“TALES OF TWO CITIES”

Native- Born VS. Immigrants

Now that the Erie Canal opened up in New York has rapidly grew.  The population grew and grew and grew! Everyone wanted to come to New York from all over the world.  The Irish and Germans came to the USA through New York.  New York became so overpopulated that they stopped the new comers from coming through the gates.

These people that came to our “New World” were now called immigrants.  New York was now a huge diverse city.  Although New York was considered one big city, it was more like two cities.  The Immigrants VS. The Native- Born Citizens. These two groups of people lived very different from one another.  After doing the reading in Lankevich, I was horrified by the conditions the Immigrants were living in.

The Immigrants were living the worst out of the two cities.  They were living in unsanitary and unhealthy conditions.  They created the “ghetto.”  They were also the first to live in tenements.  Tenements were the first apartments but were very highly unsanitary.  They smelled really bad and were very filthy.  They didn’t have bathrooms inside the tenements.  They had to go outside and shower and use the bathroom. Families and single bachelors lived in these tenements.  It’s the only thing they could afford at the time; they didn’t have much of a choice, and if they did complain, the landlord wouldn’t care.  He could find someone else to replace it immediately.

Back then, no one knew about being sanitary.  They had poor hygiene, even the rich; however the poor were the ones who mostly lacked hygiene.  Because of these conditions, diseases and epidemics spread throughout the city, killing many.  There were more Immigrants dying than the Native-Borns. 

Meanwhile these Immigrants are living in these horrible conditions, the Native-Borns were living in houses.  They didn’t have to use the bathroom outside like the Immigrants.  Their homes weren’t as filthy as the tenements.  Of course they also had better jobs than the Immigrants.

I believe the “Tale of the Two Cities” still exists until this day, except it isn’t between the Immigrants and the Native-Borns.  It’s between the rich and the poor.  Ghettos still exist.  Although it was all one big city, it still was like it was two cities in one.  The diversity of New York all started from 1825, when the “Tale of the Two Cities” began.