CH 25: AMERICA MOVES TO THE CITY

THE URBAN FRONTIER • From 1870-1900, the American population doubled

• Population of the cities tripled

• Cities grew up and out, Louis Sullivan was a famous architect who worked on skyscrapers, Bessemer steel process allowed this to occur

• Cities grow from small and compact to huge metropolis where one needs electric trolleys and other mass transit

• Electricity, indoor plumbing, and telephones were available in cities making them more enticing

• Of course you also had crime, uncollected, sewage, unwashed bodies, and droppings

• Department stores like Macy’s and Marshall Field’s provided not only jobs but also urban middle-class shoppers

• Mail order catalogs, like Sears or Montgomery Ward, made purchasing easy for everyone

• Worst were the slums, which were heavily crammed

• Dumbbell Tenements were the worst. Dark, cramped, little sanitation or ventilation

• To escape, the wealthy city dwellers go to the suburbs.

THE NEW IMMIGRATION • Until 1880s, most immigrants had come from British Isles and Western Europe

• Most were literate, accustomed to representative democracies, and the general culture

• After 1880, this shifts to the Baltic and Slavic peoples of southeastern Europe who had very different life experiences

• EX: Before 1880 immigrants from southeastern Europe accounted for only 19% of the total, but by 1900 were 60%

• Many Europeans came to America because there was no more room in Europe

• Industrialization had eliminated many jobs as well

• The American Dream was also believed by Europeans, who hear of freedoms, jobs, and eating every day

• Many in the States also promoted this idea to get additional immigration and thus cheap labor to come over

• Many immigrants, if they stayed long or short term, were determined to retain much of their own cultures and customs

• Their children were often the ones who rejected the ‘Old World’ cultures and embraced American life

• The federal government did little to help immigrants assimilate into American society

• Immigrants in larger cities were often controlled by political “bosses” who provided jobs and shelter in return for political support at the polls

• Gradually Americans began to wake up and started to assist the new immigrants

• Walter Rauschenbusch and Washington Gladden began preaching the “social gospel”

• Belief that churches were to be the center of assistance and help on social issues

• Jane Addams also believed deeply in helping the urban masses

• Opened the Hull House in 1889 to teach children and adults literacy and skills needed to succeed; Won Nobel Peace Prize in 1931

• Others: Lillian Wald opened Henry Street Settlement in NYC in 1893

NARROWING THE WELCOME MAT • Nativism and antiforeignism of the 1840s and 1850s came back in the 1880s

• The Germans and Western Europeans looked down upon the new Slavs and Baltics

• Worried that, besides jobs, the mixing of blood would ruin the ‘better’ Anglo-Saxon races and create inferior offspring

• “Native” Americans blamed immigrants for the degradation of the urban government (which they forgot they too had been blamed as well)

• Trade unionists disliked the immigrants for their willingness to work for very low wages

• Many also didn’t like them because they brought in new ideas of government like socialism and communism

• The American Protective Association (APA) was formed to go against the new immigrants

• Labor leaders were also quick to try to stop further immigration

• 1882 Congress passes first restrictive law against immigration

• Banned paupers, criminals, and convicts

• Also banned Chinese immigration

• 1885 another law banned importing contracted low wage workers

• 1917 Congress passed a law placing literacy tests on immigrants

• Immigrants coming into NYC were registered and inspected at Ellis Island

DAY 1 WRITE THE QUESTION IN THE SPACE PROVIDED

• A: Describe advantages and disadvantages of the urbanization in the late 1800s.

• B: How was the ‘New’ immigration patterns of the 1880s different from previous?

• C: What was the ‘social gospel’ and how did women like Addams attempt to help the urban masses?

• D: Explain reasons why the ‘New’ immigrants of the 1880s were looked down upon by ‘Native’ Americans and labor.

CHURCHES CONFRONT URBAN CHALLENGE

• For quite some time, churches had not attempted to tackle the urban poor issue

• A push for urban revival began to occur in the churches

• Dwight Lyman Moody wanted to adapt the ‘old time’ religion to city life and created the Moody Bible Institute in 1889 Chicago

• Roman Catholics and the Jewish faith also gained considerable numbers during this new immigration

• By 1890, Americans could choose from nearly 150 religions

• Salvation Army was started to help the poor and unfortunate

• Mary Baker Eddy founded the Church of Christ, Scientist (Christian Science)

• Cities also began to see YMCA’s and YWCA’s start up

DARWIN / EDUCATION • 1859, Charles Darwin publishes the ‘On the Origin of Species’ which sets forth

the theory of evolution

• Fundamental Christians were hotly against this new theory

• ‘Modernist’ Christians began to take a step back and completely agree of the Bible’s accuracy

• A new trend to create more tax payer funded public schools and free text books started

• By 1900, there were 6,000 high schools and Kindergartens were multiplying

• Besides public schools, Catholic schools were also growing in number

• Americans began to have faith in formal education as a solution to poverty.

BOOKER T WASHINGTON AND EDUCATION FOR BLACK PEOPLE

• The South in later 1800s was war-torn and super poor

• It lagged far behind in education, especially for blacks

• Booker T Washington, an ex slave, started a push for increased education

• He headed a black normal and industrial school in Tuskegee, Alabama and taught students useful skills and trades

• He avoided the issue of social equality, believing blacks helping themselves first before gaining more rights

• One of his students was George Washington Carver, who later discovered hundreds of uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans

• WEB Du Bois was the first African-American to get a PhD from Harvard

• He demanded complete equality for blacks and action

• In 1910, Du Bois founded the NAACP

• The separation of Washington and Du Bois is evidence of the vastly different experiences between southern and northern blacks.

HALLOWED HALLS OF IVY • Colleges and universities spring up after the Civil War

• Included colleges for women, such as Vassar

• Colleges for both genders grew, especially in the Midwest

• Black colleges were also established (Howard University in Washington DC, Atlanta University, and Hampton Institute in Virginia)

• Morrill Act of 1862 provided generous public land grants to states for support of education and was extended in the Hatch Act of 1887

• This provided federal funds for the establishment of agricultural experiment stations in connection with the land grant colleges

• Private donations also started to create colleges:

• Cornell, Leland Stanford Junior, and University of Chicago which was started by JD Rockefeller

• Medical schools also took off, especially following discoveries by Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister

THE PRESS

• Libraries opened across America, bringing literature into people’s homes

• The invention of Linotype in 1885 allowed the press to keep pace

• Sparked a new type of competition called ‘Yellow Journalism’

• Newspapers would report on wild fantastic stories that were often false or exaggerated

• Two newspaper tycoons emerge: William Randolph Hearst (San Francisco Examiner) and Joseph Pulitzer (New York World)

• The Associated Press attempted to off set some bad journalism, but yellow journalism flourished

DAY 2 WRITE THE QUESTION IN THE SPACE PROVIDED

• A: Describe how the churches began to help the urban masses.

• B: Explain the divide between the views of fundamental Christians and Charles Darwin’s theories.

• C: Compare and contrast the views of Booker T Washington and WEB Du Bois.

• D: What is yellow journalism?

REFORM AND POSTWAR WRITING • Magazines began to be published, such as Harper’s, the Atlantic

Monthly, and Scribner’s Monthly.

• Henry George wrote ‘Progress and Poverty’ which looked at social issues and it was George that came up with the idea of the graduated income tax

• Graduated income tax is a progressive tax, the more money you make the higher your taxes

• Edward Bellamy published ‘Looking Backward’ in 1888

• Critical of social injustices of the day and advocated for a nationalized big business that served the public good (socialism)

• The mass marketing of ‘dime novels’ after the Civil War was huge

• Usually depicted the wild West or other romantic adventure settings

• Biggest author of dime novels was Harland Halsey who published 650 of them

LITERARY LANDMARKS • Horatio Alger, wrote of virtue and honesty and

hard work that was rewarded by success and wealth and honor

• Walt Whitman continued to publish and update his ‘Leaves of Grass’

• Emily Dickinson was a famed hermit poet whose poems were published after her death

• Mark Twain wrote many books (Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Gilded Age (coined the term), and the Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County)

• Stephen Crane, Red Badge of Courage

• Jack London, wrote about the wild and wilderness (Call of the Wild)

FAMILIES AND WOMEN IN THE CITY • Urban life was stressful on the family

• Not only did you have a ‘new morality’ in the cities-

• Writings and articles that reflected new sexual freedoms, increased birth control, divorces, and often discussed frank sexual topics

• You also had families that were separated and everyone in the family having to work

• Children often did as young as 10

• The birth rate had a reverse effect when comparing rural and urban

• On the farm, more children meant more workers, in the city it meant more mouths to feed and a greater chance at poverty.

• Feminism began to come out in writing and in politics

• Charlotte Perkins Gilman published ‘Women and Economics’ which called for women to abandon their dependent status and contribute to the larger community life

• She also advocated for day-care centers

• Feminists also rallied towards suffrage, forming the National American Women Suffrage Association in 1890

• Led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B Anthony

• Carrie Chapman Catt, another leader, stressed the desirability of giving women the vote if they were to continue to perform their traditional duties and homemakers

• Suffrage for women is first seen in Wyoming Territory in 1869

• Ida B Wells advocated for the better treatment of black women as well and formed the National Association of Colored Women in 1896

PROHIBITION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS • Concern over the popularity of alcohol was also

increasing after the war

• The National Prohibition Party was formed in 1869

• Other organizations such as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union was also formed, calling for the national prohibition of alcohol, led by Frances E Willard and Carrie Nation

• 1893, Anti-Saloon League

• 1866, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was formed to discourage mistreatment of livestock

• American Red Cross was formed by Clara Barton in 1881, a former Civil War nurse

AMUSEMENT

• Phineas T Barnum and James A Bailey teamed up in 1881 to put on the “Greatest Show on Earth

• (Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus)

• Wild West shows toured the nation with personalities like Buffalo Bill Cody and Annie Oakley

• Football and baseball became popular

• 1891, James Naismith invented basketball

DAY 3 WRITE THE QUESTION IN THE SPACE PROVIDED

• A: Describe three ‘escapes’ that urban dwellers had during the late 1800s.

• B: Explain various struggles that families had living in the larger cities.

• C: Describe the role of women in the fight for suffrage and social progress.

• D: Why were women at the front of the prohibition movement?