The Gilded Age:
Day 3, Immigration
Flashback: What does this
image say about the Age of
Industrialism in America?
Bell ringer: Considering
the realities of the Age of
Industrialism, why would
people (including adults
and children) continue to
take these jobs?
 Innovation, resources, and government policies
encouraged industrialism.
 “Giants” of industry created the “Gilded Age.”
 Industrialism had positive and negative effects.
 Workers responded to industrial conditions by
creating unions.
 Despite efforts by unions, workers had to continue
fighting bad workplace conditions.
 One event finally drew attention to the problem of
workplace safety.
 A “new” wave of immigrants came to the United States at the
beginning of the 20th century, pulled by economic
opportunity and freedom.
 What factors pulled new immigrants to the U.S.?
 What events pushed the immigrants from their homelands to
America?
 What was the journey life for the immigrants?
 What contributions were made by these new immigrants?
 “Old” immigrants differed from “new” immigrants in regards
to their home countries, cultures, and experiences.
 How were new immigrants different from the old ones?
 What patterns of immigration can bee seen from 1880 to 1920?
 What conflicts arose for the new immigrants?
 Where had most Americans come from?
 What were the “Old” immigrants like?
 Why had they come to America?
 Between 1880 and 1920, over 23 million immigrants
came into the United States
 Most were coming from Eastern (Poland, Russia) and
Southern Europe (Italy, Greece), unlike those before
them who were from Northern and Western Europe
(Great Britain, France)
 Asian immigrants continued to come into the West
coast looking for new opportunities
 Mexican immigrants drifted north to work in the West
as it continued to grow
 Fewer new immigrants spoke English
 Many were poor and had little education
 Included large numbers of persecuted groups, such as
the Jews
 Many of the groups brought new religions into
America, including Judaism, Catholicism, Russian
Orthodox Christianity, Buddhism, and Confucianism
 All came looking for opportunity and brought with
then the desire and willingness to work
Push Factors
Pull Factors
 Poverty
 Hope for better life
 Overpopulation
 Work in growing
 Political persecution
industries
 Opportunities for land in
West
 Tales of immediate
riches
 Tales of acceptance
 Religious persecution
 Environmental disasters
To European Ports
• Families or individuals say goodbyes to home
• Travel by train, cart, or foot to European ports
Aboard the Ship
• Ocean voyage takes up to 14 days
• Steerage section packed with people, disease, danger
Arrival at the Statue of Liberty
• Symbol of hope and opportunity
• Can take days to get off the ship for processing
The Journey
Role Card Reading:
Luciano, Italian
immigrant
Travel to America
Role Card Reading:
Bertha, Irish
Immigrant
Day 1
 Long waits begin
 Physical exam
 Eye test
 Capability tests
 Disease checks
 Verbal exam
 Battery of questions
 Interpreters ask fast
with immigrants fearing
failure
Additional Days
 Legal checks
 Names are often
changed in
 Economic check
 Jobs secured
 Family for support
 Passage to mainland
 Stays in infirmary for
illness or to be sent back
Immigrants at
Ellis Island
Role Card Reading:
Albert, Armenian
immigrant
 Most immigrants settle in larger cities where they can find
housing and work





New York
Boston
Philadelphia
Baltimore
Cincinnati
 Cities become overcrowded and are extremely busy





New transportation methods in the streets
Stores or street vendors or corner salesmen
Neighborhoods made up of common cultures
Tenement housing with deplorable conditions
Children play in streets, but must avoid rising gangs
Immigrants in
the Cities
Role Card Reading:
Slovenian
immigrant boy
Immigrant
Neighborhoods
Role Card Reading:
Louise, Polish
Immigrant
Immigrants in
the Cities
Role card reading:
An immigrant boy
 Education
 Immigrants understood
that education was the
way to better lives
 Children juggled
schooling between jobs
to help families
 Educated children took
on adult roles to help
families
 Night classes offered
some adults
opportunities
School for
immigrants
Role Card Reading:
Immigrant boy
 The growth of factories and offices created new jobs
 More of everything (roads, transportation, housing)
was needed for the new population which created
more jobs
 Immigrants were discriminated against and paid less if
not “preferred” workers





Long hours
Low pay
Child labor
Unsafe working environment
No worker benefits
Immigrants at
Work
Role Card Reading:
Emma, Textile
factory worker
 Many sought jobs outside the cities in mines, logging,
or construction
 Work was often dangerous and always physically
demanding
 Most of these workers left their families to work on
jobs, sometimes not returning for months
Working with the
Resources
Role Card Reading:
Edgar, Coal miner
 The lives and opportunities of the immigrants differed
based on many things…
 How hard they worked
 Their education and skill levels
 The places they went
 The obstacles they faced
 While many immigrants faced obstacles along the way,
they still struggled to become the ideal American and
made many contributions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Read the information on your immigrants
Record the information about their push or pull
factors
Describe their travels to America
Discuss the obstacles (discriminations) they faced
List the contributions they made
Be prepared to share!
Jigsaw sharing.
Italian
Push/Pull
Factors
Travels to
America
Obstacles
Faced
Contributions
in America
Jewish
Chinese
Mexican
 List 5 push or pull factors faced by immigrants
between 1880 and 1920.
 How do those factors compare to the reasons people
come to America today?