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Urban Life in America: Transformation and Challenges

Explore the dynamic shift as Americans migrated to cities post-Civil War, facing urbanization, opportunities, social classes, transportation, and the rise of political machines with corruption challenges.

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Urban Life in America: Transformation and Challenges

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  1. Chapter 13 Section 2 By: Haley Campbell and Megan Gooch

  2. Americans migrate to the cities • After the civil war, urban population grew from 10 million to more than 30 million • Immigrants lacked money for farms and education for higher paying jobs • Worked long hours with little pay in factories • Urban areas offered more and better-paying jobs than rural areas

  3. Cities • Bright Lights, running water, modern plumbing • Museums, libraries, theatres • Population grew creating the need to build upward • Skyscraper- tall, steel frame building • First skyscraper- Chicago’s 10 story Home Insurance building built in 1885 • Louis sullivan was the biggest contributor to the design of skyscrapers

  4. City transportation • At first most cities relied on the horsecar • Beginning with San francisco in 1873 more than 20 cities installed cable cars • IN 1887, frank j. sprague developed electric trolley cars • Elevated railroad • Subway system • First boston then new york

  5. High society • Elaborate mansions • Many servants • Women usually didn’t work • Men owned or managed large businesses • Spent lots of money on social events

  6. Middle Class • Afford their own homes and better quality clothing • Women usually only worked because they wanted to not because they had to • At least one servant • Enough money to buy a few luxuries

  7. Working class • Lived in single room tenements, or apartment buildings • No servants • Both husbands and wives had to work • Sometimes had to rent space to a boarder for extra money • Children had to work sometimes as well

  8. urban poverty • Unable to afford homes • Slept on street • Built shacks in back alleys

  9. Crime • Pickpockets, swindlers, and thieves thrived in the crowded cities • From 1880-1900 the murder rate went from 25 per million people to more than 100 per million people • Alcohol contributed to violent crimes

  10. pollution • Improper sewage disposal contaminated city drinking water • Triggered epidemics of typhoid fever and cholera • Even with flush toilets and sewer systems pollution was still a problem • Horse manure left in the streets • Smoke from chimneys • Soot and ash from coal and wood fires

  11. Machine politics • Political machine- informal political group designed to keep power • Came about because cities grew faster than their governments • In exchange for votes party bosses, who ran the political machine, provided new city dwellers with jobs, housing, food, heat, and police protection

  12. Graft and fraud • Party bosses also controlled city’s finances • Many became rich by fraud or graft- getting money through dishonest or questionable means

  13. Tammany hall • Tammany hall, the NYC democratic political machine, was the most infamous • William “boss” tweed was its leader during the 1860s and 1870s • Corruptness led to a prison sentence in 1874

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