Immigrants of 1800: Impact on American Society and Culture

This paper discusses the impact of immigrants in the late 1800s on American society and culture. It sheds light on the difficulties they faced, their contributions to the industrial growth of America, and the debate between the 'melting pot' and 'salad bowl' theories. The paper also highlights the challenges faced by immigrants upon their arrival, including language barriers and discrimination.

Running head: IMMIGRANTS OF 1800.
IMMIGRANTS OF 1800
Name of the Student
Name of the University:
Author note:

1IMMIGRANTS OF 1800
In the late 1800, people in several different parts of the world had decided to leave
their homes in order to immigrate to America. About 25 million immigrants were there who
arrived in the United States in between the year 1870 and 19001. This arrival of millions and
millions of migrants from the other countries with just a few decades laid a great impact on
the cultural and economic development of United States. This paper is going to elaborate on
the same. It is going to discuss about the immigration in the late 1800s and would shed light
upon the difficulties that were faced by the immigrants. It would also assess the fact of the
way in which the immigrants used to adjust their life in United States of America.
Furthermore, it would compare and contrast the “melting pot” and “salad bowl”.
The immigrants entered into the United States by means of several different ports.
The ones from the Europe came from East Coast facilities and the ones from Asia entered
from the West Coast centres. About 70% of the total immigrants entered into America
through the New York City that came to be regarded as the “Golden Door”2. All through the
late 1800s, most of the immigrants who arrived in New York have entered at the Castle
Garden depot near the tip of Manhattan. Furthermore, in the year 189, the federal government
opened a new immigration processing centre on the Ellis Island in the harbour of New York.
Once the immigrants were settled, they looked for work but there were never
sufficient jobs in America and the employers used to took the advantage of these immigrants.
They were paid less wages than the rest other workers and the women were always
considered to be less than the men. With the same, the then social tensions were also a part of
the experience of the immigrants3. There were many immigrants who were often stereotypes
and were discriminated against. Also, many of them used to undergo from physical and
1 Baseler, Marilyn C. Asylum for mankind: America, 1607–1800. Cornell University Press, 2018.
2 Jansen, Katherine L. "Indispensable Immigrants: The Wine Porters of Northern Italy and their Saint, 1200-
1800 by Lester K. Little." The Catholic Historical Review 103, no. 3 (2017): 561-562.
3 Salvatore, Ricardo D., and Carlos Aguirre. "Colonies of settlement or places of banishment and torment? Penal
colonies and convict labour in Latin America, c. 1800–1940." Global convict labour (2015): 273.

2IMMIGRANTS OF 1800
verbal abuse as they were “different”. However, it is also to note that while a large scale
immigrants had created many social tensions, they also produced a new vitality or importance
in the cities as well as in the states in which the immigrants were settled4. The immigrants to
the United States made several valuable contribution to the dramatic industrial growth of
America in between the year 1865 to 1921. The Chinese workers played a major role in
building the Transcontinental Railroad. Those immigrants worked in steel mills and textile
industries present in the North east. With the same, there were several immigrants who
worked in the clothing industry in New York. Immigrants from Italy, Poles, Slavs used to
work in the coal mines in the Eastern part of United States. It is to note that these immigrants
often worked for very low pay and at the same time, they endured very dangerous working
condition in order to help in building the industrial strength of the nation. Furthermore, the
immigrants were often meeting with several challenges upon their arrival which they never
anticipated. All those difficulties range from navigating the legal complications to the
understanding of the difficult and complex transportation system of America, while securing
the employment and the living arrangements as well as battling with the culture shock,
depression, despair and psychological distress. One of the other formidable difficulties that
the refuges and the immigrants faced after arriving United States is the language barrier5.
More often than not, immigrants reached the United States with a less-than-fluent grasp of
English, and refugees often arrive with even less English experience. Also, as per Alba and
Foner, the English language training, the quality of the instruction was very poor and at the
same time, there were not many classes available for all the refugees in the United States6.
This language barrier caused huge problems and made the simple interactions seem like
4 Russo, John Paul. "When They Were Few: Italians in America, 1800–1850." In The Routledge History of
Italian Americans, pp. 54-68. Routledge, 2017.
5 Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. Black Reconstruction in America: Toward a history of the part which
black folk played in the attempt to reconstruct democracy in America, 1860-1880. Routledge, 2017.
6 Alba, Richard, and Nancy Foner. Strangers no more: Immigration and the challenges of integration in North
America and Western Europe. Princeton University Press, 2015.

3IMMIGRANTS OF 1800
daunting feats. Legal responsibilities, employment, transportation and receiving help in each
of these areas were more difficult without having a good grasp of English in America.
Among millions of immigrants, most of them were young and they were always in
search of work and helped America for facilitating the industrial revolution of America. The
mechanisation allowed the manufacturers in America in replacing the skilled craftspeople
with cheaper unskilled immigrant labour, performing the simplified tasks. By the 1880, the
Chicago was surpassed by the New York as one of the manufacturing centre and at the same
time, an estimated two thirds of the total employees who were working in the factories of the
Windy City were immigrants. There were several ethnic groups who became associated with
the specific industries. Like for example, the Eastern European Jews who arrived in the East
Coast cities were often going to work in the garment industry of the country or were working
as peddlers. In this way, these new comers significantly helped in transforming the American
culture and society while demonstrating that unity and diversity is the major source of
national strength.
The immigrants started the process of assimilation into the “melting pot” of America.
While settling in the ethnic neighbourhoods in the developing cities of Unites States, they and
they children worked very hard so as to learn the English language as well as to adopt the
customs of America7. With the same, they also tried to become the citizens of America. The
public schools present in the country did serve a very notable role in the process of
assimilating the immigrants into the American society. However, it is to note that “melting
pot” was the term that was used in order to describe the multi ethnicity of U.S.A. The basic
idea of its present the entire nation as a big pot. Anyone who used to enter in the United
States was automatically thrown into this “melting pot”8. In this pot, the assimilation of the
7 Sturgeon, Crystal. "An analysis of the great melting pot in American World War II propaganda: Germans,
Japanese, and Italians need not apply." PhD diss., Northern Illinois University, 2016.
8 Stoll, David. "Rednecks, Norteños, and the Next American Melting Pot?." Society 55, no. 1 (2018): 11-17.

4IMMIGRANTS OF 1800
belief system of America used to take place. Every cultural aspects that one used to bring into
were blended together or were melted in order to form a new culture and the result of this
huge procedure was known to be the “melted” version of a culture that was described as
“American”. It is also to note that in this assimilation, the identities of every original culture
were extinguished for bringing out a whole new mixture. With the same, there is another
expression or term that describes the diversity of the people living in America. This term
tends to be interpreted in the same manner just like the “melting pot”, but is actually having a
very slightly different meaning along with a different way of explaining and approaching the
American society9. The term is known to be “salad bowl”. It is a theory or an idea that
demonstrates an entirely different perspective which the newcomers bring in different
cultures and where each of these cultures were kept as an important part for making up the
whole. It is also to mention in this context that every different belief or culture is regarded to
be one of the ingredients or tastes which contributes in the formation of the whole. Hence, the
original shape as well as the characteristics are maintained well.
Whether to apply the “salad bowl” theory or the “melting pot” to the American multi
economic conditions brings in a huge controversy. They both serve as a successful and
effective metaphor in their own way, despite of their very slight difference. Any individual
who is well-accustomed to a highly homogeneous society would be astonished right after
recognising many faces with diverse physical features in United States and might also praise
the nation by employing these two terms in the topic10. However, one could notice that the
theory of “melting pot” is merely a myth and despite all its long fame, it is rather more
appropriate to label America as a “salad bowl”.
9 Fredrickson, George M. "Models of American ethnic relations: A historical perspective." In Diverse Nations,
pp. 19-28. Routledge, 2015.
10 Hu, Maggie R., and Adrian D. Lee. "Melting Pot or Salad Bowl: Cultural Distance and Housing Prices."
(2016).

5IMMIGRANTS OF 1800
Hence, from the above discussion it is clear that immigrants in the 1800 played a very
significant role in the American history and is perhaps one of the greatest controversial
issues. There are several different sides to the immigration and no matter where they are
from, most of the view on them are saddening. However, immigrants played a significant role
in the industrial and economic growth of America and these new comers transformed the
American society and culture demonstrating that unity and diversity is the major source of
national growth in any nation. But they faced several challenges migrating into this country.
They were paid less by their employers and the women were always considered to be less
than the men. With the same, language barrier was one of the greatest challenges that they
had faced living in America.
References:
Alba, Richard, and Nancy Foner. Strangers no more: Immigration and the challenges of
integration in North America and Western Europe. Princeton University Press, 2015.

6IMMIGRANTS OF 1800
Baseler, Marilyn C. Asylum for mankind: America, 1607–1800. Cornell University Press,
2018.
Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. Black Reconstruction in America: Toward a history of
the part which black folk played in the attempt to reconstruct democracy in America, 1860-
1880. Routledge, 2017.
Fredrickson, George M. "Models of American ethnic relations: A historical perspective."
In Diverse Nations, pp. 19-28. Routledge, 2015.
Hu, Maggie R., and Adrian D. Lee. "Melting Pot or Salad Bowl: Cultural Distance and
Housing Prices." (2016).
Jansen, Katherine L. "Indispensable Immigrants: The Wine Porters of Northern Italy and
their Saint, 1200-1800 by Lester K. Little." The Catholic Historical Review 103, no. 3 (2017):
561-562.
Russo, John Paul. "When They Were Few: Italians in America, 1800–1850." In The
Routledge History of Italian Americans, pp. 54-68. Routledge, 2017.
Salvatore, Ricardo D., and Carlos Aguirre. "Colonies of settlement or places of banishment
and torment? Penal colonies and convict labour in Latin America, c. 1800–1940." Global
convict labour (2015): 273.
Stoll, David. "Rednecks, Norteños, and the Next American Melting Pot?." Society 55, no. 1
(2018): 11-17.
Sturgeon, Crystal. "An analysis of the great melting pot in American World War II
propaganda: Germans, Japanese, and Italians need not apply." PhD diss., Northern Illinois
University, 2016.