Why newcomers came
Factories need workers, and in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, American industrial cities drew them from far beyond their own borders. Camden’s growth as a manufacturing city created demand for labor in shipyards, food plants, metalworks and textile and leather shops. People came for jobs, but also for reasons that varied from family to family: leaving rural poverty, escaping political upheaval or following relatives and neighbors who had already settled.
Camden was close to Philadelphia, a major point of arrival and a large city in its own right, so many people moved back and forth across the river as work and housing allowed. Specific counts of any one group in any one year are best taken from census records, since estimates in popular sources vary.
Waves of arrival
In general terms, the sequence of arrivals in industrial cities of the Northeast followed a familiar pattern, and Camden fits it broadly.
- Earlier nineteenth century. Immigrants from Ireland and the German states formed a large part of the newcomer population in many Mid-Atlantic communities, working in trades, on the docks and in early industry.
- Late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Immigration from Italy and from eastern and central Europe grew. Polish, Russian, Ukrainian and other communities, including Jewish families, became part of the city’s mix, alongside continuing arrivals from Ireland and elsewhere.
- The twentieth century. Restrictions on immigration in the 1920s sharply reduced new arrivals from Europe. Over the same decades, many Black Americans moved north from the South in what is called the Great Migration, and workers from Puerto Rico and other Latin American places became increasingly important to the city’s population, particularly after the Second World War.
Each group had its own reasons, experiences and challenges, and it would be a mistake to treat them as interchangeable. Prejudice and discrimination affected many newcomers, in hiring, in housing and in social life.
How neighborhoods formed
Housing grew up near the workplaces. Workers who walked to the plant, or took a short trolley ride, tended to live within a few blocks of it. Rowhouses were a common form, because they could be built quickly and cheaply and housed many families on small lots.
Newcomers often settled near others from the same region or village. Friends and relatives passed on news of jobs and rooms for rent, and this chain of connections tended to concentrate communities in particular districts. Over time, those places developed their own institutions:
- Churches and synagogues, often built by congregations that held services in the language of the old country.
- Mutual-aid societies and social clubs, which offered insurance, loans and companionship.
- Local shops, bakeries and taverns, serving familiar foods and customs.
- Parish and community schools, and, in time, public school classrooms where English was taught.
Working neighborhoods were rarely uniform. A single block could include several nationalities and faiths, and the mix changed as families moved up, moved out, or were replaced by new arrivals.
Life around the factory
Daily routines were organized by the plant. Shift schedules affected when children played, when shops opened and when families ate. Wages were often low, and many households relied on several earners, including teenagers and, in some trades, women. Boarding was common, with families renting spare rooms to single men from the same background. Conditions varied widely: some employers offered stable work, while others were dangerous or seasonal. A fuller account of shifts and trades appears in the article on working life in an industrial city.
Tensions and change
Industrial cities were not harmonious simply because people lived near each other. Competition for jobs, language barriers and discriminatory practices created tension. Housing patterns were also shaped by decisions that limited where some families could live, a subject explained in the article on redlining history.
After the Second World War, the pattern shifted. Many established families, often with the help of new highways and mortgage programs, moved to suburban towns, a trend described as suburban flight. Plants closed or relocated, and the neighborhoods built around them lost jobs and, in many cases, population. Newcomers continued to arrive, but they often found a different economy than the one earlier generations had known. The overall shifts are discussed in the article on population change in older industrial cities.
Tracing family and neighborhood history
Readers who want to learn about their own families or particular blocks can use several kinds of records. Census records list household members, birthplaces and occupations. City directories show where people lived and worked. Church registers, local newspapers and oral history interviews fill in details that official records leave out. Because spelling of names often changed, and records can contain errors, it is wise to compare several sources before drawing conclusions.