Chapter Five of Joanne Reitano’s The Restless City focuses on the major problems New York City faced during the 19th century. During the years 1856–1899, New York rapidly modernized, and was nicknamed the “Empire City.” New York was the setting of Horatio Alger’s book, Ragged Dick, which showed the city in a positive light but raised questions involving poverty, corruption, and labor. The city was now the hub for finance, industry, trade and immigration, but with this success came many problems that only solidarity through reform could change.
New York was the known as the Empire City for its success, but it was also under the corrupt power of the Tammany Empire. Tammany Hall, led by William M. Tweed, dominated the city’s political scene. Tweed had held various elected and appointed positions of power in New York, and used his connections (and bribes) to gain influence in both the Democratic Party and Tammany Hall. He appealed mainly to the white middle and working class voters, and had newly-naturalized immigrants vote for him as well. While he was deeply corrupt and stole millions, he did help the city – playing a role in the completion of Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as creating funds for hospitals and schools. Eventually, Tweed’s luck ran out, and he was exposed for all his corruption. Violence in the streets, like the Orange Riots of 1871, also hurt his image, and he eventually did time for his crimes against the city.
The city experienced corruption in not just politics. Robber barons and their companies were located in New York, and their businesses did equal parts damage and good to society. John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust Company helped modernize the American economy and contributed to the large market centered in New York. Rockefeller created trusts in steel, lead, sugar, amongst others, which now made New York home to most of the nation’s biggest businesses. Trusts became so powerful that it attracted political action and led to the regulation of many business practices.
Poverty was another major issue in 19th century New York. The city might have been the center for economic growth, but there was a huge gap between the rich and the poor. There was a Social Darwinian, capitalist mindset amongst many New Yorkers that “justified” poverty. Many were patronizing towards the poor, and others only wanted to help because they feared that poverty would lead to violence and crime. However, there were some who were actually dedicated to social reform and bringing about change in the slums of New York. Jacob Riis, a reporter for the New York Tribune, was in the Five Points daily for his job, and used photography as a means to expose the realities of poverty. His book, “How the Other Half Lives,” opened people’s eyes and exposed what life in poverty was really like, drawing special attention to problems youths in slums faced. Riis also promoted the creation of parks in slums, slum clearance, and tenement house reform, and worked with other reformers like Josephine Shaw Lowell. Lowell was the first female commissioner of the State Board of Charities, head of the NY Charity Organization Society, and later the president of the NYC Consumer’s League, the latter in which she helped mobilize women to boycott stores that exploited female workers. She was also an important leader in the women’s suffrage movement in addition to the labor reform movement.
In 1886, labor activism peaked and there were 1,200 strikes in New York alone. Previous efforts to organize were usually drowned out by police and led to conflict and police brutality. However, various strikes and simultaneous boycotts, led by organizations like the Central Labor Union, proved that there was strength in solidarity and power in collective activism. Other areas of reform included the New York City public schools, which became part of a centralized system in 1896. In 1901, the state of New York required all children under the age of twelve to attend school, and in 1900, became desegregated.
