Chapter 19 Notes – The City and Its Workers (1870–1900)

Learning Objectives

• $\textbf{Chapter~19}$ asks five guiding questions:
  • Why did American cities experience explosive growth in the late $19^{\text{th}}$ century?
  • What kinds of work did people do in industrial America?
  • Why did the fortunes of the Knights of Labor rise in the late $1870$s–$1880$s and then decline in the $1890$s?
  • How did urban industrialism reshape home life and leisure?
  • How did municipal governments respond to the challenges created by urban expansion?

An American Story – Building the Brooklyn Bridge

• Symbol of the new urban-industrial age; opened $\text{May }$ $1883$.
• Construction:
  • Took $14$ years; $27$ men died.
  • Laborers worked in pressurized caissons, risking “the bends.”
  • Chief engineer Washington Roebling incapacitated; wife Emily Roebling assumed on-site leadership.
• Bridge embodied:
  • U.S. industrial might, immigrant labor, iron & steel technology.
  • Transition from wooden to stone-and-steel cities.

Urban Explosion ($1870{-}1900$)

• Cities/towns grew $\times2$ as fast as total U.S. population.
• By $1900$: $3$ “million-plus” cities—New York, Chicago, Philadelphia.
• Horace Greeley’s lament: “We cannot all live in cities, yet nearly all seem determined to do so.”

Global Migration

• World conceptualized as $3$ economic zones (Map $19.1$):
  1. Industrial core (Western Europe + NE U.S.).
  2. Agricultural periphery (supplied raw materials & labor).
  3. Colonial/developing periphery (tied by imperialism; workers usually stayed put).
• Cheap rail & steamship fares (e.g., Liverpool → NY ticket <$(25)$) enabled mobility.
• $25$ million immigrants $1850{-}1920$; >70\% of Europeans chose North America.
• Birds of passage: ≈$8$ million Europeans (mainly Italian men) who worked seasonally then returned home.
• By $1900$, $\approx$$\frac{2}{3}$ of all immigrants lived in cities; some metro immigrant shares—NYC $80\%$, Chicago $75\%$.

"Old" vs "New" Immigration (Figures $19.1$ & $19.2$)

• Pre-$1880$ ($\approx85\%$) = N.&W. Europe (German, Irish, English, Scandinavian).
• Post-$1890$ ($\approx80\%$) = S.&E. Europe (Italian, Hungarian, Jewish, Slavic, Armenian, Turkish).
• Prejudicial hierarchy: earlier groups labeled “old pioneer settlers,” newcomers “unskilled.” Reality: early Irish/German arrivals were also wage laborers & faced prejudice.

Racism & Restriction

• Ethnicity ≈ "race" in $19^{\text{th}}$-century discourse (e.g., “Polish race”).
• Social Darwinism framed S.&E. Europeans as non-white; even blond Poles excluded from “white” category.
• Chinese Exclusion Act ($1882$) = first race-based immigration ban; Angel Island opened $1910$ to screen Asians.
• Literacy test for immigrants passed $1896$, vetoed by Pres. Cleveland; debate fused elitist “Yankees” + organized labor fears.

Social Geography – Wealth & Poverty

• Mass transit (horse car $1870$s, electric streetcar $1880$s) created concentric-ring cities; rich moved to “streetcar suburbs,” poor stayed in industrial cores.
• Ethnic enclaves: Little Italy, Chinatown, Germantown, Bohemia Flats; blacks faced greatest segregation.
• Jacob Riis’ $1890$ photo-exposé \textit{How the Other Half Lives} spurred tenement reform & playgrounds.
• Gilded-Age plutocracy:
  • Wealthiest $1\%$ owned >50\% of real/personal property.
  • Vanderbilt riches: Alva’s $\approx$ $250{,}000$ costume ball (>\$5 million today).
  • William Vanderbilt’s quip: “The public be damned.”

Industrial Labor Force Transformation

• Wage workers: $5.3$ million ($1860$) → $17.4$ million ($1900$).
• Hierarchy:
  • Common laborers (often latest immigrants) – picks & shovels.
  • Skilled craftsmen (e.g., iron puddlers) – up to $\$7$/day, but work seasonal.
  • White-collar managers/clerks – emergent salary class.
• Economic depressions $1873$ & $1893$ produced mass unemployment.

Mechanization & Deskilling

• Textile mills: looms reduced weaver to thread-watcher; deafening noise, cotton dust.
• Garment industry: foot-pedal sewing machines + cutting knives → piecework sweatshops (Sadie Frohne $4.50$/wk).
• Employers stoked ethnic rivalries (“Polaks” vs Irish) to block unionism.

Women & Child Labor

• Typical male manufacturing wage ($1900$): $\$500$/yr ($\approx\$15{,}000$ today) → family economy required all earners.
• $1.75$ million children ($10{-}15$ yrs) working by $1900$ (≈$18\%$ of industrial labor).
• Women in non-agricultural work: $1.5$ million ($1870$) → $3.7$ million ($1890$).
  • Yet only $3\%$ of white married women held outside jobs; $25\%$ of married black women did (mostly domestic service).

Rise of White-Collar Work

• Managerial revolution separated ownership from control; salaried execs/managers drawn from $8\%$ with high-school diplomas.
• Case: William “Billy” Jones, Carnegie’s superintendent ($\$25{,}000$ salary ≈ POTUS).
• Clerical boom: adding machines, cash registers, typewriters → women "typewriters" & sales clerks.
  • Native-born single white women = >90\% of female clerks by $1890$.
  • Pay in Boston $1883$: clerical >\$6/wk vs factory <$(5)$.
• Department stores (Macy’s, Wanamaker’s, Marshall Field) = palaces of consumption; jobs stratified by race.

Labor Conflict & Union Movements

Great Railroad Strike ($1877$)

• Trigger: B&O $10\%$ wage cut + $10\%$ stock dividend.
• Spread to $\approx100{,}000$ rail workers & $500{,}000$ sympathizers (Map $19.3$); rail traffic halted coast-to-coast.
• Federal troops deployed by Pres. Hayes; set precedent for military strikebreaking.
• Aftermath: $2$–$20$ killed Pittsburgh melee; $\approx\$2$ million property loss; birthed era of “labor wars.”

Knights of Labor (KoL)

• Founded $1869$; secret until $1878$; led by Terence V. Powderly.
• Inclusive vision: skilled/unskilled, women ($\approx20\%$), $95{,}000$ black members; excluded “parasites” (gamblers, bankers, liquor dealers).
• Reform agenda: public RR ownership, income tax, equal pay, child-labor abolition, cooperative commonwealth.

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

• Origin $1881$, reorganized $1886$ by Samuel Gompers.
• Craft-union focus: organize skilled workers, pursue “pure & simple” goals—higher wages, shorter hours, better conditions.
• $1886$ membership: KoL $730{,}000$ vs AFL $138{,}000$; reversal after Haymarket.

Haymarket Bombing ($May~4, 1886$)

• Context: national campaign for $8$-hour day; Chicago hotspots.
• McCormick Reaper Works clash → police kill $6$ strikers; radicals call Haymarket rally.
• Unknown bomber killed $1$ policeman; police gunfire killed/wounded others.
• Trial of $8$ anarchists (Parsons, Spies, etc.); evidence flimsy but $4$ hanged, $1$ suicide, $3$ jailed.
• Results: Labor demonized, KoL membership plummeted; May $1$ became International Workers’ Day.

Home Life & Leisure

Cult of Domesticity

• Separation of work/home fostered ideal of middle-class female domesticity.
• Live-in domestics: $15{-}30\%$ of Northern urban households $1870$ (>$>$ $90\%$ female, often Irish “Bridgets” or black women in South).
• Domestics’ grievances: long hours, no privacy; yet freed middle-class women for clubs, temperance, suffrage work.

Working-Class Leisure

• Cheap amusements: dance halls, music houses, amusement arcades; reformers feared moral decline.
• Baseball: first fully paid team (Cincinnati Red Stockings $1869$); Mark Twain lauded the sport.
• Coney Island (Steeplechase Park $1897$): $10$-cent “ten hours of fun”; mass culture hub $\approx1$ million visitors/weekend by $1900$.

Municipal Responses & Urban Infrastructure

Technological Marvels

• Steel bridges (Brooklyn, Williamsburg) & skyscrapers (Chicago School; “form follows function”).
• Boston $1897$: first U.S. subway; NY & Philadelphia soon followed.
• Frederick Law Olmsted’s parks (Central Park $1873$; $5$ million plantings) offered respite from “bustle & jar.”

Public Institutions

• Public schools strained: NY $1899$ enrollment $544{,}000$; only $8\%$ finished high school.
• Free public libraries: Boston Public Library (Copley Sq $1895$) – “palace of the people,” inscription “Free to All.” Use skewed toward comfortable classes.

Boss Politics

• Urban machines (e.g., NYC’s Tammany Hall) provided jobs & aid in exchange for votes; boss Tweed toppled $1871$.
• Critics (“goo-goos,” journalist Lincoln Steffens) decried corruption; nevertheless, bosses built infrastructure & mediated diverse interests.
• Business elites covertly partnered with bosses, funding graft to secure favorable policies.

Cultural Contradictions

New York – “Capital of Capital”

• Post-Civil-War shift from merchant cotton wealth to industrial & financial dominance.
• $27\%$ of U.S. millionaires resided in Manhattan by $1892$.
• Elite used state power (militias, troops) to suppress strikes; cultivated legitimacy via museums, libraries, arts.

Chicago – White City vs City of Sin

• World’s Columbian Exposition $1893$: Olmsted & Burnham’s lagoon-filled, gleaming "White City"; midway (Ferris wheel, Little Egypt).
• Depression hit weeks later; unemployed occupied grounds; torched during Pullman Strike $1894$.
• Legacy: inspired amusement parks (Luna, Dreamland) & showcased U.S. industrial prowess.

Chronology Highlights

• $1869$ KoL founded.
• $1871$ Chicago Fire; Boss Tweed falls.
• $1873$ Panic & depression.
• $1877$ Great Railroad Strike.
• $1882$ Chinese Exclusion Act.
• $1883$ Brooklyn Bridge; Alva Vanderbilt’s ball.
• $1886$ Statue of Liberty; Haymarket; AFL founded.
• $1890$ Riis publishes \textit{How the Other Half Lives}.
• $1892$ Ellis Island opens.
• $1893$ Columbian Exposition; new panic.
• $1895$ Boston Public Library.
• $1896$ Cleveland vetoes literacy test.
• $1897$ Boston subway.

Ethical & Practical Implications

• Immigration debates reveal enduring link between race & policy.
• Bossism highlights tension between democratic ideals & corrupt pragmatism.
• Labor wars expose limits of laissez-faire; foreshadow Progressive-Era reforms (e.g., Fair Labor Standards Act $1938$).

Foundational Connections & Future Relevance

• Jeffersonian agrarian ideal eclipsed by urban-industrial reality.
• Class conflict set stage for Populist & Progressive movements.
• Trends in migration, mechanization, and mass culture continue to shape modern urban life.

Review Questions (Exam Practice)

• What global economic shifts funneled migrants to U.S. cities $1870{-}1900$?
• Compare/contrast KoL vs AFL goals & strategies.
• How did mass transit physically reinforce class divisions?
• In what ways did boss politics both help and hinder urban development?
• How did cheap amusements reflect and shape working-class culture?