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Source Sets / U.S. History

Source set · 7 sources ✓ Lesson ready

Was America a land of opportunity for immigrants?

Immigrant memoirs, exclusion laws, cartoons, and immigration paperwork show both welcome and restriction.

Timeline of key events →Gallery Walk: cartoon stations →

Teach it

✓ Lesson ready

A ready-to-run lesson for this set: Hot Seat: Voices of Immigration. Slides include a hook, one slide per source, directions, a take-a-stand vote, an exit ticket, and a teacher script in the speaker notes.

Make a copy (Lesson Slides)Make a copy (Lesson Plan + materials)

1. Hook: what would you do? 3-5 min

It is the 1890s. Where you live, laws limit where your family may live and work, and local officials treat you unfairly. A relative in America writes that there is work, but the trip costs most of your savings and you may never return.

Options: (1) Leave for America now · (2) Stay and hope things improve · (3) Send one family member first

Then read: A Jew could make the circle of the Pale only to find the same conditions as at home. Mary Antin, on life in the Russian Pale (1890)

2. Main activity: Hot Seat: Voices of Immigration

Grouping: Five volunteers take the hot seat in turn; the class asks questions in pairs

Setup: A student sits in the hot seat as a person connected to one source. The class asks questions; the student answers using only facts from the role card and source. If the answer isn’t in the evidence, the student says, “The source doesn’t tell us.”

Materials (printables are in the Lesson Plan Doc)
  • Hot seat role cards (printable pages in the Lesson Plan Doc)
  • Evidence cards for all 7 sources
  • Question-writing sheet
  1. Prepare the class 5 min
    Pairs read the evidence cards and write two questions for each role.
  2. Prepare the hot seat 5 min
    Volunteers study their role cards. The teacher models one answer.
  3. Hot seat 25 min
    Each role takes about 5 minutes. Pairs ask questions; the class notes one fact learned from each.
  4. Debrief 8 min
    Ask: For whom was America a land of opportunity? For whom was the door closing?
  5. Exit ticket 5 min
    Students answer on a slip before leaving.

Take a stand: Was America a land of opportunity for immigrants in this era?

  • Yes, for many: Millions arrived and built new lives; Mary Antin’s family escaped legal limits on where Jews could live and settled in Boston.
  • Not for all: The Chinese Exclusion Act barred Chinese laborers for decades, and cartoons of the time show hostility toward newcomers.

3. Pacing options

15-minute bell-ringer

  • 3 min Hook: scenario and Mary Antin
  • 8 min One hot seat only: the 1882 member of Congress, with the class reading the Exclusion Act quote
  • 4 min Exit ticket question 1

Full 50-minute lesson

  • 4 min Hook: scenario
  • 10 min Prepare questions and roles
  • 25 min Hot seat rotation
  • 6 min Debrief and vote
  • 5 min Exit ticket

4. Exit ticket

  1. Pick one voice from today. Was America a land of opportunity for that person? Use the source.
  2. Why did the Chinese Exclusion Act treat laborers differently from merchants?

5. Differentiation

Support

  • Adapted Docs (easier reading) in this set: Chinese Exclusion Act
  • Let hot seat volunteers keep the role card in hand and read from it.
  • Give question stems: “Why did you…?” “What happened when…?” “How did the law…?”

Extension

  • Find out when the Chinese Exclusion Act was repealed (1943) and why.
  • Compare Ellis Island with Angel Island: how did processing differ?

Suggested sequence

  1. Mary Antin: A Little Jewish Girl in the Russian Pale (1890)
    Document · Fordham University · Industrialization & Gilded Age (1870-1900) · Grades 6-8, 9-12 · ⏱ 15 min
    Mary Antin's account of growing up in the Russian Pale before emigrating to America.
    Ask: Why did families leave everything to come to America?
    Open with this source to frame the question.
    Original ↗Copy DocSOAPSToneHIPP / HAPP
  2. Chinese Exclusion Act
    Document · National Archives · Industrialization & Gilded Age (1870-1900) · Grades 6-8, 9-12 · ⏱ 10 min
    1882 law barring Chinese laborers.
    Ask: Why did Congress single out Chinese immigrants?
    Original ↗Copy DocCopy AdaptedSOAPSToneHIPP / HAPP
  3. The anti-Chinese wall--The American wall goes up as the Chinese original goes down (1882)
    Political cartoon · Library of Congress · Industrialization & Gilded Age (1870-1900) · Grades 9-12 · ⏱ 5 min
    Library of Congress print: The anti-Chinese wall--The American wall goes up as the Chinese original goes down (1882). 1 print : chromolithograph. | A cartoon showing laborers, among whom are Irishmen, an African American, a Civil War veteran, Italian, Frenchman, and a Jew, building a wall against the Chinese. Congressional mortar is use…
    Ask: How did cartoonists comment on the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882?
    Original ↗Copy SlidesPolitical Cartoon AnalysisOPTIC
  4. In the art pen at Ellis Island (1908)
    Political cartoon · Library of Congress · Industrialization & Gilded Age (1870-1900) · Grades 9-12 · ⏱ 5 min
    Library of Congress print: In the art pen at Ellis Island (1908). 1 photomechanical print : offset, color. | Illustration shows several artists identified as "Lawrence, Gainsborough, D. Teniers, Rubens, Raphael, Da Vinci, Titian, Duerer, Velasquez, Van Dyke, Reni", and the friar Girola…
    Ask: How did Puck portray immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in 1908?
    Original ↗Copy SlidesPolitical Cartoon AnalysisOPTIC
  5. Friends, Chinatown, San Francisco (1896)
    Photograph · Library of Congress · Progressive Era (1890-1920) · Grades K-5, 6-8, 9-12 · ⏱ 5 min
    Library of Congress photograph: Friends, Chinatown, San Francisco (1896). 1 negative : safety ; 5 x 7 in. or smaller.
    Ask: What does this photograph show about Chinese American community life?
    Original ↗Copy SlidesSee-Think-WonderOPTIC
  6. Chinese Passport for Leung Ting Suen
    Document · DocsTeach (National Archives) · Progressive Era (1890-1920) · Grades 9-12 · ⏱ 10 min
    Passport of Leung Ting Suen filed in his Chinese Exclusion Act case.
    Ask: How did the Chinese Exclusion Act affect even exempt travelers?
    Original ↗SOAPSToneHIPP / HAPP
  7. Early Chinese Immigration to the US (DPLA Primary Source Set)
    Document collection · Digital Public Library of America · Industrialization & Gilded Age (1870-1900) · Grades 6-8, 9-12 · ⏱ Varies
    Digital Public Library of America primary source set, 'Early Chinese Immigration to the US': curated sources from U.S. libraries, archives, and museums, with a teaching guide.
    Ask: What drew Chinese immigrants to the U.S., and what did they face?
    Close with this source before writing.
    Original ↗Sourcing, Contextualization, CorroborationHIPP / HAPP

Watch

Free videos to pair with this set. Preview before showing in class.

Teach with (more from Hillsdale): Unit 5: The Turn of the Century (1877-1919) (free K-12 curriculum unit)

Culminating writing prompt

Using evidence from at least three sources in this set, write an argument that answers the question: “Was America a land of opportunity for immigrants?” Cite each source by title, explain how its author, audience, and purpose affect its reliability, and respond to at least one counterargument.

Printable writing sheet (make a copy)

Students can plan with the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning organizer.