Journey to America: Immigration Increase from 1789 to 1910

Lesson 1

1. Use a rope or length of twill yarn that is at least 10 feet long. A student on the left endpoint represents the year 1789. A student on the right end represents the year 1910. As a class, approximate the positions of the following years: 1800, 1820, 1832, 1840, 1842, 1852, and 1880. A student could stand or tape date cards at the points on the line which everyone agrees are reasonable approximations.

 

1. Approximations are improved if a midpoint and quarter points are calculated, e.g. by folding the rope in half twice. There is 121 years between the two ends of the timeline, so the midpoint is 1789 + 60 or 1849. The first quarter point is 1789 + 30 or 1819. The three-quarter point is 1789 + 90 or 1879.

 

1. It helps in the development of this lesson to tape or tack the labeled rope on a wall. Then it can be used as the baseline on which to build an immigration graph. The baseline stands for a period of time characterized by huge population increase, huge territorial increase, and new technologies that transformed communication, transportation, and commerce. Large numbers of immigrants played their parts in the nation's growth, its struggles, and accomplishments.

 

Looking at Immigration Data

 

Numbers for this lesson were rounded and manipulated for the purpose of making a human graph * . Each student in the graph will represent approximately 8,000 immigrants.

* The data for this activity was taken from two sources: American Adventures, Volume 2, chap. 32 and The Almanac of American History, by Arthur M.Schlesinger, Jr., p. 148.

 

1. Distribute cards to students in the following proportion.
   No. of cards
   1 1820 card (8,000 immigrants)
   7 1832 cards (56,000 immigrants—the reality is closer to 60,000)
   10 1840 cards (80,000 immigrants—the reality is closer to 84,000)
   13 1842 cards (104,000 immigrants—the reality is closer to 105,000)
2. Have students group themselves according to their cards. They should form
   lines, the longest with 13 students. Lines are positioned at right angles to the baseline, creating a human bar graph. Once students know that each person represents 8,000 immigrants, they should be impressed with how immigration soared in the 19th century. It will be very crowded at the 1840 and 1842 points, so spatial compromises will needed. The lengths of lines are very telling from any position inside the graph. Ask each line to calculate the total number of immigrants it represents. Have students share calculations.
   
   For the other years, it would take
   46 1852 cards (368,000 immigrants—the reality is closer to 372,000)
   62 1880 cards (496,000 immigrants—the reality is closer to 500,000)
   120 1910 cards (over 1,000,000 immigrants)
3. Capture data on a paper graph. A form is provided. Download and duplicate
   Immigration Graph I . Or if a record for all the data is preferred, a scaled grid is available on Immigration Graph II .
   
   Students may want to know how many people were already in the country during this century of extensive immigration. The first national census was taken in 1790 and repeated every 10 years. The population doubled about every 24 years until 1860.
   
   1790 nearly 4,000,000 Americans. It would take 500 students to represent them on the same scale as that used for this lesson
   1820 9,600,000
   1840 17,000,000
   1860 31,400,000
4. Show the image entitled, Les Emigrants , by Tissot. Have students describe the image, e.g. its specific details. This is an inventory-level of examination. They may need help looking closely at the image.
5. Download and duplicate an Immigration Database. Give one copy to each student. Download and cut up the Immigration Fact Slips. Give one fact-slip to each student. They should first record their own fact slip on the database. Then students circulate and share facts with one another. They find out what facts other people have and organize them on the grid. There won't be time to get around to everybody.
6. After about 2 to 3 minutes of circulating and collecting information, students can go back to their seats. In small groups they can help one another fill in gaps. In a whole class setting, students may ask for information for specific cells in the database.
7. When grids are complete, look again at the image, Les Emigrants , by Tissot. Now students can look in a more speculative way. What wave of immigration might this image reflect—it could be several. What hardships has this immigrant couple probably experienced? What hardships will they probably face?
8. Have students complete an Immigrant Profile, which is a cartoon image requiring more detail including color. Students should elaborate the cartoon figure consistent with information from the graphs, discussions and the database. Also add information on the lines that radiate from the cartoon. Information should include: country of origin, reason to immigrate, hardships suffered, and immediate need. At the bottom of the page students fill in the legend that explains what the “American Dream” means for this particular profiled individual.

Interactive Computer Activity Students can create a hypothetical life story of an immigrant. The computer will guide the viewer through a series of “blind choices.” Once choice selections are recorded, the computer will assemble them into a biography outline. The student can print it and amplify the events with more detail. These hypothetical biographies may be used in a Bio-Historical Poem. A format for creating such a poem is provided.

 

 

 

Cut up the page into strips. Distribute one to each student. You may need two copies.

• Between 1840 and 1860, 1.7 million Irish came to the US . Many Norwegians arrived in the same period.
• Between 1840 and 1860 a drought in Ireland killed that country's staple crop of potatoes resulting in starvation. There was a string of bad harvests in Norway , too.
• The Irish and Norwegians arrived poor and hungry. Americans called Nativists treated them as a problem.
• The cities that absorbed the Irish tended to be industrial centers like Boston , New York , Philadelphia and Baltimore . The Norwegians preferred resettlement in rural areas.
• Many Germans came to the US , especially in and around the years of 1830 and 1848.
• First in 1830 and again in 1848, revolutions in Germany displaced thousands of people.
• Germans could not speak English, and so they were easily swindled or tricked. They moved to be near other Germans.
• The Germans, when they could, spread into rural areas in the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys .
• In the 1880's and 1890's, a great many Jews fled to the US from Russia and Poland .
• Cruel laws in Russia and Poland in the 1880's and 1890's stripped property from Jews. Many Jews were killed in killing sweeps called pogroms.
• American Jews were often mistrusted because of their religion and culture. Still, there was more tolerance in the US than in Russia.
• Jews concentrated in industrial cities, especially New York where other Jews already lived, as well as Chicago.

 

Cut up the page into strips. Distribute one to each student. You man need two copies.

• Thousands of poor people from Italy , Sicily , Greece , and Turkey fled to the US in the last half of the 19th century.
• In the last half of the 19th century, famine and disease raged in Italy . Political chaos ruled Greece and Turkey .
• Unable to speak English and poor, Italian, Greek, and Turkish newcomers took any available jobs and a low wages. That turned labor unions against them.
• Italian, Greek and Turkish families concentrated in big cities, mining towns, and where the railroad offered jobs.
• From 1865 to 1882, an ever increasing number of Chinese came to America .
• Americans building a railroad needed workers. They recruited in China starting in 1865.
• The Chinese faced intense prejudice. The US government passed a law banning their immigration in 1882.
• The Chinese settled in California 's large cities. A lot of them worked for the Union Pacific Railroad.

 

 

Collect information for each cell in the database. Include as much detail as you can.

 

 

On radiating lines provide details related to country of origin, reason to emigrate, hardships suffered, and settlement destination.

 

On radiating lines provide details related to country of origin, reason to emigrate, hardships suffered, and settlement destination.

Lesson 2

Artwork : Les Emigrants
Artist: Jacques Tissot
Date: 1879
Medium: Drypoint Etching
Grade Level : 5th
Time allotted : 2 hours

Lesson Objective:
Through discussion and reflection, student will explore the experience of immigrants to the United States , drawing conclusions about their motivations and challenges they may have faced.

List of Enduring Understandings:

• Immigrants came to the United States from Europe for a variety of reasons – for work, because of natural disaster, because of political instability.
• Most people could take very little with them when they came to the United States .
• The journey here was challenging, long and for many, the first time they had left their home countries. Once they arrived they depended on networks of family and friends to help them.

List of Enduring Questions:

• What were the reasons people immigrated to the United States from Europe between 1789 and 1850? Where did the majority of people come from?
• What material items could people bring with them on their journey? What might they have found important? Why?
• What were the physical realities of an Atlantic seaward journey? Where did they end up?

Materials/resources:
For the Teacher: image Les Emigrants
For the Student: writing material

State Content Standards
History/Social Science : United States History and Geography
5.8.1 Discuss the waves of immigrants from Europe between 1789 and 1850.

Lesson Procedure:

• 1. Begin by looking carefully at the image as a group and record all comments on chart paper. Ask:
     • What is happening here?
     • Where do you think this image is taking place?
     • What is the woman carrying? What is she doing?
     • What time period is this image portraying, what are the clues about the historical period? What do you see that makes you say that?
     • What is the feeling being conveyed? What sort of message is the artist communicating?
  
  
  1. Explain that this image was created by the French artist Jacques Tissot who lived in the 18th Century. This image is called Les Emigrants , or The Immigrants and is set in the London docks, where many people left by ship to immigrate to other countries. The artist was very interested in this theme of emigration and the conditions that forced people to seek a life overseas. He himself was an immigrant to London .
  
  
  1. Ask your students: What is an immigrant? Is anyone in the class an immigrant or related to immigrants? Why would someone leave their home and move to another country? People immigrated during the 19th Century (or 1800's)to the United States because land cheap and available and, with the increase in industry and urbanization, more labor was needed. Also political instability and oppression, religious persecution, and environmental factors were part of the decision to leave.
  
  
  1. Explain that during this time most immigrants to the US were from Ireland and England. Have students located these countries on a map. When they arrived, most immigrants came through the port of New York by ship. The ships would leave the passengers at wharves, to fend for themselves. What do you think it was like for them when they arrived? Why? Who might they encounter? Some of the new problems that they faced were posed by con-men, thieves, and thugs. Many people were also worried that the Irish immigrant community would take too many jobs away from the public who was there already. Many help wanted ads included the phrase "Irish need not apply."
  2. Students write a newspaper article describing these waves of immigrants, the reasons they came, the journey here and the kind of life they could expect in the United States . Students may choose whether or not to add an opinion about these immigrants to their journalistic explorations.

 

Artwork

About Jacques Joseph Tissot

Jacques Joseph Tissot was born in 1836, in Nantes , France , a port city at the mouth of Loire River on the west coast of France . This early connection with the water probably influenced his later fascination with ships and boating scenes. His parents were merchants, which may have also cultivated his interest in details of clothing, objects, and interiors in his best-known works.

When he was 20, Tissot moved to Paris to study painting. He studied in the academies, where he developed excellent drawing skills. He absorbed more, though, from his association with avant-garde painters such as Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet. His accomplished style that the Yale Center for British Art described as “academic tightness of execution and great attention to detail” garnered him critical praise and attention. His first showing took place at the prestigious Paris Salon in 1859. At first, he produced romantic historical and religious scenes, but by 1864 his interests turned to the contemporary world. His keen observation of Paris society is seen in portraits of the fashionable élite as well as grittier vignettes of everyday life. His ability to combine such skill and range of subject matter earned him a great circle of collectors and by the late 1860s he was earning a substantial income from painting. Although he enjoyed a luxurious life-style, he traveled in varied social and cultural circles. In the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, Tissot became involved with a group of revolutionaries known as “The Commune.” Their ill-fated attempt to overthrow the government forced Tissot to flee to England in 1871.

 

Tissot soon established a thriving career in London . He became an illustrator for the publication Vanity Fair. Soon, under the influence of his friend and contemporary James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Tissot developed an interest in painting scenes of the Thames River and the London Docks at Wapping. He also anglicized his first name shortly after meeting Whistler, to “James.” Tissot combined an outsider's view of English society with an intimate knowledge of society and rich, visual details. Tissot became best known for his ability to capture the unique textures and characteristics of fashion, and for his avid interest in female subjects. His works never showed sentimentality because of his objective interest in the everyday and his ability to capture psychological tension.

A number of Tissot's works of the 1870s focus on Thames River scenes, from elegant yachting parties to grittier scenes based in London 's shipyards. His friend Whistler also encouraged Tissot's interest in etching. Teaching himself, Tissot developed a unique and impressive approach to the medium. He translated a number of his paintings into striking etchings.

Following the aftermath of France 's Amnesty of 1880 and the death of his mistress, Kathleen Newton, also his primary model, in 1882, Tissot returned to France . In 1886-1887 and again in 1889, he visited the Holy Land . Those experiences, along with his lingering depression over Newton 's death led him to return to Catholicism in 1888. His later works – illustrations of biblical events in books and paintings – were met with great acclaim.

Although Tissot enjoyed great financial success during his career, some influential critics labeled his works as vulgar, partly because they glorified the nouveau riche and their ornate fashions and partly because of his working-class themes. Overall, his reputation endures because of his ability to capture the psychological subtleties of his subjects. Tissot died in his native France in 1902 at the age of 66.

About Les Emigrants

• 

Tissot produced this small dry-point in 1880, based on his painting of the same scene in the previous year. Only a replica of the original painting survives today. Entitled Les Emigrants ( The Immigrants ), it focuses on the complex emotions that accompany leaving a place behind for an uncertain future. The destination is left unknown to the viewer—thousands of travelers passed through the London Docks on a daily basis at the end of the 19th century. According to the National Maritime Museum in London , the distinctive flag of the Castle Line can be seen in the background of both the dry-point and the painting. This important shipping line sailed from London , carrying passengers and mail to ports in India and South Africa . Tissot may have used this flag as a reference to his good friend John Freebody, a ship's captain employed by the Castle Line.

The female figure is shown wrapped in a long coat and shawl, hugging a small child to her side and gripping a bag in her left hand. She stands precariously, about to descend open steps into the boat. Tissot introduces several converging lines to heighten the sense of drama and apprehension. The woman's body forms a primary vertical shape at the center of the composition with a mast behind her extending the vertical line. This extended line strengthens and stabilizes her figure as it solidly intersects with the horizontal lines of the ship's edge and open steps. In contrast, a dizzying array of ships' riggings and other diagonal lines surround her overhead. She seems determined to prepare for the next step, her child securely at her side. Reaching up from the interior of the ship is an older man; the diagonal line of his arm creates tension as it crosses the line of the railing from the dock. Is the man reaching to threaten the woman or lend her a hand? Does she know him or not? The artist provides few clues in the woman's expression. The viewer is locked into the drama, not knowing the outcome. The viewer knows nothing about the woman's circumstances. Is she traveling alone with her child? What is her destination?

This scene, portrayed in the nuances of varied linear patterns and contrasting lights and shadows, is well suited to the dry-point medium. A dry-point uses a needle scratched directly into the plate, leaving a rough edge. The overall quality is dark, but the brown ink and muted sky add a measure of warmth and relief. This work reveals Tissot's skillful draftsmanship, his unique ability to convey meaningful details – like the accuracy of the rigging and flags – and his mastery of human drama captured in a significant moment.

Context

Immigration to the U.S. in the late 19th Century

The “Great Wave” of immigration to the United States began in 1880 and reached a peak in the first decade of the 20th century. At the time, the greatest number of immigrants came from Europe, particularly Germany , England , Ireland and the Scandinavian countries. During the decade of 1880-1889, 27.5% of immigrants came from Germany ; 15.5% came from England ; and smaller percentages from a variety of countries. The influx of new settlers also resulted in a significant shift in population from primarily rural to urban centers which had a substantial social, financial and political impact on the entire country.

Most people seeking to leave Europe embarked from London , the busiest port in world at the time. Although some headed for the United States and Canada , they also headed to South America , South Africa and India , among other destinations.