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"Onion Harvest"
"Are We To Be Polanized?" article from the Greenfield Gazette and Courier newspaper
"The Poles at Turners Falls" article from Greenfield Gazette and Courier newspaper
"Will Visit Native Land" from The Greenfield Recorder
"The Incoming of the Poles"
"Aliens in New England" article in Greenfield's Gazette and Courier newspaper
"The Need of an Immigration Test" article from the Greenfield Gazette and Courier newspaper
"Immigrants in Industries, Part 24: Recent Immigrants in Agriculture" from Reports of
the Immigration Commission
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Summary and Objective
Students will examine a variety of historical documents in order to understand contrasting views about foreign immigration, particularly Eastern European immigration, to the Pioneer Valley in and around the turn of the 20th century. This lesson will supplement classroom studies of Immigration, Urbanization, & Industrialization and the Progressive Era, and would fit appropriately in either unit.
After examining the documents, students will be able to:
• identify reasons why immigrants came to the Pioneer Valley
• state a case for and against foreign immigration
• identify stereotypes
• identify bias and points of view in written material
• relate local immigration to the broader issues of national immigration
This lesson will take one to two 45 minute periods in a computer lab and utilize the American Centuries website. Students may use additional links as necessary.
This activity may be completed individually or in pairs.
Teaching Plan
Step 1.
Students will visit the American Centuries website and examine nine of the collection’s immigration documents, pre-selected by the instructor.
Step 2.
Students must carefully examine at least three documents, two of which must be text documents.
Step 3.
For each of the following questions that students answer, they must cite the document that they use.
Step 4.
Students must choose at least one document that supports immigration and one that opposes immigration and answer the following questions about each document:
1. who is the author?
2. what are the main arguments for / against immigration?
3. why does the author have this point of view?
4. do the arguments make sense? Why / why not?
5. does the author stereotype immigrants? If so, how are the immigrants characterized?
6. give specific examples of the words used to describe immigrants i.e. “industrious and thrifty,” “rather quarrelsome,” “good tempered and teachable”
7. are some of the arguments about immigration still relevant today? If so, give an example.
Step 5.
Students will discuss their findings with the class.
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