13.2 and 19.3

Benevolent Societies

Many immigrants worked hard to build communities by moving into neighborhoods with others who shared their nationality. There they could hear their native languages, eat familiar foods, and keep their customs. Some immigrants communities formed benevolent societies, which offered help in case of death, sickness, and unemployment. At that time, there were few national government agencies to provide such aid.

Urban Development

Organizations such as churches and social groups helped make life easier for many city residents. New technologies also brought improvements to urban centers. Engineers built taller buildings by using steel-beam frames for support. Elisha Otis's steam-powered elevators carried people up and down the floors of these so-called skyscrapers. Small local stores gave way to department stores, which offered a wider variety of goods in one place.

Tenement

Other major problems in most large cities were the lack of safe housing and public services. Many people, particularly immigrants, could afford to live only in dirty, overcrowded buildings called tenements.

Angel Island

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Push/Pull Factors

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Trachoma

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Second "New" Immigrants

During the 180s the number of immigrants to the United States increased dramatically. Many of these so-called new immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe. The jobs created by the Second Industrial Revolution attracted many people.

African Americans

During the late 1800s immigrants and native-born Americans moved to cites in record numbers. In 1850 only six cities in the United States had populations greater than 100,000. By 1900 there were more than 35 such cities. In midwestern cities, in particular, the population grew rapidly during those years.

First "Old" Immigrants

During the late 1800s immigrants like Lee continued to come to the United States by the millions. However immigration patterns began to change. Immigrants who had come to the United States before the 1880s were mostly from Britain, Germany, Ireland, and Scandinavia. Most were Protesta, except for the Irish and some Germans who were Catholic. Many of them spoke English. These people, often called old immigrants, frequently settled outside cities and became farmers.

Steerage

Immigrants usually faced a difficult journey to America. Most of them bought the cheapest tickets available. They traveled in steerage, an area below deck on a ship's lower levels near where the steering mechanisms for the ship were located. In these cramped conditions, passengers often experienced overcrowding and seasickness. Some passengers even died from disease.

Know-Nothing Party

In 1849, nativists founded a secret society that became a political organization known as the Know-Nothing Party. The party was so named because when asked questions by outsiders, its members usually answered, "I know nothing." The Know- Nothings wanted to keep Catholics and immigrants out of public office. They also wanted immigrants to have to live in the United States for at least 21 years before they could become citizens. Party politicians had some success, winning several state elections during the 1850s. They also controlled the Massachusetts legislature for a short time.

Chinese Exclusion Act

In some places nativists rioted violently against immigrants. Other nativists called for laws to stop or limit immigration. In 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. This law banned Chinese people from coming to the United States for 10 years. The law marked the first time people of a specific nationality were banned from entering the country. Congress later extended the ban into the 1900s.

Emigrat/Immigrants

In the mid-1800s large numbers of immigrants crossed the Atlantic Ocean to begin new lives in the United States. More than 4 million immigrants settled in the United States between 1840 and 1860, most of them from Europe.

Jane Addams/Hull House

Settlement houses began in Great Britain and then became common in the United States. Janie Porter Barrett established an African American settlement house in Hampton, Virginia. The most famous settlement house was Chicago's Hull House, founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr in 1889. Like many upper-class woman of their era, they had received a college education. However, they found few job opportunities open to them. Addams wanted to help the poor. To reach this goal, she and Starr opened Hull House in a run-down building in a poor Chicago neighborhood. The work at Hull House focused most on the needs of families, especially immigrants families. Hull House served as a model for other settlement house. Addams and her staff took part in a variety of activities. They started the first kindergarten and public playground in Chicago. They also taught classes in English and U.S. government to help immigrants become citizens. In addition the staff worked for reform of child-labor laws and the adoption of an eight-hour workday for women. Many of the women involved in running Hull House later became active in a variety of national reform movements.

Immigrant Restriction League

To further decrease the flow of immigrants, nativists formed the Immigration Restriction League in 1894. The league wanted all immigrants to prove that they could read and write in some language before being allowed into the country. Congress passed a law requiring a literacy test for immigrants in 1897. However, President Cleveland vetoed the bill, calling it "narrow, and un-American."

Ellis Island

When immigrants reached the United States, they had to go first to immigration processing centers. In 1890 the federal government began assuming control of these immigration centers. One of the largest centers opened in 1892 on Ellis island in New York Harbor. At these centers, officials interviewed immigrants to decide whether to let them enter the country. Officials also conducted physical examinations, deporting any person who carried a disease such as tuberculosis.