3 | american society Flashcards
How many immigrants were there from 1860s to 1890?
10million
Majority from southern and Eastern Europe, previously it was mainly from north like Scandinavians.
1882- 789,000 and over half from Britain and Germany.
Pull factors for immigration
Advertisement in guidebooks, pamphlets, newspapers saying where to go and why, described journeys by land and sea and costs and wages in USA and advantages of life there.
Shipping companies actively recruited immigrants and steamship was the main format of travel.
State bureaus stimulated immigration especially in Britain Germany and Scandinavia.
Railroads- land needed to be filled and those offered easy transport to them
Expanding industries in need of a labour force
Willingness to welcome people to the land of the free - Statue of Liberty 1886 symbolised this
Push factors for immigration
Industrial and agricultural revolutions transformed European society and there was pressure of increasing population
Agricultural depression and industrial problems
Ireland - cause of unemployment and poverty was agricultural mismanagement by absentee landlords
Russian Jews fled persecution in the anti semantic riots
Chinese - Taiping Rebellion 1848
Where did immigrant settle?
Scandinavian and German - rural areas. Irish - urban like New York, Boston and Chicago. Industrialisation and urbanisation developed so more and more immigrants became parts of expanding cities. Few immigrants went west - most stayed on the east coast. Vast majority settled in cities. Ghettoisation occurred, poorer parts of cities where affluent families leave and immigrants move due to cheap rent and food.
What did Chinese do in America?
Many were employed in the construction of western sections of the transcontinental railroads. This became a cultural job for them.
Population increases and shifts
Mass immigration caused significant increases in the population. However, death rates were declining and more people were living longer which also contributed.
Shift - urbanisation as industrialisation and improvements in transport drew people into expanding cities. The population patterns of towns reflected the influx of immigrations as districts became ‘Irish’ or ‘German’, like Milwaukee became a German American city of breweries and German newspapers.
Tensions from immigration
New immigrants were often treated with suspicion and hostility and seen as a threat to jobs or existing social norms. Nativism grew as groups tried to preserve established American values from foreign influence. Tensions between new and old immigrants. Often reflected class prejudice and racial or religious prejudice.
Reaction to Chinese immigrants
Newspapers and politicians campaigned to stop the Yellow Peril of Chinese immigration - a race conscious fear of the rise of china and Japan. Labour unions led by Grompers opposed Chinese labour because of competitors for jobs. This all caused the Chinese Exclusion act of 1882 to be passed, stopping immigration of skilled or unskilled Chinese workers, and preventing Chinese people already in the US from getting citizenship and made it hard for them to return if they visited china. First ever restriction on immigration of a specific ethnic group, only repealed in 1943.
Economic depression after 1873 stock market panic created fears that cheap Chinese labour would undermine white workers.
Origins of Chinese immigrants
Came to California for 1849 gold rush. Established settled communities in west coast cities like San Francisco. Thousands were brought to work on the railroads in the west and after, many moved to the already existing Chinese communities in California. They provided half the labour force for San Fransisco’s key industries like sewing, tobacco and cigar making. Also many on farms. They were cheap, hard working and caused few social disturbances
Reaction to European and Jewish immigrants
No group received as much abuse as Jews. Banned from voting until mid 19th century. Places turned Jews away
English were criticised, magazines had jokes prejudiced against new comers, Scots seen as mean, Irish as ugly drunks, Italians with crime.
Woman’s suffrage and equality
The fight for women rights had already begun before the civil war. The Seneca Falls convention in 1848 launched the feminist campaign for female suffrage and women’s groups were active in the temperance movement, campaigning for restrictions on alcohol and to abolish slavery. Caused divisions between conservative and radical women groups, who split in the issue of voting rights for African American males being given priority in 14 and 15 amendment over women, black and white. Splits lasted for over 20 years until 1890, when NAWSA was established. Radical example - Susan B Anthony
Population increases in the north / east
1860-1890
New York’s population doubled
Chicagos population increases 10x from just over 100,000 to over 1mil
It was in the north and east that urban populations grew fastest, railroads made their biggest impact and big business had an influence over state and fed gov.
What was the Great Railroad Strike of 1877?
Workers fought wage cuts in West Virginia by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Unrest spread to Maryland where there was street fighting between strikers and troops of the national guard. Strikes broke out in Pennsylvania and there were violent clashes in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh where the union rail depot was set on fire and more than 40 died by military. President Hayes sent troops to restore order
Impact of Irish immigrants
Ethnic tensions and social unrest in major cities with threats of gang warfare and serious outbreaks of violence such as Orange Riots between Irish Protestants and Catholics in New York 1870/71. Powerful Irish gangs dominated Chicago’s south and terrorised immigrants who arrived such as Jews.
Divisions in the south
Between freedmen and former slave owning white society.
Resentment and class conflict within elements of white society, especially among poorer farmers.
Differences also among African Americans, uncertain if they should be radical or moderate.
Greatest division - gulf between south and the rest of the country. The new south was still the old south, where the 11 states of the confederacy still felt displaced and alienated. South couldn’t easily let go of the grievances of defeat or the loss of way of life and a lost position in American politics. This annoyance showed in the treatment and discrimination to African Americans, the determination to build segregation and the complains against Yankees, Scalawags and Carpetbaggers.
Why did people go west - manifest destiny
Manifest destiny - belief held by many Americans that god has chosen them to populate lands from the Atlantic Seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. Spreading Christian and republic values to other territories. Motivated by race. - justified white men dispossessing native Americans of their land
Why did people go west - influence of civil war
Federal government wanted to secure land west of Mississippi. Created federal territories, appointed officials to govern them, populate with settlers. Subject to US laws as federal territories. When the population reached 60,000, they could apply to be a state and join the union
Why did people go west - homestead act 1862
Released land in 160 acre plots, farmers could have free land as long as they farmed it for 5 years. Fee of $10 to claim land. By 1865, 20,000 settled. Followed by Timber and Culture Act 1873 which gave them an extra 160 acres if they planted trees in 40 acres. Another act was the Desert and Land Act 1877 which gave 640 more acres at $1.25 an acre.
Push - escape poverty, Mormons moved to escape persecution, ex civil war veterans had no opportunities in east.
Pull - free land, new start, inspired by other successes
Why did people go west - railroads
In 1862, Lincoln signed a Pacific Railroad Act which authorises 2 companies to build a transcontinental railroad. Met in Utah in May 1869 from Central and Union Pacific. 1 million were carried to the plains by 1882.
Why did people go west - discovery of gold
1848 in California. 2nd gold rush in 1875, in Black Hills of Dakota. Lots of gold seekers flock there, but there is a problem, the Treaty of Fort Loraine 1868- where Black Hills were to belong to the Sioux native tribe, but their rights were ignored. Caused renewed war against the Plains Indians.
Created mining towns like Virginia City in Nevada which where then deserted when minerals were discovered elsewhere.
Great Sioux War 1876
Gold in Black Hills. Fort Laramie treaty had been broken multiple times by white settlers but the government didn’t stop them, they just made the treaties have smaller amounts of land reserved. Government offered $6 million to Indians but they didn’t accept. Government forced them into reservations by 31 Jan 1876 but they refused. US army was sent in and battles happened. US army wiped out any who refused to go to reservations. Successful achieved this by killing buffalo’s - 3mil a year from 1872-4 and by 1883, only 200 buffalo’s left.
Reservations and Americanisation
Confined to small, uneconomic reservations. Open spaces fenced and their lands given to settlers. They were to be marginalised and almost invisible. The idea was to Americanise the native Americans by removing the dependence on the buffalo, destroying the tribe way of life through education, make them Christian and train them to be farmers. In the reservations, they suffered from food shortages and starvation, poor land, rival tribes on the same land.
Dawes act broke up reservation land into small units where families got 160 acres and individuals got 80, but this assumed natives could become farmers and they had poor land and most lost their lands to whites
How did farmers in the west struggle?
Pushed aside by big agriculture, ranching and mining, often struggling for economic survival and running into debt. Their desperate need for credit to buy seed, fertilisers and equipment forced many organisations to be born to represent independent farmers in the west and south. The granger movement 1867 was formed as a cooperative movement to help farmers with loans, advice and solidarity. Hostile to railroad companies. Supported peaked in 1880 and fell after and shifted to the alliance movement that began in Texas in 1870s and spread across south and west. More political approach than granger
By 1890, farmers grievances were significant political force, attacking big business and demanding low tariffs and currency reform.
What did the compromise of 1877 cause?
Democrat stranglehold on the solid south (south only voted democrat from end of reconstruction to 1900s). All federal troops removed meant the laws passed to protect African Americans rights were no longer enforced. Many black people were disenfranchised (loss of right to vote) and many faced restrictions on legal rights. Led to white supremacy.
