US History: Unit #2 Immigration Primary Sources/DBQ Name: Document A: Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door. The New Colossus, a poem by Emma Lazarus (inscribed on the Statue of Liberty pedestal) 1. According to this poem, who will the United States receive? 2. List the groups of people who the words of this poem were not true for. Document B: There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism...The one absolutely certain way of bringing the nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities. Theodore Roosevelt, 1915 3. What does Roosevelt mean when he uses the term hyphenated Americanism? 4. Read the quote above the rear windows by Theodore Roosevelt s cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt. What is ironic when we compare the two quotes?
Document C: John Chinaman, John Chinaman But five short years ago, I welcomed you from Canton, John But wish I hadn t though; For then I thought you honest, John, Not dreaming but you d make A citizen as useful, John As any in the state. I thought you d open wide your ports And let our merchants in To barter for their crapes and teas, Their wares of wood and tin. I thought you d cut your queue off, John, And don a Yankee coat, And a collar high you d raise, John, Around your dusky throat. I imagined that the truth, John, You d speak when under oath, But I find you ll lie and steal too Yes, John, you re up to both. I thought of rats and puppies, John, You d eaten your last fill; But on such slimy pot-pies, John, I m told you dinner still. Oh, John, I ve been deceived in you, And all your thieving clan, For our gold is all you re after, John, To get it as you can. Lyrics from a song titled John Chinaman, anonymous 1860s 5. What are some of the things that the above song titled John Chinaman accuse Chinese immigrants of? 6. Explain the forth stanza. In your answer use two essential terms.
Document D: Political cartoon from 1889 (the character standing on the edge of the bowl is an Irish immigrant) 7. What is Lady Liberty attempting to do? 8. What is the stereotype of the Irish immigrant in this cartoon (in your explanation, use essential terms)?
Document E: Instead of remaining a citizen of China, I willingly became an ox. I intended to come to America to earn a living. The western styled building are lofty; but I have not the luck to live in them. How was anyone to know that my dwelling place would be a prison. Anonymous Poem written on wall of detention center cell, Angel Island, 1910 9. What was one of the pull factors for this Chinese immigrant? 10. What was the reality for this immigrant? Document F: "The main reason I was detained so long was that my father and I gave the inspectors different dates about when I departed China. The Chinese lunar calendar is about a month off from the American calendar! Ay! So my father hired a lawyer to get me out. Sometimes I cried because I missed my family and my friends." "Two men killed themselves, hung themselves. I went to the bathroom one morning and they were there. Maybe it was with a bed sheet. I screamed. I ran back to the barrack. They were probably about to be deported. I think one was about 30 years old, the other one 40." "Sometimes I wondered why we all came over here for that kind of treatment. Sometimes I just wanted to go home because they treated us like criminals. We were only immigrants." --- Lester Tom Lee, detainee at Angel Island 11. Describe some of the conditions of the Angel Island detention center?
12. Do you believe there might be both similarities and differences on how immigrants were treated from Asia compared to those coming from Europe? Explain. Document G: Fare you well poor Erin s Isle*, I now must leave you for awhile; The rents and taxes are so high I can no longer stay. From Dublin s quay I sailed away and landed here but yesterday; Me shoes, and breeches and shirts now are all that s in my kit I have dropped in to tell you now the sights I have seen before I go, Of the ups and downs in Ireland since the year of ninety-eight; But if that Nation had its own, her noble sons might stay at home, But since fortune has it otherwise, poor Pat must emigrate. Such sights as that I ve often seen, but I saw worse in Skibbareen, In forty-eight (that time is no more when famine it was great), I saw fathers, boys, and girls with rosy cheeks and silken curls All a-missing and starving for a mouthful of food to eat. When they died in Skibbareen, no shroud or coffins were to be seen; But patiently reconciling themselves to their horrid fate, They were thrown in graves by wholesale which cause many an Irish heart to wail And caused many a boy and girl to be most glad to emigrate. Two stanzas of the song Poor Pat Must Emigrate, 1877, author unknown *Erin s Isle is a nickname for the island of Ireland 13. What were the push factors described in the above song Poor Pat Must Emigrate? 14. What event (hint: it is also an essential term) is described in the above song? Explain.
Document H: As a class they are quiet, peaceable, patient, industrious and economical ready and apt to learn all the different kinds of work required in railroad building, they soon become as efficient as white laborers. More prudent and economical, they are contented with less wages. We find them organized into societies for mutual aid and assistance. These societies, that count their numbers by thousands, are conducted by shrewd, intelligent business men, who promptly advise their subordinates where employment can be found on the most favorable terms. Leland Stanford, President of the Central Pacific Railroad commenting on the Chinese laborer, 1865 15. What is the overall opinion of Leland Stanford, President of the Central Pacific, of Chinese laborers? 16. How might this opinion threaten those in the nativist position (example: Denis Kearney of The Working Man s Party)? Document I: The Chinese are represented in one breath as a rotten race; the victims of hideous immorality, and in the next as a people who are going to drive intelligent and sturdy American laborers out of the field. At one moment every man, woman, and child on the Pacific coast loathes and detests the leprous interlopers, and the next the same protesting people neglect the honest American and intrust the care of their homes and of their children to the leprous pariahs because they can be hired more cheaply. They are alleged to be a class of persons who will never assimilate with us like other foreigners. But those who assert this forget to state that our laws prevent assimilation by making the Chinese incapable of naturalization. Harper s Weekly Editorial, April 1 st, 1882 17. Is this editorial for or against the Chinese immigrant? Explain by using direct quotes from above.
18. Draw a connection from the above Harper s Weekly Editorial and the way Latin American immigrants to the United States are treated today. Document J: Frank Leslie s Illustrated Newspaper, 1882. 19. What law is this political cartoon in reference to? Explain. 20. Look up the term Fenian. Why is it ironic that Fenians are listed as acceptable for entry into the U.S., but the Chinese immigrant is not?