Culminating Task

This question is based on the accompanying documents. It is designed to test your ability to work with historical documents. Some of these documents have been edited for the purpose of the question. As you analyze the documents, take into account the source of each document and any point of view that may be presented.

Directions: Write a well organized essay that includes an introduction two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Use evidence from all documents in your essay. Support your response with relevant facts, examples, and details. Include additional outside information.

Historical Context: The United States is a nation of immigrants. For a variety of reasons, groups of people from foreign lands left their native countries and relocated to the United States. Many of these immigrants have changed the face of American life. .

Task: Using information from the documents and your knowledge of social studies, answer the questions that follow each document in Part A. Your answers to the questions will help you write the Part B essay in which you will be asked to: ______Explain how immigration has changed the American landscape politically, economically and socially. ______

Discuss & explain means “to make observations about something using facts, reasoning, and argument; to present in some detail.”

Guidelines: In your essay be sure to:  Develop all aspects of the task  Incorporate information from all documents (one for each part of the task)  Incorporate relevant outside information  Support the theme with relevant facts, examples, and details  Use a logical and clear plan of organization, including an introduction and a conclusion that are beyond a restatement of the theme Document 1 A The people began to throw themselves out of the windows. All the machines were bubbling with flames. I had my fur coat and hat with two feathers and a green woolen skirt which I pulled over my hat and my head. I know I ran to the windows but then I backed away. I know I was all wet but it could not have been from the firemen's hose. I cannot remember whether I wet myself with a pail of water or somebody threw it at me. I ran back toward the freight elevator through the open aisle which was the last aisle after the machines and I went to the back staircase door. I remember there was a big barrel of oil near that door and when I opened the door and ran through and began to go down the staircase I heard a loud bursting noise. Maybe the barrel of oil exploded. Anna Pidone Job: Forelady 9th floor Interview: September 10, 1957

Document 1 B The following is a portion of the Preliminary Report of the New York Factory Investigating Commission, 1912 TO THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK: That exits to outside fire-escapes and to interior stairways, especially when they lead through other portions of the loft, were often unknown to many of the operatives. It certainly is necessary to indicate clearly the location of these exits. A contributing cause to the loss of life in the Triangle Waist Company fire was the lack of clear passageways leading to the fire-escapes and stairways. The employees were so crowded together, seated at tables containing machines, with chairs back to back, that when a great number of them attempted to leave at the same time there was panic and confusion. In the report made by the Superintendent of the New York Board of Fire Underwriters, it was stated that 20 dead bodies were found near the machines "apparently overcome before they could extricate themselves from the crowded aisles." The necessity for clear and unobstructed passageways to exits should be absolutely insisted upon, otherwise with the slightest panic, even without a fire, severe injuries, if not loss of life, would occur.

Describe the types of hazards in the work place that caused this fire. ______

Explain what has been put in place in factories in America today to prevent a fire like the Triangle factory fire from happening again. ______Document 2

Explain why these boys had to work. ______

Could a photo like this be taken in an American Factory today? Justify your answer?

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Document 3 Table of Emigrant Savings Bank Account Records This sample of bank account records from Emigrant Savings Bank provides evidence about the lives of immigrants living in New York City during the mid-nineteenth century. All bank account holders included in this sample lived in the Five Points neighborhood of New York City's Sixth Ward.

What can you infer based on the fact that many Irish immigrants living in the Five Points had a bank account at the Emigrant Savings Bank?

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After analyzing the bank account record, what can you infer about family life in the Five Points neighborhood? ______Document 4 “The Immigrant” by Neil Sedaka 1974 Harbours opened their arms to the young searching foreigner Come to live in the light of the beacon of liberty Plains and open skies, billboards would advertise Was it anything like that when you arrived Dreamboats carry the future to the heart of America People were waiting in line for a place by the river It was a time when strangers were welcome here Music would play, they tell me the days were sweet and clear It was a sweeter tune and there was so much room that people could come from everywhere Now he arrives with his hopes and his heart set on miracles Come to marry his fortune with a hand full of promises to find they've closed the door, they don't want him anymore isn't anymore to go around Turning away he remembers he once heard a legend that spoke of a mystical magical land called America There was a time when strangers were welcome here Music would play, they tell me the days were sweet and clear It was a sweeter tune and there was so much room that people could come from everywhere There was a time when strangers were welcome here Music would play, they tell me the days were sweet and clear There was a time when strangers were welcome here

According to Neil Sedaka’s song the “Immigrant” name two reasons foreigners came to America. ______

Document 5

Based on this photograph, explain two reasons that living in a tenement was often difficult for Immigrants.

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