page_title: Gilded Age
section_title: Immigration
hierarchical_section_title: Gilded Age / Immigration
caption_attribution_description: 1902 American cartoon about celebrating the Fourth of July Caption: "A False Alarm on the Fourth" Uncle Sam tells Lady Peace: "It's all right. There's no fighting. The noise you hear is just my family celebrating!" Other information From the Library of Congress prints and photographs division Library of Congress description: Illustration shows Uncle Sam, holding a firecracker, trying to reassure a concerned-looking female figure with wings labeled "Peace" that all the noise she hears is for the celebration of the Fourth of July. Celebrating with Uncle Sam are several figures labeled "Alaska, New York, Texas, Mass., Hawaii, Porto Rico, North, South"; one disgruntled figure labeled "Philippine" is climbing over a wall, also an African American is sitting near Uncle Sam. Some are lighting strings of firecrackers, "Texas" is shooting guns, and "Mass." is firing a cannon in the direction of the wall "Philippine" is climbing over. The U.S. Capitol building is in the background and a dove with olive branch hovers over the figure of "Peace".
context_page_description: In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era that occurred during the late 19th century, from the 1870s to about 1900. The Gilded Age was an era of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern United States and the Western United States. As American wages grew much higher than those in Europe, especially for skilled workers, the period saw an influx of millions of European immigrants. The rapid expansion of industrialization led to a real wage growth of 60%, between 1860 and 1890, and spread across the ever-increasing labor force. The average annual wage per industrial worker rose from $380 in 1880, to $564 in 1890, a gain of 48%. Conversely, the Gilded Age was also an era of abject poverty and inequality, as millions of immigrants—many from impoverished regions—poured into the United States, and the high concentration of wealth became more visible and contentious.
  Railroads were the major growth industry, with the factory system, mining, and finance increasing in importance. Immigration from Europe, and the eastern states, led to the rapid growth of the West, based on farming, ranching, and mining.
context_section_description: Prior to the Gilded Age, the time commonly referred to as the old immigration saw the first real boom of new arrivals to the United States. During the Gilded Age, approximately 20 million immigrants came to the United States in what is known as the new immigration. Some of them were prosperous farmers who had the cash to buy land and tools in the Plains states especially. Many were poor peasants looking for the American Dream in unskilled manual labor in mills, mines, and factories. Few immigrants went to the poverty-stricken South, though. To accommodate the heavy influx, the federal government in 1892 opened a reception center at Ellis Island near the Statue of Liberty.
caption: Celebrating ethnic pluralism on 4th of July. 1902 Puck editorial cartoon
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