The focus of this blog post will be for you to practice the skill of identifying changes and continuities throughout APUSH with one theme in mind: immigration.
We know that getting all the details about what happened when in U.S. history (let alone explaining the significance of those events) can be hard. That’s why we have created this series of posts, “Themes Across APUSH,” that gives you a brief overview of one theme at a time, along with tips to help you think about patterns of change and continuity. Ready to dive in? Let’s go!
If you’ve been paying even a little bit of attention to recent news, you will have seen the current debates about immigration in the United States.
“The United States is a nation of immigrants,” these politicians and pundits will declare. But what does that even mean?
This blog post will explore the theme of immigration for the APUSH test by outlining the following events:
We have a lot of ground to cover, so as you continue reading, I want you to be thinking about what has changed in U.S. immigration policy, and what has continued.
I also want you to be thinking about what I have left out of this post. For example, this overview will stop in 1907; a lot of immigration stories have happened since then! How would you incorporate those events into this story about immigration in U.S. history? Furthermore, I am separating immigration from migration; therefore, I am not including forced movements of indigenous people further West. (For that, you should check out my post on the Indian Removal Act, as well as explorations of the themes of Imperialism and Expansion in this series.) You should ask yourself questions like: should the forced and violent movement of indigenous peoples be a part of the immigration theme? Why or why not?
In short, as you are reading this post, you should be doing a lot of thinking, too!
For purposes of a blog post about immigration, it is important that you understand what naturalization means. Here’s a quick definition:
Naturalization (noun): the process by which a non-citizen of a country becomes a legal citizen of that country
With that definition in mind, it becomes clear that the Naturalization Act of 1790 was meant to determine who could become a citizen. According to the following passage (which is an excerpt from the Act), who could become a citizen in 1790?
The legal language can be a little hard to follow, but the idea is that only a “free white” man of “good character” can become a citizen, provided that he has lived in the United States for two years. However, as we well know, more than just white men were immigrating to the United States. Therefore, all women and non-white (non-white, of course, was a very loose definition) men were considered noncitizens.
One of the biggest forms of immigration was forced; that is, the movement of Africans to the Western Hemisphere for the purposes of enslavement.
Of course, slavery continued within the United States until 1865, and the internal slave trade continued long after 1808. Any full exploration of immigration in the United States has to account for the fact that immigration occurred on a spectrum from violent and forced to peaceful and non-coercive. Another example of the paradox of immigration black Americans faced would be The Great Migration.
In the early to middle part of the 19th century, the United States saw a decisive uptick in immigrants from the following places:
Chinese workers immigrated to the United States in order to complete the Transcontinental Railroad. The Chinese Exclusion Act was an outgrowth of their presence in the United States; however, individuals had mixed feelings about this exclusion.
See the political cartoon from Thomas Nast as an example of one point of view about the exclusion of Chinese immigrants. What is his view on these immigrants? How is he making his point?
As a result of rapid industrialization in the Northeast and Midwest of the United States, many individuals from all over the world immigrated to the United States for economic opportunities. They were not always welcomed in cities, however.
Progressive Era reformers (that is, individuals who wanted to ameliorate society from the excesses of the Gilded Age) began what came to be known as the settlement house movement in order to assist new immigrants in their process of assimilation to the United States.
One of the most famous of these progressives was Jane Addams, who published detailed maps about the neighborhoods she lived in and the immigrants she met there.
I am highlighting the Spanish American War as an important piece of the immigration story because it is often left out. One of the implications of this war was that the United States “won” the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam from the Spanish empire. The Philippines would be recognized as an independent nation after World War II, but Puerto Rico and Guam remain territories of the United States and the individuals who are born on these two islands are citizens.
The Dillingham Commission was formed in 1907 when U.S. lawmakers were concerned about increased immigration from southern and eastern Europe. The work of this commission would have the following consequences:
While this was an overview, there are lots of ways to think about change and continuity based on these events. The following is a list to get you started:
1. The changing definition of what it meant to be a U.S. citizen;
2. The spectrum of causes motivating immigration; and
3. Reactions to immigrants from within the United States.
I am sure that you can think of many more ways to make sense of this important theme for APUSH. Check out the additional resources below for more ideas. Happy studying!
Videos
Podcasts
The Melting Pot: Listen as several historians debate the meaning of assimilation at various points in U.S. history.
Allena Berry loves history; that should be known upfront. She loves it so much that she not only taught high school history and psychology after receiving her Master’s degree at Stanford University, she is now studying how students learn history at Northwestern. That being said, she does not have a favorite historical time period (so don’t bother asking). In addition to history, she enjoys writing, practicing yoga, and scouring Craigslist for her next DIY project or midcentury modern piece of furniture. View all posts