Rural Americans Move to the Cities

In the years after the Civil war, America experienced a period of Industrial boom where the American economy shifted from an agriculture base to an Industrial base. During this time periood many immigrants, African Americans, and yung, unmarried women were attracted to the large cities, looking to create a new life for themselves. To the Americans migrating to the cities, the life of the city seemed easier but the move to the citites brought them a life of hard labor with little compensation.

"The opportunity to get rich to attain great wealth is here...."(doc 1) This was the view of many rural Americans about cities such as Chic ago and New York City. The civil War destroyed Southern Economy. Many plantation were burned and farmers were not making much profit. During this time where farmers were at loss, numerous factories appeared in NOrthern cities in the need for labor. This was the golden opportunity for the Rural Families. To Rurla americans the city life seemed simpler. They ere amazed bu the technologies and excitment of the cities. A farmer's son, Harry Reese explains the city as a big mystry to them. He says, "Electric lights wer somehing to marbel at.. the old edison phonograph with its wax cylinder records and earphones was positively ghostly... andtrolley car, well they too were past understanding!"(doc 3) Rural American saw the city as a place of amusements. One of the many amusement sof the city life was the Chicago World Fair. This attracted over 27 milion visitor many of the rural visitors. (doc 2) The fair was "a showcase for techonology, progress, consumer culture and life in modern America."(Doc 2) Essentially Rural Americans were attracted to the cities by it ostentatious life.

Eventhough the life in the cities were exciting and exhibited the new technologies, the living and working conditions in the city were unpleasant. "Not the slightest provision had been made for the confort of the employees." (Doc 6) Carrie Meeber one of the many who was fooled by the excitment of promise of Chicago explains her first day of work as "nauseating." (Doc 6) At her workplace, " the wash room were desagreeable, crude, if not foul places, and the whole atmosphere was sorbid," Carrie explains. "The foreman became a tru ogre, prowling constantly about keeping her tied down to her miserable work."(doc 6) These were the conditions in many factories. They workers only worked on one tedious job the whole day without any breaks and were forced to work fast. With the low wage many factory workers recieved, they had to live in tenement apartments as shown in the Doc 4. the condition in the tenement apartments were very poor. A large group of people had to live in small area.

As shown in document 7 the population in he cities and the number of non-farm workers drastically increased between the 1850 to 1910. The reason for this increase is because many felt the cities were and opportunity to get rich and enjoy the city's various facilities such as fairs, cars, and electricity with didn't exist on the farms, but soon many understood that they wouldn't be able to enjoy the riches of the city because of the low wages and the physical labor that they had to do in the factories.