LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY
URBAN SOCIETY
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United States History from 1877 - Present
Tenth Grade
Unit Plan
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2006-2007
www.beaconofliberty.us
Grade:
Unit Name: LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY URBAN SOCIETY
Total Instructional Days: _3-5_ days
Name of Lesson and
Suggested Number of
Days
Pacing Guide Distribution For Each Lesson
Growth of the Cities
(2 days)
GEOGRAPHY
Lesson 1:
HISTORY
Standard
Benchmark
Indicator
B. Explain the social,
political, and economic
effects of
industrialization
1.Explain the effects of
industrialization in the
U.S. in the late 19th
century including:
d. Urbanization
A. Analyze the cultural,
physical, economic and
political characteristics
that define regions and
describe reasons that
regions change over
time
C. Analyze the patterns
and processes of
movement of people.
products and ideas.
1.Explain how
perceptions and
characteristics of
geographic regions in
the United states have
changed over time
including
a. urban areas
3.Analyze the
geographic processes
that contributed to
changes in American
society including:
b. urbanization and
suburbanization
Lesson 2:
Standard
Benchmark
Indicator
Standard
Benchmark
Indicator
Lesson 2:
Lesson Title
(? days)
Lesson 3:
Lesson 3:
Lesson Title
(? days)
Essential Question(s) – The “Big Picture” Question(s):
1] What was the relationship between Industrialization and urban growth in the late 19th
century?
2] Who were the newcomers to the cities in the late 19th century and why did they
come?
3] How did the rapid urbanization of the late 19th century result in both benefits and
challenges to society?
Unit Summary:
Lesson One: At the beginning of this unit students will learn that in 1862, 90% of
Americans lived on farms, but that with the end of the Civil War and the second wave of
the Industrial Revolution there began a shift from rural toward urban dwelling in the
United States.
What caused the shift?
Students will be introduced to three groups of newcomers to the cities in the late 19 th
century as being, 1) immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe, and 2) former
farmers and their families (estimated at 11 million), and 3) to a lesser degree, former
slaves who begin the Great Migration from South to North following Reconstruction.
Students will discover the convergence of these events and how they result in a
massive trend toward urbanization in the United States that begins at the turn of the
Nineteenth Century and continues into the Twentieth Century
Lesson Two: Summary of challenges of urban living to follow (?)
Lesson Three: The positive impact of industrialization suggested for third lesson
Attachment B
Lesson 1
Title: Who Were the City Dwellers?
Duration: 2 days
Targeted Benchmarks and Indicators
GEOGRAPHY
HISTORY
Standard
Benchmark
Indicator
B. Explain the social, political, and
economic effects of industrialization
1.Explain the effects of industrialization in the
U.S. in the late 19th century including:
d. Urbanization
A. Analyze the cultural, physical,
economic and political
characteristics that define regions
and describe reasons that regions
change over time
C. Analyze the patterns and
processes of movement of people.
Products and ideas.
1.Explain how perceptions and
characteristics of geographic regions in the
United states have changed over time
including
a. urban areas
3.Analyze the geographic processes that
contributed to changes in American society
including:
b. urbanization and suburbanization
Assessments: Notebook page requirements (could also be handed in as
assignment)
1] On a map of the U.S. and Europe, students will Illustrate the “flow” of farmers,
former slaves, and Eastern/Southern Europeans to major cities in the Northeast
and Great Lakes regions of the U.S. (using different colored directional arrows for
each group)
2) Students will create graphic organizers showing the relationship between various
push-pull factors and the groups with which they are associated
3) Students will complete a vocabulary activity notebook page demonstrating their
understanding of terms associated with urbanization.
Note:
The assessments can be used in a variety of ways:
1) They can be used as pages for an interactive notebook that students maintain throughout
the unit or course, with each page assigned points toward a comprehensive notebook grade.
A positive aspect of this method is that students have an organized (hopefully!) collection of
content and activities that can be used a study resource.
2) The assessments can be assigned as homework to be completed and turned in for a grade.
3) The assessments can be used as part of a quiz or test to be given during or at the end of
the unit
Essential Questions – Focus Questions:
1] What factors associated with industrialization contributed to urban
growth in the late 19th century?
2] Who were the newcomers to the cities in the late 19th century and why
did they come?
Engaging Activities:
Preview Activity
Students will be divided and seated in groups of 4-5. They will be asked to discuss the
following questions (according to “Rules of Civility”). After each question, one member
of each group will share some of their group’s answers with class. The reporting
member will change with each question asked
1) How long has your family lived in Mason (or your town/city), and why do you live
here instead of somewhere else?
2) What do you think the population of Mason was in 1890? 1975? Today? (Be
prepared to give them the correct answer)
3) Why do you think people want to live in Mason?
* This activity could be expanded later to get students to consider challenges and
benefits of living in their town or city
Author’s notes: This preview activity could be done in your local town or city, or a
variety of questions could be posed as to what students believe to be true about a
nearby major city. Example: What kinds of people live in the city of Columbus? Why do
they live there? Has Columbus always had about the same population?
BACKGROUND/ADAPTABILITY FOR LESSONS: After the preview activity, explain to
the class that the Unit they are about to begin is about the growth of cities at the turn of the
century, and how that growth had both negative and positive consequences. The consequences
are still evidenced in our daily life, and students will become aware of those consequences as the
lesson progresses.
The first part of the lesson is a PowerPoint Presentation and contains the “meat” of the content
for the lesson. It can be presented along with a notes handout or students may be directed to take
their own notes. There are nine activities that go along with the power point. In order to get the
highest student understanding for each activity, try putting students in groups of about four –
appropriate discussion during the activities should enhance most of them. The best time to use
the activities is when the concepts relating to the activities is presented in the PowerPoint. Some
are very short and some are longer, but they all attempt to engage students in the content in a
more active way. You can choose to use some, all, or none of the activities, depending on your
time constraints. If all activities are used, the lesson will probably take 2-3 days, depending on
the time devoted to each activity.
Lesson I: Assessment
#1) Map Assessment
Using three different colored pencils/markers for each group, draw
lines that connect the groups of migrants/immigrants from their place
of origin to their place of destination in the late 19th century. Show at
least 4 places of origin for each group (4 states or 4 countries for each
group). Show a variety of destination cities (make sure they were large
industrial cities at this time).
#2) Push-Pull Assessment
Using arrows, show the relationship between the “push factors” and the group/groups of
people to whom they apply:
Religious
Intolerance
Unemployment
Hatred and
violence
Mortgage
foreclosures
Discrimination
Former
Slaves
Segregation
Farmers
New
technology
replaces
manual labor
Eastern and
Southern
European
Immigrants
Industrial Jobs in
Cities
Using arrows, show the relationship between the “pull” of jobs and the groups of people
to whom it applies
Lesson 1: Assessment Key
#2) Push – Pull of Urbanization
A. Using arrows, show the relationship between the “push factors” and the
group/groups of people to whom they apply:
Religious
Intolerance
Unemployment
Mortgage
foreclosures
Racial
Discrimination
Former
Slaves
Segregation
Farmers
Hatred and
violence
New
technology
replaces
manual labor
Eastern and
Southern
European
Immigrants
Industrial Jobs in
Cities
Using arrows, show the relationship between the “pull” of jobs and the groups of people
to whom it applies
ASSESSMENT #3
URBANIZATION LESSON
VOCABULARY ASSESSMENT
a. Urban Area
b. Rural Area c. Urbanization
d. Great Migration
e. Immigration ab. Emigration
ac. Migration
ad. Refugee
ae. Push Factor
bc. Pull factor
Use the above word bank to correctly identify each term with an appropriate example.
Each term can only be used once and they each must have an example. Beware that that
some terms may have more than one example listed. You must identify the one that
makes it possible for all terms to have an example!
1___ Between 1870 and 1920, New York city grew in population from 942,292people to 5,620,048
people.
2___ The Longo family were left Italy and began the long and difficult passage to a new life.
3___ Chicago!
4___ Morris Groden came to the United States seeking safety after his family was terrorized for their
religious beliefs in Russia.
5___ The Wolinski’s had waited patiently at Ellis Island, enduring physical and intellectual
examinations, as a pathway to their eventual citizenship in America.
6___ The Jankowskis family heard time and time again, that the streets in America were paved with gold.
This was the reason the saved for years to save for the journey they hoped would end in riches.
7__ Elizabeth did not like her home. Her nearest neighbor was 2 miles up the road and there were only
42 students in her 10th grade class.
8___ Matthew was tired of working for pitiful wages, or no job at all. He wanted to join the rest of the
former slaves and their descendants, who were leaving for the North, in greater and greater numbers each
day.
9___ the Eichner’s couldn’t make it on the farm any longer. When the bank stapled a “foreclosure”
notice on their door, they left Western Pennsylvania for Philadelphia, in hopes of finding jobs,
10___ Widespread famine made it difficult to survive in Hungary.
ASSESSMENT #3 KEY
URBANIZATION LESSON
VOCABULARY ASSESSMENT
a. Urban Area
b. Rural Area
c. Urbanization
d. Great Migration
e. Immigration
ab. Emigration
ac. Migration
ad. Refugee
ae. Push Factor
bc. Pull factor
Use the above word bank to correctly identify each term with an appropriate example.
Each term can only be used once and they each must have an example. Beware that that
some terms may have more than one example listed. You must identify the one that
makes it possible for all terms to have an example!
1_c__ Between 1870 and 1920, New York city grew in population from 942,292people to 5,620,048
people.
2__ab_ The Longo family were left Italy and began the long and difficult passage to a new life.
3_a_ Chicago!
4__ad_ Morris Groden came to the United States seeking safety after his family was terrorized for their
religious beliefs in Russia.
5__e_ The Wolinski’s had waited patiently at Ellis Island, enduring physical and intellectual
examinations, as a pathway to their eventual citizenship in America.
6bc__ The Jankowskis family heard time and time again, that the streets in America were paved with
gold. This was the reason the saved for years to save for the journey they hoped would end in riches.
7_b__ Elizabeth did not like her home. Her nearest neighbor was 2 miles up the road and there were only
42 students in her 10th grade class.
8__d_ Matthew was tired of working for pitiful wages, or no job at all. He wanted to join the rest of the
former slaves and their descendants, who were leaving for the North, in greater and greater numbers each
day.
9_ac__ the Eichner’s couldn’t make it on the farm any longer. When the bank stapled a “foreclosure”
notice on their door, they left Western Pennsylvania for Philadelphia, in hopes of finding jobs,
10__ae_ Widespread famine made it difficult to survive in Hungary.
Scoring Rubrics:
1) Immigration/Migration Flow Map
Correctly identifies 4 points of origin in Europe
Correctly identifies 3points of origin in Europe
Correctly identifies 2points of origin in Europe
Correctly identifies 1 point of origin in Europe
Correctly identifies no points of origin in Europe
4pts
3pts
2pts
1pts
pts
Correctly identifies 4 points of origin in South U.S.
Correctly identifies 3 points of origin in South U.S.
Correctly identifies 2points of origin in South U.S.
Correctly identifies 1 points of origin in South U.S.
Correctly identifies no points of origin in South U.S.
4pts
3pts
2pts
1pts
0pts
Correctly identifies 4 “farming” states as point of origin
Correctly identifies 3 “farming” states as point of origin
Correctly identifies 2 “farming” states as point of origin
Correctly identifies 1 “farming” states as point of origin
Correctly identifies 0 “farming” states as point of origin
4pts
3pts
2pts
1pts
0pts
Correctly identifies 4 industrial cities
Correctly identifies 3 industrial cities
Correctly identifies 2 industrial cities
Correctly identifies 1 industrial cities
Correctly identifies 0 industrial cities
4pts
3pts
2pts
1pts
0pts
Total possible ************************************************16pts
2) Push-Pull Graphic Organizer:
Correctly identifies all push factors for immigrant groups
Correctly identifies 6 or more push factors for immigrant groups
Correctly identifies 3 or more push factors for immigrant groups
Correctly identifies 1 or more push factors for immigrant groups
Correctly identifies no push factors for immigrant groups
8pts.
6pts
4pts
2pts
0pts
Correctly identifies industrial jobs as a pull factor for all groups
Does not identify industrial jobs as a pull factor for all groups
2pts
0pts
Total possible ************************************************10pts
3) Vocabulary Assessment:
Correct answers are worth 2 pts. Each, with 20 points possible
Lesson 1 Engaging Activity:
ACTIVITY ONE: PRESENT POWERPOINT NOTES PRESENTATION
ACTIVITY TWO: WORD IN CONTEXT: (10 MIN, depending on how many are assigned –
could be homework) This activity is used with handout #1 and should be assigned after
vocabulary definitions are explained in the PowerPoint Presentation. Students should choose 1
or 2 words that they least understand and complete a graphic organizer for each, using the model
on Handout 1.
ACTIVITY THREE: FEEL THE PAIN (Time depends – if you do this activity, it should start
at the beginning of the lesson and could be continued until you reach slide 8 in the PPT (AfricanAmericans migrate to cities), but ten minutes would probably be enough. Assuming students are
in groups of four, tell them to assign themselves as 2 “A’s” and 2 “B’s”, within their group.
After they have done that, tell them that the B’s will be the Majority group who are in privileged,
and that the “A’s” will be the Minority group and must follow several rules. The minority group
will wait for the majority group to speak first within the group, and then ask permission to speak,
or speak directly to majority members. The minority group will have to ask permission of the
majority group before they leave their seats for any reason (permission will be granted). The
majority group may ask the minority group to perform small tasks for them (remove paper from
binder, sharpen pencil, straighten books. There should be no “socializing” between the 2 groups
– they may only look at and speak to members of their own group. About half way through the
exercise, switch roles. Caution students that they are not to engage in verbal humiliation, or
physical contact with each other. Debrief the role play during slide # 8. Ask students how they
would have responded to the institutionalized segregation and discrimination that AfricanAmericans faced in the South.
ACTIVITY FOUR: SKIMMING AND SCANNING: (15-20 MIN) This activity is used with
HANDOUT #2, Farmer’s Timeline. It should be used just prior to delivering PowerPoint notes
on the migration of farmers to the cities. Students can be grouped in 4’s or 5’s. Provide students
with HANDOUT #2 and HANDOUT #2a. Tell students to first skim the Timeline and record at
least 3 first impressions, or ideas (not details) that come to mind from the Timeline. Instruct the
students to skim over the timeline again, now looking for at least 4 “fast facts” or details, and to
record those in column 2. Students should now use the information they gathered in the first two
columns to generate at least 2 “final thoughts” (could be questions or predictions about what they
have read) and put those in the third column. Each group should be prepared to share 2 final
thoughts with the rest of the class. Now deliver the PPT notes on farm migration and discuss
whether or not any group predicted that many farmers would give up on farming. (Adapted from
Allen, 2004)
ACTIVITY FIVE: QUESTIONS GAME: (15 MIN) This activity is used with HANDOUT
#3, Rural to Urban Table. It should be used prior to delivering notes on farmer’s migration to
cities. Tell students to take out a sheet of paper. Show them the Rural to Urban Chart, Handout
#3. Tell them to write down two questions about the implications of the graph that they would
like answered. Students should then choose a partner, exchange questions, and try to answer
each other’s questions in writing. Each 2 partner team exchanges questions with another 2
partner team. They discuss the questions and try to either agree with the answer the original
partner gave, or come up with another answer. Each 4 person team then has the opportunity to
ask the rest of the class to answer any question with which they are not satisfied with the answer.
(Adapted from Allen, 2004)
ACTIVITY SIX: ALREADY KNEW IT, KNOW IT NOW, DON’T KNOW IT, BUT
WOULD LIKE TO (10 MIN). This activity is used with HANDOUT #4 and #4a, and should
be used prior to PPT notes on Eastern European wave of immigration. Students should study
the graph and complete the handout as a way of focusing on the information provided in the
graph. Ask students to share some of their answers with the class.
ACTIVITY SEVEN: T-CHART: (20 MIN.) This activity is used with Handouts 6, 7, and 8. It
should be used just prior to the PowerPoint notes that describe the origins and reasons for the
great wave of immigration. These handouts describe the reasons people from Italy, Poland, and
Eastern European Jews immigrated to the U.S. Prepare enough copies so that each student will
have one of the three handouts. Students can be grouped in 4’s or 5’s and should all have the
same reading (in their group). After reading, have students discuss push and pull factors they
identified in the reading. Additionally, students should brainstorm within their groups to identify
at least 2 other push and pull factors that might be reasonable, but were not mentioned in the
reading. Students then complete T-chart (HANDOUT #9) and should be prepared to report their
finding to the rest of the class.
ACTIVITY EIGHT: TRUE OR FALSE? (15 MIN) Use prior to Urbanization of America
slide in PPT presentation. Have each group of 4/5 draw a “decade” (1820-1980) from a hat.
Show the HANDOUT # 5. Tell them to quietly discuss among themselves, the reason for the
immigration level for that decade. Tell them it is very possible and understandable that they may
not know the reason. If they do not know the reason, they should create a believable reason for
that immigration level and attempt to make the class believe it. Any group can challenge their
answer, but must offer an alternative explanation. All answers will be correctly clarified by the
teacher. At the end of the activity, the teacher should explain that there are a variety of reasons
immigration increases and decreases, but students should understand the reason for the high
immigration at the turn of the century is the massive immigration to the cities that was a result of
the industrial revolution.
ACTIVITY NINE: (time depends on how many examples you chose to demonstrate.) Use
prior to Urbanization of America slide in PPT presentation. Have students look at major cities
population statistics (including Cincinnati!). Pick a decade and tell the class to push desks back,
gather in the center of the room and divide themselves proportionately for a particular city.
Someone will have to do the math to figure out what is the appropriate number of native-born v.
immigrants. This activity could be extended to include the population of African-Americans in
each city. This is a good activity to get students out of their seats!
Vocabulary
Urban area
Immigration
Refugee
Rural area
Emigration
Push Factor
Urbanization
Migration
Pull factor
Great Migration
HANDOUT #1
Word In Context: Choose the vocabulary word that
you least understand and complete the graphic
organizer for that word.
DEFINE:
IS NOT…
IS …
VOCAB WORD
IS …
IS NOT …
EXAMPLE …
Adapted, Allen 2004
HANDOUT # 2
Farms Timeline 1850- 1893 (excerpt)
1850
Farmers sow by hand, cultivate with hoes, and reap with sickles, but John Deere Company is
manufacturing 10,000 iron plows a year. Iron plows cut plowing time in half. Mechanical
reapers are beginning to replace sickles, turning two weeks' harvesting into a day's work.
1862
May -- President Lincoln signs legislation establishing the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He
called it "the people's department" since 90 percent of Americans at the time were farmers.
(Today only 2 percent are farmers.)
May 27 -- Lincoln approves the Homestead Act of 1862, which granted full title of up to 160
acres of land to settlers after five years of residence. Although good in principle, the act was
badly administered, and as a result large amounts of land passed into the hands of large
corporations through "dummy" homesteaders.
1867
James and Agnes Jordan, filmmaker Jeanne Jordan's great-grandparents, migrate to southwest
Iowa in a covered wagon and build the family farm on the banks of Troublesome Creek.
1870
The 1870 census shows that farmers, for the first time, are in the minority. Of all employed
persons, only 47.7 percent are farmers. As farming becomes more mechanized, farmers rely
more on bank loans for land and equipment.
1880
U.S. population reaches 50,155,783, with farm population estimated at 22,981,000. Forty-nine
percent of all employed persons are farmers, and of those, one in four is a tenant, despite the
Homestead Acts. With the development of barbed-wire fencing and windmills, plow farming
reaches the Great Plains.
1893
U.S. experiences an economic crisis: 642 banks fail and 16,000 businesses close. As produce
prices plummet, tens of thousands of small farms go under
Source: American Experience:
http:// www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/trouble/timeline/index.html
HANDOUT# 3
U.S. POPULATION BY RESIDENCE: 1840 - 1910
Year
1840
1850
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
Total
% Living in % Living in
Population Rural Areas
Urban
Areas
17 million
89%
11%
23 million
85%
15%
31 million
80%
20%
40 million
74%
26%
50 million
72%
28%
63 million
65%
35%
76 million
60%
40%
92 million
54%
46%
SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau
HANDOUT # 5
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
1820
1840
1860
1880
1900
1920
1940
1960
1980
Number of Immigrants to the United States Per Decade
(thousands)
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1993
HANDOUT # 6
ITALIAN IMMIGRATION
The Great Arrival (excerpt)
…Most of this generation of Italian immigrants took their first steps on U.S. soil in a place that
has now become a legend—Ellis Island. In the 1880s, they numbered 300,000, in the 1890s,
600,000, in the decade after that, more than two million. By 1920, when immigration began to
taper off, more than 4 million Italians had come to the United States, and represented more than
10 percent of the nation’s foreign-born population.
What brought about this dramatic surge in immigration? The causes are complex, and each
hopeful individual or family no doubt had a unique story. By the late 19th century, the peninsula
of Italy had finally been brought under one flag, but the land and the people were by no means
unified. Decades of internal strife had left a legacy of violence, social chaos, and widespread
poverty. The peasants in the primarily poor, mostly rural south of Italy and on the island of
Sicily had little hope of improving their lot. Diseases and natural disasters swept through the
new nation, but its fledgling government was in no condition to bring aid to the people. As
transatlantic transportation became more affordable, and as word of American prosperity came
via returning immigrants and U.S. recruiters, Italians found it increasingly difficult to resist the
call of “L’America”.
This new generation of Italian immigrants was distinctly different in makeup from those that had
come before. No longer did the immigrant population consist mostly of Northern Italian artisans
and shopkeepers seeking a new market in which to ply their trades. Instead, the vast majority
were farmers and laborers looking for a steady source of work—any work. There were a
significant number of single men among these immigrants, and many came only to stay a short
time. Within five years, between 30 and 50 percent of this generation of immigrants would return
home to Italy, where they were known as ritornati.
Those who stayed usually remained in close contact with their family in the old country, and
worked hard in order to have money to send back home. In 1896, a government commission on
Italian immigration estimated that Italian immigrants sent or took home between $4 million and
$30 million each year, and that “the marked increase in the wealth of certain sections of Italy
can be traced directly to the money earned in the United States.”
SOURCE: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: AMERICAN MEMORY
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/alt/italian3.html
HANDOUT #6, cont.
ITALIANS SETTLE IN THE CITY
A City of Villages (excerpt)
Mulberry Street ca. 1900.
The Italian immigrants who passed the test of Ellis Island went about transforming the city that
they found before them. Many previous immigrant groups, such as those from Germany and
Scandinavia, had passed through New York City in decades past, but most had regarded the city
merely as a way station, and had continued on to settle elsewhere in the country. This generation
of Italian immigrants, however, stopped and made their homes there; one third never got past
New York City.
Clam seller, Mulberry Bend, ca. 1900.
They scattered all over the New York region, settling in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and nearby towns
in New Jersey. Perhaps the greatest concentration of all, though, was in Manhattan. The streets
of Lower Manhattan, particularly parts of Mulberry Street, quickly became heavily Italian in
character, with street vendors, store owners, residents and vagrants alike all speaking the same
language--or at least a dialect of it.
Festa in Little Italy, 1899.
In part because of the social and political divisions of the Italian peninsula, southern Italian
villages tended to be isolated and insular, and new immigrants tended to preserve this isolation
in their new country, clustering together in close enclaves. In some cases, the population of a
single Italian village ended up living on the same block in New York, or even the same tenement
building, and preserved many of the social institutions, habits of worship, grudges, and
hierarchies from the old country. In Italy, this spirit of village cohesion was known as
campanilismo—loyalty to those who live within the sound of the village church bells. In 1899,
one visitor observed:
…. in the numbered streets of Little Italy uptown, almost every block has its own village of
mountain or lowland, and with the village its patron saint, in whose worship or celebration—call
it what you will—the particular camp makes reply to the question, “Who is my neighbor?”
Many distinctive events and practices maintained the unity of the village: weddings, feasts,
christenings, and funerals. One that often caught the attention of outsiders was the festa—a
parade celebrating the feast day of a particular village’s patron saint. Hundreds or thousands of
residents would follow the image of the saint in a procession through the streets of the
neighborhood…
SOURCE: The Library of Congress | American Memory
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/alt/italian5.html
HANDOUT # 7
POLISH IMMIGRATION
(Excerpt)
“At the turn of the 20th century, Polish immigration exploded. Imperial repression, land
shortages, and chronic unemployment made life more and more untenable for the Poles of
Europe, and as the 19th century waned they left for America by the thousands, then by the
hundreds of thousands. Exact numbers are difficult to come by, given the many different routes
Poles took to the U.S., but the 1910 census found more than 900,000 new immigrants who spoke
Polish. After World War I, Poland regained its independence, and immigration began to slow.
Even so, it is estimated that more than 2 million Poles had immigrated by the 1920s.
Not all intended to stay. Many of the earlier Poles were known as za chlebem, or “for-bread”
immigrants, who came planning to earn a nest egg and return home. Whatever their intentions,
most Polish immigrants ended up remaining in the United States. However, they still kept one
eye on their homeland and passionately guarded their language, faith, and sense of themselves
as Poles…
… As Poles poured into the country, they came together in communities that preserved many
aspects of the Polish way of life.
Most Polish immigrants had come in search of a decent livelihood, and so were drawn to the
areas of the country where good work was available. In Poland, owning land had been a great
source of pride, and many Poles struck out for farm country, founding agricultural towns in the
Mid-Atlantic States and New England. The Great Lakes region reminded some recent
immigrants of home, and Polish names soon dotted the maps of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and
Michigan.
America’s cities were the destination of most Poles, however. Heavy industry had played an
aggressive role in recruiting throughout Europe, and new Polish immigrants were drawn to jobs
in the factories, steel mills, slaughterhouses, and foundries of the U.S. industrial belt. Chicago,
Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Milwaukee, Detroit, New York, and Cleveland became anchor cities of the
new Polish communities, and Polish was spoken in the mines of Appalachia and the Alleghenies.
Wherever they settled, Polish immigrants went about building communities that were fiercely
committed to the preservation of their national heritage and culture. A national network of
Polish-language newspapers, social clubs, and, eventually, radio and television stations helped
keep the Polish language alive. Parochial schools were built within walking distance of every
Polish neighborhood, and more than 900 Polish Catholic churches were founded. Polish music,
dance, literature, and folklore were all kept alive through many decades in an English-speaking
land…”
SOURCE: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: AMERICAN MEMORY
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/alt/polish4.html
HANDOUT # 8
JEWISH IMMIGRATION
A People at Risk (excerpt)
…Just as ethnic Russians and Poles were finding their way to American
shores, one of the most dramatic chapters in world history was underway—
the mass migration of Eastern European Jews to the United States. In a few
short decades, from 1880 to 1920, a vast number of the Jewish people living
in the lands ruled by Russia— including Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and the
Ukraine, as well as neighboring regions—moved en masse to the U.S. In so
doing, they left a centuries-old legacy behind, and changed the culture of
the United States profoundly.
Jewish communities had played a vital role in the culture of Eastern Europe
for centuries, but in the 19th century they were in danger of annihilation. Of
all the ethnic and national groups that lived under the rule of the Russian
czars, the Eastern European Jews had long been the most isolated and
endured the harshest treatment…
… In the 1880s, however, the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe were
overwhelmed by a wave of state-sponsored murder and destruction. When
the czar was assassinated in 1881, the crime was blamed, falsely, on a
Jewish conspiracy, and the government launched a wave of state-sponsored
massacres known as pogroms. Hundreds of Jewish villages and
neighborhoods were burned by rampaging mobs, and thousands of Jews
were slaughtered by Russian soldiers and peasants. The pogroms caused an
international outcry, but they would continue to break out for decades to
come.
For tens of thousands of the Empire’s Jewish residents, who were already
struggling to survive famines and land shortages, this represented the
breaking point
The cry “To America!” spread across Eastern Europe and launched a massive
human migration.
In the 1880s, more than 200,000 Eastern European Jews arrived in the U.S.
In the next decade, the number was over 300,000, and between 1900 and
Handout #8, cont.
1914 it topped 1.5 million, most passing through the new immigrant
processing center at Ellis Island. All in all, between 1880 and 1924, when
the U.S. Congress cut immigration back severely, it is estimated that as
many as 3 million Eastern European Jews came to the U.S.
… Still, no one was prepared for the tremendous influx of Jewish immigrants
that arrived from Eastern Europe. The social welfare institutions of the
German Jewish community, accustomed to dealing with much smaller
numbers, struggled to cope with the thousands of needy cases that stepped
ashore from Ellis Island each year. Many established Jewish Americans were
several generations away from their own immigrant roots and were
sometimes shocked by the threadbare, provincial figures who appeared on
their doorsteps. The Eastern European immigrants quickly established many
of their own support structures, coming together to form aid societies based
on the burial societies and congregations of their home villages. Soon, new
arrivals had somewhere to turn for advice, modest financial assistance, and
aid in finding someplace to settle down.
Unlike every other immigrant group, however, the Jewish immigrants of
Eastern Europe overwhelmingly chose to remain in New York City. The close
ties of shtetl life led many immigrants to stay close to neighbors from their
old villages. For many others, the strict religious practices of Orthodox
Judaism required that they live near an existing Jewish community. Around
the turn of the century, nearly one-half of the Jewish population of the
United States lived in New York City. There, they would create a world unlike
any other in the annals of American immigration.
SOURCE: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: AMERICAN MEMORY
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/alt/polish5.html
HANDOUT # 9
IMMIGRATION ORIGINS T-CHART
Name ___________________________
Circle your group: Italians Jews Poles
Directions:
1) After each of your groups members reads the entire handout, discuss the Push and the Pull factors
that encouraged your group of immigrants to come to the U.S.. On the left hand side of the Tchart, put the Push Factors, and on the right put the Pull Factors, according to your reading.
After you have finished, put a dotted line across the bottom of your answers.
2) Now brainstorm for at least 2 more Push and 2 more Pull factors that might be reasonable, but
were not included in your reading. Put them below the dotted line on the T-chart.
3) Be prepared to share your information/ideas with the rest of the class
PUSH
Italian
Jewish
Polish
PULL
HANDOUT # 10
NATIVE V. FOREIGN BORN TRENDS IN MAJOR CITIES 1870-1990
City
Total Pop. Native Pop. Foreign Born Pop. Foreign Born%
1990
1.New York
2.Los Angeles
3.Chicago
4.Houston
45.Cincinnati
7.322,564
3,485,398
2,783,726
1,630,672
364,040
5,239,633
2,148,733
2,314,539
1,340,29
353,995
2,082,931
1,336,665
469,187
290,374
10,045
28.4
38.4
16.9
17.
2.8
1.1980
New York
2.Chicago
3.Los Angeles
4.Philadelphia
32.Cincinnati
7,071,639
3,005,078
2,966,850
1,688,210
385,457
5,401,440
2,569,846
2,162,032
1,580,259
374,833
1,670,199
435,232
804,818
107,951
10,624
23.6
14.5
27.1
6.4
2.8
1970
1.New York
2.Chicago
3.Los Angeles
4.Philadelphia
29.Cincinnati
7,894,798
3,362,947
2,815,998
1,948,608
452,376
6,457,740
2,989,028
2,405,128
1,821,712
440,039
1,437,058
373,919
410,870
126,896
12,337
18.2
11.1
14.6
6.5
2.7
1960
1.New York
2.Chicago
3.Los Angeles
4.Philadelphia
21.Cincinnati
7,783,314
3,550,404
2,481,456
2,002,509
502,550
6,224,624
3,112,012
2,169,779
1,824,082
485,950
1,558,690
438,392
311,677
178,427
16,600
20.0
12.3
12.6
8.9
3.3
1950
1.New York
2.Chicago
3.Philadelphia
4.Los Angeles
18.Cincinnati
7,887,380
3,611,580
2,068,095
1,965,150
502,010
6,026,450
3,078,610
1,830,300
1,702,210
481,485
1,860,930
532,970
237,795
262,940
20,525
23.6
14.8
11.5
13.4
4.1
1940
1.New York
2.Chicago
3.Philadelphia
4.Detroit
17.Cincinnati
7,454,995
3,396,808
2,931,334
1,623,452
455,610
5,316,338
2,721,661
1,638,788
1,300,764
429,712
2,138,657
675,147
292,546
322,688
25,898
28.7
19.9
15.1
19.9
5.7
1930
1.New York
2.Chicago
3.Philadelphia
4.Detroit
17.Cincinnati
6,930,446
3,376,438
1,950,961
1,568,662
451,160
4,571,760
2,517,029
1,578,883
1,162,780
416,174
2,358,686
859,409
372,078
405,882
34,986
34.0
25.5
19.1
25.
7.8
(CONTINUED) NATIVE V. FOREIGN BORN TRENDS IN MAJOR CITIES 1870-1990
City
Total Pop.
Native Pop.
Foreign Born Pop.
Foreign Born%
1920
1.New York
2.Chicago
3.Philadelphia
4.Detroit
16.Cincinnati
5,620,048
2,701,705
1,823,779
993,678
401,247
3,591,888
1,893,147
1,423,035
702,794
358,326
2,028,160
808,558
400,744
290,884
42,921
36.1
29.9
22.0
29.3
10.7
1910
1.New York
2.Chicago
3.Philadelphia
4.St. Louis
13.Cincinnati
4,766,883
2,185,283
1,549,008
687,029
363,591
2,822,526
1,401,855
1,164,301
60,806
306,732
1,944,357
783,428
384,707
126,223
56,859
40.8
35.9
24.8
18.4
15.6
3,437,202
1,698,575
1,293,697
575,238
325,902
2,167,122
1,111,463
998,357
463,882
267,941
1,270,080
587,112
295,340
111,356
57,961
37.0
34.6
22.8
19.4
17.8
1890
1.New York,N.Y. 1,515,301
2.Chicago
1,099,850
3.Philadelphia 1,046,964
4.Brooklyn ,N.Y. 806,343
9Cincinnati
296,908
875,358
649,184
777,484
544,643
225,500
639,943
450,666
269,480
261,700
71,408
42.2
41.0
25.7
32. 1
24.1
1880
1.New York , NY 1,206,299
2.Philadelphia 847,170
3.Brooklyn, NY 566,663
4.Chicago
503,185
8.Cincinnati
255,139
727,629
642,835
388,969
298,326
183,480
478,670
204,335
177,694
204,859
71,659
39.7
24.1
31.4
40.7
28.1
1870
1.New York,NY
2.Philadelphia
3.Brooklyn.NY
4.St. Louis
Cincinnati
523,198
490,398
251,381
198,615
136,627
419,094
183,624
144,718
112,249
79,612
44.5
27.2
36.5
36.1
36.8
1900
.
1 New York
2.Chicago
3.Philadelphia
4.St. Louis
Cincinnati
942,292
674,022
396,099
310,864
216,239
Source: Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Population DivisionTech Paper 29: Table 19 Nativity of Population for 50
Largest Urban Places 1970-1990
http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0029/tab19.html
ATTACHMENT C
Connections
Attachment C
Differentiated Instructional Support
(Scaffolds)
Scaffolding activities are included in the Activity options of this lesson. They can be used or not used,
depending on the student population.
Extensions (Gifted)
Assign research paper investigating the human growth of a major, 19th century urban center. Student
could chose the city and possibly a segment of the society upon which to focus, including push/pull
factors, ethnic enclaves, political affiliations, cultural contributions, challenges and accomplishments.
Homework Options and Home Connections
1. Students could be assigned textbook reading that corresponds to content.
2. Most of the activities could be done independently as homework.
3. The assessments could be assigned as homework.
4. Students could be assigned to discuss with their parents/grandparents when and why their families
came to this country
Interdisciplinary Connections
Connection to language Arts classes – Wide range of literary topics including Immigration, Discrimination,
Gilded Age.
Educational Research connections
Marzano, R. et al. Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-based Strategies for Increasing
Student Achievement, Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development, 2001.
Allen, J. et al. Strategic Methods for Content Learning: Reading History, New York, N.Y., Oxford
University Press, 2005
Sources
Books
Cayton, Andrew, Elisabeth I. Perry, Linda Reed, and Allan Winkler. America Pathways to the
Present. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentiss Hall, 2005.
"Human Migration Guide." National Geographic Xpeditions. 2006. National Geographic Society.
1 Aug. 2007 www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/09
Ochoa, George, and Melinda Corey, eds. American History on File. Vol. 1,2. New York, NY:
Facts on File, Inc, 2002.
Internet sources
U.S. Census Bureau, Population DivisionTech Paper 29: Table 19 Nativity of Population for 50 Largest Urban
Places 1970-1990
http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0029/tab19.html
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: AMERICAN MEMORY
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/alt/polish5.html
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: AMERICAN MEMORY
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/alt/polish4.html
The Library of Congress | American Memory
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/alt/italian5.html
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: AMERICAN MEMORY
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/alt/italian3.html
U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1993
http://www.census.gov/population/
U.S. HISORICAL ABSTRACT
http://www.census.gov/population/censusdata/table-4.pdf
American Experience:
http:// www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/trouble/timeline/index.html