1.3 Social, regional and ethnic divisions: Divisions within and between North, South and West, the position of AA 

Mass immigration : who were the different immigrant groups? Why did they come to America? With what consequences? 

• Germans

• Swedes

• Irish → More likely to settle in urban areas 

• Scots 

• Between 1860s -1890s more than 10 million arrived 

• Pull factors included vast empty land, expanding industries 

• Many believed the ‘melting pot’ of american would forge a new society 

• Sharp population increase 

• Districts of big cities became ‘Irish’ or ‘German’ or ‘Chinatown’ 

• New immigrant communities met with high levels of suspicion and hostility as they were seen as a throat to jobs 

• Tensions between ‘new’ immigrants and ‘old’ immigrants 

What did Chinese migrants contribute to American society and the economy

• Chinese labourers employed in construction of RR → after this they moved to swell the communities in California

• Chinese immigrants began to move to the US at the time of the 1849 Gold Rush 

• Established settled communities in the West coast cities eg San Francisco

• Provided half of the labour force for San Francisco’s economy 

• Cheap to employ + hard working → southern plantation owners thought they would make better workers than AA 

• 1879 President Hayes was warning America about the ‘present Chinese invasion’ 

Nativism 

• People of ‘American Stock’ whose parents had been born in the US and who felt it necessary to protect American Values against the ‘alien’ ways brought in by new immigrants. They often used the slogan 'America First’ 

Yellow Peril 

• An offensive term thought to have been first used in 1895 by the German Emperor. It expresses a racist fear of the rise of China and Japan that was already current in Britain and the US 

• Particularly strong in American newspapers 

• Pressure put on Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act 1882 which stopped the migration of ‘skilled or unskilled’ Chinese workers → This made it difficult for chinese people to enter America and hard t return after leaving 

• The Chinese exclusion act 1882 was renewed in 1892 and 1902. Repealed in 1943 

What Evidence is there of unity and divisions in the cities 

What was the position of African Americans in this period? What discrimination did they face, particularly in the south?

• The south was determined to rebuild segregation 

• After the 1877 compromise, the laws put in place to ensure their safety were no longer enforced leading to many african americans being disenfranchised

• Many became sharecroppers 

• Lynching was a common occurance 

• Tensions between ‘blacks’ and ‘browns’ 

• Estimated that more than half of AA in the south were illiterate in 1890

• However, many showed a new level of independence by moving away and choosing new surnames/marrying 

• There was a strong commitment to black education → Freedmen schools 

• Between 1866 and 1868 three universities specifically for AA were opened BUT mixed race schools were discouraged 

• Booker T Washington was a powerful influence 

How were native Americans treated in this period 

• Treaties with NA were undermined by white people eg Gold prospectors in the Black Hills of DAkota in 1874, breaking the 1868 treaty of fort laramie 

• By 1890 NA life was not the same. Open spaces had been fenced, tribal land had been parcelled out to sellers and they were placed on uneconomic reservations

• This damage was heavily felt but i 1934 FDR set out the ‘Indian New Deal’ in an attempt to repair the situation 

What was life like in the West? How was this different from life in the north and the new south? What divisions existed in the west?

• Northern cities had a booming economy and population between 1860 and 1890

• Railroads in the north were expanding quickly and big business had a huge influence 

• Divisions and conflicts between small farmers, banks, railroads, land companies, rival towns and rival businessman

What was life like for farmers in the west and the south

• Farmers and workers set up the Granger Movement ( founded in 1867 to advance methods of agriculture, as well as to promote the social and economic needs of farmers in the United States. And helped farmers with loans, advice and solidarity) and the Knights of Labour ( A  nationwide trade union organisation first formed in 1869) 

• Resentment and class conflict within elements of white society and poor farmers 

• Often pushed aside by ‘Big Agriculture’ 

• Often in desperate need for seed, fertilizer and equipment 

What evidence is there to suggest unity within American society in this period 

For:

• 1890 - National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) 

• 19th Amendment Passed in congress but not until 1920 

Against: 

• Struggle of Women's suffrage - The Seneca Falls Convention 1848 launched the feminist campaign

• AA vote - AA males were given priority in the 14th and 15th amendments at the expense of women 

• Railroad strike of July 1877 in West Virginia - Workers were fighting wage cuts and developed into fighting with fed troops and the National Guard. This spread further to Pennsylvania where a union depot was set on fire, 40 people killed by militiamen. Hayes sent troops to restore peace   

• The Orange riots - violence between Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics in YN 1870-1871

What political divisions existed 

• The vote for African Americans 

• The vote for Women 

What economic divisions existed 

Key terms 

• Yankee - Northerns 

• Carpetbaggers - A term of abuse used to describe Northern Merchants and political agents accused of robbing valuable from the defeated south and carrying loot away in rolled-up stolen carpets 

• Scalawags - Term of abuse used to describe Southerners who had collaborated with Northerners to enrich themselves