In the beginning of Foner, she says “the image and the reality are different” and that popular imagination has a way of romanticizing the old neighborhoods. She is absolutely right. If people truly thought that “the old ethnic neighborhoods were closely knit communities where their grandparents and great-grandparents struggled to realize the American dream. Conditions were hard, the story goes, but immigrants were excited about being in America and determined to do well,” then they have a completely incorrect picture about what it was really like living in tenements back then. Their “Disneyfied” versions of tenement life glossed over the hardships people had to live with every day in un-Disneyfied, real tenement life.
The true tenement and Five Point conditions described in Anbinder and Foners’ books were atrocious. It was painful to read about how people lived crammed into tiny apartments as large as a modern-day living room, without enough room for people to sleep. The lengths they went to in order to get a bed was terrible- not only did they sleep on floors, but they even slept on makeshift beds of four chairs put together in the kitchen, and were rudely awakened by chairs being pulled out from under them when people came in for breakfast. It was almost better to sleep on chimneys and fire escapes, which they did when the weather was nice, than to sleep in those “apartments”.
It is no wonder there was an awful outbreak of cholera- imagine living day after day without taking a real shower, having to use buckets and sponges to clean yourself, wearing the same ripped, dirty rags day after day, and not even having a bathroom. I can’t even imagine four families sharing ONE BATHROOM. And it wasn’t even a bathroom- it was an outhouse. The sheer number of people living in such close quarters in such bad conditions… its no wonder diseases like cholera spread so fast and killed so many people.
I wasn’t surprised to read about the drunks, murders and prostitution because those types of behavior are common among the poor and destitute who live in such a situation as described above. What DID surprise me though, was the fact that white and black people lived together, drank together, and there wasn’t the tension and animosity I’ve come to expect. Even in those conditions, among the poorest of the poor, I still thought that poor whites had a sense of superiority over their black neighbors and wouldn’t live peacefully among them.
The most disheartening part of the entire situation is the lack of action taken to improve things. Many people wrote articles publicizing the conditions people lived in at Five Points, and the rich people even went “slumming” with police escorts to gawk at others’ misfortune, but did not feel a shred of obligation or desire to help these people out and donate money, clothes, food or SOMETHING. “Slumming” and visiting Five Points even became a standard part of a tourist’s itinerary! People seemed to be embarrassed and disgusted, but made no move to help! They even went so far as to say it was the poor people’s fault they lived that way because they were so lazy and just sat around drinking and prostituting all day. How could they not realize that if they had the means to escape, the poor people would be out of there in a flash? They were the victims and needed to be helped.
I’m not saying I am pro-slavery, but the South was right on this occasion- the North should worry about “fixing their own skirts” and taking care of their immediate issues, such as the living situation at Five Points, before looking to improve the South and abolish slavery.
To respond to Rebecca’s spark, I don’t think capitalism is entirely at fault. Socialism has its fair share of problems as well, and as an economic system, I think capitalism is better than socialism. The competition supported by capitalism is necessary to bolster the economy and make new improvements/ discoveries that everyone will benefit from (even if the inventor’s intention is just to become a millionaire and not to help mankind). I think human nature is at fault here. People in general are essentially greedy, lazy and selfish, especially when they fall into money. That’s why this problem would exist in a socialist society as well as a capitalist society- in a socialist society, since everyone gets equal money and possessions anyway, there is no incentive for people to work to better themselves and society. On the flip side, in a capitalist society people are so focused on amassing more wealth that they don’t stop to think about helping the very unfortunate people below them. I think it is pretty messed up that people worry about buying a third car/ second house or a fancy new gadget, when other people are struggling to find a bite to eat, or a street corner to sleep on.
