Lesson 2: Urbanization

Question 1

Building Code Definition

Answer 1

a standard set by the government for building construction and safety

Question 2

Hull House Definition

Answer 2

settlement house founded by Progressive reformer Jane Addams in Chicago in 1889

Question 3

Jane Addams Definition

Answer 3

Jane Addams (1860–1935) was a reformer who opened Hull House, a settlement house in the Chicago area.

Question 4

Salvation Army Definition

Answer 4

an international charitable organization

Question 5

Settlement House Definition

Answer 5

a community center organized, beginning in the late 1800s, to offer services to the poor

Question 6

Social Gospel Definition

Answer 6

movement within American Protestantism in the late 1800s that attempted to apply biblical teachings to society’s problems

Question 7

Tenement Definition

Answer 7

a small apartment in a city slum building

Question 8

Urbanization Definition

Answer 8

movement of population from farms to cities

Question 9

Young Men’s Christian Association Definition

Answer 9

(YMCA) an organization begun in Boston in 1851 to provide services, such as fellowship, affordable housing, and recreation, to young men

Question 10

Young Men’s Hebrew Association Definition

Answer 10

(YMHA) organization founded in Baltimore in 1854 to provide community services to Jewish neighborhoods

Question 11

Young Women’s Christian Association Definition

Answer 11

(YWCA) an organization begun by the Ladies’ Christian Association in 1858 to meet the needs of young women, including safe affordable housing, employment assistance, and recreation

Question 12

How was the rate of urbanization increasing along with industry?

Answer 12

“We cannot all live in cities,” declared newspaper publisher Horace Greeley, “yet nearly all seem determined to do so.” Urbanization, the movement of population from farms to urban areas, or cities, began slowly in the early 1800s. As the nation industrialized, the pace quickened. In 1860, only one American in five lived in an urban area. By 1890, one in three did.

Question 13

How did jobs draw people to cities?

Answer 13

Jobs drew people to cities. As industries grew, so did the need for workers. New city dwellers took jobs in steel mills, meatpacking plants, and garment factories. Others worked as salesclerks, waiters, barbers, bank tellers, and secretaries.

Question 14

How did the immigration of immigrants and the migration of Americans to cities increase city populations? How did one woman summarize the feelings of many farmers that went to live in the cities?

Answer 14

The flood of immigrants swelled city populations. So, too, did migrations from farm to city within the country. As the frontier closed, fewer pioneers went west to homestead. In fact, many Americans left farms and migrated to cities to find a better life. One young woman summed up the feelings of many farmers toward their backbreaking work.

“If I were offered a deed to the best farm … on the condition of going back to the country to live, I would not take it. I would rather face starvation in town.”

—quoted in The Good Old Days—They Were Terrible! (Bettmann)

Question 15

What were the reasons for the African American migration from the rural South to the North? Which northern cities did they populate? How was black migration similar to oversea immigration?

Answer 15

African Americans, too, sought a better life in the cities. Most lived in the rural South. When hard times hit or prejudice led to violence, some headed to northern cities. By the 1890s, the south side of Chicago had a thriving African American community. Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, and other northern cities also had growing African American neighborhoods. The migration to the north began gradually, but increased rapidly after 1915. As with overseas immigration, black migration usually began with one family member moving north. Later, relatives and friends followed. Like immigrants from rural areas in Europe, many African Americans faced the challenge of adjusting to urban life.

Question 16

True or False: Cities grew outward from their old downtown sections. Before long, many cities took on a similar shape.

Answer 16

True

Question 17

How were the neighborhoods of the poor like in cities? Where were they located and what conditions did they deal with?

Answer 17

Poor families often clustered near the city’s center, the oldest section. They struggled to survive in crowded slums. The streets were jammed with people, horses, pushcarts, and garbage. Because space was so limited, builders devised a new kind of house to hold more people. They put up buildings six or seven stories high. They divided the buildings into small apartments, called tenements. Many tenements had no windows, heat, or indoor bathrooms. Often, 10 people shared a single room. Crowding increased as businesses built factories near the city centers to take advantage of good rail connections and cheap labor. They forced more and more people into fewer and fewer apartments. Typhoid and cholera raged through the tenements. Tuberculosis, a lung disease, was the biggest killer, accounting for thousands of deaths each year. Babies, especially, fell victim to disease. In one Chicago slum, around 1900, more than half of all babies died before they were one year old. Despite the poor conditions, the populations of slums grew rapidly.

Question 18

How were the neighborhoods of the middle class in cities? Where were they located and what were their conditions? What were the leisure activities in middle class areas?

Answer 18

Beyond the slums stood the homes of the new middle class, including doctors, lawyers, business managers, technicians, and office workers. Rows of neat, spacious houses lined tree-shaded streets. Here, disease broke out less frequently than in the slums. Leisure activities gave middle-class people a sense of community and purpose. They joined clubs, singing societies, bowling leagues, and charitable organizations. As one writer said, the clubs “bring together many people who are striving upward, trying to uplift themselves.”

Question 19

How were the neighborhoods of the rich in the cities? What were the mansions protected by? What were some famous rich locations? Who did the wealthy model their life on?

Answer 19

Beyond the slums lay the mansions of the very rich protected by iron gates or brick walls. In New York, huge homes dotted upper Fifth Avenue, which was then on the outskirts of the city. In Chicago, 200 millionaires lived along the exclusive lakefront by the 1880s. In San Francisco, wealthy residents built their mansions near the center of the city in the exclusive Nob Hill area. Rich Americans modeled their lives on those of European royalty. They filled their mansions with priceless artwork and gave lavish parties. At one banquet, the host handed out cigarettes rolled in hundred-dollar bills.

Question 20

What were certain problems that started to appear as more and more people crowded into cities?

Answer 20

As more and more people crowded into cities, problems grew. Garbage rotted in the streets. Factories polluted the air. Crime flourished. Thieves and pickpockets haunted lonely alleys, especially at night. Tenement buildings were death-traps if a fire broke out. News reporter Jacob Riis brought readers into the tenements in his startling exposé, How the Other Half Lives.

Step carefully over this baby—it is a baby, spite of its rags and dirt—under these iron bridges called fire-escapes, but loaded down … with broken household goods, with washtubs and barrels, over which no man could climb from a fire.

—Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives

Question 21

After pressure by reformers, in the 1880s, how the governmental reforms of building codes, zoning laws, lights, and more influence life in the cities?

Answer 21

By the 1880s, reformers pressured city governments for change. Building codes set standards for construction and safety. New buildings were required to have fire escapes and decent plumbing. Cities also hired workers to collect garbage and sweep the streets. To reduce pollution, zoning laws kept factories out of neighborhoods where people lived. Safety improved when cities set up professional fire companies and police forces. Gas—and later electric—lights made streets less dangerous at night. As you will read, many cities built new systems of public transportation as well. Pushed by reformers, city governments hired engineers and architects to design new water systems. New York City, for example, dug underground tunnels to the Catskill Mountains, 100 miles to the north. The tunnels brought a clean water supply to the city every day.

Question 22

How did religion and religious groups help push for reforms in cities? What was the Social Gospel?

Answer 22

Religious groups worked to ease the problems of the poor. The Catholic Church ministered to the needs of Irish, Polish, and Italian immigrants. An Italian-born nun, Mother Cabrini, helped found dozens of hospitals for the poor. In cities, Protestant ministers began preaching a new Social Gospel. They called on their well-to-do members to do their duty as Christians by helping society’s poor. One minister urged merchants and industrialists to pay their workers enough to enable them to marry and have families. He also proposed that they grant their workers a half day off on Saturdays in addition to their day off on Sunday.

Question 23

In 1865, a Methodist minister named William Booth created the Salvation Army, which spread to the United States in 1880. What did this organization do?

Answer 23

In 1865, a Methodist minister named William Booth created the Salvation Army in London. It expanded to the United States by 1880. In addition to spreading Christian teachings, the Salvation Army offered food and shelter to the poor.

Question 24

How did the Young Men’s Hebrew Association (YMHA; 1854) and the Young Women’s Hebrew Association (YWHA; 1880s) help Jewish neighborhoods and communities?

Answer 24

In Jewish neighborhoods, too, religious organizations provided community services. The first Young Men’s Hebrew Association (YMHA) began in Baltimore in 1854. The YMHA provided social activities, encouraged good citizenship, and helped Jewish families preserve their culture. In the 1880s, the Young Women’s Hebrew Association (YWHA) grew out of the YMHA.

Question 25

How did the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA; 1851) help young men in cities?

Answer 25

Like the Salvation Army, the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) had its start in London and expanded to the United States later. In 1851 at the Old South Church in Boston, missionary Thomas Valentine established the first YMCA. By the 1860s, the YMCA became more than a meeting place and began offering to young men affordable rooms for rent, recreation activities, and gymnasiums.

Question 26

How did the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA; 1858) help young women in cities? What was it originally called (name changed in 1866)?

Answer 26

At the time, the YMCA was exclusively for men. So, women formed their own association to meet the needs of female residents and factory workers. The first Ladies’ Christian Association was formed in 1858 in New York City. In 1860, the association opened its first boarding house there. By 1866, the name had changed to the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA). It continued to provide assistance to young women in the form of low-cost housing, employment bureaus, and medical services.

Question 27

What were settlement houses? Who was the leader of the settlement house movement?

Answer 27

Some people looked for ways to help the poor. By the late 1800s, individuals began to organize settlement houses, community centers that offered services to the poor. The leading figure of the settlement house movement was a Chicago woman named Jane Addams.

Question 28

What was the influence of Jane Addams and the Hull House, opened in a Chicago slum in 1889?

Answer 28

Jane Addams came from a well-to-do family but had strong convictions about helping the poor. After college, she moved into one of the poorest slums in Chicago. There, in an old mansion, she opened a settlement house named Hull House in 1889. Other idealistic young women soon joined Addams. They took up residence in Hull House so that they could experience firsthand some of the hardships of the slum community in which they worked. These women dedicated their lives to service and to sacrifice—“like the early Christians,” in the words of one volunteer. Hull House volunteers offered a wide variety of services. To help immigrants acculturate, they taught classes in American government and the English language. Other volunteers gave instruction in health care or operated day nurseries for children whose mothers worked outside the home. In addition, Hull House provided recreational activities for young people, such as sports, a choral group, and a theater. The settlement house movement spread quickly. By 1900, about 100 such centers had opened in American cities.

Question 29

How did Jane Addams and her staff, including Alice Hamilton and Florence Kelly, push for reform?

Answer 29

Addams and her staff helped bring about reform legislation. They studied the slum neighborhoods where they worked. They realized that the problems were too big for any one person or group, and they urged the government to act. Alice Hamilton, a Hull House doctor, campaigned for better health laws. Florence Kelley worked to ban child labor. Jane Addams herself believed that reform legislation would be speeded if women were allowed to vote. She joined the continuing campaign for women’s suffrage.