Response Paper 2 – Immigrants in the 19th Century – Due Feb 26

The history of immigration is often told through the lens of those who came. This was the purpose of your first response paper; to step back and reconsider your family’s immigration narrative. In this paper you will consider how government and social organizations responded to the conditions of the City that resulted from rapid economic development and population growth.  Together these resulted in population density in lower Manhattan that have not occurred since.

In a 2-3 page essay take one or two interventions, e.g. the tenement laws, governmental regulation of immigration, social organizations such as the Children’s Aid Society, the settlement house movement and discuss 1) how these interventions sought to improve the material condition of the immigrant community, and 2) how successful you found them to be. Your response should demonstrate your understanding of the assigned readings.

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