Us & Them: Immigration and the Construction of Race

Student Handout #1

“Why should the [xxx] be suffered to swarm into our Settlements, and by herding together establish their Language and Manners to the Exclusion of ours? Why should [our state], founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens, who will shortly be so numerous as to xxx-ize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our Language or Customs, any more than they can acquire our Complexion.

“...The English [and the Saxons] make the principal Body of White People on the Face of the Earth. I could wish their Numbers were increased. And while we are, as I may call it, Scouring our Planet, by clearing America of Woods, and so making this Side of our Globe reflect a brighter Light to the Eyes of Inhabitants in mars or Venus, why should we in the Sight of Superior Beings, darken its People?”

Guided Thinking Questions

Use the document above to answer the following questions.

• What is the main idea of the document?

 

• To whom do you believe the document is referring?

 

• During what time period might this document have been published? What evidence supports your hypothesis?

 

• This document was written by a well known American. Who might the author be and who would have been the target audience?