Page 338 - American Stories, A History of the United States

Many German immigrants were artisans and sought to ply their trades in cities
such as New York, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Milwaukee—all of which became German 13.1
American centers. But many peasants went back to the land. Their diversified agri-
cultural skills and small amounts of capital enabled them to become successful mid-
western farmers. In general, Germans encountered less prejudice and discrimination 13.2
than the Irish. For Germans who were Protestant, religious affinity with their American
neighbors made for relative tolerance. But even Catholic Germans normally escaped
the scorn heaped on the Irish, perhaps because they were less poverty-stricken and
were not members of an ethnic group Anglo-Americans had learned to despise from
their English ancestors and cousins.
Economic opportunity attracted most of the Irish, German, and other European
immigrants to America. A minority, like some German revolutionaries of 1848, chose
the United States because they admired its democratic political system. But most immi-
grants were more interested in making a decent living than in voting or running for
office. Peak periods of immigration—1845 to 1854 is a prime example—coincided
closely with times of domestic prosperity and high demand for labor. During depressed
periods, immigration dropped off.
The immigrants exacerbated the problems of America’s rapidly growing cities. The
old “walking city” in which rich and poor lived in close proximity near the center of
town was giving way to a more segregated environment. Railroads and horse-drawn
streetcars enabled the affluent to move to the first American suburbs, while areas nearer
commercial and industrial centers became the congested abode of newcomers from
Europe. Slums such as the notorious Five Points district in New York City were char-
acterized by overcrowding, poverty, disease, and crime. Recognizing that these condi-
tions created potential dangers for the entire urban population, middle-class reformers
worked to professionalize police forces, introduce sanitary water and sewage disposal Quick Check
systems, and upgrade housing. They made some progress before the Civil War, but the What were the new immigrants’
lot of the urban poor, mainly immigrants, was not dramatically improved. Most urban reasons for migrating, and what
immigrants’ lives remained unsafe, unhealthy, and unpleasant. conditions did they face on arrival?

the New Working class
Most immigrants ended up as wage workers in factories, mines, and construction
camps or as casual day laborers doing the many unskilled tasks urban and commercial
growth required. By providing a vast pool of cheap labor, they fueled and accelerated
the Industrial Revolution. During the 1850s, factory production in Boston and other
port cities previously devoted to commerce grew—partly because thousands of recent
Irish immigrants worked for the kind of low wages that almost guaranteed large profits
for entrepreneurs.
In established industries and older mill towns of the Northeast, immigrants added
to, or displaced, the native-born workers who had predominated in the 1830s and
1840s. The changing workforce of the textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts, provided a
striking example of this process. In 1836, only 3.7 percent of the workers in one Lowell
mill were foreign born; most were young unmarried women from New England farms.
By 1860, immigrants constituted 61.7 percent of the workforce. This trend reveals
much about the changing character of the American working class. In the 1830s, most
male workers were artisans. Factory work was still largely the province of women and
children. Both groups were predominantly of American stock. In the 1840s, more men
worked in factories, although women predominated in the textile industry. During
that decade, conditions in many mills deteriorated. Relations between management
and labor became more impersonal, and workers were pushed to increase their output.
Workdays of 12–14 hours were common.
The result was an upsurge of labor militancy involving female and male fac-
tory workers. Mill girls in Lowell, for example, formed a union—the Female Labor
Reform Association—and agitated for shorter working hours. On a broader front,

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