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Chapter 15 – Life at the Turn of the 20th Century
Section Notes
New Immigrants
Urban Life
Politics in the Gilded Age
Segregation and Discrimination
History Close-up
Video
Life at the Turn of the 20th Century
Maps
Ethnic Neighborhoods in Chicago,
1880–1910
Early Skyscrapers
Quick Facts
Old and New Immigrants
Visual Summary: Life at the
Turn of the 20th Century
Images
Political Cartoon: Old and New
Immigration
Political Cartoon: Boss Tweed
The Populist Movement
Mexican American Worker
New Immigrants
The Main Idea
A new wave of immigrants came to the United States in the
late 1800s, settling in cities and troubling some nativeborn Americans.
Reading Focus
• How did patterns of immigration change at the turn of the
century?
• Why did immigrants come to America in the late 1800s, and
where did they settle?
• How did nativists respond to the new wave of immigration?
Changing Patterns of Immigration
The old immigrants
• 10 million immigrants came
between 1800 and 1900. Known
as the old immigrants, they came
from Northern and Western
Europe.
• Most were Protestant Christians,
and their cultures were similar to
the original settlers.
• They came to have a voice in
their government, to escape
political turmoil, for religious
freedom, or fleeing poverty and
starvation.
• Most immigrants came for
economic opportunity, attracted
to the open farm land in the
United States.
• Chinese immigrants had been
lured by the gold rush and jobs
building railroads.
The new immigrants
• From 1880 to 1910, a new wave
brought 18 million people to
America.
• Most came from Southern and
Eastern Europe.
• They were Roman Catholics,
Orthodox Christians and Jews.
Arabs, Armenians, and French
Canadians came as well.
• Smaller numbers came from East
Asia. Severe immigration laws
reduced Chinese immigration, but
90,000 people of Chinese descent
lived in the U.S. by 1900.
Japanese immigrants arrived by
way of Hawaii.
• The makeup of the American
population had changed. By 1910
about 1 in 12 Americans were
foreign-born.
Coming to America
• Desire for a better life
–
Most immigrants were seeking a new life, but they left their homelands
for many reasons, including religious persecution, poverty, and little
economic opportunity. If you were willing to work hard in America,
prosperity was possible.
• The journey to America
–
The decision to come involved the entire family. Usually the father went
first and sent for the rest of the family later. Travelers made their way
to a port city by train, wagon, or foot to wait for a departing ship. They
had to pass an inspection to board, and prove they had some money.
Most traveled cheaply, in steerage, and they still had to make it
through the immigration station.
• Ellis Island
–
Opening in 1892 as an immigration station, 112 million immigrants
passed through Ellis Island. Immigrants had to pass inspection before
they were allowed to enter.
Coming to America
Angel Island
Building
urban
communities
West Coast immigrants were processed in San
Francisco at Angel Island. Many Chinese
immigrants were detained in prison-like conditions
while awaiting a ruling. Poverty and discrimination
awaited many newcomers.
Many new immigrants lived in poor housing in
teeming slums near the factories where they found
work. In the Northeast and Midwest, immigrants
settled near others from their homeland. Cities
became a patchwork of ethnic clusters. Residents
established churches and synagogues to practice
their religious faith. They formed benevolent
societies, aid organizations to help new
immigrants obtain jobs, health care, and education.
Nativists Respond
Threat to
society
Limiting
Chinese
immigration
Some native-born Americans saw immigrants as
threats to society. Nativists felt they brought
crime and poverty and accepted jobs for lower
wages, keeping wages low for everyone. They
wanted to close America’s doors to immigration.
Chinese workers were tolerated during good times,
but with a worsening economy Denis Kearney led
an active opposition to their presence. Chinese
workers were not allowed state jobs, and local
governments could ban them from communities or
restrict them to certain areas. The Chinese
Exclusion Act was passed in 1882, banning
Chinese immigration for 10 years. None of the
Chinese in the U.S. would be allowed citizenship.
The law was renewed in 1892, and Chinese
immigration was banned indefinitely in 1902.
Limits to Immigration
Japanese
• Nativists also resented the
Japanese. Japanese students
in San Francisco were
segregated from other
children.
• Theodore Roosevelt
negotiated a Gentlemen’s
Agreement with Japan.
• No unskilled workers from
Japan, and in return Japanese
children could attend schools
with other children.
Other immigrants
• Nativists opposed
immigration from Southern
and Eastern Europe.
• They claimed these folks
were poor, illiterate, and nonProtestant and could not
blend into American society.
• They called for a literacy
test to see if test takers
could read English.
• The Literacy Test Act was
passed in 1917, over
President Wilson’s veto.
Americanization occurred in many places. Newcomers were
taught American ways to help them assimilate. They learned
English literacy skills and American history and government.
Urban Life
The Main Idea
In cities in the late 1800s, people in the upper, middle, and
lower classes lived different kinds of lives because of their
different economic situations.
Reading Focus
• How did American cities change in the late 1800s?
• How did class differences affect the way urban dwellers lived?
• How did the settlement house movement work to improve living
conditions for immigrants and poor Americans?
American Cities Change
• Compact cities
– Before industrialization, cities had no tall buildings and
most people lived within walking distance of their work,
schools, shops, and churches. In the late 1880s, they ran
out of room and started to build up.
• Tall buildings and transportation
– Steel frames and Elisha Otis’s safety elevator made
taller buildings possible. With mass transit, people
moved farther away.
• Green spaces
– Urban planning was used to map out the best use of
space in cities. Frederick Law Olmsted designed city
parks to provide residents with countryside. New York’s
Central Park is his most famous endeavor.
Class Differences
The wealthy in America inherited fortunes, but they made
them from industry and business as well.
The newly rich made a point of conspicuously displaying
their wealth. Grand city houses and magnificent country
estates were commonplace.
High-society women read instructional literature detailing
proper behavior. The ideal woman was a homemaker who
organized and decorated her home; entertained visitors and
supervised her staff; and offered moral and social guidance
to her family.
Some women lent their time and money to social reform
efforts.
Class Differences
The middle class
• The urban middle class grew
as jobs for accountants,
clerks, managers, and
salespeople increased.
• Educated workers like
teachers, engineers, lawyers,
and doctors were needed.
• The rise of professionalism
required standardized skills
and qualifications for certain
occupations.
• Married women managed a
home. With time for other
activities, some participated
in reform work or other
activities, expanding their
influence to the outside
world.
The working class
• Many lived in poverty, with a
growing population keeping
wages low.
• Housing shortages led to
crowded and unsanitary
tenement conditions.
• Housekeeping was difficult;
with no indoor plumbing,
water had to be hauled inside
from a pump.
• Clothes were boiled on the
stove and hung on lines to
dry.
• Many women also worked
low-paying jobs outside the
home.
The Settlement House Movement
• London reformers
– Founded the first settlement house in 1884. Volunteers provided a
variety of services to people in need.
– They taught skills people could use to lift themselves from poverty.
• Hull House
– Jane Addams founded Hull House, one of the first settlement houses
in the U.S., and the movement spread quickly. The movement gave
women the opportunity to lead, organize, and work for others.
• Religious views
– The Social Gospel was the idea that religious faith should be
expressed through good works and that churches had a moral duty to
help solve society’s problems.
– Social Darwinists disagreed; they felt people were poor because of their
own deficiencies.
Politics in the Gilded Age
The Main Idea
Political corruption was common in the late 1800s, but
reformers began fighting for changes to make government
more honest.
Reading Focus
• How did political machines control politics in major cities?
• What efforts were made to reduce political corruption?
• How did the Populist movement give farmers political power?
Political Machines
• Political Machine—was an informal group of professional
politicians controlling the local government who often
resorted to corrupt methods for dealing with urban
problems.
• Immigrants—were a loyal support base for the political
machines. In Boston, the Irish rose in the ranks to control
the political machine in that city.
• Corruption—Political machines used illegal tactics to
maintain control, buying voter support and resorting to
election fraud.
• The Tweed Ring—was a notorious political machine
headed by William Marcy Tweed.
• Thomas Nast—a political cartoonist who attacked the
corruption in Harper’s Weekly.
Federal Corruption
Scandals
Grant’s presidency was marred by several scandals.
Crédit Mobilier cost the taxpayers $23 million and
tainted the nation’s leaders. The Whiskey Ring was
responsible for diverting tax collections.
Hayes and
reform
Reformers wanted to end the spoils system, and the
next president agreed. Hayes issued an executive
order that prohibited government employees from
managing political parties or campaigns. The
Stalwarts wanted to continue the spoils system.
Civil
service
reform
Republicans compromised on James A. Garfield as
the next president, but he was assassinated four
months after taking office. His successor, Chester
A. Arthur, turned against the spoils system and
passed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act.
The Populist Movement
Farmers’ hardships
• Crop prices were falling,
and farmers had to repay
loans.
• Railroads were charging
high fees for transport
• Merchants made money
from farm equipment.
• Everyone made money but
the farmer doing the work
• Outraged farmers
organized to help
themselves.
• Local groups formed to aid
farmers
The National Grange
• First major farmers’
organization
• Campaigned to unite
farmers from all over
• As membership grew,
pushed for political reform
and targeted railroad rates
• Munn v. Illinois gave state
legislatures the right to
regulate businesses that
involved the public
interest.
• Wabash v. Illinois—federal
government could regulate
railroad traffic.
The Alliance Movement and money supply
The Farmers’ Alliance helped with practical needs such as
buying equipment or marketing farm products. They also
lobbied for banking reform and railroad rate regulation.
In the South, the Colored Farmers’ Alliance formed. With
more than 1 million members, the Alliance advocated hard
work and sacrifice as keys to gaining equality in society.
The Alliances felt that an expanded money supply would
help farmers by inflating prices, with inflation easing
farmers’ debt burden. Money was tied to the gold standard,
and farmers wanted it to be backed by silver as well. Now
politically active, candidates supported by the Alliance won
more than 40 seats in Congress and four governorships.
The Populist Party
Encouraged by their clout in national elections, the Alliance
decided to form a national political party. The Peoples’ Party
was born in Nebraska in July 1892. This coalition of farmers,
labor leaders, and reformers became known as the Populist
Party.
• Party Platform—Supported the National Grange and
Alliance demands, with a platform calling for an income tax,
bank regulation, government ownership of railroad and
telegraph companies, and free coinage of silver.
• 1892 election—Speaking for the common people against
the ruling elite, the Populists took several state offices and
won seats in Congress.
Economic Depression and a New Election
The Panic of 1893
The election of 1896
• The nation plunged into
another depression, investors
pulled out of the stock
market, and businesses
collapsed.
• William McKinley, a
believer in the gold standard,
was the Republican nominee,
and the Democratic candidate
was William Jennings Bryan.
• Cleveland focused on silver as
a cause of the national
depression. When silver
decreased in value, people
rushed to exchange paper
money for gold.
• Bryan hailed the free coinage
of silver as the key to
prosperity.
• Cleveland called for Congress
to repeal the Sherman Silver
Purchase Act. The country
stayed on the gold standard.
• The Populists threw their
support to Bryan.
• McKinley won the election,
and the Populist Party soon
faded away. But the
groundwork for reform was
laid.
Segregation and Discrimination
The Main Idea
The United States in the 1800s was a place of great change—
and a place in need of even greater change.
Reading Focus
• What kinds of legalized discrimination did African Americans
endure after Reconstruction?
• What informal discrimination did African Americans face?
• Who were the most prominent black leaders of the period, and
how did their views differ?
• In what ways did others suffer discrimination in the late 1800s?
Legalized Discrimination
Restricting the vote
• Once white Democrats had
regained control over their
state legislatures, they
passed poll tax and literacy
requirements to prevent
African Americans from
voting.
• Most African Americans were
too poor to afford the poll
tax, and many had been
denied the education needed
to pass the literacy test.
• Some poor or illiterate white
men could not meet the
requirements, but they were
given a grandfather clause
allowing them to vote.
Legalized segregation
• Designed to create and
enforce segregation, Jim
Crow laws were passed in
the South.
• African Americans filed
lawsuits, wanting equal
treatment under the Civil
Rights Act of 1875.
• In 1883, the Court ruled the
Act to be unconstitutional,
determining the 14th
Amendment applied only to
state governments.
• Congress had no power over
private individuals or
businesses.
Plessy v. Ferguson
• Thirteen years later, another key case came before the
Supreme Court. The matter involved a Louisiana state law
requiring railroads to provide “equal but separate
accommodations for the white and colored races.”
• Homer Plessy sat in a whites-only train compartment to test
the law and was arrested. He appealed based on the 14th
Amendment.
• In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) the court upheld the practice
of segregation, with only Justice John Marshall Harlan
dissenting.
• The Court ruled that “separate but equal” facilities did not
violate the Fourteenth Amendment. The Plessy decision
allowed legalized segregation for nearly sixty years.
Informal Discrimination
Racial
etiquette
Lynching
Strict rules of behavior, called racial etiquette,
governed social and business interactions. African
Americans were supposed to “know their place” and
defer to whites in every encounter.
If an African American failed to speak respectfully or
acted with too much pride or defiance, the
consequences could be serious.
The worst consequence was lynching, the murder of
an individual usually by hanging, without a legal
trial.
Between 1882 and 1892, nearly 900 lost their lives
to lynch mobs. Lynchings declined after 1892, but
continued into the early 1900s.
Prominent Black Leaders
With the turn of the century, two different approaches
emerged for improving the lives of African Americans.
Born into slavery, Booker T. Washington believed that
African Americans should accept segregation for the
moment. Farming and vocational skills were the key to
prosperity, and he founded the Tuskegee Institute to teach
practical skills for self-sufficiency.
W.E.B. Du Bois, a Harvard-trained professor, believed in
speaking out against prejudice and striving for full rights
immediately. African Americans should be uplifted through
the “talented tenth,” their best educated leaders. Du Bois
launched the Niagara Movement to protest discrimination in
1905. Later, he helped found the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Others Suffer Discrimination
Mexican
Americans
Asian
Americans
Native
Americans
They encountered hostility from white Americans,
often not speaking English well and taking the most
menial jobs for little pay. Debt peonage tied many
of them to their jobs until they could pay off debts
they owed their employer.
Chinese and Japanese Americans had to live in
segregated neighborhoods and attend separate
schools. Housing was difficult, because most house
owners did not want Chinese tenants. Several states
also forbade marriage with whites.
Native Americans faced continuous government
efforts to stamp out their traditional ways of life.
Children were sent away from their parents to be
“Americanized.” Reservation life held little
opportunity for economic advancement.
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