Child Labor And Immigration

Question 1

How many children under 16 were working in mines and factories by the early 1900s

Answer 1

Over 1 million

Question 2

Why did companies want kids to work?

Answer 2

They could be paid less and used more

Question 3

Why did parents want their children to work

Answer 3

1. Families needed money
2. Thought hard work would build character
3. Believed once children knew basic English + Math they could go to work

Question 4

Breaker Boys

Answer 4

A coal-mining worker whose job as to desperate impurities from coal

Question 5

Newsies

Answer 5

Newspaper Carriers (boys)

Question 6

Other jobs for boys

Answer 6

Tobacco picker, shrimp picker, oyster shuckers

Question 7

Cigar Boys

Answer 7

Sold cigars like Newsies and became addicted because people would buy cigars and give it to them

Question 8

1938 Fair Labor Standard Act

Answer 8

Today children under 16 have limited hours and you have to be over 18 to do dangerous contact

Question 9

Mary Harris “Mother Jones”

Answer 9

Union leader who wanted to improve life of workers, especially children and miners
Used speeches to pay unions
Lost all of her family to yellow fever
Opened a dress shop and sympathized for poor workers,but never said anything
Lost her shop to Great Chicago Fire and joined Knights of Labor
“Most dangerous woman in America”
Jailed 7 times
Won a meeting with Rockefeller- 8hr workday + better conditions

Question 10

Old Immigrants

Answer 10

From Northern and Western Europe
Ireland, Great Britain, Germany
1840s-1890

Question 11

New Immigrants

Answer 11

From Southern and Eastern Europe
Italy, Poland, Hungary
Late 1800s

Question 12

Push Factors

Answer 12

Reason people wanted to leave their countries
1- overpopulation
2- famine
3- scarcity of arable land
4- deprived of freedom of religion

Question 13

Pull factors

Answer 13

Reasons people wanted to go to America
1- free democratic society
2- jobs
3- natural resources, arable land
4- ‘American Letters’

Question 14

‘American Letters’

Answer 14

Letters sent to countries, usually publicly announced, talking about how great America was. Usually overexaggerated by people in America to get their family to emigrate

Question 15

Conditions of travel for Immigrants

Answer 15

UNHEALTHY!

Question 16

Steerage

Answer 16

Area below the ship decks where steering mechanisms were located

Question 17

Where did immigrants stay in the ships?

Answer 17

Steerage

Question 18

Ellis Island

Answer 18

“Entrance of the East” 1892
Immigrants given identification cards
“Six-second Exam”
29 question interview
Foran Act 1885
20% of immigrants failed one or either of the exams
Board of Special Inquiry
2% deported

Question 19

“Six-Second Exam”

Answer 19

Eye exam: checks for Trachoma
Main 4 marks: X for suspected mental illness, E for eyes (usually deported) (CT for Trachoma— always deported) , L for lameness, H for heart
Physical Exam

Question 20

“Do you have work waiting for you in America” Question meaning

Answer 20

People who said yes were always accused of lying or committing a crime because the Foran Act banned employees to employ foreigners before theyre imported

Question 21

Foran Act

Answer 21

1885- illegal for US employers to import foreigners as contract laborers

Question 22

Immigrant Life in America

Answer 22

Tenements
Settled in undesirable neighborhoods
Not welcomed into society
In late 1800s, government gave aid to unemployed immigrants (Benevolent Societies + Settlement houses)
Many tried to keep their customs
Tried to Americanize their kids
Americanization made them feel threatened
Experienced nativism
1894 restrictions immigration league

Question 23

Settlement houses

Answer 23

Community centers that provided shelter and services to poor immigrants

Question 24

Nativism

Answer 24

Policy of favoring US born Americans

Question 25

Benevolent societies

Answer 25

Aid organization that offered help to sick and unemployed

Question 26

Tenements

Answer 26

Poorly built, overcrowded apartment buildings

Question 27

Main tool of assimilation of child immigrants

Answer 27

Education: “Americanized them”

Question 28

Immigration from Asia

Answer 28

Most Chinese men came to work on Central Pacific Railroad and for the Gold Rush Mainly men.. was like that in the future too Did “stoop labor” labor others weren’t willing to do Worked for less money During 1870s Chinese were blamed for economic depression- called “inferior” and “unamerican”

Question 29

Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Answer 29

First time US had restricted immigration solely on race Lasted 10 years Prevented any Chinese in-country to become citizens Still allowed some merchants, teachers, spouses, and few students to enter Highly effective, very few immigrants continued to forge documents Resulted in farm labor shortage In 1906, Asian segregation in schools

Question 30

Angel Island

Answer 30

“Ellis Island of the West” Thorough physical exam and very intense legal interview took days Specific questions + witnesses called Questions like “how many steps in your house” If you failed the legal interview you were detained

Question 31

Italian Immigrants

Answer 31

Cared mainly about family Came to escape poverty, overpopulation, and wanted good farming land Pascal D’Angelo wrote poems about his poor conditions Did unskilled work Took up 90% of NYC public workers and 99% of Chicago street workers Many were Birds of Passage Helped by Padrones

Question 32

European Jewish Immigrants

Answer 32

Cared most about education Left from Russian antisemitism and pogroms Lived in NY lower east side Built synagogues and shops Packed into tenements Worked as street vendors, cobblers, butchers, and watch makers, + 50% worked in garment factories Tried as hard as possible to get education including lots of debt and sacrifice Discriminated against, couldn’t be lawyers etc.

Question 33

Padrone

Answer 33

Work agents helping Italian immigrants

Question 34

Birds of passage

Answer 34

Immigrants who came to get money and then leave

Question 35

Pogroms

Answer 35

Russians hunting + attacking Jews

Question 36

Emma Lazarus

Answer 36

Wrote Statue of Liberty poem

Question 37

Cities that blew up in population

Answer 37

Boston Philadelphia Cleveland Chicago

Question 38

WASP

Answer 38

White Anglo Saxon protestants

Question 39

Mexican immigrants

Answer 39

Crossed over border by foot or railway Left from Mexican Revolution, 500,000 entered during the Revolution We’re originally welcomed because America faced such a worker shortage Worked everywhere but majority in agriculture Children worked to support their family, no education Camps were built on farms and soon they moved and formed Barrios Whites believed Mexicans were stealing their jobs and were taught to “boss” their Mexican classmates, Mexicans faced strong prejudice