Lesson
Industry and Immigration in the Gilded Age
Objectives:
- Students will analyze excerpts from primary sources of the Gilded Age to trace relationships between industry and immigration during the period.
- Students will review letters from immigrants in the United States to see how they evaluated the success of their venture.
Materials
- Laptops or tablets
- Handout A: Background Essay: Immigrants and Industry
- Handout B: Nevada Manifest
- Handout C: Letters from Polish Immigrants to Their Families in Poland
- Handout D: Debate over Immigration Laws 1896–1897
Students will need access to laptops or tablets, at least for analysis of Handout B: Nevada Manifest. This activity requires close analysis of a document available at www.docsteach.org National Archives Identifier: 5753086 Full Citation: Passenger Arrival Manifest for the Ship Nevada; 1/2/1892. Students should have access to laptops, at least sufficient for work in pairs, so they can analyze and comment on the Passenger Arrival Manifest for the Ship Nevada (https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/manifest-nevada) either as a whole-class guided exercise or as a self-directed activity.
Lesson Components
Examine the manifest of the Nevada and analyze demographic information about the passengers of one voyage of one ship transporting immigrants to the United States.
Three letters that help students understand how the increase in industrialization fueled immigration and what was the results were.
In what ways did Henry Cabot Lodge and President Cleveland express different reactions to immigration and in what did those reactions reveal about American identity?
How did the increase in industrialization during the period 1865–1898 fuel immigration to the United States and what was the result?
Lesson plan
More Information
Have students read Handout A: Background Essay: Immigrants and Industry to set the stage for this lesson. Before class begins, write the following on the board: (Choose between Driving Question A and Driving Question B.)
- Driving Question A: How did the increase in industrialization during the period 1865–1898 fuel immigration to the United States and what was the result?
- Driving Question B: What was the impact of large-scale immigration on industrial development in the United States during the late nineteenth century?
- Lesson Thesis: Immigrants came for the promise of escaping poverty and oppression. They did not always find a warm welcome and the transition was difficult, but for many people, immigration to the United States led to improved opportunity for themselves and/or for their descendants over time.
- American Identity: How did immigration and industry contribute to American identity in the Gilded Age? How were immigrants themselves shaped by American ideals?
Standards
Advanced Placement
- Topic 6.8 · Immigration and Migration in the Gilded Age
- Theme · Migration and Settlement
- Learning Objective · Unit 6F
- Historical Development · 6.2.I.A
- Historical Development · 6.1.II.B.ii
- Reasoning Skill · Sourcing and Situation
- Reasoning Skill · Source Claims and Evidence
- Reasoning Skill · Contextualization
- Reasoning Skill · Making Connections
- Reasoning Skill · Argumentation
- Reasoning Process · Comparison
- Reasoning Process · Continuity and Change
Check whether this resource aligns with your state’s standards →
Related materials
Use this primary source imagery to analyze major events in history.
Four activities and six primary sources to help students explore the push and pull factors that caused immigrants to come to the United States in the 1800s.
Have American views on immigration changed over time? In this episode, Mary walks through "The Anti-Chinese Wall" cartoon by Friedrich Graetz to understand the discriminatory reasons why many Americans objected to Chinese immigration in the late 19th century, and what they revealed about many Americans' beliefs during the time. How did the debate against Chinese immigration turn into the Chinese Exclusion Act?
Tony Williams is joined by Dr. Stephanie Hinnershitz, author and assistant professor of history at Cleveland State University, as they discuss her thought-provoking essay on the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 in BRI’s new digital textbook, Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. She chronicles the social, economic, and political factors that compelled many people to immigrate to the United States from China in the late 19th century, as well as the tragic violence and xenophobia that Chinese laborers routinely suffered. How did these tensions culminate in the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, and what impact did this discriminatory law have on society?
The rise in immigration to the United States in the 1840's altered the economic, cultural, and political climate of the nation in the first half of the 19th century.