feminist propaganda including appeals for women s suffrage, equal rights and free love ; the Comstock Law was passed in 1873 (named after Anthony Comstock) that forbade the publishing of provocative sexual material (made it illegal to send any obscene, lewd, lascivious books through the mail) this included contraceptive information as well More about Women s rights / suffrage will be discussed in the Progressive Era

Religion Protestant churches suffered heavily from the movement to the cities; the Catholic Church kept the common touch better than the leading Protestant churches Dwight Lyman Moody an urban revivalist used the old circuit rider approach to adapt old-time religion to the facts of city life Mary Baker Eddy established the Church of Christ Scientist (Christian Science) in 1879; preached that the true practice of Christianity heals sickness (illness does not exist, people only think it does therefore people can heal themselves through prayer and the recognition that illness does not exist); Eddy became the pastor of the Mother Church in Boston Charles Darwin published Origin of the Species in 1859 which brought forth the theory that humans had evolved slowly from lower life forms; this theory eventually gets summarized a s survival of the fittest ; this idea cast doubt on the literal interpretation of the Bible, especially creationism Conservatives or Fundamentalists stood firmly on the Scripture as the inspired and infallible word of God and condemned the bestial hypothesis of Darwinians Modernists such as Henry Ward Beecher, refused to accept the Bible in its entirety as either history or science We will return to this conflict between fundamentalists and modernists in the 1920s Education Public education continued to gain strength; tax-supported elementary schools had been adopted on a nationwide basis before the Civil War (a free government cannot function if its people are ignorant); by 1870 more and more states were making at least a grade-school education compulsory (helped check the abuses of child labor); public high schools spread significantly by the 1880s and 1890s; Kindergarten also saw wide support Teacher training schools ( normal schools ) expanded in the post-civil War years Private Catholic parochial schools spawned from New Immigration and fast became a pillar of the American education system The Chautauqua Movement launched in 1974 in NY to educate adults through nationwide lectures that often featured well-known speakers (such as Mark Twain); often held in large tents; Chautauqua courses of home study were made available and 100,000 enrolled in 1892 alone. Education in cities was generally more effective than in rural America; the illiteracy rate dropped from 20% in 1870 to 10.7% in 1900 Higher education (college) became more important as well The Morrill Act of 1862 granted public lands to states for the support of education; land grant colleges mostly became state universities; also supplied military training The Hatch Act of 1887 supplemented the Morrill Act by providing federal funds for the establishment of agricultural experiment stations in connection with land grant colleges; sought research for breeding disease-resistant strains of plants and animals, increased productivity, development of new crops and new uses for overabundant crops Philanthropy supplemented federal funds for some colleges as well (Cornell, Stanford, University of Chicago) By 1900 25% of college graduates were women William James who served on the faculty of Harvard for 35 years wrote Principles of Psychology (1890) that helped establish the modern discipline of behavioral psychology and Pragmatism (1907), which was his most famous work that described America s greatest contribution to the history of psychology; that truth was to be tested, above all, by the practical consequences of an idea, by action rather than theories Literature Horatio Alger wrote juvenile fiction designed to instill the idea of America as the land of opportunity ; the main characters in the books (named Tattered Tom or Lucky Luke) were honest, hard-working, loyal, virtuous and would be rewarded by success, wealth and honor; the hero would usually gain wealth through some kind of heroic deed (saving a man who was wealthy and had a daughter that the hero would marry); the emphasis was on divine grace God rewarded the hero fro his virtues; stories also referred to as rags to riches stories; from 1867-1899 these books, which weren t exactly well-written, sold 20 million copies Emily Dickinson was one of America s most gifted poets; considered one of the founders of a uniquely American poetic voice (along with Walt Whitman); her poems were unconventional for the time using different punctuation, capitalization and rhyming schemes and they lacked titles; a lot of Dickinson s poems reflected her loneliness and self-seclusion The romantic sentimentality of the pre-civil War era gave way to the rugged realism that reflected the materialism of an industrialized society The Realist School

Mark Twain captured frontier realism and humor in the authentic American dialect which changed American literature; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) Bret Hart wrote Gold Rush stories William Dean Howells wrote about ordinary people and about contemporary and sometimes controversial social themes like divorce; editor-in-chief of Atlantic Monthly Stephen Crane wrote about rough life in urban and industrial America; The Red Badge of Courage (1898) about the Civil War Henry James brother of William James; made women his central characters and explored their inner reactions to complex situations that made him a master of psychological realism ; Daisy Miller (1879), The Portrait of a Lady (1881), and The Wings of a Dove (1902) were his most famous works Art Artists of this time will influence a later movement of Realism (painting should reflect life as it happened and should celebrate the vitality of urban experiences for ordinary people) Winslow Homer landscape painter best known for his marine subjects; considered one of the best known American artists from the 19 th century James McNeill Whistler best known for painting portraits; most iconic work is known as Whistler s Mother Thomas Eakins preeminent American artist; painter, sculptor, photographer, educator Black Leadership Booker T. Washington the dominant figure in the African-American community from 1890-1915; was born a slave and advocated a go slow accommodationism that meant African-Americans should accept the sacrifice of political power, civil rights and higher education and instead concentrate on industrial education and accumulation of wealth because those were the skills that would lay the foundation for the creation of stability needed for the African-American community to go forward; blacks would eventually gain full participation in society once they showed themselves to be responsible, reliable citizens; helped to organize and found the Tuskegee Institute that helped both men and women to learn academics and trades; had the help of powerful whites and businessmen to raise funds for schools; wrote autobiography called Up From Slavery (1901); was invited to the White House by President Theodore Roosevelt, the first African-American to be a guest of the president The Atlanta Compromise speech given by Washington at the Cotton States and International Exposition where he described his accommodationist strategy; they would not be a threat to whites and could exist separately from whites; the races could be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress. This speech is widely considered one of the most significant in American history, especially with regard to race relations WEB Du Bois the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard (1895); a contemporary of Washington, he disagreed with the accommodationist strategy and demanded immediate social and economic equality; in opposition to Washington Du Bois founded the Niagara Movement that demanded and immediate end to segregation and discrimination and equal economic and educational opportunity; was one of the founding members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); Du Bois demanded that the "talented tenth" of the black community be given full and immediate access to the mainstream of American life; wrote many books, one of the most well known is The Souls of Black Folk (1903) More will be discussed about black civil rights during the Progressive Era