1. Life in America From the
late 1800s and early 1900s, City life was characterized by the following:

2. Beginning of the first suburbs where the middle to upper-classes lived

3. The growth of “tenement” housing in lower class slum areas found in the inner city

5. In New York City--where the population doubled every decade from 1800 to buildings that had once been single-family dwellings were increasingly divided into multiple living spaces to accommodate this growing population. Known as tenements, these narrow, low-rise apartment buildings--many of them concentrated in the city's Lower East Side neighborhood--were all too often cramped, poorly lit and lacked indoor plumbing and proper ventilation. By 1900, some 2.3 million people (a full two-thirds of New York City's population) were living in tenement housing

6. A typical tenement building had five to seven stories and occupied nearly all of the lot upon which it was built (usually 25 feet wide and 100 feet long, according to existing city regulations). Many tenements began as single-family dwellings, and many older structures were converted into tenements by adding floors on top or by building more space in rear-yard areas. With less than a foot of space between buildings, little air and light could get in. In many tenements, only the rooms on the street got any light, and the interior rooms had no ventilation (unless air shafts were built directly into the room). Later, speculators began building new tenements, often using cheap materials and construction shortcuts. Even new, this kind of housing was at best uncomfortable and at worst highly unsafe.
Tenement House Act of 1867 legally defined a tenement for the first time and set construction regulations; among these were the requirement of one toilet (or privy) per 20 people.
The hard facts included in Riis' book--such as the fact that 12 adults slept in a room some 13 feet across, and that the infant death rate in the tenements was as high as 1 in 10--stunned many in America and around the world and led to a renewed call for reform. Two major studies of tenements were completed in the 1890s, and in 1901 city officials passed the Tenement House Law, which effectively outlawed the construction of new tenements on 25-foot lots and mandated improved sanitary conditions, fire escapes and access to light. Under the new law--which in contrast to past legislation would actually be enforced--pre-existing tenement structures were updated, and more than 200,000 new apartments were built over the next 15 years, supervised by city authorities.
Among the trendy restaurants, boutique hotels, and bars that can be found in the neighborhood today, visitors can still get a glimpse into its past at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, located at 97 Orchard Street. Built in 1863, the building is an example of an "old-law" tenement (as defined by the Tenement House Act of 1867) and was home over the years for some 7,000 working class immigrants. Though the basement and the first floor have been renovated, the rest of the building looks much the same as it did in the 19th century, and has been designated a National Historic Site.

7. “Ghettos” will also develop as ethnic or racial groups dominate certain areas of inner cities
Ethnicity is not just a person’s race. We can say that a Caucasian is white, but that doesn’t describe his ethnicity. If we lined up a Caucasian from Ireland, Israel and Canada in a photograph, it would be difficult to discern from which country each person originates. Yet, if we gave them appropriate items from their culture, it becomes easier to determine their country of origin. Ethnicity is about tradition, learned behavior and customs. It is about learning where you come from, and celebrating the traditions and ideas that are part of that region Read more: Difference Between Ethnicity and Race | Difference Between | Ethnicity vs Race

8. With the ghettos came the first issues with street gangs
The first U.S. police war on gangs occurred in New York City in 1915–16.
Chicago’s first street gangs developed among White immigrants along ethnic lines in the 1860s— particularly Irish, German, and Lithuanian people.

9. These gangs were created along ethnic lines and they often fought to protect their turf and each other
Some of these gangs could be quite violent, as Philip Hone, a New York merchant, wrote in his diary in "The city is infested by gangs of hardened wretches. . . [They] patrol the streets making the nights hideous and insulting all who are not strong enough to defend themselves." But like gangs today, the gangs of old New York mostly attacked each other, protecting their turf against rivals, which included the police as well as other gangs.

10. The Five Points District became the worst area in New York City, though today it doesn’t look the way it did then
Five Points is alleged to have sustained the highest murder rate of any slum in the world. According to an old New York urban legend, the Old Brewery, an overcrowded tenement on Cross Street housing 1,000 poor, is said to have had a murder a night for 15 years until its demolition in 1852
The slum was finally demolished in the late nineteenth century after relentless slum clearance efforts. Today, this historic landmark is home to the famous Foley Square, Columbus Park and Collect Pond Park., with the facilities of the New York City Department of Correction being only the remnants of the crime-infested bygone era that this neighborhood has witnessed.
Five Points was dominated by rival gangs like the Roach Guards, Dead Rabbits and Bowery Boys. According to Herbert Asbury's book The Gangs of New York, police arrested 82,072 New Yorkers in 1862, or 10 percent of the city's population. In 1864, five police officers were murdered. To give a sense of the era, Asbury's book tells the story of a little girl who lived with 25 people in a small basement room and was stabbed to death for a penny she had begged. Asbury reports the girl's body lay in a corner for five days before her mother dug her a shallow grave in the floor.
of going on all fours, and why they talk instead of grunting?"[13]
[edit] Infectious diseases
Infectious diseases such as cholera, yellow fever, typhus and tuberculosis plagued New York City since the Dutch colonial era. The poor sanitary conditions, overcrowded dwellings and lack of even rudimentary healthcare made impoverished areas such as Five Points ideal for the development and transmission of these diseases. Several epidemics swept the City of New York in the 18th and 19th centuries, some of which originated in Five Points. In June 1832, an outbreak of cholera in Five Points spread rapidly throughout the crowded, unsanitary dwellings of the neighborhood before spreading to the rest of New York City.[14] Cholera epidemics would break out again in subsequent years in 1849 and 1866.[citation needed] These epidemics were seen by some as resulting from the immorality of the residents of the slum:
In manhatten
The most wretched of New York City's slums in the 1800's was an area called Five Points, named for the five points created by the intersection of Anthony (now Worth), Orange (now Baxter), and Cross (now Park) Streets. The area formed a "truncated triangle about one mile square" and was "bounded by Canal Street, the Bowery, Chatham" (now Park Row), "Pearl, and Centre Streets."1 Paradise Square, a small triangular park, was located between Anthony (now Worth) and Cross (now Park) Streets and converged into Orange Street (now Baxter). These slums no longer exist, having been replaced by city, state, and federal courthouses and the area known as Chinatown.
The origins of Five Points began around 1802 with a landfill that covered a foul pit of chemical and animal waste. In the 1700's lower Manhattan contained a large lake filled with an abundance of fish and surrounded by wild marsh lands teaming with birds and other wildlife. The lake became known as the Collect Pond and was very popular with fishermen and local residents who would picnic along the shores in the summer and skate on the ice in winter. It was a lovely place until the tanneries, breweries, and slaughterhouses moved in and caused massive pollution and contamination of the lake's water. In 1802 the city's Street Commissioner recommended that the Collect be drained and filled in due to the stench and health problems caused by the pollution.
The Collect landfill was completed by around 1812 and by 1813, the streets were laid out and the land speculators moved in, building two and one-half story wooden structures. Many were occupied by artisans and tradesmen who combined their home and business into one dwelling. Coulter's Brewery, one of the original industries, remained after the Collect was filled and continued to brew beer until 1837 when it was converted into a tenement, called the Old Brewery. Industries such as glue factories and turpentine distilleries joined Coulter's on the newly created landfill.
Five Points was considered a poor but respectable part of lower Manhattan until around The decay into a slum was helped by several events: a shift from handcrafted goods to mass production of goods, a huge influx of poor immigrants, and landowners subdividing buildings without regard for safety or sanitation. Factories mass produced goods such as clothes, shoes and other items at a cheaper cost, undercutting the individual tradesmen. The apprenticeship system which provided room, board, and steady work for children learning the trades disappeared. Children of working-class families who normally would be kept busy learning a supervised trade were left free to wander the streets. Many of the artisans and tradesmen moved out of the area and were replaced by Irish and German immigrants. As the population of Five Points swelled with new immigrants, landowners or their agents found it very profitable to subdivide and add on to their wooden structures. The buildings were carved into tiny apartments, many were the size of a small bedroom and windowless. The bottom floor of each building frequently housed a saloon, groggery (combination of groceries and cheap liquor), or brothel. The buildings were referred to as tenant houses' or tenements and were crammed with immigrants, returning a hefty profit to the landlords or sublandlords.
Unfortunately, the instability of the landfill under the tenements caused the buildings to partially sink and become prematurely old. Basements (many inhabited by immigrants) and streets frequently flooded when it rained, creating a damp, decaying, and unhealthy atmosphere. Most of the streets were not connected to sewers and people used basement or outdoor privies which were rarely cleaned and constantly overflowed, filling backyards with human excrement which in turn flowed to the streets, and joined up with the tons of horse manure and leftover industrial waste. These filthy conditions plus contaminated water contributed to the high death rate in Five Points. According to the AICP (Association for Improving the Conditions of the Poor), based on data from the years 1850 to 1860, seventy percent of the children under the age of two died each year.
Into the morass of Five Points, the poor immigrants arrived, many without any resources or means of employment. Irish immigrants, from the worst of the potato famine, arrived in New York City dressed in rags, malnourished and in poor health and took the cheapest quarters available. Families usually settled in decrepit tenements such as the Old Brewery, Jacob's Ladder, Gates of Hell, Cow Bay, and Mulberry Bend where they were lucky to have a single room for themselves. The single men and women frequently settled into boardinghouses or lodging rooms which ranged from indescribably filthy cellar rooms, where as many as twenty people slept on straw in one room, to modest, but clean establishments with beds.

11. Social movements like Nativism (anti-immigrant) grew popular
And social gospel
And temperance

12. Public education came to be required for kids 8-14 in most states
1900-=Over fifteen million children are enrolled in American public schools. Between 1891 and 1900, three million, seven hundred thousand new immigrants arrive in America. Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have compulsory-education laws, heightening the issue of language instruction. (Bilingual Education) At least 600,000 elementary students (about 4 percent) receive some part of their education in German. (Bilingual Education) The majority of students in urban centers are children of immigrants. Schools are called upon to prepare these students for jobs in the new urban industrial economy.
But schools were definitely segregated and slanted toward white, male priorities
By 1900, 250 colleges and universities existed though not many went to them
They were also white male dominated
Most scholarships went to men (colleges were really expensive)
Parents worried college made daughters too independent or unmarriable
University of Wisconsin required women to stand until all males sat first
Picture of Harvard law school
Harvard Univ. Cambridge, Mass. 1636
Coll. of William & Mary Williamsburg, Va. 1693
Yale Univ. New Haven, Conn. 1701
Princeton Univ. Princeton, N.J. 1746
Columbia Univ. New York City 1754
Univ. of Penn. Philadelphia, Penn. 1757
Brown Univ. Providence, R.I. 1764
Rutgers New Brunswick, N.J. 1766
Dartmouth Coll. Hanover, N.H Read more: Oldest U.S. Universities and Colleges — Infoplease.com