Document Based Question:
Immigration
Was 19th-century America a land of opportunity for immigrants?
Directions: The following question is based on the documents provided. As you analyze the
documents, take into account both the source of the document and the author’s point of
view.
Be sure to:
1. Carefully read the document-based question. Consider what you already know
about this topic. How would you answer the question if you had no documents to
examine?
2. Now, read each document carefully, underlining key phrases and words that
address the document-based question. You may also wish to use the margin to make
brief notes. Answer the questions that follow each document.
3. Based on your own knowledge and on the information found in the documents,
develop a thesis that directly answers the question.
4. Organize supportive and relevant information into a brief outline.
5. Write a well-organized essay proving your thesis. The essay should be logically
presented and should include information both from the documents and from your
own outside knowledge of the topic.
Historical Context: The great surge of immigration in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Task: By using the following documents, as well as your knowledge of the topic, evaluate the
thesis that the reality of America lived up to the hopes of the immigrants who came here.
Essay Response
In a well-constructed essay, address the question:
Was 19th-century America a land of opportunity for immigrants?
Your essay should include:
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
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an opening paragraph with a thesis statement
at least two paragraphs giving evidence from the documents to support your thesis
a concluding paragraph re-stating your thesis and main arguments
Document 1:
From lip to lip flowed the golden legend of the golden country:
"In America you can say what you feel, you can voice your thoughts in the open streets . . ."
"In American is a home for everybody . . . "
"Everybody is with everybody alike in America. Christians and Jews are brothers together."
"An end to the worry for bread, and end to the fear of the bosses over you. Everybody can do
what he wants with his life in America."
From: Anzia Yezierska, How I Found America.
(What did many immigrants expect to find in America?)
Document 2:
I looked about the narrow streets of squeezed-in stores and houses, ragged clothes, dirty bedding
oozing out of the windows, ash-cans and garbage-cans cluttering the sidewalks. A vague sadness
pressed down my heart, the first doubt of America.
"Where are the green fields and open spaces in America?" cried my heart. "Where is the golden
country of my dreams?" . . . All about me was the hardness of brick and stone, the smells of
crowded poverty.
From: Anzia Yezierska, How I Found America.
(What was this person’s impression of America when she finally arrived?)
Document 3:
"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-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
-Emma Lazarus
(What did the Statue of Liberty symbolize for immigrants arriving in New York Harbor?)
Document 4:
During the Industrial Revolution, millions of immigrants arrived in the United States, including 13 million
between 1900 and 1914. Many moved to cities to find work and had to live in overcrowded tenement
housing, such as this building in New York City.
(What does the photograph reveal about the conditions in which many immigrants had to live?)