1. 09/03 Bellringer 5+ sentences! http://ghhsah2.com/bellringers
“…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-tossed to me, I life my lamp beside the golden door!”
-inscription on the Statue of Liberty
America is often described as a “nation of immigrants”. What do you think this means? Do you believe it is true?

2. Key Concepts
Immigration  moving to live permanently in a foreign country
Urbanization  a population shift from rural to urban areas that leads to a growth in cities

3. Immigrants in this era tended to be: Young Male Limited skills
Catholic or Jewish
Limited English
Little education
From 1880 to 1921, a record 23 million immigrants arrived in the U.S

4. Most “new immigrants” were coming from southern and eastern Europe

5. Immigrants had to be employable and have at least $25
75% of all immigrants entered the USA through the immigration center at Ellis Island, in New York
Immigrants had to pass a health examination…sick people were not let in
Immigrants had to be employable and have at least $25

6. Nativism  Viewing immigrants with a sense of fear, suspicion, and hostility
Prejudices based on ethnicity, religion, political and social
beliefs
Anger over job competition let to nativist demanding a quota system

7. “Immigrants Not Welcome”

8. The Gilded Age experienced massive urbanization
City growth was due to rural Americans moving to cities and immigrants entering the USA

9. Mass transit (trolleys, rail lines, subways) Steel cable bridges
Steel helped cities build up
Cities needed:
Mass transit (trolleys, rail lines, subways)
Steel cable bridges
Skyscrapers with elevators
Most cities were organized in a circle around a business district (“downtown”)

10. Cities were not prepared for rapid growth
-slums
-unclean
-overcrowded
-fire & crime
City services (housing, transportation, water, sanitation) are stretched to the limit