America In The 19th Century Essay

America was a rural and agricultural country that transitioned into a country filled with industry and large cities. Michael Roark who wrote The American Promise says "The last three decades of the nineteenth century witnessed an urban explosion."(485). America would not have become the industrial giant it was at the end of the 19th century if it had not been for the huge influx of immigrant workers willing to take low wages for hard work, despite this the middle class still viewed these people as inferior and uneducated. America in the late 19th century rose as one of the global industrial giants (486). This is mostly due to a large number of immigrant workers coming to work for low wages and long hours. This was seen as a threat

Immigration numbers were part of the reason it was so easy to build large factories, sweat shops, and buildings. These immigrants came to cities ready to work for whatever they could get. The idea of working in dangerous places for long hours and a few dollars was still better to them than staying in their home countries to starve of famine or be treated poorly because of their religions. The American people feared the immigrants for their new religions and customs, but also because the low wages being paid made people worry that it would drive down all wages. This also made it so many of the immigrants lived in ethnic slums turning areas of large cities into less attractive places (492). This meant that the people building our nation up were being treated as garbage and a problem. The urbanization and industrialization of America came from the masses of tired and hungry called to by The Statue of Liberty (492). The Large industrialist and bankers used the cheap labor of millions of immigrant families to build the industrial giant of America in the late 19th century