Immigration/Urbanization

Angel Island

The immigration station on the west coast where Asian immigrants, mostly Chinese gained admission to the U.S. at San Francisco Bay. Between 1910 and 1940 50k Chinese immigrants entered through Angel Island. Questioning and conditions at Angel Island were much harsher than Ellis Island in New York.

Chinese Exclusion Act

1882 law that prohibited the immigration of Chinese laborers

Graft

Illegal use of political influence for personal gain

Tammany Hall

Political machine in New York, headed by Boss Tweed.

Patronage

Granting favors, bribing an official, giving contracts or making appointments to office in return for political support

Pendleton Civil Service Act

(1883): Did away with the "spoils system" and made the hiring of federal employees merit based.

Gentlemen's Agreement

1907 agreement between the United States and Japan that restricted Japanese immigration

Political machine

a strong party organization that can control political appointments and deliver votes

Americanization Movement

education program designed to help immigrants assimilate to American culture

Rutherford B. Hayes

19th President; Helped clean up NYC custom house corruption

Settlement Houses

Institutions that provided educational and social services to poor people

James Garfield

20th President; Assassinated over civil service reform

Chester A. Arthur

Originally supported patronage but changed his mind and supported reform when he suddenly became president in 1881

Urbanization

Movement of people from rural areas to cities

New Immigrants

immigrants who had come to the US after the 1880s from Southern and Eastern Europe

Old Immigrants

Immigrants from Northern and Western Europe.

Tenements

Poorly built, overcrowded housing in city slums where many immigrants lived

Jacob Riis

Danish immigrant, reporter, exposed terrible conditions of the tenement houses, wrote How The Other Half Lives in 1890.

Jane Addams

Is best known for founding Hull House in Chicago.

Push Factors

Factors that cause people to emigrate away from their homelands

Pull Factors

Factors that cause people to immigrate to a new country.

Ellis Island

Immigration processing center that open in New York Harbor in 1892

Immigrant Challenges

Difficult journey, poor living conditions, low paying jobs, discrimination

Boss Tweed

A political boss who carried corruption to new extremes, and cheated the city out of more than $100 million

Florence Kelley

reformer who worked with Jane Addams to prohibit child labor and to improve conditions for female workers

Grover Cleveland

22nd and 24th president, Democrat, Honest and hardworking, fought corruption, and favored low tariffs to support working class Americans

Benjamin Harrison

23rd President; Republican, introduced and signed the McKinley Tariff and increased federal spending to a billion dollars

Thomas Nast

A famous editorial cartoonist in the 19th century; considered to be the father of American political cartooning; his artwork exposed political corruption

Melting Pot Theory

when people form other cultures assimilate to the point where their original identities and culture disappear- they become a uniform culture

Nativism

the policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants.

Ellen Gates Starr

Reformer who with Jane Adams founded Hull House in Chicago