20th Century Blog

I am a Chinese immigrant that has just reached Angel Island and I'm getting processed into the U.S system to be able to live in the United States. I have come a long way from overseas by myself to make my life better or to just see what comes my way. Many of my people haven’t made it to the U.S because of sickness and other problem that the Americans don’t want coming into the states. My life can get better if I try or my life can get even worse then it was when I was shipped to Angel Island. When I first walked off the ship there were thousands and thousands I mean it was amazing to see how many different races that were surrounding me.
Now that I have been checked and have been named a immigrant that is able to live in the U.S now I can look for a job so that I can provide for me self to survive on my own like my mother and father told me before they were shipped back to China. Life by myself is a hard task and I think to myself sometimes that I will never make it. As the days go by slowly and lonely I start to get stronger and smarter with what I have to do to live and keep food in my belly and some warm clothes on my body. I keep telling myself things will get better but I still feel the same way when I got off the Roget ship that shipped me to the U.S.

Coney Island was the first amusement park in American. It was in Brooklyn, New York. It was on an island. They had the first roller coaster. Almost all modern roller coaster are made of steel. Coney Island was used for entertainment.
The first roller coaster was made of wood and the track was six hundred feet long. It was built in 1884. It went up 50 feet high. It was 5 cents to ride it. They made $600 per a day.
Coney Island wasn’t just a theme park. Here is a listing of some of the other things on Coney Island. There were some bars in the middle of the woods where you could buy liquor. There were also hotels. In fact there were 2 of them. Thatis some of the stuff that made up Coney Island.

Get your popcorn and soda and enjoy the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus. Barnum and Bailey did not start out in the circus business together. Bailey started and teamed with James E, and Barnum worked with Dan Castello and William Cameron Coup. Barnum joined with them because Dan and William already created a circus. Bailey’s circus was soon Barnum’s chief competitor.

Cooper and Bailey merge’s with Barnum, and that’s how the brothers got started. In 1881-1882 the shows were combined and it was a great success. Then a tragedy happened that no one would ever expect, Barnum died in 1891 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Since his brother’s death Bailey went on doing the European tour that stared in December 27, 1897 and ended in 1902. The European tour gave the Ringling Brothers the opportunity to move their show to the Midwest through the eastern seaboard.

On July 6, 1944 one of the worst fire disasters occurred in Hartford, Connecticut. 7,500-8,700 people were attending the Ringling brothers when the fire broke out. The fire took place under a canvas. 100 people were killed in the horrible fire. Till this day the dead remain were unidentified even with using DNA techniques. The tent that the Ringling Brothers performed in had not been fireproofed.

The Brooklyn Bridge was finished in 1883. It was built for
the people to get to the island faster. It was needed, it made transportation a lot easer for the people and their goods. Their started
to billed the Brooklyn Bridge in 1870 it took 13 year to billed.
Here are some faces of the bridge, distance of roadbed above water - 135 feet, Height of Towers above high water- 276½ feet (JSG). Height of Towers above roadway - 159 feet (JSG). They used 3600 miles of steel cables. Dead weight of deck and suspenders - 13,240 kips - 3,410 kips per cable.

At the start of the 19th century, women had severely limited rights. Women had no control over their job earnings, had no claim of property, could not speak at public meetings, but most importantly, women couldn’t vote. Then, along came the Women’s Suffrage Movement that changed the lives of women.
The women’s suffrage movement began in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York. Suffragists that were led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott drafted a Declaration of Sentiments that demanded the right to vote for women. The Declaration of Sentiments, which was based on the Declaration of Independence, was signed by 68 women and 32 men. In 1869, the suffrage movement split into the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, and the American Women Suffrage Association (AWSA) led by Lucy Stone and her husband Henry Blackwell. The NWSA was seen as more liberal than the AWSA. Along the way the suffrage movement passed the 15th amendment in 1870, which gave black men the right to vote, but didn’t mention women. In 1890, for the best interest of the movement, the two organizations merged to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). In 1893, Colorado became the first state to adopt an amendment that granted women the right to vote. As years went by 15 other states followed.
In 1914, Alice Paul went to Washington and worked for the NAWSA’s committee. After she was jailed for her suffrage activities, the NAWSA asked her to leave the organization because of her tactics. Not wanting to give up hope, she formed the National Woman’s Party. In her own organization she had put together mass marches and hunger strikes, which eventually led to victory. On January 10, 1918, the house approved the 19th amendment, which stated that the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any other state on account of sex. A year and a half later, the senate passed the amendment on June 19, 1919. The 19th amendment became part of the US Constitution on August 26, 1920.
Although Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton devoted 50 years to the woman’s suffrage movement, neither live to see women gain the right to vote. Their work and the other suffragist’s work they all successfully contributed to the passage of the 19th amendment in 1920.
“Woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself.” – Susan B. Anthony

The most famous of all the units fighting in Cuba, the “Rough Riders” was the name given to the First US Volunteer Cavalry under the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt resigned his position as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in May 1898 to join the volunteer cavalry. The original plan for this unit called for filling it with men from the Indian Territory, New Mexico, Arizona and Oklahoma. However, once Roosevelt joined the group, it quickly became the place for a mix of troops ranging from Ivy League athletes to glee-club singers to Texas Rangers and Indians.

The Rough Riders saw battle at Las Guasimas when General Samuel B. M. Young was ordered to attack at this village, three miles north of Siboney on the way to Santiago. Although it was not important to the outcome of the war, news of the action quickly made the papers. They also made headlines for their role in the Battle of San Juan Hill, which became the stuff of legend thanks to Roosevelt’s writing ability and reenactments filmed long after.

Roosevelt and the commander of the unit, Colonel Leonard Wood, trained and supplied the men so well at the camp in San Antonio, Texas that the Rough Riders was allowed into action, unlike many other volunteer units. They went to Tampa at the end of May and sailed for Santiago de Cuba on June 13. There they joined the Fifth Corps, another highly trained, well supplied, and enthusiastic group consisting of excellent soldiers from the regular army and volunteers.

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. It is 5,989 feet long over the East River connecting Brooklyn to Manhattan. Completed in 1883, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world, the first steel-wire suspension bridge and the first bridge to connect to Manhattan. The Brooklyn was referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge but then later on it was changed to simply the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Brooklyn Bridge finally opened to people in May 1883 and people immediately stated riding through it. The person who helped all of this happen was John Roebling. The Brooklyn Bridge was located between Manhattan and Brooklyn. The bridge was really long. The Brooklyn Bridge took 13 years to build with many hard working men a part of the process. I still find it hard to believe that it took that long.

The Manhattan Bridge was also built later on in the years. It also connected Brooklyn and Manhattan. The reason I think that they built the Manhattan Bridge was because the Brooklyn Bridge was getting a lot of traffic. I think it was pretty hard to cross the bridge at a normal speed because a lot of people were trying to get to work, school and other things.

Muckrakers often wrote about the wretchedness of urban life. The muckrakers wrote about poverty and they showed society as big business. They played a significant role in the social justice movements for reform and the campaigns to clean up cities. They reported and publicized the dark corners of American society in a sensational way.

The period from 1700-1802 saw an increase in the kind of reporting that would come to be called “muckraking”. The term “muckraker” was first used in a speech on April 14, 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt: “In Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, you may recall the description of the Man with the Muck-rake, the man who could look no way but downward with the muck-rake in his hands; Who was offered a celestial crown for his muck-rake but who would neither look up nor regard the crown he was offered, but continued to rake to himself the filth of the floor”.

Upton Sinclair, Jr wrote over 90 books in many styles. Sinclair was defeated by Frank F. Merriam in 1934 when he ran for governor of California and after this defeat, he largely abandoned politics to return to writing. However this race in 1934 became known as the first race to use modern campaign techniques like motion pictures. He became very popular in the first half of the 20th century, gaining particular fame for his 1906 muckraking novel The Jungle. The book dealt with conditions in the U.S. meat packing industry, causing a public uproar that partly contributed to the passage of the Pure Food and Packing Act and the Meat Inspection Act in 1906.

Ida Minera Tarbell was an America teacher, author and journalist. She was known as one of the leading “muckrakers’ of her day which helped to create the idea of “investigative journalism”.

The World's Columbian Exposition — also known as The Chicago World's Fair — was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World. The exposition covered more than 600 acres featuring nearly 200 new buildings of classical architecture, canals and lagoons, and people and cultures from around the world. Dedication ceremonies for the fair were held on October 21, 1892, but the fairgrounds were not actually opened to the public until May 1, 1893. The fair continued until October 30, 1893. In addition to the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the New World, the fair also served to show the world that Chicago had risen from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire, which had destroyed much of the city in 1871.

On October 9, 1893, the day designated as Chicago Day, the fair set a record for outdoor event attendance, drawing 716,881 people to the fair. They had many types of foods from around the world for people to enjoy. At the fair they had the very first Ferris Wheel. They had Forty-six nations participated in the fair such as Haiti and many themes such as the Land of Oz, and Walt Disney’s theme parks. Disney's father Elias had been a construction worker on some of the buildings at the fair.

The exposition was located in Jackson Park and on the Midway Plaisance on 630 acres in the neighborhoods of South Shore, Jackson Park Highlands, Hyde Park and Woodlawn. Most of the buildings were based on classical architecture. The area at the Court of Honor was known as The White City. The spurning of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show proved a serious financial mistake. Buffalo Bill set up his highly popular show next door to the fair and brought in a great deal of revenue that he did not have to share with the developers.

Woman’s Suffrage & Nineteenth Amendment

People at this time viewed woman as citizens, but only when it came to certain aspects. One of these aspects did not include the right to vote. Woman were mostly looked at as inferior. Men were always known as the strong ones, and without the men the government thought we (the woman) couldn’t do anything, as an example voting, working in business or running a government.

Many people have different views on what the role of a citizen is. Some view a person as a citizen if they take part in the community. But then again, some people view citizens as others that are allowed to vote and make a difference in our community. Unlike woman these people were known as men.
At the Seneca Falls Convention’s the first seed was planted in the 1840’s. The anti-slavery convention in London held a conference that refused to seat Lucretia Mott and other women delegates from America because of their sex. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott called out for another convention to address the condition of women. Eight years later, it was known as a spontaneous event.

Either way, the view is that people must have a part in the community. The Nineteenth Amendment stated that the woman had the right to speak out and vote. Susan B. Anthony joined the fight, arguing that "the right women needed above every other, was the right of suffrage." She was a big reason women now have these rights.

Arriving at Angel Island in 1915 was an exciting, but worrisome experience for me. Like much of the other people arriving with me, I am a Chinese immigrant with the desire to leave the poverty of China and create a new successful life in the United States. On the journey here I made a friend with a man named, Hong Chang, we became very close. When we arrived in San Francisco, we were inspected. As we got closer to the line I realized that only some were granted entry and most were deported back to China. My heart felt like it had dropped to my stomach because thoughts and questions about whether or not I would be able to stay were racing through my head. It was finally my turn, I got inspected and I was granted entry. I was one of the lucky ones, unlike Hong who was sadly deported back to China. I was upset, but I knew I had to move on and continue my quest of hoping for a better life.
I was placed in a very crowded living quarter with many unfamiliar faces. Years went by and nothing got better. Just by looking around I got stressed, but I stayed strong. Every morning I would wake up to see the dead bodies of people who committed suicide and to be interrogated. Another couple years went by and I started thinking that if I end up dying in here I would want the people of the future to remember me and how strong I have been these years in this gruesome place. As a result, I started penciling and carving all my thoughts and what my hopes and dreams were coming here on the walls. I hope that if I die and another group of young Chinese men come here as I did that they stay strong and keep striving for all their wants and desires.

Hello. My name is Dushon Mandick. I came from Germany to Eliis Island. The boat ride was hell; there were so many people getting sick. Many of the immigrants who traveled with me died from sicknesses on the boat. My family and I left Germany because we were not able to worship our own religion. The boat ride took about a month to get to Ellis Island but when we arrived I have never felt better.

When we arrived we had to go through many procedures. They asked me many questions such as if I had a criminal record, if I had any allergies and also why I left Germany. They made me strip down to make sure I had no infections or that I was not smuggling anything into the United States. When everything was over I took the ferry into New York. I am starting a new life today and I have never felt happier

This is a picture of my family when we arrived at Ellis Island. They are going to inspect us real well to see if we have any diseases. One of my brothers has an eye disease so we think they will take him and send him back to Ireland. He will have to ride on the boat by himself. That will be scary for him. He probably will cry the whole way back.

I will get to stay with the rest of my family here in America. My father has told us that he hopes that once my brother get the eye disease cured, he will be able to join us. We hope that America is better than it was back in Ireland. I hope to live the American dream.

My mother was killed in the Russian massacre when I was just a little girl. My uncle has been saving money to send for all the orphan kids to live with him. I am indeed an orphan and being an orphan is tough. When my mother died it was really hard on my siblings and I because our father was killed about 3 years before. I gathered all my things together and helped my brothers and sisters pack their things. We got on the boat and headed to America were my uncle lives and where he will be taking care of me and brothers and sisters.

I get waken up by a worker who tells me we have arrived in America. As I am getting off the boat I see my uncle and I have never been so happy to see anyone in my entire life. America is a different place from where I used to live. We pulled in to his house and his house is a lot better than where I was living. He showed us our rooms and my room is really nice. I am happy to have a room that does not have seven kids living in it. Since I have been living with my uncle I have a lot of stress lifted off of me and now I can concentrate on more important things.

I am waiting to be brought in to the medical examiner for the seventh time this week. I have been here for six months, and they haven’t even cleared me of any diseases yet. I am concerned they are going to send me back to China. I haven’t seen my husband and two boys since we arrived; I am in a holding cell with just women. They other women have been here longer then I have, and their families have already been cleared. I am afraid I will end up like these women, and be separated from my family.
My family came here from China so that my husband could find work, without having to leave us every few weeks. We are going to stay with his friend that he worked with last year, before the fire burned down the factory. I am praying that I will be able to find work as a maid. I hope America will answer our hopes and prayers like the ones that left before us say.

My day was very hard. It was a long trip from China. It was very nasty on the boat. It had a lot of people. Also today has been a very slow day. I thought that I would be able to wander around the U.S., but I am still on Angel Island.

I got here and was like what is going on. I stood in line because they want to exam us before we enter. It is taking a long time for the exam. They wanted to make such we had no diseases. I want to tell them to hurry up and get it over with. We are getting treated pretty badly. I just want to get in the U.S. and get a new family

Its is now midnight. Today was a crazy day for my mom. She was getting check for things all day. My sisters were getting on my nerves. We are now in New York City and there is alot noise out here. My mom is going to look for somebody to takes in for tonight until we get our own house. My mom said since I’m the oldest I have get a job and her support the family.

I’m 11 years old, we all came from Italy, and my mom had problems there so we came to America here. My sisters are too young to take care of there self so I got to do it for right now. My mom is working at a sweatshop for 5cents an hour. I’m working as a delivery boy for 8cents an hour so I got a pretty good job So this my life and story in New York city.