Using Essex History October 1, 2007 Seminar: The Progressive Era in Essex County Lesson Plan. Not tired, not huddled, not wretched

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1 Using Essex History October 1, 2007 Seminar: The Progressive Era in Essex County Lesson Plan Title: Not tired, not huddled, not wretched Grade Levels: 11 Time Frame: several class periods Links to Massachusetts History and Social Studies Frameworks: USII.3 Describe the causes of the immigration of southern and eastern Europeans to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and describe the major roles of these immigrants in the industrialization of America. (H) Seminal Primary Documents to Read: Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus (1883) Essential Question: Why is the inscription on the Statue of Liberty not accurate? What are push-pull factors of migration? What conditions did immigrants face after arrival in the U.S.? What role did settlement houses play in assisting immigrants? Essential Objectives: Students will: discover the push-pull theory of immigration identify the origins and goals of the late 19th-early 20th century European immigrants to the U.S. extrapolate information from the 1910 U.S. Census for Ward 1, Salem, MA utilize split notes to organize information write an essay based on primary and secondary sources. Rationale & Links to UEH Seminar: The Massachusetts Social Studies Frameworks includes Emma Lazarus s The New Colossus as a seminal primary document to be read by students as part of the U.S. curriculum. It is doubtful that the blatant nationalism behind the traditionalist approach to U.S. History in the Frameworks would approve the interpretation of Lazarus s poem offered in this lesson plan. Many students in our classes are only one or two generations removed from the Southern and Eastern European and Middle Eastern immigrants of the latter nineteenth and early twentieth century. Why should they be taught that their grandparents or great-grandparents were tired poor huddled and wretched? My grandfather came from Italy, and he certainly was not! So, after the October 1, 2007 Using Essex

2 History Seminar The Progressive Era in Essex County, I created and used most of this lesson plan with my current U.S. 11 class, whose ability profile is in the low general range. They were very responsive to the concepts and activities and wrote their best essays to date. So, thanks to Liz Duclos-Orsello for introducing the theory of Steven J. Diner. Procedure: Part I Ask students: From where did your ancestors come to the United States? Write emigrate and immigrate on the board and ask students to define the words. Then ask students if they know why their ancestors immigrated. The discussion based on that information should be lead to or should emphasize that during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there was a shift in the pattern of European migration, with the majority emigrating from southern and eastern Europe and the Middle East. Then make two headings on the board, one headed Push and one headed Pull. Explain that there are reasons that people leave their home town or home land, the push factors and factors that draw migrants to a particular destination, the pull factors. Ask students to provide their ideas on the push and pull factors. Pass out copies of The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus. Most students are at least somewhat familiar with it. Have a student or students read it aloud, and as they read the section of the poem that is inscribed on the Statue of Liberty write on the board: tired, poor, huddled, wretched, refuse, homeless. Ask the students if this accurately describes their ancestors, or most immigrants to the U.S. Answers will vary; some students may grasp the contradictions immediately, and most will do so after a few well-put questions. Using student responses as a jumping-off place, give a short lecture based on Steven Diner s thesis. Students may use a split note format. One side of the page should be headed: Important Question or Important Term; the other side should be headed: Answer or Definition. Either numbers or bullets can be used. It may be easier for students who have never used split notes before to take notes and transfer them into the new format later. Major points to include in lecture: migration to American countries an extension of local migration [see Ravenstein s Laws of Migration: most migrants travel short distances which produces a current towards large commercial centers.] most immigrants came for economic opportunity, not because of political oppression: of all American destinations, the U.S. had the most rapid economic growth immigrants were not from the bottom strata of their societies: had to pay for passage and be able to support themselves until work found in destination; required ambition, energy, dedication to goals.

3 most immigrants had family members or friends waiting to receive or assist them: chain migration most immigrants planned to return home: they wanted to buy land and homes in their country of origin; became role models in their home communities most were young males, but if a family was established or brought over, the entire family worked: shopkeepers, peddlars, domestics, wage workers. The 1910 Salem census students will be working with lists domestic help and wage workers as major occupations. immigrants established social clubs, aid societies, and their own churches to retain their language, culture, religion and many sent their children to parochial schools. This ties in with one of the extension options listed below. Homework: Reading from Italy in The Nineteenth Century by Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer: pp and Questions: (1) What pushed a tenant of an absentee landlord in Naples or Sicily to emigrate? (2) What were the national economic problems of Italy? (3) What contributed to the corruption of the government? (4) What is the attitude of the author (Latimer) towards Italians and the nation of Italy? (5) Re-read Mr. Gladstone s comments on p Gladstone was an important and highly respected British politician. What do his remarks reveal? KEY: (1) a feudalistic system based on absenteeism and rack rents; constant indebtedness to the land agent (gabellotto). (2) constant deficits, high taxes, protest riots (3) bank scandals, Mafia, conflicts with Vatican, imperialist ideas (4) condescending and paternalistic (5) Gladstone refers to the Neapolitans as having been basking, loitering, lolling, loafing in mid-19th century, but all that seemed to have changed; the filth had disappeared and there was a free press, speech, worship - all attributed to Victor Emmanuel and King Humbert. Therefore, a people more fit to emigrate. Gladstone s remarks are also a great place to launch the concept of Nativism in U.S. Part II Students will read aloud in turn excerpts from DeForest and Veiller The Tenement House Problem and Robert Hunter s Poverty. Comments and questions will ensue naturally. Students should then be asked to connect what was learned from the readings with major points from lecture of the day before. Students should jot down their thoughts first if a discussion will be used, or may respond purely in a written format. Homework: The extension selecton of a chapter or parts of several chapters from Upton Sinclair s The Jungle focusing on immigrant neighborhoods may be assigned here. Part III Form students into groups of no more than four. Provide each group with a different page from the Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910, Population. Salem, MA (selections from Ward 1, Enumeration

4 Districts 452 and 453). Students can read these pages, if the copies are of good quality. Write assignment on board: You are sociologists living in and volunteers working for the House of the Seven Gables Settlement House in Salem in Given the information provided in the 1910 Census for Salem s Ward 1, how do you determine what help the immigrants in your neighborhood most need? How will you go about providing it? If the class requires more specific questions, the following, which were actually created for this activity by one group of students, are suggested: (1) Do the residents speak English? (2) Are they employed? (3) What type of work do they do? (4) Is their job sufficient to support a family? (5) Are they educated? (6) What is the country/state of origin of the parents/adults? (7) What is their religion? (8) What can the society provide for children? (9) Are the unmarried women or the widowed able to support themselves? (10) What year did them immigrate to the United States? KEY: The following answers are examples of those provided by the students who did this activity: they need jobs, since 21 are currently not working they need to be trained in a profession or trade, which is hindering their ability to support themselves and/or their families they need education: only 17 out of 50 have attended school since Sept., 1909 a Polish to English language class could be offered so they could better learn to speak, read, and write English the single men need wives so they can start their own families To close the lesson, utilize First Annual Report House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association. Salem, MA, as a basis for a short lecture or excerpt for students to read to see what the Seven Gables Settlement Association actually thought and did. How similar were the findings of the students and the settlement house? Part IV Assign students an essay: Discuss immigration to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century. define emigration and immigration what shift in European countries of origin occurred during this period? what were the push-pull factors? why is the inscription on the Statue of Liberty not quite accurate? what living conditions awaited many immigrants? what was the role of settlement houses in assisting immigrants? Assessments:

5 responses to written questions participation in group work and class discussions essay Extensions: Set the lesson plan up as a DBQ for higher level classes. Select a chapter or parts of several chapters from Upton Sinclair s The Jungle that focuses on the immigrant neighborhoods of Chicago rather than the meat packing plant. Sinclair intended his book to be focused on the immigrants who lived and labored in the plant, not an exposé of the meat packing industry. The entire book can be accessed online at <Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.>. Students can take a virtual tour (visual and audio) of a Lower East Side tenement house online at < Have students read the testimony of Camella Teoli, a fourteen year old Lawrence textile worker in 1912 (year of the Bread & Roses Strike), before the U.S. Congressional committee investigating the conditions that prompted the strike. Teoli s lost part of her scalp when her hair was caught in a machine. Includes her testimony that children of most immigrant families work rather than attend school. Shows how entire immigrant families were industrious. Then have students read excerpts from the 1910 Naumkeag School and Evening School in Salem to discover how many teens worked in Salem and the option of attending night school. How does the option of night school compare with obtaining a GED? Comparisons beg to be made with the immigration issues of today. The push-pull factors of Latin American, especially Mexican, migration can be connected to an assignment on the recent debate over changing U.S. immigration law. Another debatable topic is the tightening of our borders against infiltration by terrorists posing as migrants. Resources and Annotated Bibliography Primary Documents City of Salem. City Documents (1910). Salem Room, Salem Public Library, Salem, MA. Excerpts of Salem School Committee on the Naumkeag School and the Evening School reports on the number of teenage workers and evening classes for adults. First Annual Report House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association. Salem, MA, , Phillips Library, Salem, MA. Contains the mission statement of the Seven Gables Settlement House, as well as the report of the Head Worker profiling their clients and the programs offered to them. Lazarus, Emma. The New Colossus. Statue of Liberty National Monument.

6 < (11 October 2007). A perfect combination of patriotic truths and nationalistimperialist drivel, sure to spark discussion. Begs to be knocked off its pedestal. U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor. Bureau of the Census. Thirteenth Census of the United States, 1910, Population. Salem, MA (selections from Ward 1, Enumeration Districts 452 and 453. NARA, Northeast Branch, Waltham. A profile of Salem s Ward 1 in 1910 that provides an insight to individuals and families, national origins, English literacy, professions, employment, level of education, and more. Students are able to read the handwritten 11 x 17 sized sheets with surprising ease. Secondary Sources DeForest, Robert and Lawrence Veiller. The Tenement House Problem. In the issues of the populist and progressive eras, , ed. Richard M. Abrams, Columbia: The University of South Carolina Press, DeForest and Veiller wrote their detailed descriptions of the dark hallways, noise, and garbage to grab the public s attention. Students love and remember the disgusting details, especially of the bathroom facilities - or lack thereof. Diner, Steven J. A Very Different Age: Americans of the Progressive Era. New York: Hill and Wang, Chapter 3, Immigrants and Industrial America provides the rebuttal to Lazarus s poem. Diner uses bases of Ravenstein s Laws to prove that young, energetic, and industrious males were the majority of immigrants. Includes the push factors of unavailability of affordable land and lack of jobs. Shows industry of immigrant families, retention of native identity, and social, civic and political control of their communities. Hunter, Robert. Poverty. In the issues of the populist and progressive eras, , ed. Richard M. Abrams, Columbia: The University of South Carolina Press, Hunter s first study of poverty in the U.S. offers statistics and charts in simple formats which are easy for students to understand. Boston is often included. Students can easily see that in 1900 the few members of the wealthy class at the top held the majority of the wealth.

7 Latimer, Elizabeth Wormeley. Italy in The Nineteenth Century. Chicago: A.C. McClurg and Company, Latimer wrote a popular series of illustrated nineteenth-century histories of European nations. Being a woman apparently did not hinder her salability as this is the third edition. Contains a succinct explanation of the land tenancy system in southern Italy, the corruption of the Italian government, the precarious economic system, and the opinion that Italy would be better off without Naples and Sicily. Provides evidence that France and England did not want the Italian immigrant either, and that even within Italy the southern Italians were not highly regarded.