The population of the United States almost doubled from 40 million in 1870 to 76 million in 1900. Its growth was rapid during the Gilded Age, but not as fast as in previous 30-year periods. Although overall growth was beginning to level off, the late 19th century was a period of enormous population shifts in the United States. The influx of immigrants from Europe, among whom there were a large number of young single males, accounts for the fact that in 1870 there were virtually the same number of males and females, but in 1900 there were more than 1.5 million more men than women in the United States. European immigration also accounts for the percentage decline of nonwhites from 13.7 percent in 1870 to 12 percent in 1900. The annual number of immigrants fluctuated with economic conditions. Large numbers came in prosperous years (788,992 in 1882) and fewer in hard times (138,469 in 1878).
Within the United States two major trends occurred simultaneously: the move west that more than doubled the number of farms from 2.7 million in 1870 to 5.7 million in 1900, and a nationwide move from farms to cities. In 1870 for each city dweller there were three persons living in rural areas, but by 1900 there were two city dwellers for three persons living in rural America. Urban population tripled from 9.9 million to 30.2 million, while rural population grew from 28.7 million to 45.8 million. Major established cities like New York more than doubled in population, and newer cities like Chicago multiplied more than five times from over 300,000 in 1870 to 1.7 million in 1900. States west of the Mississippi from 1870 to 1900 gained approximately 11.4 million people born east of the Mississippi, and during the same period 1.4 million southerners took up residence in the North. Most of those southerners who headed north were white, since the black population of the North increased by only 428,000 from 1870 to 1900. The enormous black migration from southern farms to northern cities came in the 20th century.
Americans were also a restless people constantly on the move. Quite apart from moving a long distance west or north, there was enormous geographic mobility within regions and between and within cities. Those who were unsuccessful would move a relatively short distance to a different farm or to another town in search of a better job. In places as different as Newburyport and Boston, Massachusetts, Omaha, Nebraska, and Poughkeepsie, New York, workers moved with great frequency, with as many as half of the unskilled moving in a 10-year period. There was also an enormous amount of moving within cities as tenants found better housing. With many leases in New York City expiring on May 1, it was called “moving day” and was a holiday of sorts, since the streets and sidewalks were so jammed with carts, wagons, and possessions that normal business could hardly be conducted. A remarkable number of Gilded Age Americans, especially those without real estate, were on the move.
Further reading: Raymond A. Mohl, The New Ci-ty: Urban America in the Indu-strial Age, 1860-1920 (Arlington, Heights, 1ll.: Harlan Davidson, 1995); Walter T. H. Nugent, Structures of American Social History (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981); Stephan Thernstrom, Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nineteenth Century City (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1964); Stephan Thernstrom, The Other Bostonians: Poverty and Progress in the American Metropolis, 1880-1970 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973); U. S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States (Washington, D. C.: U. S. Bureau of the Census, 1975).
Populism See People’s Party.
Populist Party See People’s Party.
World History
