URBANIZATION SECTION 2

US History/Geography

Americans Migrate to Cities

• 1860 = 10million

• 1900 = 30 million

• Cities had

– Running water

– Bright lights

– Modern plumbing

– Museums/libraries /theaters

Americans Migrate to Cities

• Price of land in cities = expensive!!!

• Costs to build OUT not UP!

• “Skyscrapers”– First built 1885 (Chicago)– Design contributor –

“Louis Sullivan”– “What people are within

the buildings express without”

Americans Migrate to Cities• More people and need

to get around quickly = mass transit systems– Horsecar = railroad car

pulled by horses

– 1873 20 cities including San Francisco used Electric Cable Cars

– Elevated Railroads

• Largest cities (Boston, New York) built first subway systems

Separation By Class

• High Society– Fashionable locations in heart

of city

– Castle/mansion style houses

– Homes larger = more servants for women to manage

– Women spent time in social activities

– Many spent more on one party then majority of people made in one year

Separation By Class

• Middle Class Gentility– Expanded at this time

– Included: • doctors, lawyers, engineers, managers, social workers,

architects and teachers

– Moved away from central city (suburbs)• Escape crime and pollution

• Could afford larger homes

– Took advantage of commuter rail lines

– Had at least 1 live in servant

Separation By Class• The Working Class

– Few owned homes

– Lived in CROWDED “tenements” (aka apartments)• First tenement built in

1839

– To make more money, families in tenements often rented out space to a boarder• Industrial worker family

only made $445 /year

Separation By Class

• The Family Economy– 60% of families had more than one wage earner

1900.• Sometimes that included child workers

– Working Class women began working outside the home• Sometimes teachers

• Mainly domestic service

– No job? Had to rely on family and charities• 70% of 65 or older lived with children

Urban Problems

• Problems of living in cities– Crime / Violence / Fire / Disease /pollution

• Minor criminals – Pick pockets, swindlers , thieves

• Thrived due to crowded streets

• Major Crimes– Murder rate jumped from 1880 -1900

• 1880 – 25 murders per million people

• 1900 – 100 murders per million people

Urban Problems

• Alcohol contribute to violent crime

– Jacob Riis, documented slum life

• Accused saloons of causing poverty, corruption and suffering … also claimed sold beer to minors

• Bigger problem = disease and pollution

– Poor sewage disposal = contaminated drinking water = epidemics

• Examples: Typhoid fever and cholera

Urban Problems

• Machine Politics– “Political Machine”

• Informal political group designed to gain and keep power

• Started because cities grew faster than gov’ts

– New people needed housing, jobs, food, heat and police protection

– Went to “party bosses” = leader of Machine• Gave new comers what they needed in exchange for

votes

Urban Problems

• Graft and Fraud

– Party bosses controlled city money

– Many grew rich as result of fraud or “graft”

• Getting money through dishonest or questionable means

– “George Plunkitt”

• New York City powerful part boss

• Defended grafts ….Honest graft

– Outright Fraud

• Bosses accepted bribes from contractors who were supposed to compete fairly

Urban Problems

• Tammany Hall

– NYC Democratic political machine

– Lead by “William ‘Boss’ Tweed” 1860s-1870s

– His corruptness lead to prison sentence

Urban Problems

• Machines controlled everything – Including police…that’s why so corrupt

• Opponents of Political Machines– Bosses were too corrupt…were not good for

society

• Defenders of Political Machines– Machines provided necessary services and helped

to assimilate the large amount of new city dwellers.

QUESTIONS

1. What new technologies helped people in the late 1800s get to and from work?

2. What were some advantages of living in the city?

3. When was the first skyscraper built? How tall was it?

QUESTIONS

4. Who was considered middle class? (professions)

5. Where did the middle class live?

6. What did women do in the wealthy class?

7. What did women do in the working class?

QUESTIONS

8. What did political machines do to help people living in the cities in the late 1800s?

9. Who was New York City’s most powerful party boss?

10. What is graft?