The Transformation of American Society

CH 7 Section 1

The Lure of America

• From 1800 to 1880 more than 10 million immigrants came to the US (old immigrants)

• The new immigrants came between 1891 and 1910, 12 million immigrants

• 60% of the people living in the 12 largest cities were foreign or had foreign parents

• 70% were from southern or Eastern Europe

Some of the countries represented

• Czech • Greek• Hungarian• Italian• Polish• Russian • Slovack

• Arabs• Armenians • Chinese• French Canadians• Japanese

• They came to escape poverty or persecution

• They also came seeking economic opportunity

• Some were tricked by the railroads offering jobs and land

• Steamships offered low fares to get more people to come over

• {Steerage The poorest accommodations located on the lower levels below deck is how most traveled}

Ellis Island

{Ellis Island

• This is the first soil that immigrants coming into New York set foot on}

• It opened in 1892

• To get to it the immigrants passed the Statue of Liberty

• All those with serious mental problems or disease were deported

• All those with criminal backgrounds or no way to support themselves were sent back

A New Life• Most immigrants were forced into low

paying jobs in the poorest neighborhoods and slums

• They would settle into immigrant communities where most spoke the same language

• They were encouraged to join the American mainstream which was often done by their children

Inner city Slum

The Nativist Response

• They saw the immigrants as a threat

• They saw them as too different to fit in

• They were blamed for crime, poverty and violence

• They thought they stole the money from native born Americans because the worked for so cheap

Chinese Exclusion

• {The new Workingmen’s party of California headed by Denis Kearney

• They encouraged Anti-Chinese sentiments}

• This led to mobs attacking Chinese killing some and burning the property of others

• Most Chinese came in thorough California Why?

Angel Island

The Chinese Exclusion Act

• Passed by congress in 1882 in California

• It denied citizenship to those born in China

• It prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers

• Neither the Chinese Exclusion Act or the violence kept out Chinese immigrants

Immigration Restriction League

• {Sought to impose a literacy test on all immigrants}

• A measure was passed by congress but vetoed by President Cleveland

• Despite the Nativist arguments the immigration had a positive effect

• Rapid industrialization would have been impossible without them

Review

• What is Steerage?

• The Workingmen's party were anti who?

• What did the Immigration Restriction League want?

• What was the first land that most New York immigrants stepped on?

The End