Immigration, Urbanization, & Everyday life ’60-1900

Chapter 19 outline

5 Major themes

• Everyday life in flux: new US cities

• Middle-Class Society and Culture

• Working class Politics and Reform

• Working class leisure in the immigrant city

• Cultures in Conflict

Figure 19.1: The Changing Face of U.S Immigration, 1865-1920

Everyday life in Flux: introduction

Daily life changes in cities as population increased: NY = 3.4 M

• Migration fr. Countryside + 11M foreigners 70-00

• Natives & immigrants compete for jobs & power

• Urban growth strained city services, housing, sanitation

• Natives fretted: squalid tenements, fondness for drink, strange customs

– Set out to “clean” cities = destroy distinctive cultures

Everyday life in Flux: Migrants & Immigrants

• Industries in urban = demands for workers• Pull factors: promise of good wages & broad range of

jobs – Some farm communities vanished

– Young farm women’s exodus as farming became more male oriented

• Immigrants ’60-’90: 10M northern Europeans to join 4M who settled in ’40s & 50s

– 3M Germans = largest: midwest

– 2M English, Scottish, Welsh

– 1.5M Irish: N.E.

– By 1900 800Th French Canadians

– @1M Scandinavian (WS & MN)– 81Th Chinese remained in CA & nearby by 1900

Map 19.1: Percent of Foreign-born Whites and Native Whites of Foreign or Mixed Parentage in

Total Population, by Countries, 1910

Everyday life in Flux: New Immigrants

• These old immigrants joined by new ones in 90s_ many fr. Peasant backgrounds

– Southern & eastern Europeans: Italian, Slavs, Greeks, Jews, Armenians (M. East)

– Japanese to Hawaii

• “push factors” of new immigrants: overpopulation, crop failure, famine, persecution, violence, economic depression

• Many young men, particularly Italians & Chinese, returned home

• Many Irish women came & send $ home• Arrived in NYC (Castle Garden) or San Franc.: “schon

vergessen” = Sean Ferguson– Ellis Island built ’92 to accommodate influx

Everyday life in Flux: Adjusting

• Chain migration = settle among compatriots fr. Original towns, village, regions

• few problems in assimilating– Those w/ skilled trades & familiar w/ English has– Groups that formed large % of city population

• Irish: 16% of NYC by ’80s; 17% of Boston• Dominated Democratic party & C. church

• Nearly 50% Italians to NYC returned home• All faced hostility from white native-born, who

fear foreign influence, customs, loss of white privilege

– Campaigned to stigmatized them, even Mediterranean people, as colored

Everyday life in Flux: slums & ghettos

• Slums become locked in segregated ghettos: laws, prejudice, pressure prevented tenement inhabitants from renting elsewhere

– Italians in NY ’90s– Blacks in Phila & Chicago (lack in numbers)– Mex-Americans in LA– Chinese in San Francisco

• Slums: difficult on children– Diseases: whooping cough, measles, scarlet

fever…high infant mortality• One immigrant ward in Chicago in ’00: 20% infants

died

(Chapter 19) Lower East SideThe tenements on New York City’s

lower East side were so crowded that daily life spilled out onto the sidewalk and into the street. Jacob Riis, in his expose, How the Other Half Lives (1890), saw the congested immigrant quarters as dirty dens of vice and iniquity. With three of its wards averaging more than 285,000 people per square mile, New York epitomized the depths to which conditions in urban America had sunk.

• Riis’s grim view of life in the ghetto, which reflected his secure middle-class position, contrasted sharply with many immigrants’ memories of the tenement districts’ vibrant street life, resonating with the melodies of organ grinders and the cries of peddlers. Although their apartments were crowded, immigrants often congregated elbow-to-elbow in the hallways; left apartment doors open to invite visitors, and joked, sang, and played music to recreate the village intimacy remembered from their homelands. “How the people did enjoy that music,” reminisced Samuel Chotzinoff, an Eastsider from New York. “ . . . It was inspiring in a neighborhood like that.”

1. Which opinion is more accurate?

2. Examine the details in this photo. What is the main form of transportation in this picture? What is the condition of the buildings? What can you say about sanitation in this part of the city? Why the awnings? Why do many of the women in the picture wear aprons?

(Chapter 19) Lower East Side

Everyday life in Flux: fashionable avenues

• Wealthy Americans lived in exclusive streets– Rockefeller & Jay Gould on Fifth Ave. in NC– Commonwealth Ave. in Boston– Euclid Ave. In Cleveland– Summit Ave. in St. Paul

• In 70s & ’80s, the rich moved out to suburbs– Distanced themselves fr. Tenements– Played on rural nostalgia

• Middle class followed precedents set by wealthy– Suburbs led to sprawl & informal residential

segregation by income took; & standards• 2-story houses, porch set back 30 ft fr. sidewalk

Middle Class Society & Culture: Intro

• Victorian moral authority (Godkin & Henry Beecher): financial success linked to one’s superior talent, intelligence, morality, & self-control

• Embraced equal but separate spheres

• Victorian ideals & privileged positions reinforced by elegant department stores, hotels, elite college & uni.

(Chapter 19) Victorian Trade Card

1. How might the fabric on the woman’s dress be interpreted?

2. What is the image of nature portrayed by the arrangement to the left of the door?

3. In what ways could the toys here be seen as symbolic?

(Chapter 19) Victorian Trade CardVictorian houses often had a front parlor for

visitors and a back parlor, or sitting room, as depicted in here, for the family. Heavy draperies served multiple functions. First, they were a sign of family wealth and sophistication. Crushed velvet and other heavy fabrics were very expensive and an indication of the family’s social status. Deep rich dark colors created a retreat and protection. Sounds were dampened, light filtered, and cold weather was excluded.

Fabric also served to soften and cushion the spaces, providing a sense of comfort and relaxation. The soft curves and folds were seen as feminine touches, accentuating the curves of the female body. By draping the doorway, a theatrical touch was given to the room. Visitors entered suddenly upon the private spaces of the family, a protected retreat whose safety and security were reflected in the sleeping dog. Both parlors were often labeled a “thicket” by contemporaries. They were supposed to be artfully decorated spaces whose walls were adorned with paintings, fine hand-painted china plates, and souvenirs from summer travels. Dogs and other pets were highly valued by Victorian Americans. They believed that learning to take care of animals would help train children to be gentle and kind. Very young children, who were widely viewed as innocent and pure, were often seen as gentle spirits who instinctively enjoyed the companionship of animals.

Middle Class Society & Culture: Manners & Morals

Victorian view emerged in ’30s & 40s rested on these assumptions

1. Human nature is malleable: could improve– Eager to reform practices considered evil/

undesirable

2. Emphasized social value of work• Hard work = discipline & self-control= advance

nation

3. Good manners & value of lit. & fine arts = civilized society

• Norm often violated by middle classes & rich but widely preached

Middle Class Society & Culture: more Manners & Morals

• Henry Ward Beecher appealed to Victorian morality on crusades of temperance and abolition

– Slavery & intemperance threatened feminine virtue & family

• After war, he & others became more interested manners & social protocol

– Social standing defined by not just $ but behavior

• Catherine Beecher’s The American Woman’s Home – Meals as important rituals to differentiate social classes– Fine china & silver = refinement & sophistication

• Victorian code served to heighten sense of class differences

Middle Class Society & Culture: Domesticity

• Promoters of domesticity idealized home as the woman’s spheres

– In ’40s: home = protected retreat for females• Maternal sensitivity & women as promoter of religion

– In ’80s & 90s: added role of director of household• Foster artistic environment• Women devoted time to decorate homes• Not all women agreed

Middle Class Society & Culture: Department stores

Depart. Store as key agent in molding consumer culture: emphasized

• Low prices & high quality

• Shopping as exciting, adventure: elegant stores w/ marble & chandeliers

• End of yr, sales offere constant novelty

Middle Class Society & Culture:higher educaton

By 1900, only 4% enrolled in higher learningCapitalists endowed colleges & uni.• Leland Stanford & wife in ’85 $24M• Rockefeller $34M to Uni. Of Chicago• Forced business view on edu. Administrators• Advocated sports team as preparation for young men for business

& professions– 18 football players died in 1905

• ’80-1900, 150 new colleges & uni. & +double enrollments• Other uni. Funded by state & religious affiliations• Structured medical school & reforms in other programs follow.

– Gave rise to the research university– Pioneered by Pres. Andrew D. White of Cornell Uni. & Harvard’s Charles

Eliot

• Still, higher edu. For only a few privileged at the turn of the century

Working Class Politics & Reform: bosses & machine politics

Urban poor gave rise to the “boss”• Lobbied to help urban poor & Presided over city’s

“machine”– Unofficial political organization

• Wielded enormous power in city gov’t, whether legit mayor or not.

– Former saloon keeper or labor leader– Controlled who will be hired for police/fire dep’t– Reward/punish through taxes, licenses, inspections

• Ex: tax breaks to contractors for large payoffs/kickback– Acted as welfare agents to help needy & troubled

• May give a few $ to pay fine of juvenile offenses, but raked in millions fr. Public ulitility contracts & land deals

– Entangled legit services w/ corrupt politics– Prevented gov’t fr. Responding to real problem– “machine” contributed to municipal gov’t

Working Class Politics & Reform: Tweed

NYC’s boss William Marcy Tweed

Tammany Hall

• ’69-71: Tweed gave $50,000 to poor & $2.2M to schools, BUT raked up 70M city’s debt

• Satirized by cartoon Thomas Nast—German immigrant

• Bosses got assaulted by organized power toward ’00.

Working Class Politics & Reform: Battling poverty

• Reformers Jacob Riis blame poverty on poor’s lack of self-discipline/control

• Later, Jane Addams, Florence Kelley & others examined how low wages & dangerous working conditions impacted lower class…sympathy

• Robert Harley & Charles Brace: helping urban youth

• Other organ.: Children’s Aid Society, YMCA, YWCA:

• All too narrowly focused; lack major impact

Working Class Politics & Reform: New Approaches to Social Work

• “General” William Booth started the Salvation Army ’65 in England

– Uniformed volunteers to US ’80 to provide food, shelter, & temp. employment

– Provide support & teach poor the middle-class virtues of temperance, hard work, & self-discipline

• NY Charity Organ. (COS) ’82 by Josephine Lowell

– Divied NY’s districts, compiled data, sent counselors

– Critics: controlling the poor rather than helping

• All failed to see fr. Vintage of the poor; all tried to convert

Working Class Politics & Reform: Moral-purity Campaign

• Failure of social reformers to eradicated poverty led to tougher measures against sin & immorality

• NC Society for the Suppression of Vice ’72 by Anthony Comstock

– Call for closing down gambling & lottery operations, brothels, plus censor obscene publication

– Reformers labeled immigrants as source of prostitution albeit not majority• Charles Parkhurst: City Vigilance League

• Reform efforts failed: large, diverse population

Working Class Politics & Reform: social gospel

Protestant ministers as reformers started new • William Rainsford (NY) provided social services

& place to worship• Got JP Morgan to help organize boys’ club &

training centers• Washington Gladden (OH): call church leaders

to mediate conflict between bus. & labor…no success

• Walter Rauschenbusch: Christian unity & in’l peace; attacked Christians’ complacent support of status quo

all argued the rich & privileged deserve part of blame for urban distress

Working Class Politics & Reform: settlement house movement

Settlement house movement derived fr. Belief that relief workers should see firsthand the struggle of the poor

Jane Addams bought old mansion in Chicago in ’89 = 1st experiment = opened as Hull House

• Social center for recent immigrants• Pressured politicians to enforce sanitation

regulations• Florence Kelley: worked at settlement houses

became chief factory inspector for Illinois in ’93• Many other veterans played crucial role in

Progressive movement• Mixed success: overlooked immigrant

organization/leaders

Working Class Leisure in the immigrant city

• Deep-seated suspicion of leisure since colonial time

• New patterns of leisure rose: immigrants came, urban pop. Increased, new rich entrepreneur rose

• Workers sought relaxation after long work hrs

• Museums & concert halls vs. saloons, dance halls, boxing, baseball, picnics, holiday cele.

– More: parks, vaudeville theater, race tracks– Catered mass entertainment rather than elite

Working-Class: Streets, saloons, & boxing

• Enjoyed grinders & buskers (street musicians)• Cheap street food & heat relief fr. Crowded

tenements• Old world cultural traditions: Turnverein &

Gesangverein• Saloons attracted workmen: 5c beer + free lunch

– Enforced group identity & center for immigrant politics– Patrons/ local bosses: write letters & find jobs for illiterate– Prostitution & crime flourished in rough ones– Alcoholism– Temperance movement targeted saloons

• Bare-knuckled prizefighting popular

Working-Class: professional sports…baseball

Baseball derived fr. English game called rounders• Informal children’s game to professional• Not fr. Abner Doubleday• Rules codified in ’60s: as seen today• 9 innings; bases 90ft apart• Team owners organized Nat’l Leagues in ’76• Became big bus. In ’90s• Attracted all classes, but working class particularly• Newspaper thrived on baseball; created sport

section– NY Staats Zeitung for German immigrants

Working-Class: professional sports…boxing

Boxing aroused more devotion fr. working class

• John L. Sullivan: most popular sports hero of 19th C.

– Popular among immigrants– Refused to fight blacks (deference to fan);

avoided finest boxer of ’80s, Australian black, Peter Jackson

– Fought w. Jake Kilrain & won belt w/ diamonds & gold

Working-Class: Vaudeville

Vaudeville revolved out of prewar minstrel shows (white comedians made up as blacks to perform)

• Mass appeal; animal routine; dance; musical interlude; then comic skits ridiculing urban life & making fun of inept cops & county officials…made fun of immigrant accents; then magicians & others, end w/ flying trapeze

• Fascination w/ black faced actor: reinforced prejudice against blacks; poked fun of middle class white ideals

• Psychological escape

Working-Class: Amusement Parks, & Dance Halls

Amusement park as physical escape

• Attracted young female wage earners

• Meet friends & spend time w/ young men

• Decorated pavilion & exciting music

Working-Class: Dance Halls• Blacks made major contribution to popular music of the

19thC.• Middle- & working classes differed in styles of music

– Hymns & moral songs vs. ragtime (fr. ’80s by black musicians in saloons & brothels)

• Ragtime: fr. Traditions of sacred & secular Afr. Amr. Songs

– Syncopated rhythms & complex harmonies & blended these w/ marching-band songs

– Became nat’l sensation in ’90s– Often interpreted as freer, wilder

• Whites used it to confirm blacks as sexual, wild, & primitive

• Stark contrast to repressive Victorian culture• Scott Joplin = brilliant composer

Cultures in Conflict

• US embroiled in class & cultural unrest; even w/in middle class itself

• Some middle-class women expressed dissension of Victorian morality

– “New Woman” derived fr. Colleges, social clubs, bycicle fad

• Middle class saw rowdy street s, saloons, boxing, dance halls, & amusement parks as threat to their culture

– Tried to impose middle-class value in schools

• By ’00 Victorian value began to crumble

Cultures in Conflict: Genteel tradition & critics

Upper class editors/ writers/professors codified Vict. Standards

• Charles Eliot Norton (Harvard) & Richard Watson Gilder, & Godkin

• Campaigned to improve US taste in interior furnishings, textiles, ceramics, books…etc

• Set up guidelines for lit. & lectured about fine arts• Censored all sexual allusions, vulgar slang,

unfriendliness to Christianity, & unhappy endings• Editor William Dean Howells & novelist Henry

JamesRegionalist authors: Sarah Orne Jewett, Stephen

Crane, William Dean Howells

Cultures in Conflict: Genteel tradition & criticsTwain = Huck. Finn; Dreisler = Sister Carie• expressed human impact of social change• Broke w/ genteel on manners & decorumRegionalist authors: Sarah Orne Jewett, Stephen Crane,

William Dean HowellsHenry George, Lester Ward, Edward Bellamy: cooperative

& harmonious societyThorstein Bleben: critical of life style of new capitalist• lamented on economic gameAnnie McClean exposed exploitation of dept. store clerksWalter Wyckoff uncovered hand-to mouth existence of

unskilled laborersWEB Dubois documented suffering by blacks in Phila.These writers made it difficult to accept the belief in

progress & gentility

Cultures in Conflict: modernism in Archi. & Painting

Architects & painters challenged genteel traditionWilliam Holabird & John W. Root broke w/ European

designs (Richard M. Hun = old school)• followed Louis Sullivan: form follows function

– Banks should not look like temples

Frank Lloyd Wrights “prairie school” housesmodern, broke w/ past; rejected Victorian tradition

Winslow Homer: water colorist show nature as brutalThomas Eakin’s canvases captured vigorous physical

exertion of swimmer, boxers, rowers in daily lifeDistrusted Victorian assumptions & ideals but disagreed on

how to replaced themUntil Progressive Era: reforms based on social research & enlisted gov’t power to break these assumptions

Cultures in Conflict: Vict. Lady to new woman

Frances Willard shows cult of domesticity can evolve into women’s social & pol. Responsibility

• Temperance; pres. Of Woman’s Christian Temp.• Had traditional belief: women had unique moral

virtues• Using crusade of home (white ribbon) to win

franchise for women to vote to outlaw liquor• College women expanded roles for women• ’80-90, female enrollment rose fr. 30% to 71%• Bycicle fad help losen Vict. Contraints on women

– Vict: proper ladies don’t sweat

• Feminist writer: Kate Chopin in “the Awakening”

Cultures in Conflict: public Education as conflict

Debates among all classes about education highlight divisions

Most states had public edu. By Civil War due to Horace Mann

William T. Harris: increased # of yrs. In school to increase knowledge of public affairs & function (labor)

• instill order, punctuality, to prepare for industrial age… led to required attendance

• Joseph M Rice, pediatrician, protested the prisonlike discipline

• Pos.: real advances in reading & computation & illiteracy dropped

• Challenge: parents sent them to work instead• Catholics protested against Protestant orientation

– parochial school shot up