Czechs of the Catholic faith organized St. Religion also played a part in the decision of where some Czech immigrants would settle within the city. Chicago’s Czechs settled together in areas where housing was affordable and their native language and customs could be understood by others around them. The immigrant neighborhoods of Chicago were very insular their inhabitants preferred to live, worship (if they so desired), socialize, and do business with people from their same ethnic group. Czechs were at the center of the struggle of workers to organize and form labor unions that fought for higher wages and improved working conditions in Chicago. Like all urban areas of the time, the city was dirty, the neighborhoods were overcrowded and unsanitary, and the oppressive working conditions were unsafe for the tens of thousands of immigrants who labored long hours at low-wage jobs. There was an abundance of employment opportunities for newly arrived immigrants in the stockyards, lumber yards, and the hundreds of factories located within the Chicago area. Strategically located on the Great Lakes, Chicago served as a hub for railroads and in time became a giant in industry and commerce. After the arrival of Chicago’s earliest Czech settlers in the 1850s, many sent letters back to the old country extending Pozdrav z Chicaga, and boasting of available land, plentiful jobs, religious freedom, and the prospect of entrepreneurship, opportunities that did not exist in their native land.ĭuring the 1860s, Chicago was on the fast track to becoming the premier metropolis of the Midwest. Chicago was the destination for many of these newly arrived immigrants.
0 kommentar(er)
