Northeastern University
College of Professional
Studies
Hst. 2205: “Coming to America”- midterm questions
Mr. Cox, Senior Lecturer
Answer three
of the following questions following the instructions below. You will be submitting
your responses by March 5, the beginning
of our third week in this virtual course.
A. Cite your source citations informally
within the text as you write. For example, if you are citing
Dinnerstein, then at the end of the sentences of your quote or paraphrase, write:
(Dinnerstein, 100).
You may quote or paraphrase Dinnerstein, or the class lecture
notes. These are your main sources for your written responses. You are also to
use the primary source websites provided in the first three weeks of readings.
B. On the second
page of this midterm are a list of termsrelated to our work. Use
no fewer than four terms within each of your written responses. Underline the terms as you use them.
Do not count any single term more than once in any single essay. You may use them
repeatedly in your responses to different questions, however.
C. All written
essay responses should be submitted by November 3rd.
Question Choices:
1. Define the differences in the “push”, “passage”, and “pull”
factors of three different immigrant groups which come to America between 1607
and 1830? Use testimonies from the various websites provided in the first three
weeks of readings which illustrate individuals from these groups. Also, are their
any testimonies which present how the resident Anglo-Americans feel about subsequent
groups which came to America , especially after the Revolution? (For
example, what does Benjamin Franklin
think about German immigrants and their presence in Pennsylvania?)
2. Many immigrants came to America as “indenturers”. Their
experiences, however, would vary considerably depending on their origin and
circumstance, where they settled, and what they faced after having worked off
the terms of their contracts. Your task is first to explain what being
“indentured” meant. For example, the first Africans to be brought to America
were originally considered “indentured”. Yet their fate would be very different
from the whites who also came as “indentured”. (Dinnerstein goes to
considerable length to show the evolution of the concept of “slavery” in the
American colonies.) What did being indentured mean to those who settled in
Virginia and the southern colonies, versus those who came as indentured and
settled in the northern colonies? Finally, provide testimonies for each of the
kinds of experiences which to you, best illustrate these different kinds of
immigrants.
3. In the several decades after the American Revolution, the
new American government had a sometimes conflicted policy towards immigration.
Note the difference between how the Federalists like President John Adams acted
towards immigration during the 1790’s, and the kinds of legislation passed by
the federalist congress, in contrast to the policies of Thomas Jefferson and
his administration which came into power after Adams, in 1801. Your job is to
define several of the main changes in immigration policy from 1796 to 1820.
What particular groups entered the country during these decades? Which people
were kept out of the country during these years and why? Use the testimonies
you have read to back up your conclusions where possible.
4. When we reach the late 1840s, we see the arrival of two new
large groups of immigrants. First are the Germans who will move through the
East Coast and settle in the Midwest. The Irish will also come at this same
time. Unlike the Germans, however, the Irish will settle in cities along the
East Coast of the country. Your job is to describe what makes these two groups
so different from one another. Why are the Irish so different from other groups
that have arrived by this time period? In
the readings, what are some of the “native” American fears being presented over
the Irish presence in America?
TERMS:
William Bradford, Of
Plymouth… Capt. John Smith, Generall Historie Thomas Paine
“Asylum Theme” indenturers
/ redeemptioners
“regulators”
Headright system “City on a
Hill” Hartford Convention, 1814
“Americanization” “Papists” of
“Romanists”
Amistad
Huguenots
ethnicity assimilation
Naturalization Acts of 1790, ’95, ’98, ’02 pluralism
Nativism
Denationalization American
“Wake” Know
Nothing Party
Samuel Slater “push”
/ “pull” / “Passage”
“Great Famine”
Hessians
royalists-loyalists / rebels Scotch-Irish
Paxton Boys
Moravians enclosure
movement
Sedition Act of 1798 “American
Letters” Moravians
“Glorious Revolution” of 1688-89
Can you think of other terms to use in your essay?
