Submitted by: Submitted by jesstolento
Views: 10
Words: 534
Pages: 3
Category: US History
Date Submitted: 02/29/2016 05:32 PM
From the 1880’s up until the 1920’s there was a plethora of immigrants coming to the United States from Eastern and Southern European countries, as well as Canada and Latin America. In earlier times, immigrants had generally been welcomed. But by the late 1800’s, Americans began to grow anxious with such large numbers of immigrants arriving. American nativist groups started to oppose free, unrestricted immigration.
Some Americans feared that if certain races were permitted into our country, it would “create race antagonisms which would ultimately result in great public disturbance.” (Document 1). The real concern behind the excerpt is that they didn’t want our politicians to be immigrates and they didn’t want any of our jobs to be shared with them at all. Not only is this a concern of power that they have, it’s also an act of racism. They also feared that “if the master race of this continent is subordinated to or overrun with the communistic and revolutionary races, it will be in grave danger of social disaster.” (Document 5). This is also a very racist remark because they are saying that if any other race other than white people were to start to gain control, that America will be in grave danger of social disaster.
Other Americans were concerned with how the immigrants were lowering our social morals. “Our jails, insane asylums and almshouses are filled with this human flotsam and the whole tone of American life, social, moral, and political has been lowered and vulgarized by them.” (Document 4). They believe that the “new” immigrants are much more weak and mentally crippled compared to the “old” immigrants. If they were to give the immigrants a chance and a job then they wouldn’t be so filled into their community centers. Instead, they are left making racist remarks and comparing the new and old immigrants. Americans were concerned that these same immigrants would breed out and that the “lower race” would overpower the whites. “If a lower race mixes with a...