Historical Understandings for Becoming American:
- Debates over immigration centered on the tension between the need for labor and anxiety over immigrants’ political, racial, and cultural qualifications for citizenship
- Immigrants used a variety of strategies to survive in new circumstances and challenge discrimination
COLONIAL NEW YORK
October 22, 2007 at the Brooklyn Museum
Reading: “The Island,” from Russell Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America (2004)
Scholar Talk: “Encountering New Netherlands: Dutch, English, African, and Native American Peoples,” David Jaffee (Bard Graduate Center)
Primary Documents and Activities:
Mary Burton Testifies About the Existence of a Slave Conspiracy in New York
MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY IRISH IMMIGRATION
December 14, 2007 at The Graduate Center, CUNY
Reading: “Background Reading on the New York City Draft Riots,” from American Social History Project, Freedom’s Unfinished Revolution (1996) and Who Built America? (2007)
Scholar Talk: “Irish Americans and the Meaning of Race in the Mid-Nineteenth Century,” Kevin Kenny (Boston College)
Primary Documents and Activities:
1855 New York State Census of Five Points
Document Analysis: Two Tales of A Neighborhood
Role Play: The New York City Draft Riots (Activity + Documents)
Create A Scene: Reformers vs. Residents in the Five Points (Activity + Documents)
Seeing is Believing? The Five Points Neighborhood Census (Activity + Documents)
A Protestant Nation is Threatened on the Shores of the “American River Ganges
Thomas Nast Considers “The Chinese Question”
“The Most Recently Discovered Wild Beast”: A London Newspaper Depicts Irish-Americans
Harper’s Weekly Offers a Typical View of “Paddy”
Thomas Nast Depicts “The Usual Irish Way of Doing Things”
A St. Patrick’s Day “Riot,” As Portrayed by Thomas Nast
Physiognomy and Ethnic Stereotyping in the Nineteenth Century
THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE
February 8, 2008 at The Graduate Center, CUNY
Reading: Introduction and pp. 98-107 from Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship: A Human History (2007)
Scholar Talk: “Teaching America and the Slave Trade in Global Perspective: Sources, Topics, and Strategies,” Fritz Umbach (John Jay College); “Social and Cultural Notes About Slavery in West Africa,” Kojo Dei (John Jay College)
Primary Documents and Activities:
Many Passages: The Voyage of the Slave Ship Brooks (Activity + Documents)
Map of Transatlantic Slave Trade from Fritz Umbach’s Talk
GOLD MOUNTAIN AND ANGEL ISLAND: THE CHINESE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE
April 18, 2008 at The Graduate Center, CUNY
Reading: Excerpts (pp. 32-52) from Iris Chang, The Chinese in America: A Narrative History (2004)
Primary Documents and Activities:
Clips from Becoming American: The Chinese Experience
A Country within a Country: Understanding San Francisco’s Chinatown (Activity + Documents)
An English-Chinese Phrasebook
Worksheet for An English-Chinese Phrase Book
Selected Timeline of Federal Immigration Laws in the U.S., 1790-1965
A Chinese Immigrant Tells of Labor in a New Land
IMMIGRATION: ELLIS ISLAND
May 15, 2008 at the Brooklyn Historical Society
Reading: Chapter 7 “Going to School” from Nancy Foner, From Ellis Island to JFK: New York’s Two Great Waves of Immigration (2000)
Scholar Talk: “Immigration and Conceptions of ‘Fit’ Citizenship, 1790-1924,” Matthew Jacobson (Yale University)
Primary Documents and Activities:
“The Immigrant. Is he an acquisition or a detriment?”
“The Immigrant” Cartoon Worksheet
The Immigration Restriction League Offers Arguments Against “The New Immigration”
President Cleveland Vetoes a Law Restricting Immigration
