5.1: The New Immigrants / Ellis Island

• Checkpoint (p.129): Describe the "new" immigrants.
• Checkpoint (p.129): List the push and pull factors for immigrants.
• Arriving in America (p.130): What thoughts and feelings might they have been experiencing?  Why?
• Checkpoint (p.131): Describe what happened to immigrants when they arrived.
• Analyzing Political Cartoons (p.132): #1 & 2
• Checkpoint (p.133): Why did some Americans want to restrict immigration?
• Section 1 Assessment (p.133): #4, 5 & 6

Next read the section on Ellis Island (pp.134-135) and answer the questions:

• #1: Look at the photos on this page.  In what ways might Ellis Island have been an intimidating place?
• #2: Why were single women not allowed to leave Ellis Island on their own?
• What does this poem symbolize?  
• What does it represent to the people who were coming to America?

The New Colossus
by Emma Lazarus 

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. 

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"