Poverty
The Victorian Era in America was also a time of massive immigration. This wave of immigrants, referred to as the Third Wave (1880–1914), consisted of immigrants mostly from Southern and Eastern Europe. German and Scandinavian were very common.
| Decade | Number of German Immigrants | Number of Scandinavian Immigrants |
|---|---|---|
| 1830s | 152,454 | 1,202 |
| 1840s | 434,626 | 13,903 |
| 1850s | 951,667 | 20,931 |
| 1860s | 787,468 | 109,298 |
| 1870s | 718,182 | 211,245 |
| 1880s | 1,452,970 | 568,362 |
| 1890s | 505,152 | 321,281 |
| Total | 7,176,071 | 1,223,047 |
Cities expanded rapidly under the onslaught of immigrants and from 1880-1900 New York City grew from 1.9 million to 3.4 million. These immigrants settled in the North and obtained poorly paid jobs in factories. Housing was crowded, poorly ventilated, and unsanitary. Some blocks in New York City had as many as 10,000 residents, all living in buildings no higher than six stories. Some rooms in tenement houses had no outside windows or air ducts. Cities grew much faster than resources, so indoor plumbing and sewage were inadequate. Tenement buildings often had their own well in the basement, where the sewer drained, that tenants could use for water. However, in the summer, the water table often dropped below the level of the pump for many hours of the day. Child labor was common due to intense poverty.
Read more about this topic: Victorian America
Famous quotes containing the word poverty:
“I respect not his labors, his farm where everything has its price, who would carry the landscape, who would carry his God, to market, if he could get anything for him; who goes to market for his god as it is; on whose farm nothing grows free, whose fields bear no crops, whose meadows no flowers, whose trees no fruit, but dollars; who loves not the beauty of his fruits, whose fruits are not ripe for him till they are turned to dollars. Give me the poverty that enjoys true wealth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I have simplified my politics into an utter detestation of all existing governments; and, as it is the shortest and most agreeable and summary feeling imaginable, the first moment of an universal republic would convert me into an advocate for single and uncontradicted despotism. The fact is, riches are power, and poverty is slavery all over the earth, and one sort of establishment is no better, nor worse, for a people than another.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)