Themes in American History

During the 1920s, entertainment was being established in New York City. Especially in Harlem, where music and the arts came to life. Similarly, New Orleans also had a music break through. Many talented African Americans came out to night clubs and bars to show off their talent in singing and playing instruments. Music from New Orleans influenced New York’s culture, and entertainment world. Jazz brought up a mix of other creative innovations with in the communities it touched.  Here is a video showing how Jazz influenced New Orleans and New York. Jazz served as a gateway outside of their work, so they can relax with other people and enjoy the music.

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/30143-assignment-discovery-american-jazz-age-video.htm

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One similarity about New York and New Orleans that existed between 1800 and 1865 was the conflict between new immigrants and native-born residents together with the foreign-born expansion in the population. As a result, “by the 1850’s, more than half the residents of Boston and New York City were foreign born.” (Chudacoff 74) According to Chudacoff these new comers where Europeans:  “Major populations of Irish immigrants could be identified in New York, Boston and Philadelphia…”(74) This new group of immigrants added their culture and customs in these cities. Chudacoff states these new immigrants “brought their cultural traditions of work and leisure, spirituality and sociability, which often came into conflict with those of native-born residents.”(74)  One example of these traditions was their drinking and the Catholic religion. Similarly, in New Orleans  “by 1860, 40 percent of New Orleans population was foreign born.” (Chudacoff 74) The immigrants in New Orleans, French and Spanish brought with them their traditions of carnival, “…with maskers, Harlequins, and Punchinchellos parading the streets with guitars, violins and other instruments in the days before lent.”(Chudacoff 74) As a result, this caused the hatred of the native-born residents. According to Chudacoff: “By the 1830s and 1840’s, New Orleans revelers were throwing flour and pieces of brick as well as candies and cake and apples and oranges to people along the parade route..”  Referring Mardi Gras as a “vulgar and tasteless” celebration (74) To the contrary, one difference between these cities was that New York was a Protestant city while New Orleans was Catholic. “An early wave of Irish immigrants, fleeing British persecution at the end of the 1700s, landed in New Orleans and became well integrated into the economy and social life of the city. The first St. Patrick’s Day celebration was held in 1809. Irish social and benevolent organizations were formed, and Irish theater thrived.  (neworleansonline).  On the other hand, New York didn’t see the Irish population in that way:  “native –born enthusiasm for temperance translated into passionate anti-Catholicism, sharply splitting the working classes along ethnic lines and turning neighborhoods into battlegrounds.” (Chudacoff 75)

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New Orleans and New York have their share of differences and similarities. The most obvious difference is that one is a city from the North while the other is a city from the South.  Each has it’s own different lifestyle. With the North being more notable for freedom for slaves and industrial services, the South was none for its intolerance towards slave freedom and their agriculturalist lifestyle. For New Orleans, this wasn’t held completely true. New Orleans “resembled northern counterparts in their commercial functions and social complexity” ( Chudacoff and Smith page 72) Although they were one of the few cities that had commercial functions, the business people relied heavily on the Northern capital and markets. This big one similarity, one difference between New Orleans and New York was that in New York diversity was well known and in a sense accepted. In New Orleans the French speaking people and the English speaking people had to be divided in the city “between a French quarter and an American Quarter, separated by a street with a broad medican called the Neutral Zone” (Chudacoff and Smith page 67) The diverse population in New York was in a sense mixed weren’t living in their own sections as was the case in New Orleans.

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New York City

When looking at New York and New Orleans during the 1800’s both are on opposite ends of the map. They seem like complete opposites in comparison, but they do contain similarities between them. New York is well known for its diversity, for example “by the 1850s, more than half the residents of  Boston and New York City were foreign born” (Chudacoff & Smith 72). This isnt’ a surprise as New York is well known for this, however, New Orleans is actually very diverse as well. “By 1860, 40 percent of New Orleans’s population was foreign born” (Chudacoff & Smith 72). In comparison, the ratio’s are similar, but when comparing this in number of people it isn’t as close. The foreign born population of New York in the 1850s was about  257750 (Chudacoff & Smith 60). While in the 1860s the foreign born population of New Orleans was about 67470 (Chudacoff & Smith 60).  This shows that even after ten years the New Orleans foreign born population was no where close in number the New York foreign born population was about 3.8 times the foreign population of New Orleans. This leads us to the big difference between both cities which is the size of them. New York was more greatly populated and more larger than New Orleans. For example in 1860 the New York population was 813,600 while the New Orleans population was 168,675 (Chudacoff & Smith 60).  The total New York population in 1860 is about 5 times more than the population of New Orleans. Overall, the two cities of New York City and New Orleans are both similar and different in certain aspects.

New Orleans

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