Running head: CLASS IN THE 19TH CENTURY 1

Class in the 19th Century

Discussion

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CLASS IN THE 19TH CENTURY

Introduction

The 19th century in America was marked by an era of rapid industrial revolution. Many

immigrants trooped from all over the world to partake in this newly found affluence. The Gold

Rush brought tens of thousands of people from around the world, including China, to

California. In 1849, there were only 54 Chinese immigrants in California, but by 1876, there

were 116,000. (Assing, 1852). Therefore, towns started filling up with more people both

within the US and outside of her borders. This drove America towards the fringes of massive

commercialization predicted upon technological advancement of the time. Chicago embodied the

triumph of American industrialization. Its meatpacking industry typified the sweeping changes occurring in

American life. The last decades of the nineteenth century, a new era for big business, saw the formation of large

corporations, run by trained bureaucrats and salaried managers, doing national and international business. (“Life in

Industrial America,” 2018). Literally, America was witnessing a market revolution. A market

revolution that attracted immigrants from all over the globe share in the American dream just as

it is today. Just as it is today immigrants faced untold suffering and discrimination based on

classicism based on cultural differences in their quest to come to the US and establish a life.

Underpinning President Donald Trump’s recent ban on immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries

is the belief that these immigrants are fundamentally different than those who came to the United States in the past.

An unsentimental look at the history of American immigrants, however, shows that the banned immigrants are not

fundamentally different from Americans’ foreign-born grandparents, great-grandparents, or even great-great-great-

grandparents. (Anbinder, 2017).

As America rapidly grew its economy with the advent of industrial in the 19th century, it

needed workers to run its growing industries. This growth was a double-edged sword. Whereas

some people who worked in the cash economy made enormous fortunes and were freed their

dependence on servitude; the need for workers grew many times fold. Inherently, slavery grew.

And although northern states washed their hands of slavery, their factories fueled the demand for slave-grown
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southern cotton and their banks provided the financing that ensured the profitability and continued existence of the

American slave system. (“The Market Revolution,” 2018). The competitive nature of businesses then

translated to measly earnings by the lower cadre workers who did not own property and suffered

depressions. The market revolution sparked explosive economic growth and new personal wealth, but it also

created a growing lower class of property-less workers and a series of devastating depressions, called “panics.”

Many Americans labored for low wages and became trapped in endless cycles of poverty. (“The Market

Revolution,” 2018).

Depressions or “panics” exhibited by these workers were predicated by squalor

conditions they were forced to leave under. Cities across America were designed to adapt the

workers who came in their droves. A majority of these workers were from immigrant populations

across the globe. The political elite in the US thus created special containment areas that

eventually resulted into slum. Thus, as workers populations grew as a result of increased need for

human resource, the slums turned into crime ridden and crowded places. The rise of cities, the

evolution of American immigration, the transformation of American labor, the further making of a mass culture, the

creation of great concentrated wealth, the growth of vast city slums, the conquest of the West, the emergence of a

middle class, the problem of poverty, the triumph of big business, widening inequalities, battles between capital and

labor, the final destruction of independent farming, breakthrough technologies, environmental destruction:

industrialization created a new America. (“Life in Industrial America,” 2018).

As the immigrant populations stretched the social amenities and cities’ resources, some

leaders within these cities started to enact legislation that would block certain immigrants from

coming to the US. For instance, most Asians were prohibited from emigrating from certain states

within the US. For instance John Bigler, California’s governor in 1852 made a proposition to

restrict the Chinese from immigrating into the state. For his troubles, the governor gets scathing

rebuttal that seeks to remind him of the atrocious deeds committed against the Asian people;

Norman Assing, a republican Chinaman terms as “atrocity of skin.” In 1852, California’s

CLASS IN THE 19TH CENTURY

governor, John Bigler, proposed restricting immigration from China. In the following public

letter, Norman Assing, a prominent San Francisco merchant, restaurant owner, and

community leader, denounces the governor’s proposal. (Assing, 1852).

In the south of America, trouble was brewing. The war ended and southerners were

forced to relinquish their social order and grant slaves freedom. As freed slaves were being

awarded full citizenship; some white southerners to back the reins of power to disenfranchise the

blacks. Therefore, whites such as Jim Crow passed draconian legislation segregating African

Americans in schools, social places, places of worship, commercial establishments, employment,

and private areas and so on. In this manner, the new south established white supremacy. It

marked the start of a frightening era where vigilantes predominantly formed by white supremacy

members conducted lynching against African American without the intervention of authorities.

Lynching was an opportunity for white supremacists to party after committing heinous acts

against blacks. It was not just a form of punishment but rather a symbol of barbarism and the

extent to which the mobs were willing to go in order to reclaim their former glory; a glory which

was based on the notion that American was for whites and people of fair face. White Southerners

took back control of state and local governments and used their reclaimed power to disenfranchise African

Americans and pass “Jim Crow” laws segregating schools, transportation, employment, and various public and

private facilities. The reestablishment of white supremacy after the “redemption” of the South from Reconstruction

gave lie to the “New” South. Perhaps nothing harkened so forcefully back to the barbaric southern past than the

wave of lynchings—the extralegal murder of individuals by vigilantes—that washed across the South after

Reconstruction. (“Life in Industrial America,” 2018).

Conclusion

Class in America in the 19th century was based on discrimination against immigrants.

Analysis of American Yawp reveals a paranoid white society; one that intended to conserve its

society as it was. They consider people from African and Asia as not worthy of the fine things in
CLASS IN THE 19TH CENTURY

life. Surprisingly, it is the same unwanted immigrants who run the factories and keep the

economy blossoming at their expense and great personal cost. The Anbinder is a modern day

rendition of what took place in the 19th century. The trump administration blanketly banned some

people from immigrating to the US by virtue of their cultural and religious background. This is

reminiscent of John Bigler, California’s governor in 1852 proposition that the Chinese people

be banned from accessing California. Therefore, analysis of these texts reveals similarities.

References

Anbinder, T. (2017, June 20). Todays Banned Immigrants Are No Different From Our Immigrant

Ancestors. Retrieved March 15, 2018, from http://blog.historians.org/2017/02/todays-

banned-immigrants-are-no-different-than-our-immigrant-ancestors/

Assing, N. (1852). Chinese Immigrants in Gold Rush Era California. Retrieved March 15, 2018,

from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=1193

Life in Industrial America | The American Yawp. (2018). Americanyawp.com. Retrieved from

http://www.americanyawp.com/text/18-industrial-

america/#III_Immigration_and_Urbanization

The Market Revolution | The American Yawp. (2018). Americanyawp.com. Retrieved from

http://www.americanyawp.com/text/08-the-market-revolution/