In the early 1800s, the population started to shift from rural areas to urban areas. Cities in the Northeast that had factories grew the fastest. Workers and their families moved from the countryside to the cities, to work in the factories. And those cities grew very large!
The population in Boston, Massachusetts grew more than seven times its size from 1800 to 1860. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a population of 41,000 grew to more than half a million by 1860. And New York City’s 60,000 residents in 1800 became more than 800,000 by 1860. Incomes grew, but wealth was not evenly distributed.
Three economic classes formed, especially in large northern cities:
THE WEALTHY CLASS: They were at the top, they owned most of the businesses and kept apart from the growing middle-class.
THE MIDDLE CLASS: They focused on hard work, education, and climbing the social ladder, some started businesses and others had very good jobs.
THE POVERTY CLASS: They were the lowest class, worked long hours, were poor, and had difficulty getting an education and rising in society.
The two largest immigration groups in the early 1800s were the Irish and Germans. They were drawn due to push factors, which pushed them to leave their home countries, and pull factors, which pulled them towards the United States.
In Ireland most people were poor, they lived off of potatoes that they grew on their small farms. But when they were unable to grow potatoes for three years, it caused a great famine. A famine is a situation where people have no food. Because of this "potato famine," over 750,000 people starved to death. Two million Irish decided to leave Ireland and move to the United States to seek relief.
The Irish were poor when they arrived in America, so most could not afford to buy land and many stayed in the cities where they landed. Almost all of the Irish immigrated to large cities in the northeastern United States. Most took low paying jobs working in factories.
Between 1845 and 1855 about a million Germans left Germany to move to the United States. They were trying to escape a Civil War that was taking place in Germany starting in 1848. The Germans were not as poor as the Irish. Most Germans had some money and were able to move around the United States, because of this, some Germans moved to Midwestern cities such as St. Louis.
Many native born Americans opposed immigration, especially of Irish and Germans. They were suspicious of the Irish because of their religion (Catholic), and the Germans because they spoke a foreign language (German).
Most Germans immigrated for political reasons and were often wrongly seen as political extremists. The anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic feelings of the Nativists led to the formation of a third party known officially as the American Party, but known unofficially as the "Know Nothing Party" in American politics.
The immigrants, however, were resilient. They worked hard and assimilated into American culture and society.