Which major population shift occurred in the late nineteenth century in the United States?
|
View Accessibility Data Show The Great Migration generally refers to the massive internal migration of Blacks from the South to urban centers in other parts of the country. Between 1910 and 1970, an estimated 6 million Blacks left the South. This graphic compares the early migration (1910-1940), sometimes referred to as the First Great Migration, and the later (1940-1970) also known as the Second Great Migration. In the early 20th century, strict legislation limited immigration into the U.S. and brought about a shortage of labor in many industrial and manufacturing centers in the Northeast and Midwest. These cities became common destinations for Black migrants from the South. Cities that experienced substantial changes in racial composition between 1910 and 1940 include Chicago, Detroit, New York City, and Philadelphia. During and after WWII, Black migrants flooded into many of the cities that were destinations before the war, following friends and relatives that had made the journey earlier. Poor economic conditions in the Jim Crow South spurred a larger migration flow than was the case in the 1910-to-1940 period and resulted in the creation of large Black population centers in many cities across the Northeast, Midwest, and West. NOTE: Data are from decennial censuses, 1910 through 1970. Population counts are based on unrevised numbers. Data for the Black population for cities in Alaska and Hawaii were not available in 1940 or earlier decades. Cities shown are those that were either in the top 100 cities in the country or top 3 of a state and had a Black population of at least 100 people. These criteria were placed on 1940 data for the First Great Migration and 1970 data for the Second Great Migration. For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about licensing content on this page, please contact for more information and to obtain a license. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. She or he will best know the preferred format. When you reach out to him or her, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource. MediaIf a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media. TextText on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. InteractivesAny interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives. < Back to Timeline
Timeline: Wave of Immigration  Growth of Cities 1900 - The decades before and after 1900 were a period of enormous transformation in the physical locations of Americans. Demographers typically distinguish two modes of living: urban and rural. In plainer language, people live in the city or they live in the country. Throughout the nineteenth century, the United States had been mostly a nation of farmers, who lived in the country. Indeed, immigrants came to America seeking land that they could farm. But throughout the nineteenth century, the population living in cities rose faster than the rural population. As the 1800s wore on, more and more Americans moved from the farm to the city, abandoning farming to build new industries in the cities. John D. Rockefeller grew up on a farm in rural New York but moved to the city to become the richest man in America from the new industry of petroleum. Henry Ford had also grown up on a farm, but moved to the city to create the modern automobile industry. Ford didn�t actually like cities: he designed his �Model T� to be useful to farmers. Ford advertised his revolutionary machine as �stronger than a horse and easier to take care of.� In 1880, when a new wave of immigrants began to arrive in the United States, they moved to American cities, not to the countryside as immigrants had for 250 years. Immigrants took jobs in the new industries in the new cities: Polish farmers became steelworkers in Pittsburgh; Serbian farmers became meatpackers in Chicago; Russian Jewish farmers became tailors in New York City�s garment district; Slovaks assembled cars in Detroit; Italian farmers found jobs in Baltimore factories. The cities grew at a fabulous pace, some of them doubling in size every decade. By the 1920 census, the urban and rural populations were equal in size, but the rural share would continue to drop for the rest of the twentieth century. Cities became the location of most of American life: politically, culturally, financially, and economically, the action moved from the bucolic countryside to the crowded, filthy city streets. Related Links: Program Segment 2 Book References: << Back to Timeline What was happening to the American population during the early 19th century?During this period, the nation's population grew rapidly, from 5 million in 1800 to 23 million by 1850. The middle part of the century was dominated by debate and conflict over slavery, culminating in the American Civil War.
Why did the US population grow so fast in the 19th century?US Population: 1800. The United States in 1800 exploded due to immigration from Europe but was also increased due to descendants of the original settlers of the United States and enslaved persons. According to the United States Census during that year, there were over 5,300,000 residents in the country.
How was life in 19th century?Many lived a hand-to-mouth existence, working long hours in often harsh conditions. There was no electricity, running water or central heating. With no electric lighting (or gas) the rhythm of life revolved around the hours of daylight, and therefore would have varied with the seasons.
What was a consequence of the rapid growth of cities in the late 1800s?The rapid increase in city populations caused crime rates to rise and disease to spread rapidly. The rapid population growth also caused cities to grow in building size. The first skyscrapers were built in Chicago and New York in the late 1880s.
|
