Transcript Immigration - Palmdale School District / Homepage

1865-1915
More than 13.5 Million
Immigrants came to the United
States

In the five decades
after the Civil War,
roughly 1865-1915,
a flood of
immigrants came to
America. From
1865 to 1900, some
13.5 million
immigrants arrived
in America.

Wars, famine,
religious
persecution, and
overpopulation
were the four major
reasons why people
left Europe and
came to the United
States.
 Major
immigrant
groups to the
United States
 Italians
 Jews
 Slavs

From 1880 to
1924, more
than two
million Eastern
Europeans,
mainly
Catholics,
immigrated to
the U.S.
 Italian
immigration to
the U.S.
reached its
peak of over
two million
between 1910
and 1920.

During the same
period, roughly two
million Jews came
to the U.S., seeking
opportunity and
fleeing the political
massacre taking
place in Eastern
Europe.



Slavic Immigrants
worked in the basic
industries of
America
Steel mills of
Pittsburgh and
Chicago
Coal mines of the
Penn. Anthracite


Passage to the United States often
cost a life’s savings.
Because of this cost, entire families
would often save enough money to
send just one or two family members
to America, hoping that eventually
these members could afford to bring
over the rest of the family.

The crowded steerage
deck usually
contained a diverse
group of people. Many
were poor farmers
whose fathers’ or
grandfathers’ land
had been divided so
often that the plots
were no longer large
enough to support
even single families.


As for conditions below decks, an agent for
the United States Immigration Commission
described them as follows: “During the
twelve days in the steerage I lived
in…surroundings that offended every sense.
Only a fresh breeze from the sea overcame
the sickening odors.
Everything was dirty, sticky, and
disagreeable to the touch.” In such
conditions, disease and even death were not
uncommon.

In 1890, Congress
designated lowlaying, three- acre
Ellis Island in Upper
New York Bay as an
immigration station.
By the end of 1910,
six million
immigrants had
come through Ellis
Island.


The immigration
inspection process was
a humiliating and
dehumanizing
experience for many.
Newly arrived
immigrants were given
medical inspections and
asked 32 background
questions. Immigrants
with contagious
diseases were shipped
back.

With the huge
numbers of
immigrants,
inspectors had just 2
minutes to complete
the process and many
immigrants had their
last names changed
by the inspectors
because they didn’t
have the time or
patience to struggle
with the foreign
spellings.

Long lines of
immigrants were tagged
according to what
language they spoke
and marked with chalk
according to the medical
ailments they suspected
of having and they
waited for the
inspectors to decide
their fate.




Some native-born
Americans feared and
resented the new
immigrants.
Their languages, religions,
and customs seemed
strange.
They also competed for
jobs.
Desperate for jobs,
immigrants often accepted
lower wages and worse
working conditions.


The majority of
immigrants settled in
the big cities where
factory jobs were
available. By 1900, 4
out of every 5 people
in New York City were
immigrants or
children of
immigrants.

Many immigrants lived
in areas with people
of similar ethnic
background.
Such neighborhoods
provided support but
separated the
immigrants from the
rest of Americans thus
slowing their
assimilation into US
culture.
Cities Grow: 1890-1920
• Factory jobs sparked an increase in the growth
of cities after the Civil War.
1890 – 1/3 of Americans lived in cities
1920 – 1/2 of Americans lived in cities
City Life
• Poor families struggled
to survive in crowded
slums living in
tenements.
• Tenements were
overcrowded, dirty and
oftentimes had no
windows, heat, or indoor
bathrooms.
Hine, Lewis W.
NYC tenement 1910
Many immigrants
lived in crowded
tenement
buildings.
 Families shared
living space and
decent lighting &
fresh air were
scarce.

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*

Conditions were uncomfortable, crowed, and
dirty.

In New York, 1,231 people lived in only 120
rooms in one part of the city.

In Chicago in one year, over 60% of newborns
never reached their first birthdays.

Many babies asphyxiated in their own homes.


Many immigrants had
no home and slept in
5 cents a spot rooms
where people paid for
a small space to
spend the night.
Can you imagine
sleeping crowded
against strangers?

An immigrant
himself, Jacob Riis
was well known for
his photographs
documenting the
lives of immigrants &
the urban poor in his
book How the Other
Half Lives.
Bunks in a
sevent-cent
lodging-house,
Pell Street
Jacob Riis – Men’s Lodging Room in the West 47th
Street Station – c. 1892
Reform
• Garbage collection and street cleaning began regularly.
Street cleaning, Fourth Street
Help for the Poor
• Salvation Army
• YMCA, YWCA
Hull House – a settlement house set up by Jane
Addams
Hull House in the early
1900’s (above) and Jane
Addams in the 1930’s (right).
Hull-House Nursery, ca. 1890s

Immigration quotas
passed in the
1920s tended to
favor earlier
generations of
immigrants by
giving preference to
Northern
Europeans.