| Immigration and Reactions to the New Order (1850-1930) |
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Sections:- The Changing Face of the Nation
- Immigration Restrictions
- Chinese Immigration
- Jewish Immigration
- Immigrant Experience: Ethnic Communities
- Eugenics
- Social Darwinism
- Dr. Joseph DeJarnette
- Social Gospel
- In His Steps
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| Historical Context
As population pressures eased in Western Europe, the number of immigrants from Eastern Europe, and eventually Africa, Asia, Oceana, and the Americas, increased tremendously. The influx of these new outsiders threatened "native" Americans by bringing their own customs, traditions, and religions.
Attached Documents
The first graph below shows the percentage of the foreign born population of the United States.The subsequent 9 graphs demonstrate the changing distribution of origin for the immigrant population of the United States.
Questions to Consider
1. Why do you think immigrants were perceived as a threat?
2. Why do you think immigrants from different parts of Europe were perceived differently? How can you relate this to contemporary issues? |
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| Historical Context
There have been restrictions on immigration to America since the colonial period, but not until the late 19th Century did legislation become particularly restrictive, focusing on groups of people sectioned by ethnicity, profession, and national origin.
Attached Documents
The 1875 Immigration Law, which appears below, was designed to outright exclude Asians and, indirectly, unmarried women. By specifically making it illegal for anyone to enter the United States for the purposes of prostitution, the entrance of unmarried women was at the sole discretion of individual agents. In 1882, a 50 cent head tax was instituted and convicts and lunatics were specifically barred from entry. In 1891, the list of undesirable citizens was expanded to include, among others, paupers, diseased people, and those who had their passage paid by someone else.The 1917 Quota Act, which appears below, implemented an $8 head tax, an exhaustive list of undesirables, and set temporary national origin quotas. The 1924 Immigration Act, or Johnson-Reed Act, codified the national origins quotas and gave more complete power to the Immigration Bureau to regulate the national standards. During congressional debate over the 1924 Act, Senator Ellison DuRant Smith of South Carolina drew on the racist theories of Madison Grant to argue that immigration restriction was the only way to preserve existing American resources. The text of his speech from Congress follows below.
Questions to Consider
1. What motivation do you think the American lawmakers had for restricting immigration?
2. What groups did they outright bar from entering the country? What groups were effectively banned from immigration through the legislation? |
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| Historical Context
The earliest Asian immigrants to the United States were typically Chinese and, in the beginning, they were welcomed into the country. In 1865, the Central Pacific Railroad recruited thousands of Chinese immigrants to work on the construction of the transcontinental railroad and in 1868 the Burlingame Treaty was ratified to ease Chinese immigration to the United States. However, as soon as, and even before, inroads were made for Asian immigration, setbacks began to be put in place. Following the onslaught of Chinese immigration due to the California Gold Rush, the Asian immigrants came to be on the receiving end of multiple restrictive laws and violence. By the end of the 19th Century, the Chinese and eventually all Asians, were excluded from American citizenship.
Attached Documents
The Burlingame Treaty was designed to facilitate Chinese immigration. The excerpt below explains that the treaty was constructed to ensure equal rights and privileges for Chinese immigrants.The text of the Foreign Miner's Tax or the Act to Protect Free White Labor Against Competition with Chinese Coolie Labor, and to Discourage the Immigration of the Chinese into the State of California is provided below to serve as an example of anti-Chinese legislation on the state level. The Act is specifically designed to discourage employment of Chinese laborers by imposing crippling taxes upon them. The Chinese Exclusion Act is direct legislation designed to keep all Chinese immigrants from entering the state of California, setting restrictions on citizenship, employment, and travel.
Also found below is a photograph of Chinese Laborers working on the Central Pacific Railroad.
Questions to Consider
1. Who do you think initiated the legislation to omit Chinese immigrants; the citizens, businesses, politicians?
2. How did the legislation discourage Chinese immigration while not forbidding it? |
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| Historical Context
Although there was a Jewish population in the United States prior to the 19th century, primarily from Brazil, a new group of Jewish immigrants came from the newly integrated German State. Driven to emigration because of land shortages, poverty, and governmental restrictions on marriage, employment, and residence, the majority of German Jews immigrated to the United States following the Revolution in 1848. At the onset of the 20th Century, Jews fleeing the extreme persecution in Poland and Russia came to the United States in very large numbers; they were also restricted by the government on where they could live and how they could earn their living.
Attached Documents
By the end of the 1800's most immigrants were pouring through Ellis Island, passing the Statue of Liberty emblazoned with The New Colossus, a poem written by a Jewish woman, Emma Lazarus. A copy of her poem, calling all immigrants to American shores, is found below. The persecution of Jews in America was not as systemic as in Europe and restrictions on Jewish Immigration came along with restrictions placed on Eastern European immigration in general.
Questions to Consider
Questions to Consider:
1. How has religion been a basis for discrimination throughout American History?
2. What other groups have been subject to discrimination? |
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| Historical Context
The United States was essentially flooded with immigrants at the end of the 19th century. Many of these men, women, and children had never been to America before, were unaccustomed to the traditions, and knew relatively no one in their mythical adopted home. For this reason, they tended to gravitate towards others from the same country or region.
Attached Documents
A contemporary, albeit fictional, account of immigrants looking for and forming expatriate communities in America is found in the excerpt from Chapter Two of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle."
Questions to Consider
1. How do you think the resulting ethnically homogenous neighborhoods helped immigrants? How do you think they hindered them?
2. What do you think was the most beneficial aspect of finding people from one’s home country for the immigrants of the late 19th century? |
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| Historical Context
The study of Eugenics is one of the more prominent theories of scientific racism popularized in the early 1900's. Eugenicists believed that heredity determined almost all of a person's capacities and that genetic inferiority predisposed people to crime and poverty. Eugenics was promoted by the ideas of Social Darwinism and was used to justify changes to immigration law in the United States. Attached Documents
Raymond Pearl was originally an advocate of Eugenics and in 1908 he published Breeding Better Men an article in defense of the ideology. The article applies the theories of selective agricultural breeding to human breeding while explaining how this process would benefit society as a whole. Pearl, after further research, rescinded his claims and published an article denouncing the study of Eugenics.
In the 1927 ruling of Buck v Bell the United States Supreme Court upheld a statute the required sterilization of the mentally retarded "for the protection and health of the state." The ruling was seen as governmental endorsement of Eugenics. Justice Holmes wrote the opinion of the court in which he claims that the responsibility of the state to the public is to maintain a clean gene pool and that outweighs its responsibility to "feeble minded" individuals.
Questions to Consider
1. What were the major arguments of the eugenicists?
2. What traits were valued by the proponents of eugenics?
3. What social policies do you think Eugenics could have initiated? |
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| Historical Context
Social Darwinism is a form of scientific racism, in reality a pseudo-science, which claims that Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection in biology can also be applied to the competition between social groups. It implies that variations between ethnic or racial groups determine their ability to be rank socially, that some are inherently inferior to others and should be left to die out as a result of their own incompetence. The theory gave a "scientific" or educated justification for racism and could be, to some extent, used to support the field of Eugenics. Attached Documents
In Herbert Spencer's Progress, he draws the parallel between the organic process of biological development and the organic quality of all processes in society. Spencer's ideology was popular through the end of World War Two, although the term was not "coined" until Richard Hofstadter published Social Darwinism in American Thought in 1944.
Provided below is a photograph of Herbert Spencer, as well as a poster showing the pseudo-scientific proof for racial differences.
Questions to Consider
1. How did Spencer characterize the evolution of society? How is this relevant to Social Darwinism?
2. Was Charles Darwin an adherent to Social Darwinism? How does the theory of Social Darwinism distort Darwin's Theory of Evolution?
3. How can the theory of Social Darwinism be used in a positive manner? Was this the dominant method of applying the theory to social structure? |
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| Historical Context
Dr. DeJarnette was an extremely vocal believer in Eugenics and, as director of Virginia's Western State Mental Hospital in the early 1900's he instituted the compulsory sterilization of mental patients. He believed that to protect the whole of society the imperfect genes should be weeded out through selective breeding.
Attached Documents
Dr. DeJarnette wrote the poem Mendel's Law: A Plea for a Better Race of Men in support of his beliefs. It explains how breeding helps other species and it should help humans as well. Scientifically, Mendel's Laws refer to the laws of genetics, as they apply to hereditary traits; DeJarnette used the name to gain a degree of scientific relevance.
Questions to Consider
1. How did DeJarnette use the ideas of Social Darwinism and Eugenics to justify the forced sterilization of patients? |
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| Historical Context
In searching for a solution to social ills brought on by the newly industrialized society in the United States, a Protestant Christian movement was born. The Social Gospel movement used Christian principles for the resolution of urban problems and although it was not a unified movement, religious leaders from many faiths were considered a part of the movement. Also, the Social Gospel was other side of the social application of Darwinism. Whereas Social Darwinism tended to focus on eliminating the undesirables from the gene pool, followers of the Social Gospel believed that certain groups necessitated help because of their inherent deficiencies.
Attached Documents
In 1907, Walter Rauschenbusch published "Christianity and the Social Crisis", a book related to the principles of the Social Gospel, in which he argues that sin should not only be applied to individuals, but to society in general. Rauschenbusch claimed that if society could sin, then it is possible to fight that sin through a Social Gospel.
Questions to Consider
1. How is this application of religion to society different from traditional American religious practice? What was religion's place? |
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| Historical Context
In His Steps, a book published by Charles M. Sheldon in 1897, was for a long time one of the most popular and influential books in the Social Gospel movement. According to Sheldon, American society would experience a dramatic transformation if only people would base their public and private actions on the answer to the simple question of "What Would Jesus Do?"
Attached Documents
A selection from the final chapter of In His Steps is found below.
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