Topic 11 - The Progressive Era (1865-1920)

Lesson 2 - Urbanization

Economic opportunity meant jobs, and the nation’s ever-expanding industries provided them. New immigrants, along with Americans fresh off the farm, poured into the cities in search of factory work. City populations swelled.

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Look at the image of this growing city. Write about how people's lives changed as cities flourished.

Guiding Questions

Why did cities grow rapidly in the late 1800s?
How did city dwellers' social and economic conditions determine where they lived?
What was the settlement house movement?

Vocabulary

urbanization
tenement
building code
Social Gospel
settlement house
Hull House

Academic Vocabulary

differentiate

Why Did Cities Expand?

“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.

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.

GEOGRAPHY SKILLS

Boston grew rapidly during the late 1800s. Unlike other cities, it was surrounded by water. The city had to fill in wetlands to create more building space.

Place What clues hint at the watery origin of parts of Boston?

Draw Conclusions Could a city use this solution to solve a space problem today? Why or why not?

Immigration and Domestic Migration

The flood of immigrants swelled city populations. So, too, did migrations from farm to city within the country. 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:

Primary Source

"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)

African American Migration

African Americans, too, sought a better life in the 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.

African American migration usually began with one family member moving north. Later, relatives and friends followed. Many faced the challenge of adjusting to urban life.

READING CHECK

Identify Main Ideas What caused the rapid urbanization of the late 1800s?

How Did Status Define City Neighborhoods?

Cities grew outward from their old downtown sections. Before long, many cities took on a similar shape. Neighborhoods were differentiated by the status, or condition, of the people living there.

The Poor

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. Around 1900, more than half of all babies in one Chicago slum died before they were one year old. Despite the poor conditions, the populations of slums grew rapidly.

The Middle Class

Beyond the slums stood the homes of the new middle class, including doctors, lawyers, business managers, 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.”

The Wealthy

Wealthy Americans used their wealth to build magnificent mansions that stood in stark contrast to the nearby slums.

Beyond the middle class homes stood the mansions of the very rich, protected by iron gates or brick walls. In New York, huge homes dotted upper Fifth Avenue, then on the outskirts of the city. In Chicago, 200 millionaires lived along the exclusive lakefront by the 1880s. In San Francisco, the wealthy lived 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.

READING CHECK

Identify Supporting Details What was life like for the urban poor?

Effects of Rapid Urbanization

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 deathtraps if a fire broke out. News reporter Jacob Riis brought readers into the tenements in his startling exposé, How the Other Half Lives:

Primary Source

"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

Analyze Images This family worked together to make cigars in their tenement home.

Use Visual Information Who do you think did the bulk of the work?

What Did the Government Do to Help?

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, and developed new water systems that provided clean water to city dwellers every day.

Analyze Images Cities purchased newly developed equipment, such as this firefighting pump, to improve the safety of crowded neighborhoods.

Infer Why do you think the increase in tenement housing could be a safety hazard?

How Did Religious Groups Help?

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 calling on their well-to-do members to help the poor, a new Social Gospel. Founded in 1865 in England, the Salvation Army offered food and shelter to those in need.

READING CHECK

Identify Supporting Details What did the government do to improve the lives of city dwellers?

What Was the Settlement House Movement?

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.

Who Was Jane Addams?

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. Hull House volunteers offered a wide variety of services. 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. 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.

Analyze Images Hull House in Chicago offered many activities to help immigrants feel more at home in their new surroundings.

Use Visual Information Do you think these children are enjoying themselves? Why or why not?

How Did Addams and Hull House Promote Reform?

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 pass more quickly if women were allowed to vote. She joined the continuing campaign for women’s suffrage.

READING CHECK

Use Evidence How did the settlement house movement help immigrants?

Lesson Check

How did building codes improve the quality of life for tenement dwellers?
Identify Cause and Effect What was the main cause of urbanization?
Identify Cause and Effect What was the key factor that determined in which area of the city a person would live? Who lived in which areas?
Revisit the Essential Question How did Jane Addams and other members of Hull House have a positive effect on American society?
Writing Workshop: Find and Use Credible Sources Start a list of a variety of reliable, established research sources. Use these sources to find answers to the question that is the focus of your research.

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