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- [Instructor] Here's a graph[br]showing the population growth

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in four US cities from 1860 to 1900.

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In 1860, before the Civil War,

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New York City was the biggest[br]city in the United States,

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but even it didn't have[br]more than a million people.

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There wasn't a single city[br]of more than a million

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in the whole country at that point.

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Compare that to just 40[br]years later when not one,

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but three cities had[br]passed the million mark,

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and New York had nearly[br]3.5 million residents.

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Proportionally, Chicago's[br]population growth

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was even more drastic,

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from only about 100,000 residents in 1860,

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it got 17 times bigger by 1900,

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with about 1.7 million residents.

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Traditionally,

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Americans had been a pretty[br]rural farming people,

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but starting in the late 19th century,

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there was a rapid shift[br]towards urbanization.

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By 1920, urban residents would[br]outnumber country dwellers

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in the United States for the first time.

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And today, more than 80% of[br]Americans live in cities.

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So what led to this explosion[br]in the population of cities

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in the decades after the Civil War?

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The major factors behind this shift

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were industrialization,[br]immigration, and migration.

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Now we've been talking[br]about those three things

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in various forms in American[br]history up until this point,

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from the cool inventions of[br]the first industrial revolution

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to the influx of Irish and[br]German immigrants in the 1840s

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to the movement of[br]Americans ever westward.

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So industrialization,[br]immigration, and migration

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weren't new forces in American society,

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but there were unique aspects of all three

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of these processes during the Gilded Age

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that contributed to the[br]development of cities in this era.

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One thing that changed was the nature

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of work that people did.

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During the Gilded Age,

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there was a tipping point in[br]the American labor market.

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In 1880, for the first time ever,

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the number of people who worked[br]for someone else for wages,

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people who had a boss and needed

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to do what they said to get paid,

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outnumbered Americans who[br]worked for themselves,

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like farmers who could[br]decide for themselves

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when to sow or harvest their crops.

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The second industrial revolution,

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which began after the Civil War,

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was a booming era of expansion[br]and industrial production.

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So there were a lot of[br]factory jobs available,

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and most of those jobs were[br]for unskilled laborers,

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that is workers who don't require any kind

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of special training[br]before they start a job.

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So there was an overall[br]transition from farm work that

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was self-directed to unskilled[br]factory work done for a boss.

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Another change during the Gilded Age

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was in who was doing the[br]immigrating and migrating.

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Until the 1840s,

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most immigrants to the United States

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had been Protestant Christians

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from northern and western Europe,

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and they were relatively[br]well off financially.

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After the Civil War, a[br]variety of factors abroad,

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combined with the wide availability

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of jobs in the United States,

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brought different types of[br]immigrants to American cities.

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These new immigrants, as they were called,

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tended to be from southern[br]and eastern Europe,

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Mexico, and Asia,

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and they differed from old[br]immigrants in that they tended

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to be poorer, have darker complexions,

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and practiced Catholicism or Judaism

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instead of Protestantism.

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In addition in this era,

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African Americans from the south began

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to migrate to northern[br]and mid-western cities.

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All of these immigrants and migrants

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created a large industrial workforce.

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But why did they all move to the city?

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Let's take a look at some[br]of the push and pull factors

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that prompted people to uproot themselves

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and head to American cities[br]during the Gilded Age.

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First, there were push[br]factors, or things that were

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pushing people out of their[br]previous living situations.

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A big one was poverty and just a lack

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of financial mobility at home.

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Farmers in many countries were[br]hit hard by the mechanization

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of agriculture, which[br]happened in this time period.

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About a third of the people[br]moving to cities were Americans

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leaving farms and heading to[br]the city for industrial jobs.

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Another push factor was persecution

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and discrimination at home.

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The Russian government

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took an increasingly intolerant[br]position towards Jews

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in this time period,

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who were subject to mob violence

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and campaigns of ethnic[br]cleansing in Europe.

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In the American south, the[br]emergence of Jim Crow laws

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and an increase in lynchings[br]were among the reasons

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that African Americans elected[br]to leave after the Civil War.

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But what were the pull factors[br]that landed them in cities?

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For one thing, many struggling[br]immigrants from abroad

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didn't have the money to go anywhere else.

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So after they arrived,[br]they just stayed put.

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But the main reason that[br]people moved to cities

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is because that's where the jobs were.

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With the development of steam[br]power and electrification,

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factories no longer had to[br]be located next to waterways.

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So cities developed as industrial hubs.

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Often cities would develop as the center

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for one specific industry,[br]like steel in Pittsburgh,

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meat packaging in Chicago,[br]or clothing in New York.

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People also found communities[br]of support in cities.

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Earlier immigrants might[br]send money and information

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to their families and friends back home,

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helping them to move and get established.

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This facilitated the development[br]of urban neighborhoods,

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where people from similar backgrounds

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spoke the same language,[br]ate the same food,

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and provided each other with assistance.

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In these ethnic enclaves,

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people could get newspapers and even go

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to see theater performances[br]in their native languages.

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So let's finish by taking a look

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at two narratives of immigrants

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arriving in American[br]cities in this time period.

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The first one is from[br]Lee Chew, who immigrated

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to San Francisco from China[br]at age 16 in the year 1880.

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He wrote,

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"When I got to San Francisco,

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"which was before the[br]passage of the Exclusion Act,

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"I was half starved, because I was afraid

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"to eat the provisions of the barbarians.

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"But a few days living[br]in the Chinese quarter

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"made me happy again.

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"A man got me work as a house servant

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"in an American family.

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"When I went to work for[br]that American family,

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"I could not speak a word of English,

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"and I didn't know[br]anything about housework.

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"I did not understand[br]what the lady said to me,

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"but she showed me how to[br]cook, wash, iron, sweep, dust,

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"make beds, wash dishes, clean[br]windows, paint and brass,

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"polish the knives and forks, et cetera.

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"In six months,

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"I had learned how to do the[br]work of our house quite well,

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"and I was getting $5 a week and board

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"and putting away about $4.25 a week.

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"I had also learned some English.

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"I sent money home to comfort my parents.

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"But though I dressed well and[br]lived well and had pleasure,

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"going quite often to the Chinese theater

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"and to dinner parties in Chinatown,

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"I saved $50 in the first six months."

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The second one is from Mary Antin,

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who immigrated to Boston[br]from what is now Belarus

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at the age of 13 in the year 1894.

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She wrote,

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"The first meal was an object[br]lesson of much variety.

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"My father produced several[br]kinds of food ready to eat,

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"without any cooking, from little tin cans

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"that had printing all over them.

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"He attempted to introduce us to a queer,

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"slippery kind of fruit,[br]which he called banana,

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"but had to give it up for the time being.

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"On our second day, a little[br]girl from across the alley

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"came and offered to conduct us to school.

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"My father was out, but we five between us

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"had a few words of English by this time.

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"We knew the word school.

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"We understood.

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"This child who had never[br]seen us 'til yesterday,

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"who could not pronounce our names,

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"who was not much better dressed than we,

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"was able to offer us the[br]freedom of the schools of Boston.

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"We had to visit the stores and be dressed

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"from head to foot in American clothing.

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"We had to learn the[br]mysteries of the iron stove,

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"the washboard, and the speaking tube,

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"and above all, we had to learn English.

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"With our despised immigrant clothing,

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"we shed also our impossible Hebrew names.

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"A committee of our friends,

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"several years ahead of[br]us in American experience,

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"put their heads together

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"and concocted American names for us all."

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So what similarities and[br]differences do you see

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between the experiences of[br]Lee Chew and Mary Antin?

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Why do you think they[br]immigrated to American cities,

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and what do you think[br]their lives would be like

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going forward in the Gilded Age?