My grandfather came from Sicily alone at age 11 in 1896 through Ellis Island to live with his married sister, her husband and kids in Five Points aka Little Italy. He didn’t speak a word of English and worked as a newsboy for a while. Eventually he married an Irish immigrant girl working as a teacher, joined the Democratic Party in NY and got a political patronage as a court clerk. Don’t judge, it was the way it often went then. He retired as chief clerk of the courts in Queens county. He never talked much about his early years in America but I’m sure they were not easy. Somehow he managed to avoid the gangs. One of his favorite things to do in his later years besides the racetrack and Yankee games (especially during the Berra and DiMaggio era) was the NY Times crossword puzzle which considering his background I thought was pretty impressive. When he got a word he would often say “in Italian it is…”. He has been dead since 1979 but I still think about him often.

@millster9389

5 ай бұрын

Oh my goodness! Your Grandpa was just like mine! My Grandpa came to NY from Sicily via Ellis Island in 1905. He married a beautiful immigrant from Naples who just got to NY the year before him. They lived in Brooklyn, moved to Maspeth and then finally settled in Massapequa Park in the 1960's. He was a hard worker. He was an iron union worker. His company in Westbury was behind many important projects all over NY.

@thomassciurba5323

5 ай бұрын

.@@millster9389 It is a very small world. My grandfather owned a two family house in Maspeth and we lived there for a while after my parents married before we moved to Massapequa Park in 1964!

@TheHistoryLounge

4 ай бұрын

Great comments - thank you for contributing!

@millster9389

4 ай бұрын

@@TheHistoryLounge Thank you for great content!

. . ✨ .. incredibly sad at 5:30 where three very young children are shown huddled together, shoeless and without an adult . .the feet of one boy stands out, either stained black from coal soot or God forbid, from frostbite . ..this pic was taken clearly 100+ years ago and my heart just cried to see them this way . .🕊

@siddrajput1029

5 ай бұрын

The facial expression on the rightmost boy at 5:18 says everything you need to know about that time period.

Many people of all cultures had a hard life back-in-the-day, and not just rural areas with dirt floor cabins.

Cherish what you have.

That was a great trip back in time. I'll never complain about my situation again!

@scottsinger273

4 ай бұрын

Amen to that!!

Interesting and very sad.

Thanks for this. Their lives were hell on earth.

My grandfather and his 11 siblings all began working from the age of 7. They worked in the textile mills and other factories, earning 30 cents per day. All their money was collected by my great-grandfather, who used it to finance a farm in Pennsylvania. The older kids, who could do hard physical labor, went to work on the farm, the younger kids stayed in the city and worked in the factories. Eventually all of them grew into doing farm work, and due to the labor of the entire family, they built one of the most successful farms in the state. It still exists today, and is still run by my relatives. Very few of the young people shown in the photos remained in the slums their entire lives, most worked their way up toward bigger and better things.

@LoverOFhopeANDcompassion

4 ай бұрын

On each face there is hope that things will get better. Heartbreaking seeing the children slumped exposed to the elements without shoes. I own a home have a job money food. Man i still complain, i feel so glad for my situation after seeing this.

Thank you for showing these . It puts our lives today more in perspective . As a kid over here in the UK in the1940s there were places like this not too far from where I grew up. Very well chosen music . You do a great job .

@TheHistoryLounge

4 ай бұрын

Good points, @ry491. And thanks for your kind words.

Somewhat reminds me of San Francisco today. Great watch.....

On each face there is hope that things will get better. Heartbreaking seeing the children slumped exposed to the elements without shoes. I own a home have a job money food. Man i still complain, i feel so glad for my situation after seeing this.

Visited the tenement museum in NYC and toured one of these buildings. Eye opening how people used to live.

I lived on Mulberry St in the Lower East Side for a short time in the 1990s. It's changed a lot just since then. It's crazy to see it 120 years ago. The demographic change is insanely noticeable.

Great photos and PERFECT accompanying music!

“These kids today” - should have to see this in schools.

@user-zm4rw5bs3x

2 ай бұрын

ABSOLUTELY! The book, "The Gangs of New York" was a REQIIRED read in my college English class.

Seeing little children, bare-filthy-footed, dressed in filthy rags, trying to sleep in doorways is unbelievable for a first-world country. Although people live better today thanks to the welfare state, things still need improving. Sometimes I think we are regressing i.e. the rising cost of living, lack of jobs and social housing etc.

Can you do a video on the shocking slums of new york 2020s?

@Patrick-tb6cn

5 ай бұрын

😂

@mariecolette9066

5 ай бұрын

Why don’t you make a video on why people are fascinated with slums in the first place? Does it make them feel better about themselves? Do you enjoy scoffing at others in a worse predicament? Do you compare yourself to people who lost everything and laugh at them? Are you always condescending others?

@marybeck7594

5 ай бұрын

​@@mariecolette9066it's an attempt to show how bad humanity has always been, it's not persnal.

@marybeck7594

5 ай бұрын

​@@mariecolette9066my husband ask buy the way, then why are you watching it?

@marybeck7594

5 ай бұрын

​@Dave67user-tc5km2nc6eAmen.

Phenomenal photographs. One looks into the faces of these people and wonders what hope they might have had for their futures

@alanoneill3065

3 ай бұрын

Don't you wonder what they were escaping?

I just happen to be reading Jacob Riis's book. This brings what I'm reading to life. Thanks for posting this.

@TheHistoryLounge

4 ай бұрын

Cool! Yeah - that book combined with Riis's photos really helped initiate some changes.

I guess it was better than back in the old country. These folks continued to tell their families back in Europe to sail for America

Loved that.."If you look closely" bit at the end.

Those poor children having to live under those conditions. I literally just told my kids I dont ever want to hear them complain when the WiFi cuts out for whatever reason.

@Fat12219

3 күн бұрын

😢

Ya, we have all newer slums now.

This is exactly what was described by Lucy Parsons and Jane Addams in their various books regarding slums, wages, and unionization at that time in Chicago (and New York). Child workers, needle women, families living in dire straits. This was an incredible look into that era and presented well. Thank you.

@TheHistoryLounge

4 ай бұрын

Thank you, Joseph

Feeling grateful for every little thing I have showers, bed, flushing toilet, clean clothes and food. 😢

Such a hard hard life 😢

Europe and elsewhere had much much worse conditions from wars and civil unrest so America and the awful boat ride was a good trade. Life in the slums back then and today.in the projects, a person's daily life was/is very challenging . Nothing to life= in the city, unless you're making big money and can go home to the outskirts This is a great site.

@TheHistoryLounge: Kudos once again Kevin! 👍👏👏 Between the photos and the music, the despair and hopelessness depicted is almost palpable. Where you have actual addresses of photos, it'd be interesting to see "then and now" shots (as you've done before...and quite well, I might add). Keep up the gteat work.

@TheHistoryLounge

4 ай бұрын

Thanks, Bruce - I really appreciate it!

Of course all the people in these photos are dead now, but yet some of them have descendants who are living somewhere now, perhaps the same area

First slumlord NY billionaire JJ Astor. Well done, man.

I've often dreamed what this world would have become, had the wealth of Rockefeller, Morgan, Chase and ilk, been invested into the poor? I'm no socialist by any stretch, but being extremely generous to people in desperate poverty, seems to me, to be the most human of all emotions, desires, and goals. It was for this disparity between the wealthy and the poor that Jesus/Yeshua taught about, when He spoke about the Rich Man and Lazarus.

@daralynx2

4 ай бұрын

These particularly can thank Astor- the largest slumlord ever, especially in the 1800s.

@fredrickmarsiello4395

4 ай бұрын

You are a socialist, if it concerns other people's money.

@alanoneill3065

3 ай бұрын

You will get pie in the sky when you die

You know what's worse than this? There are still slums over 100 years later.

Unfortunately, slums still exist today. And there are abused children who live in them. They are just well hidden.

These people had it rough 😢

Thank you 🙏

@TheHistoryLounge

5 ай бұрын

You're very welcome - thank you for watching!

*You know what's worse than this? There are still slums over 100 years later*

A life of mere existence until death welcomed you to eternity. Thats what I see. However I hope these people found some joy in this seemingly miserable time called life .

@scottsinger273

4 ай бұрын

Wow! Exactly!!

@MelvinJ64

3 ай бұрын

It was not as miserable as your words try to depict it. These people took pleasure in the very simple things of life such as food, friendships, alcohol, conversations, adventures, gossip etc. they lived from day to day and were grateful for their community. People are as miserable, lonely and mentally ill as ever today despite all the technology and material affluence. Don't for one second think everyone you see in this picture was miserable all the time. That's just arrogance and ignorance.

@scottsinger273

3 ай бұрын

@@MelvinJ64 That's even a better way of looking at it! Well said! Thank you!

I wouldn't be surprised if my great-grandfather was one of these homeless orphaned kids in New York City. 5:10

@ohmeowzer1

4 ай бұрын

Very sad they had a very hard life

well restored and colorized pics. we tend to forget that the same living conditions prevail in most countries för the poorest percentage, be it 10% or 1%

@captainamericaamerica8090

4 ай бұрын

BEST IN RWG. BLACK" N' WHITE! THESE COLOURS ARE WRONG! MY GREAT GRANNY WAS THERE! THE COLOURS' ARE NOT CORRECT. SHE LIVED IT

@TheHistoryLounge

4 ай бұрын

Thank you - and yes, point well taken.

don't like the zooming in after a picture pops up. I really would just like to look at the photo

@TheHistoryLounge

4 ай бұрын

Thanks for taking the time to mention this!

My Grandfather came over from Lithuania, which was part of Russia at 19 in 1909 thru Ellis Island, very little $$$, became a peddler, subsequently opened a very successful retail establishment l. - Jacob Sieve

Look around the world and you will still find the exact same thing! Nothing new has changed for centuries!

@leejones7439

4 ай бұрын

People in my city are renting out a bed in a kitchen for $350 a month. The housing shortage is that bad.

I think your channel is excellent and I am going to share it and keep coming back but just as a note, I think black and white photos are more impactful than colorized ones, which tend to detract from both the photo and the emotion.

Wow.

Great video, hilarious comments.

I can't imagine what it was like with all the mice, rats and roaches in places like that.

Read the book, "The Gangs of New York." It goes into explicit--HORRIFYING detail on the accounts of the 'Five Points' neighborhood.

1888 was one of the FIRST YEARS of ITALIANS COMING ON OVER!!! And 64 YEARS LATER in 1952 MOST ITALIANS were buying PRIVATE SUBURBAN HOMES and why not?? For $499.00 DOWN and $250.00 MONTHLY PAYMENTS the HOUSING/REAL ESTATE MARKET made it VERY EASY IN A WAY for the NEW SUBURBANITES to OWN A HOME as THOUSANDS OF HOMES were being constructed!!!! And with that $600.00 CONSTRUCTION JOB DAD could afford that MODEST AT TIME HOME PRICE and STILL buy a NEW $1,700.00 CAR or a USED $650.00 7 year old CAR that ran for ANOTHER 8 YEARS!!! The HOUSING PLANNERS figured it all out as the FLIGHT OUT of TENEMENTS & BROWNSTONES caused by CITY HOUSING PROJECTS tearing down 40 city blocks AT THE SAME TIME came in!!!!! And not one LAWYER helped out the DISRUPTED & REMOVED FAMILYS tru IMMINANT DOMAINE (sounds like a HIGH CLASS RESTAURANT TITLE) POLICYS☆☆☆☆

What sad pictures😢

This is sad but it's going to be the new reality with all the drugs being legalized. This is going to be the normal again. Sad, sad, sad

New York 1880s slums look like modern day slums of Philippines and India.

Muito cruel saber q pobre sempre foi relegado ao pior! Por mais q trabalhe, lute, qqr situação adversa o força à voltar ao lixo e acaba se acostumando pq uma vida de economias ñ garante dignidade a um trabalhador, sempre explorado pelo empregador inescrupuloso! E os governantes enxergam neles, uma fonte garantida de votos, basta algumas promessas... Parece q é assim no mundo todo, desde sempre, estou errado?

@johnl5316

5 ай бұрын

I guess it was better than back in the old country. These folks continued to tell their families back in Europe to sail for America . .

Thank you for this video. History is not always glamorous or comforting but it is something we need to revisit. Sometimes it can be food for thought and reflection. I am grateful that I have food and a safe and warm, clean place to sleep. I don't take it for granted. *Anyone* can end up in in dire circumstances. Anyone could be displaced, even if they think it will never happen to them. I think that is why I don't judge or belittle the homeless. Sure many are addicts or mentally ill, but there are other reasons. We have a son who is an addict. He does good for awhile but then does drugs again. He is in rehab right now. He hasn't had to live on the street, but lived in his car for a couple of months. He does work and has a job. I hope he doesn't end up on the street. I think his car just was repossessed. We aren't going to enable him anymore.

@TheHistoryLounge

5 ай бұрын

Hi Sheila - Thank you for watching my video and for taking the time to add your comments - you make very good points. I'm sorry to hear about your son's situation, and I wish him the best in his recovery.

The poor sweet kids sleeping in the street .omg

Shamefully, New York is even more foul and hopeless today. Lord have mercy...

❤❤❤❤❤

@TheHistoryLounge

5 ай бұрын

Thank you!

Over time as society changed, these people, especially the kids, would have done better.

@ValerieDee123

Ай бұрын

No it hasnt.

@Fat12219

3 күн бұрын

No electricity 😮

So much for White privilege! 🙄

Hart Island cemetery probably

Sería genial que la traducción fuera en español. Gracias y un saludo.

The good thing is that by 1930 EVERYBODY in New York had their own flush toilet unlike other cities which is pretty REMARKABLE progress!!!

Sadly, nothing has changed.

@rj-wz7do

3 ай бұрын

Actually, today, the latest immigrants, I mean illegals, I mean asylum seekers, I mean illegal asylum seekers...I mean....they get free 4 and 5 star hotel accommodations or at least schools. Oh, and they all get pre-paid cards. Apparently full on squatter's rights to boot!

Dejavu!

The photo of the three passed out boys and their keg really takes be back to my childhood.

Looks like the same thing today in same places in new York. 😪

GO WEST !! 🤠

@marybeck7594

5 ай бұрын

Have you seen san Francisco and Seattle now.

A mention of LAZURAS in comments here and think about it==not TOO MUCH HEALTH CARE for these newly arrived immigrants in the photos here but that LAZURAS guy did better than the early 1900 people or of us 2024 people WITH healthcare== LAZURAS ROSE FROM THE DEAD with NO HEALTH CARE!!!!! Pretty remarkable feat!!!

Unregulated capitalism

@fredrickmarsiello4395

4 ай бұрын

Anything radicalized runs counter to its intended goals.

@xkbp.

4 ай бұрын

@@fredrickmarsiello4395 Agreed

Poor people

@captainamericaamerica8090

4 ай бұрын

TODAY, THE MANY' MORE HOMELESS' HAVE WAY WORSE.

@actionjackson7460

4 ай бұрын

Give me a break!@@captainamericaamerica8090

@scottsinger273

4 ай бұрын

So sad!!

The same all over Britain in those days. America still has districts living in old ages squalor. 😮

😮 misery and poverty...

This is brutal man. Mankind was not intended to live like this. We were made in the image of God.

@johnl5316

5 ай бұрын

I guess it was better than back in the old country. These folks continued to tell their families back in Europe to sail for America...

Maybe it was better than where they came from...why else would they have journeyed so far...no option...emigrate or be driven into starvation

Why do the poorest have the most kids?

@Dulcimertunes

2 ай бұрын

Sex is their only pleasure

@History Lounge==Thanks !!!This photo session is just like the way its done TODAY== only show the """chosen & selected""" photos to fit the category in question=this film shows a few RUN DOWN & SORT OF CRAMPPPED UP LIVING SPACES but not whats known as BEAUTIFUL AREAS of OLD MANHATTAN in early 1900,s/BROADWAY MANHATTAN shops have postcards TODAY showing ALL BEAUTIFUL LANDMARKS & AREAS of MANHATTAN with the SAME OLD PLACES== STATUE OF LIBERTY*LINCOLN CENTER*RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL*EMPIRE & CHRYSLER BUILDINGS*TAVERN ON THE GREEN* but rarley NEVER anyplace (here we go again) ABOVE 96 street except a CHURCH CATHEDRAL or GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE!!!! But thanks for the photos here!!!!

Where Nothing like that in today’s society

@n.b1434

4 ай бұрын

Oh the slums are still here. Just hidden in homes. Children are horrificly abused and purposely malnourished living in extremely filthy environments. Many are ignored, sleep on floors, don't get baths, etc. Back then at least most parents loved their kids even if times were very dire and they were dirt poor. Generally they were not doing things on purpose to hurt their children like the sickos today.

@scottsinger273

4 ай бұрын

​@@n.b1434 Thank you! Absolutely well spoken!!

@n.b1434

4 ай бұрын

I wish it wasn't real in our world, but sadly, it is.

@jetsons101

2 ай бұрын

Seen San Francisco lately???

@scottsinger273

2 ай бұрын

@@jetsons101 Yep! The homeless there are worse than animals, disgusting!!

Terrible poor baby 😢😢

If you photoshopped cell phones into all the people hand sewing, it would be just like today.😊

They’ll be talking about Los Angeles and SF like this 100 years from now. Hopefully cleaned up by then

Minuto 4:03. El colchón es mugroso, a minutos de la putrefacción. Dios mío, qué infierno de vida, trabajando y viviendo para morir entre la cochambre.

@jmrabinez9254

2 ай бұрын

Ala... Y como sabes todo eso acerca de ese colchon?

If they tore down all the tenements which was a good thing, and built parks , where did the hundreds of families go? I know about the tenements but where did the families end up ? I’ll dig a bit on my own tho it became a thought whilst watching this. Whilst.

@eliseintheattic9697

5 ай бұрын

I was wondering the same thing.

Whats changed? The location, no tenements for people. Just homelessness

This is America. We get a lot of poor people migrating. …. And this is what the poor could afford.

What makes you think these photos show misery and despair? Graffiti and trash everywhere and people with blue and pink hair and people in public dressed n their pajamas are signs of despair, none of which are seen in these photos.

Still looks better than Baltimore today

those tenements are nicer than living in a tent on a street in modern times.Also better than some 3rd world shacks.

@pathfinderau286

2 ай бұрын

If they survived to today they'd be worth millions.

i think i saw me there lol

Looks a lot better than it is now and I am sure it was a lot safer.People WORKING,not doing drugs.

@JohnUnit

5 ай бұрын

what? crime, unemployment, and opium were all HUGE problems there in that era.

@sheila8730

5 ай бұрын

You did have study history in school, right? Desperation is a dangerous thing. Drugs don't always have to be the😢 root cause. A lot safer? Perhaps people were more ruthless. Folks stugged to get enough to eat for their families. Entire families lived in those dire conditions. I don't have a specific book for you to to read, but maybe some here, do. It might be interesting to know about what people have gone through in the past. Life has has never been a safe. Did you look at the pictures in the video? Do you really feel that life looked a lot better back then? I think the pictures were sad and heartbreaking.

Reparations

For those who complain about everything, would you rather go back to 1875??

Don't like the color work on these photos. Almost looks like that AI crap. Too many distortions and over sharpened faces. Bleh.

Billy the Kid was born at The Five Points Billy's mother & fatherl(?) went to Kansas Catherine moved on to Arizona. Took in washing. Died from tuberculosis while Billy was only 10. Billy needed food for his little brother and he. He stole some from the laundry, sold it. Bought food. Got a job with an Englishman herding cattle to Chicago. But a wrestter shot the Englishman & all heck broke losem

The photoed can't show the treibblesmell horse dung that were left where they died sewage lying in the streets

@Fat12219

3 күн бұрын

The smells , n the smells 😮

My how economic Overlord manipulators yearn for the return of days depicted in this video.

Very interesting video! We still have some of the same problems, unfortunately

Sad

Sigh..Why must Nyc forever be tied to slums, danger and misery? Out of all the topics in the world In 2024 and this is what you still chose to show on a channel? This is why so many slow people still believe cities are bad, especially New York, as if this is the only place in the entire world that had people living in poverty. There are ghettos/slums in Italy, England, China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico as well as other countries..why people focus on this city’s past more than anywhere else makes for a better topic 🧐

@marybeck7594

5 ай бұрын

Let the other countries make there own videos, the reason new york, it's called VOTERS

@danielroque8504

5 ай бұрын

Remember, the majority of the people who diss big cities (live in rural communities ). They have been groomed since 2016 to fear everything ~

Looks a lot like what bidens doing to America today.....

@lamper2

Ай бұрын

much worse now. heroes like Dan Penny who Stop Criminals are charged as murderers!

@jetsons101

Ай бұрын

@@lamper2 Trump 2024.............. When the people fear the government, there is TYRANNY; When the government fears the people there is LIBERTY.

@g.ecoleman5910

27 күн бұрын

@@jetsons101trump does love the uneducated! 😂

@Fat12219

3 күн бұрын

Right ✅️

"**STOP😦😦✋🔞❗ADDING COLOURS! THEY ARE NOT THE RIGHT REAL COLOURS. MY GREAT GRANNY TOLD US! SHE WAS THERE ! IN THAT TIME FRAME.

Now this is the norm. Thank you democrats. Also I noticed alot of families with multiple kids that's the main reason people are poor.. living above means. This includes reproducing too

@WingsandBeer

4 ай бұрын

and there is no excuse living in filth. My family was poor, but our home was spotless as well as the outside.

@Dulcimertunes

2 ай бұрын

Sex was their only entertainment