Summary of: Jews and Italians in Greater New York City, 1880 to World War I: Part ii
Most people know about some aspects of Jewish immigration and how it affected New York City. However, many more nationalities contributed greatly to the diversity of New York; like the Italians. Italians had a great impact on the New York because they were the second largest group to arrive around the same time of the Jews. Like most immigrants, the Italians came seeking a better life but they were very different than the Jews. Unlike the Jews coming in, most of the Italians were illiterate and closely resembled the Irish when they came to New York. Italians did not suffer a famine in Italy, like the Irish, but they were escaping hardships and poverty. It was not an easy task for the Italians to assimilate in New York. The first Italians to come were mainly men who emigrated looking to make money to send home. Other immigrants rarely returned to their countries. Men would either travel back to get their wives and children to New York or go back to find wives then return. The number of Italians key growing rapidly and by 1900, New York counted 250,000 Italians and this number just kept growing. The immigration number decreased during World War I but then resumed again and by 1920, the number of Italians had risen to 391,000. This was almost the number of foreign born Irish and Germans combined. Soon, counting the children, this number 800,000 in 1920.
Little Italy of Lower Manhattan quickly became the city’s most famous Italian colony but not the center of Italian population. Italians settled uptown, Greenwich Village, and soon moved
to Brooklyn and the Bronx. Italian men provided much needed manual labor for the growing New York and they based their living near their work. For example, along subway routes in Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. Soon, Italian Harlem was home to 4,000 Italian residents by 1880.
The padroni, labor contractors, had a say in determining settlement and they were looked down upon because of their promotion of contract labor. However, the padronis continued their ways even though the law prohibited it.
In 1897, the SS Trojan Senato arrived with 1,100 Italians and they were treated by over 5,000 friends and family members. Their numbers kept increasing and soon things began to become unsafe and everywhere Italians settled was often crowded and unhealthy. Because Italians came with no experience and not knowing the English language, they could not earn enough money to live in more comfortable environments.
Danish journalist, Jacob Riis, more than any other brought the city’s poor living conditions to the public view. His work contained paintings of some neighborhoods to show exactly what it looked like. Their living spaces not only were overcrowded and unhealthy, they were foul smelling and often had a large number of crimes and this made living conditions more difficult. This soon led to Italians gaining the reputation of criminals and Sicilians were accused of bringing along Mafia members. In 1909, a detective was killed while investigating possible Mafia conditions and this made things worse for Italians as there was more terror spread and this contributed to anti-immigrant sentiment.
Most Italians found work within common labor but they also found jobs outside that category. They became barbers, shoemakers, waiters, teamsters and bartenders and even musicians. They soon became involved in the city’s growing garment business. During strikes, employers looked for Italians as new employees and bosses loved them because their eagerness to work and flexibility with wages.
As mentioned before, women rarely came alone; they came as wives, daughters or sisters. Women who came to New York were expected to raise children, care for the houses rather than make money like the men. However, Italian daughters, single women and even married women, only without children, often found jobs in garment industries and garment-related jobs. Some families however, needed all family members to work to be able to afford the needs of the family. Men and women both had it hard with their different but equally arduous responsibilities. Even young girls and women had it hard as their working conditions were often unsanitary, dirty, poorly lit and they got paid very little. By World War I, Italians strived to enhance lifestyle by aiming for more skilled jobs. This was mainly pertinent to the children of the immigrants because some were able to stay in the city’s public schools and learned English and this led to some receiving white collar jobs. This was not the case for all families because they were untrusting of the public schools and needed their kids to work for the money.
Jews were the backbone of garment industries but soon, Italians became a big part as well. By the outset of WWI, a middle class had emerged from within the Italians as they became bankers, real estate promoters, newspaper editors, white collar workers, shop owners, and even a few musicians, lawyers and doctors. This led to them being able to afford moving to better better housing. Giuseppe Tuoti began selling real estate in Lower Manhattan then branched out to New Jersey, Coney Island, and Staten Island. Soon he became a success and million dollars of property was transferred through Tuoti.
Only after 1900 did Tammany Hall pay attention to Italian districts. Soon some Italians became officeholders such as Fiorello La Guardia who became quite successful In New York before WWI. Italians joined the Socialist party when they found Democrats and Republicans unresponsive to their problems as a working class. Soon groups emerged to help Italians with benefits for sickness, insurance, and other emergencies such as the Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants formed in 1901. Italians started to publish newspapers in their language to maintain cultural relations. Also by 1911, the city and fifty Catholic churches to meet the needs of the Italians who were not comfortable in the Irish churches. Italian New Yorkers remained a tightly knit community during the eve of the World War I.
