Child Labor And Immigration Flashcards
How many children under 16 were working in mines and factories by the early 1900s
Over 1 million
Why did companies want kids to work?
They could be paid less and used more
Why did parents want their children to work
- Families needed money
- Thought hard work would build character
- Believed once children knew basic English + Math they could go to work
Breaker Boys
A coal-mining worker whose job as to desperate impurities from coal
Newsies
Newspaper Carriers (boys)
Other jobs for boys
Tobacco picker, shrimp picker, oyster shuckers
Cigar Boys
Sold cigars like Newsies and became addicted because people would buy cigars and give it to them
1938 Fair Labor Standard Act
Today children under 16 have limited hours and you have to be over 18 to do dangerous contact
Mary Harris “Mother Jones”
Union leader who wanted to improve life of workers, especially children and miners
Used speeches to pay unions
Lost all of her family to yellow fever
Opened a dress shop and sympathized for poor workers,but never said anything
Lost her shop to Great Chicago Fire and joined Knights of Labor
“Most dangerous woman in America”
Jailed 7 times
Won a meeting with Rockefeller- 8hr workday + better conditions
Old Immigrants
From Northern and Western Europe
Ireland, Great Britain, Germany
1840s-1890
New Immigrants
From Southern and Eastern Europe
Italy, Poland, Hungary
Late 1800s
Push Factors
Reason people wanted to leave their countries
1- overpopulation
2- famine
3- scarcity of arable land
4- deprived of freedom of religion
Pull factors
Reasons people wanted to go to America
1- free democratic society
2- jobs
3- natural resources, arable land
4- ‘American Letters’
‘American Letters’
Letters sent to countries, usually publicly announced, talking about how great America was. Usually overexaggerated by people in America to get their family to emigrate
Conditions of travel for Immigrants
UNHEALTHY!
Steerage
Area below the ship decks where steering mechanisms were located
Where did immigrants stay in the ships?
Steerage
Ellis Island
“Entrance of the East” 1892
Immigrants given identification cards
“Six-second Exam”
29 question interview
Foran Act 1885
20% of immigrants failed one or either of the exams
Board of Special Inquiry
2% deported
“Six-Second Exam”
Eye exam: checks for Trachoma
Main 4 marks: X for suspected mental illness, E for eyes (usually deported) (CT for Trachoma— always deported) , L for lameness, H for heart
Physical Exam
“Do you have work waiting for you in America” Question meaning
People who said yes were always accused of lying or committing a crime because the Foran Act banned employees to employ foreigners before theyre imported
Foran Act
1885- illegal for US employers to import foreigners as contract laborers
Immigrant Life in America
Tenements
Settled in undesirable neighborhoods
Not welcomed into society
In late 1800s, government gave aid to unemployed immigrants (Benevolent Societies + Settlement houses)
Many tried to keep their customs
Tried to Americanize their kids
Americanization made them feel threatened
Experienced nativism
1894 restrictions immigration league
Settlement houses
Community centers that provided shelter and services to poor immigrants
Nativism
Policy of favoring US born Americans
Benevolent societies
Aid organization that offered help to sick and unemployed
Tenements
Poorly built, overcrowded apartment buildings
Main tool of assimilation of child immigrants
Education: “Americanized them”
Immigration from Asia
Most Chinese men came to work on Central Pacific Railroad and for the Gold Rush
Mainly men.. was like that in the future too
Did “stoop labor” labor others weren’t willing to do
Worked for less money
During 1870s Chinese were blamed for economic depression- called “inferior” and “unamerican”
Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
First time US had restricted immigration solely on race
Lasted 10 years
Prevented any Chinese in-country to become citizens
Still allowed some merchants, teachers, spouses, and few students to enter
Highly effective, very few immigrants continued to forge documents
Resulted in farm labor shortage
In 1906, Asian segregation in schools
Angel Island
“Ellis Island of the West”
Thorough physical exam and very intense legal interview took days
Specific questions + witnesses called
Questions like “how many steps in your house”
If you failed the legal interview you were detained
Italian Immigrants
Cared mainly about family
Came to escape poverty, overpopulation, and wanted good farming land
Pascal D’Angelo wrote poems about his poor conditions
Did unskilled work
Took up 90% of NYC public workers and 99% of Chicago street workers
Many were Birds of Passage
Helped by Padrones
European Jewish Immigrants
Cared most about education
Left from Russian antisemitism and pogroms
Lived in NY lower east side
Built synagogues and shops
Packed into tenements
Worked as street vendors, cobblers, butchers, and watch makers, + 50% worked in garment factories
Tried as hard as possible to get education including lots of debt and sacrifice
Discriminated against, couldn’t be lawyers etc.
Padrone
Work agents helping Italian immigrants
Birds of passage
Immigrants who came to get money and then leave
Pogroms
Russians hunting + attacking Jews
Emma Lazarus
Wrote Statue of Liberty poem
Cities that blew up in population
Boston
Philadelphia
Cleveland
Chicago
WASP
White Anglo Saxon protestants
Mexican immigrants
Crossed over border by foot or railway
Left from Mexican Revolution, 500,000 entered during the Revolution
We’re originally welcomed because America faced such a worker shortage
Worked everywhere but majority in agriculture
Children worked to support their family, no education
Camps were built on farms and soon they moved and formed Barrios
Whites believed Mexicans were stealing their jobs and were taught to “boss” their Mexican classmates, Mexicans faced strong prejudice