We started off class by finishing blog discussions. Social Darwinism was the "Survival of the Fittest". The rich thought that the poor should die, because they were lazy and poor, and not a lot of money.
Chapter 7 -
Immigrants -
The came in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. They wanted to escape from difficult conditions. Examples are famine, land shortages, religious, or political persecutions. They were promised a better life. Some were known as the "birds of passage". Some came for a little while, but then returned to their homeland. Between 1870 and 1920, about 20 million Europeans arrived in the U.S. Before 1890, most immigrants came from countries in Western and Northern Europe. In 1907, 1 million people arrived from Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. Between 1851 and 1883, 300,000 Chinese arrived. Most wanted to seek fortune after the discovery of gold from the Gold Rush. They helped build the nation's railroad. After building the railroads, they either turned to farming or mining. Some started businesses. Chinese immigration was very sharply limited by the Congressional Act of 1882. 1,184 Japanese government allowed Hawaiians to recruit workers. That's how the Japanese immigration began. U.S. annexation of Hawaii in 1898 resulted in increase of Japanese of the West Coast. In 1907, 30,000 left Japan to U.S. In 1920, 200,000 Japanese lived in the West Coast. In 1880 to 1920, about 260,000 immigrants arrived in the Eastern and Southeastern U.S. from the West Indies. They came from Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, etc. They left because the jobs were scarce, and the industrial boom in the U.S. seemed promising. The Mexican also immigrated to find work. In 1902, the National Reclamation Act encouraged irrigation of land, made new farmland, and drew Mexican farmers northern. In 1910, about 7% of the population of Mexico at the time came over to the U.S. over the next 20 years.
A Difficult Journey -
By 1870's, most immigrants traveled by steamship. Most traveled in steerage. The cheapest accommodations were in the ship's cargo holds. The Atlantic Ocean from Europe took about 1 week. The Pacific from Asia took about 3 weeks. They were crowded, so they didn't get to exercise or get fresh air. They had to sleep in louse infested bunks. They had to share toilets with many other passengers. Diseases spread quickly. Some died before they reached land.
Ellis Island -
After reaching land, they had to go through inspections. They faced anxiety of not knowing whether they would get admitted to the U.S. One of the inspection centers that was in New York got moved to Ellis Island in the New York Harbor. About 20% of them got detained for a day or more before being expected. They had to pass physical examination by a doctor. If anyone had a serious health problem or contagious disease was promptly sent home. the ones that passed reported to a government inspector. They questioned them to determine whether they met the legal requirements for entering the U.S. They had to prove that they never committed a felony, demonstrate that they were able to work, and showing that they had some money. In 1892 to 1924, Ellis Island was the major immigration center. There was an estimated 17 million immigrants that passed through the facility.
Angel Island -
It is like Ellis Island, but on the East Coast. The Asians came between 1910 and 1940. About 50,000 Chinese came to America this way. Ellis Island and Angel Island has the same process for getting through. Once they were in the country, they faced many challenges such as finding a job, places to live, and living a daily life with a different language. They formed social clubs and aid societies. They made their own newspaper in their native language.
Rise of Nativism -
Nativism is a favoritism towards native born Americans. Prescott F. Hall, a founder in 1894 of the Immigration Restriction League, identified desirable immigrants as "British, German, and Scandinavian stock, historically free, energetic, and progressive." In 1897, Congress, influenced by the Immigration Restriction League, passed a bill requiring a literacy test for immigrants.
Anti-Asian Sentiment -
The Natives worried the Chinese would work for lower wages. Denise Kearney was the head of the Anti-Asian, and she ended every speech with "the Chinese must go!" In 1882, Congress slammed the door on Chinese immigration for 10 years by passing the Chinese Exclusion Act. In 1902, they restricted the Chinese immigration. The Gentleman's Agreement was when they segregated Japanese children by putting them in separate schools. The Japanese government agreed to limit emigration of unskilled workers to the United States in exchange for the repeal of the San Francisco segregation order.
Urban Opportunities -
The technological boom in the 19th century contributed to the growth of cities, mostly in the regions of the Midwest and the Northeast. The immigrants that came to the United States became city dwellers and worked in the mills and plants. The Americanizations movement was to help immigrants learn skills for citizenship. Despite the efforts of the immigrants did not want to give up their culture and traditions. The farming industry did not need that many laborers because of he invention of the reaper and the steel plow. The people worked on the farms didn't have work. The African-Americans didn't have anywhere to work because most of them worked on the plantations. They left because of the racial tension, and they moved to the North to find better jobs in the cities. When the industrial age began, housing became a problem. The working people had two options they could live on the outskirts of the city or live in the cramped buildings. To improve housing, they made a new type of house called row houses. The immigrants took over the building in the city when the working class people left. These buildings became known as tenements. These buildings became unsanitary and unsafe quickly because the immigrants were packed together. The city pass a law that set minimum standards for plumbing and ventilation. People sometimes put garbage into the air shafts, which attracted vermin. The smell was so awful that they had to nail the windows shut. The new tenements became worse than the old ones.
Reformers Mobilize -
When the problems in the cities got worse, people wanted to help. The Social Gospel movement was an attempt to fix the problems in the cities. They wanted to improve the lives of poor people. In the late 180s, some groups made settlement houses to help the people in the bad areas. They were like community centers to help people in the lesser parts of the city. They offered different classes. Many of the workers there lived in the settlement houses. This helped the workers learn about the problems and find better ways to fix them. Janie Porter Barrett found the Locust Street Social Settlement which was the first settlement house for African Americans. By the year 1910, there were over 400 settlement houses throughout the country.
Class dismissed.
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