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**Theme:** Immigration **Topic:** Opposition to immigration in the 1840s - 1850s and in the 1910s - 1920s **Free Response Question**:Compare and contrast the ways that many Americans expressed their opposition to immigrants in the 1840s - 1850s with the ways that many Americans expressed their opposition to immigrants in the 1910s - 1920s.

Introductory Paragraph

**Setting:** The two peaks of immigration, which occurred during the mid-1800s and again during the early 1900s, generated a strong backlash of opposition from white Anglo-Saxon Americans.
**Basis for Analysis**: Examining key events, court cases and laws is crucial in comparing and contrasting the two time periods. **Partitions**: Although the extent of the opposition differs, white Anglo-Saxon Americans restricted the immigrants politically, socially and economically during each immigration peak. **Thesis:** Immigrants received opposition during both time periods but the extent of that opposition was much more sever during the early 1900s when a backlash was seen in federal laws and Supreme cases, not just small factions that were seen during the mid-1800s. **Partition 1:** Political **Partition 2:** Social ** Partition 3: ** Economic **1840s – 1850s:** General Information:
 * 1840s – 1850s:**
 * “Know Nothings” – nativist political faction, against Catholicism
 * not yet strong backlash by government
 * 1910s – 1920s:**
 * Red Scare – Americans afraid foreigners will bring over ideas of communism
 * Johnson-Reid Act (1924) – limit entry of immigrants to 2% total number from that country that was here in 1890, excludes many Asian immigrants from entering
 * Chinese Exclusion Act - passed in California to limit Chinese immigration
 * 1840s – 1850s:**
 * Thought to be racially inferior
 * Dislike Catholics and Irish
 * 1910s – 1920s:**
 * Sacco and Vanzetti - Italian immigrants convicted of first degree murder without strong evident, executed
 * Irish Orphan Abduction - White Americans kidnap orphans that had been adopted by Mexicans
 * Believe immigrants only good for cheap labor, used as strike breakers
 * Contract Labor Law - companies sign contracts with foreign workers, 12 months pledge wages
 * 1910s – 1920s:**
 * California and Texas lobby to allow Mexican immigrants because Mexicans make up large part of agricultural labor force
 * Bracero Programs- guest labor program, brought non-citizen Mexicans to work to fill labor shortage gap in Southwest America
 * Social Darwinism and eugenics around during this time - ideas that the superior race is White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
 * First immigration peak occurred during build-up for the Civil War
 * Second immigration peak occurred around World War I
 * 1840s - 1850s immigrants mainly German and Irish
 * 1910s - 1920s shift to Southern and Eastern European immigrants