Monday-
We discussed working on improving our presentations and I talked about my forum posts.
Option 1
-Both parent's family history
-Where they came from
-When/ why/ how they came to the US
-Where they settled in the US and how your family ended up here.
Chapter 7-1 Key Questions:
Why did immigrants come to the US?
Where did immigrants come from?
What problems/issues did immigrants face on the trip over and once they got here (Ellis/Angel Island)?
Why did some people want to put restrictions on immigration. What were those restrictions?
Immigration is moving from one country to another. Illegal immigration is going from one country to another without proper documentation. People will leave for push and pull reasons. ANCHOR BABIES. push-pull famine, land shortages, religious political persecution, in debt or trouble, more opportunities, reunite with family. Homestead act, mining, working on the railroad, cattle ranching, and factory work. Illegal immigration- What is immigration? People moving from one country to another. Illegal immigration is when you don't come to another country legally. People want to come to the United States because of opportunities. There are jobs and often times better living conditions. Family also is a big pull factor. People come illegally because they don't want to waste time. Legal immigrants took the time and effort, illegal immigrants did not. They are taking jobs and taking advantage of the U.S. They don't usually pay taxes. Culture shock is also another reason. Undocumented immigrants is another word for illegal immigration. We really focus on criminal illegal immigrants. Politicians are trying to get many illegal immigrants votes. Many people shy around immigration policies. This can hurt their ballots. Donald Trump, however, is very candid on this opinion. Birthright citizenship is when if you are born in the U.S. you have automatic citizenship. This is often times called anchor babies. You are given almost front-of-the-line status. It makes it easier for illegal immigrants to stay. The 14th Amendment states Due Process and Equal Protection. In 2013, 990,553 people are granted lawful permanent residence in the U.S. "Green cards." The top countries of origin are Mexico (14%), China (7.2%), India (6.9%), Philippines (5.5%), Dominican Republic (4.2%). They cannot run for President. This is the one thing that you cannot do if you are an immigrant. In 2013, 779,929 people become naturalized US citizens. Mexico, India, Philippines, Dominican Republic, China. Residents becoming naturalized citizens in 2013 had spent a median of seven years in "green card" status. In 2012, The Department of Homeland Security estimates that there are 11.4 million unauthorized immigrants living in the US. The top countries are Mexico (59%), El Salvador (6%), Guatemala (5%), Honduras (3%), Philippines (3%). The Mexican economy isn't strong at all. The top states where they settle are California (25%), Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois. Unauthorized immigrants to the US tend to be young 961% between ages 24-44) and male (53%). In 2013, 662,483 unauthorized immigrants are apprehended. More than 64% are from Mexico. 438,421 unauthorized immigrants were deported. President Obama's Plan is to crack down on illegal immigration at the border, deporting felons (not families), accountability-criminal background checks and taxes, streamlining legal immigration. We need to make legal immigration easier (keep it under 3-5 years).
Tuesday-
Ronald Reagan named October 6th German-American Day. The golden age of immigration was between 1870 and 1920, 20 million Europeans came to the US. The old immigrants were W.A.S.P. White, Protestant, Anglo, Saxons. Anglo Saxons were basically Aryans. They came from the Scandinavian countries. They came in the 1850s or earlier. They wanted to keep America mostly W.A.S.P. New immigrants came from southern or eastern Europe. They were Catholic, Orthodox, Jewish. They were often times illiterate, and were very poor. They came in small groups. They were clannish and didn't assimilate. They were radicals or autocrats, were short and dark, and were impoverished. The old immigrants were from northern or western Europe, they were Protestant, literate, came as families, were quick to assimilate, democrats, had money, were tall and fair. Nativist is when w.a.s.p.s would look down upon the new immigrants. Caucasians are now a minority. Germany, Ireland, Scandinavian, England, Italy, Russia, Poland, Mexico, China, Japan, other. There are generally four steps to coming to America. Leaving home, boarding a ship, inspection, and ellis or angel island. One person would come to America first. They would save money to send to others back home. From 1900 to 1910, almost 95% of the immigrants arriving at Ellis Island were joining either family or friends. In 1901, between 40-65% came on prepaid tickets or money sent to them. A ticket to America cost thirty dollars. There were three types of accommodations -first class, second class and steerage, only steerage passengers were processed at Ellis Island. First and second class passengers were quickly inspected on board the ship. Larger ships could hold 1500 to 2000 immigrants profiting 45,000-60,000 dollars. The experience of steerage was a nightmare. The mortality rate was 10 percent per voyage. Conditions were extremely overcrowded, dark, unsanitary, and foul-smelling. Immigrants had faith for the future. Week to a month on a ship. They would play cards, sing, dance, and talk.
Wednesday-
Passengers were inspected for contagious diseases such as cholera, plague, smallpox, typhoid fever, yellow fever, scarlet fever, measles and diphtheria. If immigrants had any of the diseases they would be deported. Sick children age 12 or older were sent back to Europe alone. 2% of people were deported. About 20% of those arriving at Ellis Island were detained for medical treatment or a legal hearing. 80% were free to go after only a few hours.
Thursday-
Step Four- As they left Ellis Island, the next stop was the Money Exchange. Cashiers exchanged paper money, from countries all over Europe, for American dollars. It was off to New York City or the railroad ticket office to go anywhere in the country that they wanted. The Germans dominated the counties in the Northwest Areas. Immigrants were disliked in the US in the late 1800's/ early 1900's. It was a very racist time period, the immigrants set back the labor unions goals. The Chinese Exclusion Act-1882. We excluded chinese immigration for twenty years. It banned all Chinese immigration to the US from 1882-1902. They banned the Chinese because of their race and the fact that they took jobs. They would often times work the hardest jobs. They would put dynamite in the mountains for railroads. The Gentleman's Agreement-1907. It was an informal agreement between the US and Japan. The US would not restrict Japanese immigration and Japan would not allow further immigration to the US. The goal was to reduce tensions between the US and Japan. What was the tension?- Japan and Russia were at war with each other. San Francisco started segregating their schools. The Japanese did not like that, even Teddy Roosevelt didn't. It said we wouldn't have anything like the Japanese Exclusion Act. Segregation ended in San Fran. The term Japs is very negative. It is a slur. We have a very rocky history with Japan.
7.2
Why did cities grow so quickly in the late 1800's and early 1900's?
What problems did cities face due to the rapid increase in population?
What did people/ organizations do to try to help the bad situation in these cities?
Why did cities grow so fast? Immigrants, farmers moved to the city, African-Americans moved to the cities and gave up on share cropping. Cities just offered more jobs and opportunities. Cities even offered more entertainment. There was a lot of crime, but they tried to beautify themselves. Between forty years, New York City tripled in size. Cities struggled with over crowding, housing, too few jobs, not a lot of food. The cities had cramped, old, dirty housing-tenements. There was also a lack of good transportation, lack of safe drinking water, disease ran rampant, streets were filthy, there was a lot of crime, fires, and poverty due to low pay at work. They would even bring pigs to eat the trash they threw out of their windows. It took until the eighteen hundreds to hit the first billion people. We have added six billion to that number in 215 years. Disease used to wipe out many families. Jacob Riis wrote a book about how the other half lives. A tenement is an apartment where a whole family or extended family would live. It was cramped, usually one room, and no indoor plumbing. They didn't have dryers or washers and would string rope between the tenements and hang their clothes to dry on there. Cities were not pretty at all. Many of the rich didn't realize how awful it was. Buildings weren't expected to have fire escapes and many perished in building fires. Many tenements had no windows at all. They often times had dirt floors. Rats ran rampant. Jacob Riis was homeless at one time, but took photographs of immigrant life. It took up to thirty minutes for a photo to take. Jacob Riis worked for the press. He was homeless at one time. It woke people up about the terrible conditions. He awoke the conscience of the country. It demonstrated the country wasn't afraid of self-examination. The streets weren't paved in gold. It was a completely different world. Stench was constant. Feces would be thrown into the country side. Farmers would use it to fertilize their crop. Garbage was dumped into Harbors and lakes in the late 1800's. Tenements had wood frames and would be built very close together. 50-100% of the city could be destroyed. The San Francisco fire began after an earth quake. Cities would rise from the ashes- like a phoenix. They became better engineers and tried to fix their flaws. The solution to housing was cities put restriction on building wood-frame structure in the center of the city. They moved tenements to the outskirts of cities, so it wouldn't burn down the whole city. The Tenement house act of 1867 defined a tenement for the first time and set construction regulations. One toilet was required per twenty people. The rural areas would take forever to get electricity and indoor plumbing. It took about twenty to thirty years for developments country side. The Tenement House Law-outlawed the construction of new tenements on 25 foot lots and mandated improved sanitary conditions, fire escapes and access to light along with sprinklers. Current tenements were updated and more than 200,000 new apartments were built over the next fifteen years. Most tenements were destroyed in the 1920's and especially the 1930's with FDR's New Deal. The first fully government-built public housing project opened in NYC in 1936. It made places better, safer, and healthier, especially for the lower class. Lack of transportation- horses, on foot, bikes, subways, automobiles (1870), buses, planes, trains, elevated trains (electric streetcars) late 1800's early 1900's. There were three hundred cars in the US in 1895, 78000 in 1905, 459000 in 1910 and 1.7 million in 1914. Subways-NYC-1904. Airplanes-1903-Wright Brothers. This is the era where you have all of the above and everything in between. Cars were for the rich and famous. It wasn't expected to take off. You can trust horses, not automobiles.
Friday-
The subway was built in 1904 in NYC. They were underground railroads. The bus was built in 1925 especially public buses. The airplanes wouldn't be used for in cities. Kittyhawk Wright brothers first plane. WWI made technology improve quickly over time. Airplanes were used for war (dog fighting), mail carrying, entertainment (barn storming), adventures, 1960-1970s were the start of jumbo jets. Lack of safe drinking water was solved by the early 1900's, chlorine was added to the water to help eliminate disease. In the late 1800's, scientists had proven that diseases were spread through unsafe drinking water. Federal regulation of drinking water quality began in 1914 which continued to strengthen over the decades. Horses were replaced, which eliminated the manure problem and also by adding chlorine to water which helped with disease and filthy streets. Indoor plumbing was introduced(more showers). George A. Waring Jr.- NYC- 1895 organized modern recycling, street sweeping and garbage collection. He was involved with the Civil War. He was the head of the New York Sanitation Department. Prosperity didn't trickle down. The worst of New York's tenements are shut down. Nearly 40,000 die of diseases every year. Waring saved thousands of lives. We would start to have organized garbage collection in the early 1900's. Garbage never goes away. Crime- Police became full time employees of the city-not volunteers, this was the beginning of the organized police force. In 1838, Boston established the first American police force. NYC-1845 and Chicago-1851. By the 1880's all major US cities had municipal police forces in place. In 1911, fingerprints were first accepted by US courts as a reliable means of identification. FBI began in the 1920's. Streetlights would decrease in crime. Fires led to better building codes, firefighters were paid and became full-time. In 1853, Cincinnati became the first full-time, paid fire fighters in the US. The labor unions lobbied for minimum wage laws, shorter hours, and child labor laws. Over a billion people live under a dollar a day.
Chapter 7.3
What was the political machine and what did they do for a city?
Explain Boss Tweed and the Tweed Ring.
What caused all the corruption in government?
What laws came about to reform government?
Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, William Taft, and Woodrow Wilson were all presidents during the late 1800's/ early 1900's. Were they a reform president or a status quo president?
This era is called the Gilded Age from 1870's-1900's. Gilded means to be covered with gold. A political machine is a political organization, usually controlled by a single "boss", that controlled votes and had administrative control of a city, county, or state. These organizations provided social services and jobs to people (recent immigrants) in exchange for votes. It was a very corrupt systems. They came about due to the rapid increase of population in cities and poor government in the 1800's. It died in the early 1900's. They made sure that their candidates were elected and that city government worked to their advantage. Political machines controlled the activities of political parties in the city. Ward bosses, precinct captains, and the city bosses were examples of these people.
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