Download Immigration in U.S. History City Summary Outline of Settlements of

Immigration in U.S. History City Summary
Outline of Settlements of Selected Urban Areas
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Boston: 1630 – 1700
Immigrants mostly came from England
Majority were of the Protestant Faith, namely Puritans or Congregationalists
Boston was the largest city in North America until 1790
Urban artisans made up a large percent of the cities population
Over time the economic gap between the cities’s wealthy and poor increased
New York: 1790 – 1860
Has a superior harbor for commerce and immigration
Liberal state laws allowed inland merchants to purchase and sell goods in the city,
encouraging urbanization
The British dumped goods after the War of 1812 creating a major import center
The Erie and other canals within the state opened the interior of North America to
coastal trade
The immigrant population made up half of the city’s total population
The Irish and Germans were the largest immigrant populations
Catholics made up a large percentage of the population
Many immigrants had jobs as merchants, shipbuilders and sailors
Slums developed on the Lower East and West Sides due to the influx of
immigrants
New Orleans: 1790 – 1860
The city became a commercial port and financial center for goods being shipped
east, west, north and south
The major crops shipped were sugar and rice
The city became the banking center for the Mississippi River
Very few blacks lived in the city in the early 19 th century
French immigrants arrived in the early 1800s after failing to grow grapes and
olives in nearby Alabama
By 1860, 40% of the city’s population were immigrants, a heavy mix of Germans
and Irish
Between 1840 and 1860 the city’s population increased 65 percent
The Catholic religion heavily influenced the area
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Cincinnati: 1790 – 1860
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Nicknamed “Porkopolis,” as it was the nation’s largest meatpacking city
The city’s populations practiced a variety of religions
A large German population created a manufacturing and industrial center
German-Jews brought butchering and tailoring skills to the city
The city’s population increased from 40,000 in 1830 to 161,000 in 1860
The original “Gateway to the West” and the third-largest industrial center by 1840
Workers complained of wage-slavery
Protestant workers attacked the Irish and Germans in 1855
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Chicago’s population grew from 250 in 1840 to more than 1 million by 1900
In 1860s, Chicago passed Cincinnati as the nation’s meatpacking center
A machine for killing hogs was invented here
The building of the Union Stockyards in the 1870s created a demand for more
labor for meatpacking resulting in the population increase
Many different religions were brought by the variety of immigrants that settled
The Irish and the Germans came in the 1850s
The Bohemians and the Poles came in the 1870s and 1880s
The Slovaks, Lithuanians, Ukrainians and Russians came in the 1890s
These immigrant groups brought animal and farming skills to meatpacking
The city became the economic center of the Great Plains as a commercial rather
than an industrial/manufacturing center
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Chicago: 1830 – 1900
Salt Lake City: 1845 – 1900
Mormons led by Brigham Young created a state of “Deseret”
The city became a stopping-point for those traveling to California, Oregon or
Washington State
The transcontinental railroad brought many immigrants to the city
Mining (especially gold and silver) encourage many immigrants to settle
A variety of cultures and religions flourished alongside the Mormons
Germans, Scandinavians, Greeks, Italians and Slavs were the largest immigrant
groups
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Atlanta: 1870 – 1940
The entire city had to be rebuilt after Sherman’s March during the Civil War
Early growth was from waterways, bridges and infrastructure needed for trade
Atlanta then became the main railroad hub that linked cities and towns in the
South
Textile mills were built due to the new forms of transportation
The city became the “showplace” of the New South movement
Blacks moved from the plantations to the city
British, French and other Europeans came with textile mill experience; they
settled in rural areas and commuted to the city industrial centers
The city developed a variety of religions, mostly Protestant in background
Los Angeles: 1890 – 1960
Population grew nearly 15 times larger between 1880 and 1920
Many jobs came from garment sweatshops in the downtown region
Most immigrants lived in rooming houses
40% of these immigrants came from Mexico
The majority of the city’s workers were blue-collar class
Seasonal laborers did not make much money due to low, competitive wages and a
large supply of labor that was greater than demand
The Hispanic immigrants brought Catholicism to the city.
Cities are liable to occasional depressions of trade, resulting from overproduction, or the
successful rivalry of foreign nations. . . owing to the intense severity of certain seasons, there is a
total cessation of employments of particular kinds, by which vast numbers of people are flung
idle on the streets.
John Francis McGuire, The Irish in America (New York: 1868)
Questions to consider:
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Which groups were most likely to vote Democratic? Republican?
Is there a connection between religion and ethnicity and voting patterns?
Do these same patterns hold true today?
For each of the urban centers mentioned, define in two or three sentences the impact of a
specific immigrant group had on the social, economic, and political growth of that center.
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