Nation of Immigrants

Chapter 15 section 1

• All Americans, at some point in their family history, came to the United States as immigrants

• 1800-1880– 10 million – North and West Europe• Germany• Sweden• Ireland• Britain

OLD IMMIGRANTS

Chinese Immigration

• 1840s-1850s– Gold Rush– Railroads

New Immigrants

• 1880-1910– 18 million– South and East Europe• Czech• Italian• Russian• Polish• Japanese came through Hawaii

New Immigrants

Dramatic Diversity

Your Turn

• Map Ellis Island

• Reading pages 490-491

Welcome to Ellis Island

• Opened in 1894, NY

Inspection Process• First or Second Class were provided with on

board inspectors• Steerage Passengers waited in long lines at

checkpoints– 4-5 hour process– Check papers– Health– Might be sent back

Welcome to… Angel Island

• Opened in 1910, San Fran• Japanese Immigrants were detained for weeks• Prison like conditions• Locked in barracks and let out only for recreation

Life in the US • Mostly better than life before the voyage BUT– Crowded cities• Tenement Housing – run down apartments• Boarding Houses – many families living together

– Low paid jobs– Discrimination

Building Urban Communities

• tended to live with similar ethnicity in small pockets

• Churches and Synagogues were built• Benevolent Societies– Established to help immigrants with:• Finding work• Becoming educated• healthcare

Building Urban Communities

Nativists

• Viewed immigrants as a threat• Chinese Exclusion Act– 10 yr ban– No citizenship– Literacy tests

Nativists