Urbanization and The American City

1
Urbanization and The American City

• Reasons for the American City
• The Immigrants
• The American Family Changed by Urbanization

2
The Growth of Cities

• Three factors responsible for growth of cities.
• Improved transportation moved goods and people
  quickly and easily
• Industrialization- produced more goods cheaply by
  machine
• Commercialization- production of goods for a mass
  market. People demand goods.

3
Nations Three Largest Cities by 1850

• New York, pop. 1,000,000 due to being a seaport
  and commercial center
• Philadelphia, pop. 565,529 due to industry
• Baltimore, pop. 250,000 due to trade with central
  U.S. and foreign markets.
• New cities emerge as a result of transportation
  routes.

4
Transportation in the United States
5
The Immigrants

• The Irish are escaping the Great Potato Famine in
  the 1840s
• Germans are escaping revolution and unrest
• Scandinavians are drawn by the opportunity to own
  land

6
The Immigrants
7
The Immigrants

• U.S. population from 1790-1820 doubles through
  natural increase
• 1815, immigration from Germany, Ireland, Britain
  and Scandinavia increases
• Immigrants come seeking land, good pay, economic
  opportunity, political and religious freedom

8
The Rise of Nativism

• Nativists fear immigrants because they are
  culturally different, will bring diseases and
• Native-born workers resented immigrants for their
  willingness to work for low wages

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The Rise of Nativism

• Nativists fought to prevent immigration and
  immigrants from finding work
• Used discrimination practices and used the legal
  system against immigrants
• Irish not really discriminated against, majority
  of them do find employment on canal construction,
  as soldiers, house servants and factory workers

10
Class differences in cities

• Unskilled and uneducated poor and immigrants
  live in depleted slums
• Skilled workers live above their stores
• Educated middle-class live in comfortable homes
• Wealthy live in mansions in secluded areas

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Slums by railroad tracks.
12
City sanitation and living problems

• Garbage collection was not a city service
• If you wanted services you paid for the actual
  cost of a sewer or street
• Wealthy and poor begin to live in specific areas
  of the city
• 1845 professional police forces appear to control
  the poor who riot because of living conditions

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Ethnic Neighborhoods

• Irish immigrants cluster in ethnic neighborhoods
  for support and help
• They build Catholic churches and form social and
  religious clubs
• Run their own fire and militia companies, also
  serve as policemen

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The Five Points, New York City, 1850s
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Pictures of Slums, circa 1890s
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Wealthy live in mansions with access to private
parks

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The American Family Changes

• The Industrial Revolution changes the dynamics of
  the family
• Fathers spend more time away from home and
  mothers now assume more control of household
  affairs
• Working class mothers seek employment as well to
  supplement the families income

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The American Family Changes

• Working class women seek work whereas middle
  class wives do not
• The middle class view is negative towards a wife
  who seeks work outside the home
• Middle class place women on a pedestal for their
  devotion to home and family
• Working class women contributor to family income
  and take care of family!

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The American Family Changes

• Working class women tend to now marry later and
  have fewer children
• The birth of smaller families led parents to
  value their children more and provide them with
  more attention and affection

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The American Family Changes

• Separate Spheres Belief that God ordained
  specific roles for men and women
• Wife duty to family and to obey husband, husbands
  duty was to be provider for family
• Men were smart, competitive, aggressive and
  independent
• Women were motherly, emotional and dependent

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Gangs in 19th Century America?

• Not really gangs in the beginning
• Actually they are young immigrants rebelling and
  looking for their own identity in America
• Flamboyant dress and behavior are a way to set
  themselves apart from middle class