The Population of America: Immigrants and Native Citizens

The population of America doubled from 1870 to 1900 as the population in the cities tripled.Cities grew up and out - cities built skyscrapers growing upwards with Louis Sullivan working on perfecting skyscrapers architecture first skyscraper was seen in 1855 in Chicago.The cities grew out as it went from being small and compact to bigger and wider places where people now traveled by electric trolleys.City life grew more alluring and comfortable as Electricity, indoor plumbing, and telephones developed.

Department stores like Macy’s, New York and Marsha Field’s grew offering more jobs attracting middle-class shoppers.With the growing urbanizing came more pollution - cities produced lots of trashFarmers recycled and fed leftovers to animals while city residents used new developing mail-order houses - this made shopping cheap and easy resulting in people throw away things that did not please them.There were more criminals in the cities, furthermore, water was impure, garbage were not collected regularly, people were not hygienic resulting in cities becoming more smelly and unsanitary.Dumbbell tenements - many people were stuffed in small cramped tenements which was dark, cramped, and had little to no sanitation and ventilation.II.

The New Immigration Old Immigration - immigrants that came from the British Islands, western Europe, Germany and Scandinavia till the 1880s who were literate and came with something to offer.Immigrants who migrated to escape poor condition in their country. the Baltic and Slavic people of southeastern Europe who immigrated during 1880s and 1890s - mostly illiterateIII. Southern Europe UprootedEuropeans immigrated to America because of the lack of jobs due to the industrialization and simply because there was no room in EuropeAmerica provided the freedom and opportunities other European countries lacked making it a bragging factor.Although immigrants moved to America because it was “better than their country,” they still tried their best to keep their costumes and heritage alive.

Many immigrants moved back to Europe after working in the United States. But the new generation, children of the immigrants this were more affected by American life.IV. Reactions to the New ImmigrationThe federal government did not help the new immigrants to a great extent so the immigrants supported bosses like Boss Tweed and their pools in exchange for jobs and shelter. But immigrants started getting more support over a period of timeJane Addams - founded Hull House in 1889 where she taught children and adults skills and knowledge needed to survive and succeed in America.She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, but her pacifism was looked down upon by groups such as the Daughters of the American Revolution, who revoked her membership.Other such settlement houses like Hull House included Lillian Wald’s Henry Street Settlement in New York, which opened its doors in 1893.

Settlement houses became centers for women’s activism and reform, as females such as Florence Kelley fought for protection of women workers and against child labor.The new cities also gave women opportunities to earn money and support themselves better, mostly single women, since being both a working mother and wife was frowned upon.V. Narrowing the Welcome MatThe nativism and anti-foreignism of the 1840s and 1850s came back in the 1880s, as the Germans and western Europeans looked down upon the new Slavs and Baltics, fearing that a mixing of blood would ruin the fairer Anglo-Saxon races and create inferior offspring.

The native Americans blamed immigrants for the degradation of the urban government. These new bigots had forgotten how they had been scorned when they had arrived in America a few decades before.Trade unionists hated them for their willingness to work for super-low wages and for bringing in dangerous doctrines like socialism and communism into the U.S.Anti-foreign organizations like the American Protective Association (APA) arose to go against new immigrants, and labor leaders were quick to try to stop new immigration, since immigrants were frequently used as strikebreakers.Finally, in 1882, Congress passed the first restrictive law against immigration, which banned paupers, criminals, and convicts from coming here.

In 1885, another law was passed banning the importation of foreign workers under usually substandard contracts.Literacy tests for immigrants were proposed, but were resisted until they were finally passed in 1917, but the 1882 immigration law also barred the Chinese from coming- the Chinese Exclusion Act.The Statue of Liberty arrived from France in 1886 which was a gift from the French to America in.