Life during the first Gilded Age in the United States (1865–1925) was a time of considerable social differentiation between rich and poor. Newly arrived immigrants with little money were often relegated to substandard housing in American cities. In this study, I argue that some nonwealthy immigrants were racialized as poor, and I investigate whether this racial categorization created homogeneity in housing and material culture. I use the Five Points district in New York City as my point of investigation, confining my analysis to the late 19th century. My findings are that both tenement housing and artifact possession were generally homogeneous when the analysis is performed at the societal scale.

During the First Gilded Age, nonwealthy immigrants were racialized as poor, but housing and material culture were generally homogeneous at societal scales.

Paper

Beneath the Surface of Tenement Life: The Dialectics of Race and Poverty during America’s First Gilded Age

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