The Promised Land, 1860-1900 (Overview)

To come and live in America, immigrants had to go through a lot to get to the place they thought would change their lives and open up doors they didn't even believe existed. They did all they could to find enough money to bring them, and if they're lucky, their families. For all different reasons and hardships they endured in their native countries, they traveled here to escape and have the freedom of new opportunities. They were promised jobs, coming from lands where jobs are scarce. But when they arrived in America, the jobs they could get were in crowded factories working all day, every day in terrible conditions. Entire families had to work in order for them to live in crowded, uncomfortable apartments. They saved every penny they made in order to achieve the opportunities that would otherwise never be available to them. But, the reality is, they really didn't have the opportunities most other Americans had and they couldn't achieve as much in their lifetimes. How immigrants were treated by other Americans really proves how we feel that every other person is inferior to anyone lucky enough to call themselves an American. This furthers the definition of being an American. But, it also complicates it. There's a state of mind most Americans have and a picture in their heads of what an American is, and anyone who doesn’t fit that description is and never will be as good as they are. It seems that Americans are always looking for some group to discriminate and hate. At the time immigrants first began arriving in America, blacks were still slaves. Because the immigrants traveled here of their own will and not taken here to be slaves, they were repressed and separated from the rest of the country, making it impossible for them to achieve everything they wanted to in the country they worked so hard to come to. But, "despite prejudice and problems, immigrants still found in the United States a promised land of opportunity." This shows that instead of fighting back and trying to be seen as equals, immigrants accepted that they were strangers in this country and that they would not be treated the same and still saw America as the best place they could be in. This also proves how no matter how bad things get here, there is another place in the world that is doing way worse. Through terrible labor and living situations and unmerciful discrimination, immigrants chose to work with the cards they were dealt and believe that whatever happened here, if they had stayed in their former country things would be worse.

"The Promised Land, 1860-1900 (Overview)." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 28 Jan. 2010. .