Friday, March 7, 2008

Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Changes in American Life, 1880-1914
Section 1: How Cities Grow and Change
Main Idea: Industrialization and immigration caused American cities to grow rapidly.
Industries were drawn to cities, which offered good transportation and many workers. As more industries came to the cities, so did more workers. Many were immigrants from other countries or people who migrated from America’s farms. The growth of cities is called urbanization. New technologies made modern city life possible. For example, the elevator was a key invention in the building of skyscrapers. By 1900, electric streetcars made it possible for people to live farther away from work. As cities grew, overcrowding increased the danger of disasters. In 1906, a powerful earthquake rocked San Francisco. About 700 people died and about $400 million in property was destroyed. Many families in the cities could not afford to buy a house. Instead, they lived in rented apartments. Some lived in tenements—unsafe apartments with poor sanitation. A neighborhood with overcrowded, dangerous housing was called a slum. The social gospel movement was an effort to improve the lives of the urban poor. Its most important concerns were labor reforms, such as banning child labor. Some reformers opened settlement houses, which offered services to people in slum neighborhoods. One of the most famous was Hull House in Chicago. It was founded by
reformer Jane Addams. Political machines also helped relieve urban problems. By trading favors for votes, these organizations influenced enough votes to control a local government. Political machines built parks, sewers, roads, and orphanages. They also helped immigrants find jobs or homes. However, many political machines were corrupt. The most famous was Tammany Hall in New York City.
Section 2: The New Immigrants
Main Idea: Millions of immigrants—mostly from southern and eastern Europe—moved to the United States.
After 1900, most immigrants came from southern and eastern Europe. They became
known as the new immigrants. Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the first stop for most European immigrants. There, they were examined and processed before entering the United States. The first stop for most Asian immigrants was Angel Island in San Francisco Bay. Many Chinese immigrants were held there for weeks at a time. Many Mexican immigrants entered the United States through Texas. Most immigrants settled where they could find jobs. About half settled in four industrial states: Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. European immigrants settled mostly in the East and the Midwest. Asian immigrants settled mostly in the West. In the East, immigrants worked in factories that offered low wages, long hours, and unsafe conditions. In the West, many Chinese immigrants worked on the railroads.
Immigrants from Mexico settled in the Southwest. Growers and ranchers in California and Texas used the cheap labor Mexican immigrants offered. Owners of copper mines in Arizona hired Mexicans as well. So many immigrants came to the United States that it was sometimes called a melting pot—a place where cultures blend. This process is called assimilation. To assimilate, immigrants learned English and also studied how to be American citizens. At the same time, parts of immigrant languages, foods, and music worked their way into the rest of American culture. Many native-born Americans feared competition from immigrants for jobs. In 1882, Congress began to pass laws to restrict immigration. In 1882, for example, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese immigration for ten years.
Section 3: Segregation and Discrimination
Main Idea: Racial discrimination ran through American society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Across the country, whites practiced racial discrimination, or treating people unfairly because of their race. This was most evident in the South. After Reconstruction ended in 1877, Southern states restricted African-Americans’ rights, especially voting rights. For example, they passed laws requiring citizens to pass a literacy test in order to vote. White officials made sure that blacks failed. African Americans also faced Jim Crow laws. These laws were meant to enforce segregation, or separation, of white and black people in public places. In 1896, the Supreme Court decided that Jim Crow laws were legal. The Court ruled in Plessy versus Ferguson that “separate but equal” facilities did not violate the 14th Amendment. However, separate facilities were rarely equal. African Americans began to organize in order to fight for equality. One of their early leaders was Booker T. Washington, a former slave who became a teacher. In 1881, he founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to help African Americans learn trades. W. E. B. Du Bois, another African-American leader, encouraged African Americans to reject segregation. In 1909, Du Bois and other leaders founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP. The NAACP worked to end segregation.
African Americans in the South often faced violence. The Ku Klux Klan was a racist group formed during Reconstruction. Its members used violence to keep African Americans from exercising their civil rights. More than 2,500 African Americans were
lynched, or killed without a trial, between 1885 and 1900. An African-American journalist, Ida B. Wells, led the fight against lynching. To escape discrimination, many African Americans moved north, where public facilities were not segregated by law. However, Northern whites still discriminated widely against African Americans. Chinese immigrants also faced discrimination. They received lower wages than whites for the same work. Sometimes, they faced violence. In the Southwest, some Mexican Americans and African Americans were forced into debt peonage, which means they were forced to work to pay off debts. Although Congress outlawed peonage in 1867, the practice continued. In 1911, the Supreme Court declared it to be a violation of the 13th Amendment prohibiting slavery.
Section 4: Society and Mass Culture
Main Idea: Industrialization and new technologies created a mass culture in the United
States. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, education contributed to the growth of American mass culture—a common culture experienced by large numbers of people. As local officials passed laws requiring children to attend schools, American literacy increased. Americans read more books and magazines. They also read more newspapers. Newspapers competed fiercely for readers. For example, Joseph Pulitzer, owner of the New York World, and William Randolph Hearst, owner of the New York Morning Journal, were bitter rivals. Their newspapers used spectacular stories to attract readers. The growth of newspapers led to the rise of modern advertising, which helped people learn about new products. To make shopping easier, businessmen established department stores. Some companies sent mail-order catalogs to rural residents so they could order goods through the mail. Leisure, or free time, activities also changed. In cities, new parks—such as Central Park in New York City—provided people with entertainment. People also flocked to amusement parks. Between 1876 and 1916, several U.S. cities hosted world’s fairs designed to show off American technology. Millions of people attended. Baseball, football, boxing, and many other spectator sports became popular. By the 1890s, professional baseball teams had a schedule of games and played by standard rules. Other forms of entertainment included vaudeville, a live show that featured song, dance, and comedy. Ragtime emerged as a new musical form. Movies also gained in popularity.