Monday - Old Immigrants (WASPS), New Immigrants (Not WASPS)
3. Inspection - Passengers were inspected for contagious diseases such as cholera, plague, smallpox, typhoid fever, yellow fever, measles and diphtheria.
If immigrants had any of the diseases they would be deported
20% of those arriving at Ellis Island were detained
80% were free after a few hours
2% would fail to be admitted
Tuesday - Angel Island - common for them to stay months to years. Mostly were Chinese and Japanese.
4. Beyond Ellis Island - The next stop was money exchange. Cashiers exchanged paper money, from countries all over Europe, for American dollars. Then they went to NYC or the railroad ticket office to go anywhere in the country.
Why were immigrants disliked in the US in the late 1800's/early 1900's? - Jobs were taken, they were different, racism, kept wages low
Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 - Banned all Chinese immigration to the US from 1882-1902
Why ban Chinese immigrants? - Racism
Gentleman's Agreement 1907 - Informal agreement between US and Japan. The goal was to reduce tensions between the US and Japan-Discuss Russo-Japanese War and School segregation. Japan agreed not to issue passports for Japanese citizens wishing to work in the continental US.
The US agreed to:
-1. Accept the presence of Japanese immigrants already living in the US
-2. Permit the immigration of wives, children and parents
-3. End legal discrimination against Japanese-American children in California schools
Why did cities grow so quickly? - Immigrants, farmers moved to the city, African-Americans moved to the cities, Cities offered more jobs and opportunities
Wednesday - Problems in the city - Cramped, Old, Dirty housing-tenements, Lack of good transportation, Diesease, Filthy streets, Crime, Fires, Poverty
Jacob Riis - Wrote a book called "How the Other Half Lives"
Define Tenements - A room or set of rooms forming a separate residence
Many people would throw their garbage in the rivers
Thursday - City Problems: Cramped, Old, Dirty Housing Tenements
City Solutions: - Put restrictions on building wood-frame structures in the center of the city -Why? -Cities encouraged the construction of lower-income dwellings on the city's outskirts -Why? - The Tenement House Act of 1867 defined a tenement for the first time and set construction regulations - 1 toilet per 20 people
Tenement House Law 1901 - Outlawed the construction of new tenements on 25 foot lots improved conditions
- Current tenements were updated and more that 200,000 new apartments were built over the next 15 years
- Most were destroyed in the 1920's and 1930's with FDR"s New Deal
- The first fully government-built public housing project opened in NYC in 1936
Problem: Lack of Good Transportation
Solutions: Electric Streetcars, Automobiles (There were 300 cars in 1895, 78,000 in 1905, 459,000 in 1910, 1.7 million in 1914), Subways, Airplanes
Friday - No School!!
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