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"Immigrants for Hire"
Using Local Census Data to Explore the Industrial Revolution

Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island, Source: Library of Congress

  Introduction

In a series of lessons, students examine the trend away from farming and toward manufacturing in 19th and early 20th century Massachusetts, and explore whether that trend was reflected in their own community. Students retrieve state- and county-level historical census data about farming, manufacturing, and population from the Internet. They create visual displays of the data with maps (generated on the website) and graphs (created by students). Students use the maps and graphs to answer questions about employment and immigration in their county long ago.

In the three previous lessons, students researched data about manufacturing and farming in their county during the Industrial Revolution. Now students look at historical census data about immigration, and the effects the new arrivals had on the development of industry in the Commonwealth.

This lesson is geared toward students in grades 9-12 studying U.S. history. It integrates graphing and data analysis.

Social Studies Standards Addressed

• USI.28 Explain the emergence and impact of the textile industry in New England and industrial growth generally throughout antebellum America.

• USII.2 Explain the important consequences of the Industrial Revolution.

• USII.3 Describe the causes of the immigration of Southern and Eastern Europeans, Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese to America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and describe the major roles of these immigrants in the industrialization of America.

Mathematics Standards Addressed

• 10.D.1 Select, create, and interpret an appropriate graphical representation (e.g., scatterplot, table, stem-and-leaf plots, box-and-whisker plots, circle graph, line graph, and line plot) for a set of data and use appropriate statistics (e.g., mean, median, range, and mode) to communicate information about the data. Use these notions to compare different sets of data.

Instructional Technology Standards Addressed

• 1.24 Produce simple charts from spreadsheet.

• 3.16 Collect, organize, analyze, and graphically present data using the most appropriate tools (e.g., spreadsheet, database, graphing, and concept-mapping tools).

Duration:  This lesson requires one class period.

Class Setup: Each student or work group will need access to a computer with Internet connection.  Before the lesson, decide whether you want students to work individually or in groups of 2 or 3 (depending on their experience and your level of computer access).

Introduce the lesson

If you have not already done lesson 1, use the suggestions there to help introduce students to census data.

In this lesson, students will explore immigration to their community during the Industrial Revolution and beyond. They will collect data on the general population and on the immigrant population at the state and county level. If students have not done lesson 1, follow the steps to model for them how to gather data from the website.

Decide what information to collect

The way in which race and ethnicity are documented by the census bureau has changed over the years, and is still changing. Because of these changes, there are many choices in the Historical Census Browser to investigate immigration data.

The most complete data for immigration during the Industrial Revolution is under the categories of “Foreign Born White Males” and “Foreign Born White Females”. You can also find information on groups from specific countries, for example “Persons Born in Italy”. Discuss with students which categories of immigration data they’d like to explore. If you know that your community has historically had a large Polish or Italian population, for example, that might be a good data category to research. Consider assigning different categories to different students or groups of students.

Students gather data about immigration to Massachusetts and their county

1. Give students time to gather population and immigration data at the state and county level. (Recommended: Foreign Born White Males and/or Foreign Born White Females as a research category.)

2. Remind them to save the data in a spreadsheet or some other way they can use later.

3. Explain that some tables may show “N/A” or a column of zeros for some years, which means that the data was not transcribed to this website for some reason.

Students graph population and immigration data

1. Ask students to use the data they’ve gathered to create 2 graphs:

• Foreign Born White Males (1860-1950) – Massachusetts
• Foreign Born White Males (1860-1950) – Our County
(or other topics of your choice)

• Distribute the Industrial Revolution: Immigrants for Hire worksheet. Give students time to answer questions.

Students will also need copies of their graphs of manufacturing establishments in their county that they created in lesson 1.

As a class, discuss students’ responses to the questions.

Doing their own research may also generate questions for students to explore further. For example, perhaps your community did not follow the state trend toward growth in manufacturing in the late 1800s. Why not? What did people do instead? Encourage students to pursue the answers individually or as a class.

Variations for Younger Students

For younger students, you may wish to vary this lesson by doing one or more of the following:

• Gather state-level data for the students and hand out a pre-made graph; students can focus on gathering the county-level data only.

• Gather all the data from the website in advance for students and hand out printed (or electronic) data tables; students won’t do the Web component of the activity, but will just do the graphing of the data.

• Create the graphs for students, and have them use the graphs to answer the questions.

• Internet access for each student or group
• Microsoft Excel or other graphing program for each student or group
• Copies of the Industrial Revolution: Immigrants for Hire worksheet for each student
• If you have not done lesson 1, you’ll need to create graphs of manufacturing establishments in Massachusetts and your county as described in lesson 1 to hand out to students.

For this lesson you’ll need access to the Historical Census Browser at the University of Virginia website. (http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/index.html) This site provides access to historical census data at the state and county levels. Students will download census data from the website to make graphs.

Do a little exploring on the website before the lesson to determine how you want students to gather the data given their skill level, amount of computer access, and the time you have. You might choose to let students gather all the data themselves, divide into groups and assign each group to collect a portion of the data, or collect the data yourself to give to students.

Recommended background reading for teachers: Historical Atlas of Massachusetts, “Industrialization and Urbanization, 1860-1900” (pages 34-37)

Evaluate students’ responses on the Industrial Revolution: Immigrants for Hire worksheet. Were students able to:

• Correctly read the graph to answer question 1?

• Make reasonable analyses of the information on the graphs to answer questions 2-3?

• Use their own background knowledge to answer question 4?

This lesson was designed by Elizabeth C. Finison.
Questions? Contact: k12.msp@umb.edu