Looking at the various sources of information on the ethnic and income level groupings of people in Chicago, I found myself very surprised at the high level of integration in the city.

I had always had an image of cities during this time period having very distinct ethnic areas. One neighborhood for the Italians. Another for the Greeks. Another for African-Americans and so on and so fourth.
This was not exactly the case in Chicago. While there do appear to be some patterns of groups living together, it looks for the most part like people of many different types of ethnicities and income levels lived in relatively close proximity to one another.

I still think that there would have been sort of an odd combination of cultural segregation and mixing. My impression of this time has led me to think that most of these groups did tend to stick together, but did encounter other groups very often. This created an interesting clash of cultures that had to learn how to coexist.

I think looking at this data has provided me with some interesting insight into the development of early American cites.

Motivations of Jane Addams

Discussing the general motivations of Jane Addams in a religious context is an interesting subject to take on. I think when discussing Jane Addams it is important to keep in mind that she was motivated by a multitude of things.

Firstly, Addams was motivated by her general experiences with impoverished people. She encountered great poverty both in London and Chicago. These two notable locations exposed many of the hardships that people had to face and served as a great motivator for her to create Hull House. Also, it is obvious that Addams' experience at the Seminary of Rockford influenced her decision to help the poor.

While these are things to keep in mind, it is still evident that Addams had some type of "spiritual motivation" in her work. I'm not saying that her motivations were overtly religious. I don't believe that they were. Instead I believe that from Addams' words it is obvious that she felt some type of "calling" to this work. She felt motivated to take care of the poor because it was the right thing to do. It is difficult to outright judge her religiously at this early point, but we can tell that Addams is serving a higher purpose.