Topic 3 - Immigration

Required reading:
"Letters Home to Poland," Konstanty & Antoni Butkowski, Essay 13, Flyover
"Angel Island: The Half Closed Island," Brian McGinty, Essay 14, Flyover
"Unguarded Gates," Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Essay 15, Flyover
"Majority Wouldn't Trust a Wisian," Clarence Page, Essay 16, Flyover

Quiz:
Letters Home to Poland

1. Using the Butkowski brothers’ letters, what rights did industrial workers have in the early twentieth century?
A. Unskilled workers were actively recruited to join unions.
B. Business owners insured their workers against accidents.
C. Workers successfully petitioned the government for benefits.
D. Business owners neglected the well-being of their workers.

2. What ultimately happened to Konstanty- Antoni’s brother?
A. He was killed at work.
B. He went back to Poland.
C. He married his cousin.
D. He never wrote his parents.

Angel Island: The Half Closed Door

3. What group of immigrants were legally excluded from entering America in 1882?
A. Chinese
B. Japanese
C. Mexicans
D. Irish

4. Why did Nativists want to exclude Chinese laborers from the United States in the 1880's?
A. Chinese immigrants were economically successful.
B. Chinese immigrants were good businessmen.
C. Chinese immigrants had a reputation for being hard workers.
D. All of the above.

Unguarded Gates

5. In Thomas Bailey Aldrich’s 1885 poem Unguarded Gates, what is his main concern?
A. White European immigrants were halting America’s progress.
B. Immigrant women were out-numbering their male counterparts.
C. American politicians were biased toward Irish immigrants.
D. Newly arriving immigrants were destroying United States.

Majority Wouldn't Trust a Wisian

6. Who are the Wisians?
A. an immigrant group from southeastern Europe
B. an immigrant group from north central Asia
C. newly arrived immigrants into the United States
D. an immigrant group that never existed

A: Ellis Island was the defining American experience for European immigrants pouring into the country during the second wave of immigration. See some photos of Ellis Island as it was in the late 1800s here. Imagine yourself as a newly arriving immigrant to Ellis Island and write a journal entry based on what you see, hear, taste, smell, and touch. The journal entry must be one of first impressions. Where did you emigrate from? Why did you leave your homeland? What were your expectations of immigrating to America?

B: Where was everyone coming from? Use this graph from the Ellis Island website to explore just where the 'huddled masses' were coming from throughout the history of our country. What were the most obvious changes over time? Why were people coming from different places during different periods? Choose two immigrant groups from the 1820 and 1880 sections and do some research on the web to find out why the groups you chose were coming to the United States when they did. (Examples: Italians in 1880 and Irish in 1820).

 

 

C: As you analyze the following two maps, consider how immigrant patterns changed between 1820-1879 and 1880-1919? What European nations provided the largest groups of emigrants to the United States in Map A? Map B? How did these groups differ from each other? When did Thomas Bailey Aldrich write his poem Unguarded Gates? Which immigrant groups did Aldrich target his anger? Why? Which one of these migratory maps created the greatest amount of concern among Nativists (aka White Anglo-Saxon American Protestants)? Although xenophobia was the attitude of the day, why were there few restrictions placed on European immigrants until the 1920's?

 

D: Once the immigrants got past the inspectors at Ellis Island, and made it to terra firma in New York City, the hard part begins: find a place to live. Many immigrants would stay with family members who had already settled, but that was far from a permanent solution. Finding a place of one's own was a top priority for the newly arrived, and sometimes the home was less than ideal. But most did the best they could with their limited resources. The website The Lower Eastside Tenement Museum offers a virtual tour of a New York City tenement. Consider that between 1863 and 1935, 7000 tenants lived in 97 Orchard Street. The lives of some of these residents are the basis of our Virtual Tour. Visit the Gumpertz, Rogarshevsky, Codino, and Baldizzi apartments. What type of amneties did they have? What did they consider to be important based on the items located in the apartments? How much privacy did family members have? If you were given the opportunity to ask these first-generation immigrants any questions, what might you ask them? How might they respond?

 

E. On the west coast, Chinese immigration was creating much consternation among nativists. Anti-Chinese feeelings had been commonplace through the 1800s, but reached a fever pitch in the 1880s, as Chinese immigrants began to settle in more and more places outside California. Read the personal experiences of Chinese immigrants, past and present. Look at the cartoons of Thomas Nast. Do the Nast cartoons tend to support or oppose the rights of Chinese-Americans and Chinese immigrants? Provide examples. Did American nationalism and patriotism contribute to xenophobia toward Asian-American and Asian immigrants?

 

F. Why did your family settle in the San Antonio region? When did your family migrate to south Texas? There's a strong possibility that one of the reasons your family moved here was due to the Mexican Revolution (especially if you are Mexican-American). Usually the Mexican Revolution is an eye-opener to most students. This site provides a basic background on the Revolution. What did you learn about the Mexican Revolution before enrolling in this class? How was it taught in school? What did you learn about the Revolution outside of the classroom? Should the history of the Mexican Revolution be emphasized to a larger degree in our schools' curriculum? Why/why not?

or

G: Robert Runyon's photographs of the Mexican Revolution (1910-20) represent a generally impartial eyewitness account of events in Northeastern Mexico from 1913 through 1916. Three hundred fifty unique images in the Runyon Collection document one chapter of the revolution which Runyon witnessed in Matamoros, Monterrey, Ciudad Victoria, and the Texas border area and surrounding area. On this site The Mexican Revolution: Conflict in Matamoros, Robert Runyon photographed the disruption the Mexican Revolution caused for the people living along the border. After viewing this site and reading Essay 17, Mexican Movements into the United States in Flyover, what factors contributed to the Mexican Revolution and the subsequent diaspora into the United States? What role did the American government and its people play during the Revolution south of the border? If given the opportunity to better understand this period of history, who would you like to interview (famous or commoner) and what might you ask him or her? Will this period of the past continue to be shrouded in mystery?