Chapter 6

One of the things I learned in this chapter was the difference between old and new immigrants is that old immigrants are from northern and western Europe who immigrated before the 1880s and new immigrants came after and were from eastern Europe.  Also, I learned that from 1820 to 1920, the US population grew from 10 to 100 million. Every year from 1860 to 1920, the foreign born population was about 13-14%.

In that century, about 4.5 million Irish immigrated to the United States. But not all that tried to make it here made it safe. Diseases were brought on ships so many people died. About 17 thousand died at sea, and another 20 thousand died after landing from diseases they got on board. Hospitals were extremely overcrowded so many weren’t even admitted. In 1853, about 10 percent of 180,000 died at sea because of cholera.  The ones that did make it were at the bottom of the social scale. They were given the worst jobs, and Negro slaves were put before them.