Nativists: Americana and Others Who Opposed Immigration

Ch. 14.1 – Immigrants and Urban Challenges

Nativists: Americana and others who opposed immigration

Know-Nothing Party: 1850s political party that supported measure making it difficult for foreigners to become citizens or hold office

Middle Class: social and economic level between the wealthy and the poor

Tenements: poorly designed apartment buildings that housed large numbers of people

Implicit: understood though no clearly put into words

1.  Identify causes and effects of Irish immigration. Include environmental and societal factors.

·  Potato blight killed potatoes – led to starvation and disease

·  Most were very poor

·  Most were Catholic

·  Settled in cities (no money to buy farm land)

·  Worked on canals (Erie), railroads, as servants or in factories

2.  Identify causes and effects of German immigration. Include environmental and societal factors.

·  Escape religious persecution

·  Escape political problems (revolution, harsh rule)

·  Some very education

·  Most were working class

·  Included Catholics, Jews and Protestants

·  Saw US as a place of greater economic opportunity and freedom from government control

·  Most became farmers, lived in rural areas (Klein community was settled in this wave of immigration)

·  Many moved to Midwestern states – more land for agriculture – high percentage arrived with money to buy land

·  Tailors, seamstress, bricklayers, servants, clerks, cabinetmakers, bakers, food merchants

3.  Identify causes and effects of the anti-immigration movement.

·  Many native-born Americans feared losing their jobs to immigrants who might work for lower wages

·  Some felt threatened by new cultures and religions

·  Some founded the Know-Nothing Party

·  New immigrants faced discrimination

4.  Why did the Know-Nothing Party try to limit immigrants’ rights?

·  See reasons listed above

·  Wanted to keep Catholics and immigrants out of public office

o  Wanted to increase time to become a citizen

5.  How did the Industrial Revolution affect life in the cities?

·  Creation of many new factory jobs that drew immigrants from many nations and migrants from rural areas

·  Transportation Revolution connected cities and made it easier to reach them

·  ¾ of US manufacturing jobs were in northeastern and Middle Atlantic states

·  Families of those who owned businesses or worked in skilled jobs did best à new middle class with large homes

6.  List the conditions in the cities. Which do you think was the biggest problem?

·  More entertainment and culture

·  Compact and crowded, noisy

·  Limited public and private transportation, so had to live near job

·  Tenements were overcrowded, dirty, unsafe

·  Lacked clean water, public health and sanitation à epidemics

·  Criminal activity – no permanent police forces, just volunteers

·  Racial and class violence

·  Fire – little organized protection